Automotive High Performance: An Addiction or a Disease?

Automotive high performance is like an addiction or a chronic disease: it attacks some of us early in life and never lets go. I was about 10 years old when the American automobile first grabbed my attention, especially hotrods. That was more than 40 years ago. I remember the sweet sound they made as they rumbled down Main Street.

In the mid-’60s, the style was front ends raised a few inches with the front bumpers removed. This was, of course, before the pony car era came into full swing, so I grew up looking at mid-50s to mid-60s full-size cars, mostly Chevrolets. My home town in southern Illinois had its share of home-built hot rods. What I recall the most were the tri-five Chevys and ‘59 and ‘60 Impalas.

I had my local hotrod hero. His name was Jack, and he always had a hotrod Chevy of some sort, minus the front bumper. Occasionally, I’d catch Jack taking off from a stop sign, and I’d yell, “Spin your tires, Jack.” And he would.

He pushed the clutch pedal down, revved the engine, popped the clutch, spun both rear tires, slammed second gear, then third, then forth. That was so “neat.” I loved it. The sound of glass pack mufflers, the squeal of spinning tires, the aroma of burning rubber, the sight of slamming gears affected me. I promised myself that I, too, would do that one day. And I did. Jack passed away a few years ago, but his burnouts live on in my memory.

Moving on. I thought it was really neat looking inside just about any of those cars and seeing the transmission converted to floor shift. Back then, lots of cars were fitted with three-on-the-tree-shifted transmissions. So, it was easy switching to floor shift. Converting automatics to manuals was popular in those days as well.

What caught my eye, though, and it’s kind of strange, was the empty shifter hole on the steering column. That hole could mean only one thing: This car is a hotrod. “Wow. Someone can take the shift from the column and put it on the floor. And make it work. How ‘neat.’” is what I thought. “Someday I’m going to do that to my car.” And I did.

I bought my first car the month I graduated from high school. I found a light blue ‘66 Nova, two-door hardtop, 283 two barrel, three speed for $700–a car that had never known a hotrodder. Perfect, I thought, for building my own version of the cars that had held my interest for so many years.

Who I Am and What I Do

In my first blog post, I thought I’d tell you who I am and what I do. I’m Mike Hooker, and I write marketing, public relations, and direct response copy for the automotive high performance aftermarket.

I should also tell you what I’m not: I’m not an automotive journalist; I don’t write about cars and trucks themselves. My goal, plain and simple, is to help marketers of high performance automotive parts increase their company’s return on investment.

Yes, I know “automotive high performance” is a huge area covering different aspects of the performance world. So, I’ll tell you that I write copy for the following categories: hot rods, street rods, street machines, customs, muscle cars from the ’60s and ’70s, trucks, off-road, and restorations of all types of vehicles. And, of course, there is lots of overlap among these categories.

For simplicity, however, when I refer to “hot rods” and “high performance,” I include all the categories listed above. I think of a ‘34 Ford restored to factory original condition the same as a pro street-built ‘34 Ford. I might anger some people when I say that, but for the type of writing I do, they’re equal. Another example: An original, unrestored ‘69 Hemi GTX is equal to, say, a well-built, high-dollar ‘55 Ford truck with a blown 460 and a six-speed manual trans, or that same ‘55 restored to original.

For my purposes, the words “automotive high performance parts” include everything involved in building, maintaining, and/or restoring cars and trucks. For example, air conditioning has never been considered a high performance item. In fact, as we all know, it’s a liability due to its parasitic draw.

But, I consider A/C to be a part of the high performance world because it’s part of today’s hot rods. And it does make summers, especially here in Texas, more comfortable.

The same goes for electric door locks, power windows, and cruise control. What I’m saying is that the item doesn’t have to be a “speed” part for me to write about it. All it has to be is related to one of the above categories.

Fuel injectors, headers, blowers, window cranks, crankshafts, dash pads, quarter panels, A/C compressors, heater cores, master cylinders, steering columns, hoses and lines, wiring harnesses, and much more are required in each category–nothing gets left out.

When I say “off-road,” I include everything from drag racing to rock crawling to tractor pulls. For my writing, off-road equals on-road.

“Okay,” you say, “but what do you actually write?” I write company newsletters; brochures; case studies; feature, trade journal, and ghostwritten articles; press releases; speeches; and direct response packages, or, essentially, whatever kind of writing a client wants or needs.