To the OP: your attitude is what is killing racing in the US. Todays youth dont like what you like, they never will. Its old. And slow. And totally uncool.-- Racing thrived into the nineties. There was not sudden POOF now we are different. What did change in the nineties was the rules that governed racing till they became as controlling as the politicians in Wash.
Cool or uncool has nothing to do with youths babbling like ignorant children they are about car x, y or z while putting fart cans and rear-wings on fwd four door crap wagons,
But then again, what young guy driving a 426 Hemi in the 60s was going to trade it in for a banger? Or go watch a bunch of hopped up model As race? -- Damn few young guys in the sixties were driving Hemis, but tens of thousands of them were going to race tracks, of any genre to see them , or other high performance engines, from what ever make they preferred, which allowed new tracks to be built and the old ones to keep running.
The youth market will always be attracted to what is cutting edge at that time. -- LOL, fart cans and rear wings on fwd cars, yeah right.
They don't have the faintest idea of what cutting edge is.
If you think an ohc engine or exhaust driven supercharger is cutting edge, then neither do you.
Although there were the dorks who jacked up the rear of their cars in the seventies to LOOK like a pro-stock racer. Thank God they were few and learned quickly that not only looked dumb but was hard on the car.
Todays youth I believe has even smaller capacity for nostalgia than ever before but who cares? Real racing has no time for nostalgia. I think the reason racing in the US is struggling so badly is because the powers that be are lacking any good racing that has any relevance to what the young guys are driving or are interested in.
This is the tuner generation, they dont care for stick axles and big pushrod motors powering look alike sedans in circles. Go to a drift or time attack event and check the demographics, hoards of youth. Not just there to drive but even just to hang out and "be cool" just like at Lions drag strip in the 60s. Look in the parking lot at the drift event, same models of cars as on track. Just like Daytona in the 70s. Problem is, the series that are relevant to the youth have little to no organization. -- Drifting is regional as is the tuner genre.
Up here you are more likely to find a late teen, early twenties boy building and running a Champ class snowmobile around a half-mile oval at over 100 mph as you are to find some one into drifting.
There is a lot more to this country than the West coast.
Drifting is not front wheel drive cars and how many of today's youth are driving new rwd Japanese cars?
There was an article on a vintage Japanese automobile site about favorite VINTAGE Japanese cars used for drifting as there are few new ones.
Yes I am aware of some U.S. cars in drifting.
Hence undersold advertising, no money, and limited success. If the old farts want youths to enjoy and be passionate about racing they need to accept the fact kids dont and wont like what was cool years ago and develop a new approach. And yes its going to involve "DOHC, IRS, and Turbo". Just like when you were a young little dumbass and you drooled over Hemi, Posi, and Cowl induction but had little understanding of flame propagation, torque biasing, or fluid dynamics. -- You know nothing about me but I do know more than a few ignorant twits who spout out automotive acronyms with out a clue of what the hell they are speaking of.
I knew exactly, at least as far as one can learn from auto rags and some very old tech. books from my grandfather who went to school to be a automechanic but became a farmer because his wife wanted to live on a farm, for which my father never forgave her, exactly what made a Hemi a hemi and why it was different and better in some ways, how a limited slip differential worked and why cowl induction increased engine performance so do not say I am just like any dumbass or you have made your self look like an dumb-ass.
I do not care about whether or not today's youths are passionate about racing, I care that there is nothing for them to be passionate about.
Anyone who is passionate about contrived competition lives in a very boring controlled world.
I just wish so many of today's snot faced punks driving around in cars with fart cans would not pontificate out of ignorance. (I would be happy if they actually realized how moronic it is to put a wing on the rear of a fwd econobox.)
There is a ray of hope though, the people at whom it was aimed, did actually see the Aztek as the pos, it was.