Gas prices will never go down again, Hydrogen vehicles have taken over the roads and the government wants to take away your internal combustion engines. What are you going to do? Does anyone see hot rodded hybrids in their future, or is the automotive hobbyist an endangered species? I think that scenario is less than ten years away. Don't get me wrong, I am not advocating any of the above, but when a tank of gas can cost me $50, I do wonder how it affects everyone else in the hot rodding community. Would you all give up your SUV's in exchange for your big block Camaros or turbo'd 'Stangs? Car Craft Prius Project? Biodiesel Chevelle?  

I van pool every day to work, save for the few days that I have personal business.  My company pays 100% of the cost.  They are required to have so many van pools anyway, plus there is a parking shortage at our building.  I figure that for all the gas that I am saving (I still get by with $20 bucks or less per week in my 3/4 ton Chev), I am entitled to fill my hot rods up to drive them the once or twice per month they get driven in the warm dry weather.  Mind you, I live in the great Pacific Northwest where it does tend to rain - and rain - and rain.....  So the point I'm making is that a tank in them lasts for a long time.

I believe that alternative forms of transportation is the way to save.  I still don't understand why there is so much gridlock between here and Seattle when there is the vanpool option, express bus service to all points north, and commuter rail - all of which dumps you square in the middle of Seattle (to the north) or Olympia (to the south) with connecting bus service.  The fact is you still see people - one to a car - filing single file out of Boeing and other major facilities where you know people could be forming vanpools, saving money, saving gas, and helping with the traffic mess.

When gas hit $2.00 a gallon I said bull crap to that.  At $3.21 a gallon, it's total raw sewage as far as I'm concerned.  I figure that if I don't use any more dollars than I was before, it isn't cutting me or my standard of living much.  The price of gas hit my deminishing returns six months ago.  That said, I will still fill up my play cars, because they don't get used enough to matter. 

Bowser

WE ALREADY KNOW THERE ARE ALTERNATIVE FUELS FOR INTERNAL CONBUSTION ENGINES.  I REMEMBER A COUPLE YEARS BACK THERE WAS A BLURB IN CAR CRAFT ABOUT A DIESEL VOLVO RUNNING CROSS COUNTRY ON HEMP FUEL, AND THE JOKE WAS THAT IF THERE WAS A WAY TO PUT THIS IDEA INTO HOTRODS, WE'D ALL BE SEEING ALOT MORE BURNOUTS AT THE DRAGS. YUK, YUK, YUK.  AND THATS THE PROBLEM.  AS SOON AS SOMEONE STARTS TALKING ABOUT THE VERSATILITY AND RENEWABILITY OF INDUSTRIAL HEMP, WE'VE ALL BEEN BRAINWASHED INTO LOOKING AT THEM SIDEWAYS AND SECRETLY ACCUSING THEM OF BEING POT HEADS.  INDUSTRIAL HEMP IS OUR MOST VERSATILE AND RENEWABLE NATURAL RESOURSE, BUT IT WILL NEVER BE LEGAL BECAUSE OUR GOVORNMENT DOESN'T DO ANYTHING FOR THE BEST INTRESTS OF THE MASSES WITHOUT CONSIDERING HOW IT WILL AFFECT THEIR "CAMPAIGN FINANCE" BRIBES.

I love it when somebody or some small company really finds something that looks promising.  The technical journals cover it, and some even finds its way into the local newspapers.  Then suddenly, it's like the company or the guy and his research drops off the face of the earth.  Then it comes out two or three years later that the technology and the patent were bought out by some big oil company that didn't want it to go into production.  Might cut into their profits.  I always think that if I ever came up with some reveloutionary new technology to help in the fuel crunch, I would have the guts to say no to a buy out.  But if someone wagged 50 million in front of my face and told me to forget it, I probably would.  I could finally get all my cars painted.

Bowser

The problem with you cats from Cali is you don't think like the rest of the country. You have all your own emission laws and try to mandate policy on the automotive mfr's concerning fuel economy and emissions. Truth be told, those in power are completely happy with fossil fuels and the money it generates. Don't be fooled by local politics, and remember that back in the late 70's we were told the american V8 will cease to exist by the end of the next decade. Fuel economy and small engines will be all we have to build. A lot of 4 cyl's (some with turbo's) made it out of the factory and onto the dragstrips, mostly Mopars but did the V8 die?, did we run out of gas? Hell no, the V8 came back strong, and got mileage! Some suppliers and oil execs got greedy and it will take a change in govt policy to correct the swing into rediculous prices but they are not about to remove fossil fuels any time soon, believe it!  

OF COURSE FOSSIL FUELS AREN'T GOING ANYWHERE, DESPITE THE FACT THAT ALTERNATIVES DO EXIST. LIKE YOU SAID, IT'LL TAKE A TOTAL REFORM OF GOVORNMENT POLICY, AND LIKE I SAID, NOTHING GETS DONE WITHOUT CAREFULLY CONSIDERING HOW THOSE POLICY CHANGES WILL AFFECT CAMPAIGN FINANCE CONTRIBUTIONS.  THE POLICIES OF THIS NATION AREN'T CONTROLLED BY OR SET FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE MASSES.  IT ALL BOILS DOWN TO WHO FORKS OVER THE MOST $.  THE SLOGAN "ITS ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS" FITS EVERYWHERE FROM THE 'HOOD TO THE OVAL OFFICE.  ANYONE WHO THINKS OTHERWISE IS IN COMPLETE DENIAL.  

Car Crafting is ingrained in the American psyche. It will never die. It may become radically different (e.g. Ready- Kilowatt- electrician-type "E-tuners" rewinding their electric wheel motors for "more power" out of their fuel-cell-powered repro Deuce coupes), but as long as there's affordable personal transportation, competition, notariety and bragging rights, somebody will be modifying whatever's left for higher performance. 

Still, the future of conventional internal combustion Car Crafting will likely rise or fall on whether internal-combustion-hydrogen or E85-flex fuel engines become popular in the non-Car Crafting mainstream.   Diesel high performance may also become an expanding area of interest.