Page 4 - Issue 38

Editor’s Notes

hange. It’s something that is constant, powerful –
sometimes uncomfortable. In this crazy collision
of the magazine and automotive industries, you

better believe things change fast. In seven years
Follow me on Twitter Cof running this magazine I’ve been thrown a
@EditorStevo
lot of curveballs and I’ve seen a LOT of things change.
One thing that never has? The nature of the rat rod

community. Hell, the hot rod community as a whole –
the old school segment, the blue collar culture that we
rally behind – those ideals and sentiments never change
no matter what happens around them. Here we are in

June 2016, knee-deep in political upheaval (no matter
what side you’re on) and in the midst of cultural change
across the globe. But the roots of what we do here at
the magazine and in this community are solid. I love that.

It feels like society itself has shifted, slightly, to a more old-school
approach to, well, everything. Repurposed this, reclaimed that… built
not bought… patina before paint… survivors here, salvages there. It
seems like people are DRIVING more and parking less. Car shows (at
least in the rat rod sector) are becoming less about lining ‘em up and
sitting around, and more about socializing, interacting, and enjoying
the history that slowly fades away each year. (Time waits for no one,
no matter how hard we try to preserve it. It just ticks by. We know, we
embrace it… that’s why the “enjoy it” part of our credo is so important.)
There was a time when the story behind a car was as cool as the car
itself… and we’re returning to that – we have been returning to that for
years, and the general population is starting to catch on. Finally.

4 RAT ROD MAGAZINE ISSUE THIRTY-EIGHT

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