Welcome to American Car!

I'm a certified car nut...no seriously, certified. The list of cars I've owned over the years reads like an IHOC (International House of Cars) menu. Fiat? Yep. Mazda? Sure. GM? Try Saturn, Chevy, and Pontiac. How about Chrysler and Dodge? You bet. Toss in Audi, Toyota, Jeep, VW and a token Ford and you've got it. That's just the modern vehicles. Let's talk classics - '65, '66, '70 Mustangs, a '72 240Z, a '79 Trans-Am (no mullet) and a '74 Charger. I watch Formula 1, NHRA Drag Racing, Indy cars, American Le Mans, and almost any type of four-wheeled competition. Oh, I can't forget about the salt flats of Bonneville and hot rodding.

I've been out to California and blasted up the Pacific Coast Highway in a Shelby Cobra replica - the Superformance 427 big block variety. I've cruised on Route 66 in New Mexico and downed a juicy green chile cheeseburger and a chocolate shake from the renowned 66 Diner in Albuquerque. I've corner carved in the rolling hills outside of St. Louis, MO, chasing my friend in his Porsche 914. I've sat with my son in 100+ degree heat in Denver, CO watching monstrous 8,000 hp Top Fuel cars blast down the quarter mile. I've been to countless car shows and met some seriously cool car nuts who call themselves the Donut Derelicts - again, California.

If you point to most any car, I can tell you what it is. Actually, I could probably bore you with technical information and perhaps a few other bits of that car's place in automotive history. My specialty area is American Muscle cars from the '60s and '70s. My last resto project was a super sweet '66 Mustang.

So when I say I'm a certified car nut, I truly mean it. And that's why I started this blog...my love for cars. But I'm not just another car guy killing time and taking up internet space with his passion. No, this is something entirely different.

The "Big 3" automakers are in trouble...and I mean big trouble. You don't have to venture far off the automotive journalism path to see it. Slumping sales, massive discounting, the ever-increasing import market share, and multiple-failed sales schemes are poised to drive the big rusty fork in the sinking chest of the American automotive industry - Spartan-style.

Bean counter driven marketing and cost-cutting measures have failed to solve the problem. Outsourcing, rightsizing and almost every other global economic "-sizing" buzzword have failed. So the obvious question is why? Why are we here and how did we get here? It's time for change and I hope this blog will be a positive part of that change - the return, no, the renaissance of the American Car!

- Rich