Cars As Genres

Quintin Pear

Introduction

With the advancements of engineering in the early 1900s came the automobile, and

with the birth of the automobile came the beginning of the car enthusiasts and car culture in the

United States. America gave the world the pony and muscle car and many cars that were

unique compared to the rest of the world. And with those unique cars came a unique culture

surrounding them. There are a couple names for car enthusiasts: motorheads, gearheads, car

guys, etc. The car enthusiast community is composed of many different groups, both official

and unofficial. Some of these groups fall into the classification of import(Mainly European and

Japanese), domestic(American Muscle Cars), built, bought, purist, etc. Their are so many

different groups within this community that the list could be seen as endless. The main genres

of this community I have found are written discourse, communication through video, and

expression through the cars themselves.

A large majority of people involved in America's car culture are men and this is partially

because car cultures tend to reflect and are closely related to motorsport culture. In motorsport

culture it has been difficult for women to become involved because many racing leagues have a

men only attitude. Although women are just as capable as men in motorsports, they are kicked

to the curb and not given the same opportunities as men. The lack of women in motorsport and

in car culture may be related.

So what does it mean to be a car enthusiast? Being a true car enthusiast is not just liking

cars or understanding how they work. According to research collected in my interview, a car

enthusiast is someone who appreciates the art and beauty of every car they see. They notice

every modification, alteration, or beautiful quirk of every new car they see, falling in love with
those built by fellow car guys. Its much more than just liking cars, its appreciating what others

have created and wanting to express yourself through your car. According to Erik Borg,

members of a discourse community actively share goals and communicate with other members

to pursue those goals. (Borg, 2003, p. 398) Based off of this definition I believe that car

enthusiasts are a discourse community. They share the goal of creating something that they are

proud of, whether its unique or been done a million times before. Part of what sets this

community apart from others is their unique lingo used to communicate.

Although the main purpose of a car is transportation it has been, for a majority of its

existence, much more than that. Cristian Garcia states the car is a not only a form of

transportation, but it is also a form of expression.(Garcia, 2015, p. 11) This means that for

many people cars have become an integral part of expressing themselves. I believe the cars

themselves are a form of genre communicating between the owner and those who notice the

uniqueness of the car.

Discussion

For my primary research I interviewed a close friend of mine who is involved in this

community. According to Jacob, he became a car guy when he saw a beautiful 1967 Camaro

driving down the road with a blower sticking out the hood when he was fourteen years old.

Within a year he got his driving permit and his first car, a Ford Mustang. Jacob was able to

instantly recognize and understand that the modifying a car is a form of expression and shortly

after getting his car he started to modify it. Although he started with simple modifications, like a

cold air intake and a new exhaust, he felt that his car represented him when he was driving it.

My biggest takeaway from this interview was how he described what it means to be a car

enthusiast and what it is like being a part of the community. He explained that a true car

enthusiast is someone that respects other car enthusiasts builds and that the community is
really supportive of its members. Another huge takeaway I got from the interview was the

unique language they use.

The vocabulary they use for specific parts of cars is very different and hard to

understand for people not in this community. For example, some people call turbochargers

snails and they superchargers blowers. Also, when they talk about motors they commonly use

the engine displacement size as identifiers. An example of this is 302 cubic inch motors are

commonly known as ford motors and 427 cubic inch motors are commonly known Chevrolet

motors. Overall this interview gave me great insight into car culture in America and what it

means to be a car guy.

When looking at car the car enthusiast community, there are many genres of

communication. Three I will be focusing on are online forums, videos posted on youtube, and

the cars themselves. The first two genres are genres of online communication. The online

forum genre is the most common and widespread. There are thousands of websites online for

almost every make and model of car. These forums are commonly used to ask questions on

projects, to talk about potential projects, and to get help identifying and fixing problems people

are facing with their cars. Another type of online forum used is reddit. On reddit alone there are

multiple subreddits just for car enthusiasts. One example is r/projectcar where people from all

over the world display their current project car and ask for advice and tips. This community is

one that is extremely supportive of all its members and show what it truly means to be a car

enthusiast.

The other online genre is creating videos and posting them to youtube or similar

websites. There are many channels dedicated to connecting the different groups in car culture.

This genre has many different types of videos included in it. One of the most common are

videos recording the process of an enthusiasts build. Many enthusiasts will create videos for

their specific builds. Another common and popular type are videos explaining how certain parts
and modifications on cars work. On youtube there are channels such as Engineering Explained

and a series on Motor Trend's youtube channel that cover the inner workings of cars in detail.

Within this community, cars themselves are a genre of communication. The

modifications done to cars, both appearance and performance, tend to reflect their owner's

goals and relay a message about the driver and community to other members of this discourse

community. The automobile represents an individual's perception of the car culture that he or

she is participating in.(Garcia, 2015, p.13) This means that whatever particular group the owner

thinks they are a part of or wants to be a part of, the modifications done to their car will reflect

that group. For example, if someone wants to take part in the domestic purist(people who want

the car to reflect how it was originally created) group, the modification they make on their car will

reflect that of what the car originally came with and will be focused on returning the car to its

original condition. The car becomes a reflection of the owner's goals.

When going to car meets and shows it can be very interesting to see which person owns

which car. Many times you can easily guess who owns what. For example, at a cars and coffee

event there was a row of classic American muscle cars parked alongside each other. As you

walked past them you could easily identify that the owners were purists and as a result you

could identify the owners.

Conclusion

Since the automobile became a mainstream part of everyday life, car enthusiasts have

used them as a form of communication to other car enthusiasts. Being a car enthusiast is so

much more than just liking cars. True car enthusiast recognize the uniqueness and hard work

put into other members builds and appreciate that they car they built is a representation of

themselves.

There is a current belief that car culture is dying and current and future generations are

just not interested in cars as anything more that transportation. Elisabeth Rosenthal writes, The
millennials dont value cars and car ownership, they value technology they care about what

kinds of devices you own.(Rosenthal, 2013, p. 2) Rosenthal claims that people no longer care

about cars because they are much more interested and involved with technology. I disagree

with this, I believe car culture is not dying, but people are no longer actively participating through

car ownership because the expenses are too high.

Car culture has been and continues to be a form of expression. It brings people from all

different backgrounds together and allows people to communicate and come together for

common goals. Although there are many groups within this community, all of these groups

come together to form a discourse community with the intent of supporting each other. Car

culture is constantly changing and with it the different ways in which owners express

themselves.

Works Cited

Borg, Erik. Discourse Community. ELT Journal, vol. 57, no. 4, ser. 1, 1 Oct. 2003, pp. 398

400. 1, doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/57.4.398.
Charters, David A. It's a Guy Thing: The Experience of Women in Canadian Sports Car

Competition. Sport History Review, vol. 37, no. 2, 2006, pp. 8399., doi:10.1123/shr.37.2.83.

Garcia, Cristian, "A Vehicle of Expression" (2016). CMC Senior Theses. 1271.

http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1271

Rosenthal, Elisabeth. "The end of car culture." New York Times 29 (2013).