Is love blind when it comes to cars? Yes, but who cares? | Articles

Let’s face it. Not everybody is going to like you–or your beloved car. It’s a sad fact of life that some of us struggle to come to grips with. If you’re one of those people (and admittedly I am one of them), then I ask you this: Why should it matter?

This crossed my mind when I encountered two seemingly opposite ends of the car culture spectrum within one metro area on the same day. You had the Smoky Mountain F-Body Fest and the Knoxville Drive Electric Festival. One side wanted to rev their engines loudly and burn up as many tires and as much fuel as possible. The other side wanted you to hear much more of their conversation and talk about how they never have to fill up a gas tank again.

Let’s start with the F-bodies. Camaros and Firebirds are as American as baseball, which made Smokies Stadium the perfect backdrop. They’re the darlings of Hollywood, with starring roles in Smokey and the Bandit, Knight Rider and Transformers. Yet F-bodies don’t always command respect. Perhaps, it’s the strong personalities these cars attract. Case in point, the Macho T/A, a car with an apropos name for what some perceive owners of these cars to be.

One soft-spoken caretaker brought a 1984 Chevrolet Camaro Z28. He had bought it earlier in the year and was proud of the ride that he had refurbished himself. Rightfully so, it was a beauty.

Back in the day, Car and Driver named the Z28 as the best-handling car in the U.S. But what about what’s under the hood? Chevrolet rated the V8 for 150 horsepower. The event had a chassis dyno on the premises that this owner took advantage of. Max power: 68 horses–far less than to be expected when taking into account driveline horsepower loss. He wasn’t surprised, though–and he didn’t seem to care. He loved his Z28 and he was happy.

Thirty minutes away, the Knoxville Drive Electric Festival brought proud owners of EVs to the grounds of Pellissippi State Community College. Oddly enough, you had just as many cars sporting American flags there as at F-Body Fest, although for different reasons. Here, a Tesla is an American-made vehicle that uses American-made power. A Korean War-era vet reminded me of that as he displayed his Tesla Model 3 Performance. He may have been 87 years old, but he was clearly up on today’s world.

It was another Tesla aficionado that caught my attention, though.

The festival offers test drives of various EVs. While brands like Cadillac,…