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c h a p t e r t e n THE฀BEST฀OF฀TImES,฀ THE฀WORST฀OF฀TImES,฀ 1970–1990 During the 1970s and 80s, the speed equipment business boomed. Year in and year out, individual high-performance parts manufacturers posted record sales, as did speed shops, wholesale distributors, and retail chains. The industry’s rate of growth was lower than it had been in the 1960s, but still, nearly everybody’s bottom line improved each year. SEMA’s ranks grew too, as did the number of booths and industry-insider attendees at its annual show.1 Meanwhile, SEMA officials enjoyed considerable success in their negotiations with NHTSA, the EPA, and the California ARB, and by the end of the 1970s, most of those in the know were cautiously optimistic that they and their industry had weathered the worst of the regulatory storm.2 For them, the future was bright. But ordinary rodders weren’t nearly as sanguine, for in several important ways, the 1970s and 80s were difficult times for American performance enthusiasm. This was especially true of the early to mid-1970s, when pollution controls, rising insurance premiums, fuel shortages, lower octane gasoline, low-performance OEM cars, and often-draconian local inspection programs made buying, building, modifying , and driving high-performance vehicles far more difficult than ever before. At the same time, Watergate, the lingering sting of the Vietnam War, and economic “stagflation” did little to brighten the mood. Perhaps Ed Almquist was right, therefore , when he labeled the entire decade “sad,” for in the eyes of many enthusiasts, the 1970s were a colossal disappointment, and the 1980s proved to be little better.3 Yet throughout the period in question, ordinary rodders continued to buy aftermarket products at a record clip, and they also developed some new performance niches that played vital roles in the ongoing growth and overall prosperity of the 210 t h e b u s i n e s s o f s p e e d 210 t h e b u s i n e s s o f s p e e d speed equipment industry. For as the era of the OEM high-performance car came to a close, American enthusiasts scattered. Some worked hard to transform the low-performance, pollution-controlled compacts, imports, and sporty domestics of the time into genuine high-performance vehicles. But many others wanted nothing at all to do with regulated (in their eyes, compromised) performance tuning. Some therefore continued to modify, drive, and race the muscle cars and street machines of the 1950s and 60s. Others turned to full-size vans and pickups, which were saddled with fewer emissions-control and safety equipment than ordinary passenger cars. But there were also those for whom the gloom and doom of 1970s performance tuning (and 1970s America) were simply too much to take in stride. Gripped by nostalgia for a simpler, happier, and more prosperous time, these enthusiasts eagerly turned to “street rods,” prewar coupes and roadsters inspired by the classic hot rods of the 1950s but equipped with reliable later-model powertrains. Compacts, imports, street machines, muscle cars, vans, trucks, and street rods: these niches defined hot rodding in the 1970s and 80s and enabled the speed equipment industry to prosper during an otherwise difficult time for the American automobile. Simply put, these years were at once the best of times and the worst of times. Or more precisely, they were the best of times for the speed equipment industry precisely because they were in many ways the worst of times for new-car automotive enthusiasm in the United States. the gathering gloom During the 1970s, SEMA lobbied, and in many cases closely consulted, with local, state, and federal officials to ensure that high-performance tuning and other sorts of end-user modifications remained legal. Its efforts paid off handsomely too, especially for the businesses that manufactured and sold aftermarket products. SEMA’s regulatory saga unfolded slowly, however, and as the association ’s representatives haggled with NHTSA, CARB, and the EPA over certification programs, testing procedures, and the precise meaning of stipulations like “replacement-style parts,” ordinary enthusiasts suffered. Lacking clear direction from above, local inspection officials in particular were quick to develop their own interpretations of federal and state mandates. As a result, many enthusiasts soon found that their hot rods, customs, and street machines no longer conformed to the law of the land, in spite of what they read in the magazines each...

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