Here is a “show car”. Whether or not this is “cool” (or rice), or worthy of my respect (or just ugly), or an example of a fine automobile (or not), or interesting, is not simple. In the automotive enthusiast’s world there is always the performance faction and the aesthetics faction (or the “go” and the “show” people, if you prefer the familiar cliché terms). But the place of performance and appearance modifications is far too complicated to fit into some binary opposition. Each major faction has subgroups. Owners’ personalities come into play. This week, I’d like to offer just some loosely connected thoughts about the issue. In all honesty, it’s not so important as to require a conclusion, and those of you who’ve seen my car or are familiar with our general philosophy here at PansyPatrol already know what my personal opinion is.

It seems to me that we need to define some categories. On the so-called “performance” side of things, I identify 3 types of cars: Those that one neither respects nor admires, those that one respects but does not personally admire, and those that one respects and personally admires. For example, I have no personal affection for any of the well-known dedicated drag cars in the VR-4/Stealth community. I respect the work necessary to make a high-powered drag car, but I wouldn’t give any of the 9- or 10-second cars much more than a passing look. On the other hand, I’ll look over a dedicated roadcourse car or even a daily driver that is regularly tracked for an hour or so, and talk to the owner.

These categories exist on the appearance side as well. There are cars that one neither respects nor admires, cars that one respects but does not personally admire, and cars that one both respects and admires. I respect the work, for instance, that is required to mold custom body modifications, or the leadwork on an older custom hotrod. No amount of respect, however, can inspire true admiration or personal pleasure: I respect the effort while disliking the product. This is true of all things, not just cars. Our judgments, our “opinions,” as we generally call them, are often not outright opinions so much as they are a combination of our rational opinions and instinctive preferences. The relationship between the two is as difficult to pinpoint as it is to understand.

Just as it is difficult for us to separate respect and personal admiration, it is also difficult for us to separate the car from the owner. Like it or not, in the automotive world—in the world, really—one’s product and one’s self are inseparable. If your product is your car, people will see the two as one and make an overall judgment. This further complicates the old “show vs. go” issue.

Though some performance people don’t like to admit it, we are in a way as concerned with image as the show car faction. In fact, it is the people who vehemently deny that they are concerned with image who are the most image-conscious. Rejection—rejection of an ideal, a way of thinking, a philosophy—is as much an image-creating act as openly trying to create an image. Once you make your car a public hobby (I wouldn’t be writing this and you wouldn’t be reading it if cars were not public hobbies for us) you automatically make an image statement.

The difference, however, is that the show car world is more image-driven in the sense that one who builds his car specifically for shows is explicitly looking for external opinions. On the performance side there is still a significant concern for image, but the image is an extension: The car competes, it wins races, it cuts low lap times, it out-handles its equivalents—it does these things first. The aesthetic image that it creates is derived not only from the car’s appearance, but from the car’s speed or quickness. The show-only car does not have this two-stage image creation. Its quality, its success or failure, rests on appearance alone.

I think this is why show-car owners are (or appear to be) more sensitive to criticism and more likely to spout the “to each his own…we should all have respect for each other” cliché. Were I to ridicule a performance car, the owner could reject and ignore me. The image is secure because it does not require my approval to exist. The owner of a show-only car finds this rejection more difficult because ridicule and disapproval target the essence of his project and his work.

What to do with all these convoluted distinctions? There is of course, no “answer”. But I think we can more honestly and more accurately continue this debate by acknowledging what it is not: It is not style vs. performance. It is not appearance vs. speed. And it is not show vs. go. Fundamentally, it is about two opposing and conflicting images, neither wanting to give ground. Put this way, it doesn’t seem much different than any other ideological argument.