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What Does it Mean to Be an Auto Enthusiast?
There’s tons of people out there who call themselves an “auto enthusiast”. Unfortunately, the term is so generic, that it means little. I’m not going to try to quantify all the differences, but what I will say is that there are enthusiastic enthusiasts and there are unenthusiastic enthusiasts.
What most people mean by the term is; “I like this or that car”, or “I like this kind of car”. Folks, that’s NOT an Enthusiast. To be an enthusiast, you have to BE FASCINATED by all types of cars, all types of competitive automotive venues — and most of all — you have to be CURIOUS about all types of cars — PAST and present.
And CURIOUS is how you learn — how you acquire knowledge — how you broaden your mind. When you aren’t curious, in my opinion, your mind turns to sludge. And after a while, it turns to concrete.
In my tenure as an enthusiast (1956-Present) I have been exposed to all of the above and at 78 I still come away fascinated. Of course, some things only get a passing glance — and some things don’t tickle my fancy, BUT I still am curious.
While working as the archivist for the Automotive History Preservation Society, where I was a founding member, I have seen a lot of unenthusiastic enthusiasts. In fact, I’d have to say that fully 95% of the people who visited the Library or with whom I came…
