The community of restomod lovers keeps growing daily due in no small part to our potential as humans for romanticizing the past. After reading about your dream cars in magazines and seeing them in movies during childhood, shaking off the allure of owning one when you finally have the means can be difficult.
Unfortunately, when you finally have the means, the cars you grew up loving are probably no longer in production. Any cursory search for your dream car reveals one of two possible situations. The first is that it doesn't perform as well as you thought it did. The alternative is that the models you have access to may be so beaten up that they're not worth driving.
Restomod is a combination of two words that describe the process of bringing old classic cars up to speed with modern standards. Restoration implies that, at least aesthetically, the car is fixed to retain its old allure, while modernization refers to today's standards - horsepower, noise pollution, and emission.
However, restomods still remain a complicated and divisive topic among car enthusiasts. In this article, we'll make a case for restomods and highlight why they are the crowd's new favorite.
Looks
If we're honest, the most significant allure classic cars have is their looks. The '60s and '70s were a hotbed for creativity when it came to car designs. Compared to that era, the '90s and 2000s have experienced some kind of stalling.
Most of those designs have now been abandoned. For example, the original Mustang look that defined the 60's muscle cars has more or less vanished from modern remakes. If you fell in love with the car looks, then you may be looking to reacquaint yourself with them more closely now.
Many of the cars used for restomod projects are cars that signify class and status in their heyday. Owning one of those today is still regarded as a sign of luxury as they are classed under vintage vehicles.
Personalization
Personalizing cars has always been an alluring prospect for car junkies. Being able to start from scratch and build your own vehicle piece by piece is the ultimate level DIY car dream. How much more when it's a classic you've always dreamed of owning?
One advantage these classics have is that it's far easier to tear them down, or buy them as scrap and start building. Since they've been around for much longer, they are likelier to cost less at second-hand value. A lot of these cars also have a large community of users, so accessing parts and information is very easy.
As long as the parts are available, you can build a car that matches your taste to the T. Everything is typically replaceable in a restomod, e.g., engine, suspension, brake system, interior, headlights, etc.
Performance Boost
As highlighted earlier, most classics perform abysmally when compared to modern cars. While they might have been the cynosure of all eyes during their time, they're typically far worse than what we would consider standard cars by new performance metrics.
Take, for instance, the Jaguar E-type. Released in 1961, it came with so much acclaim that car-making maestro, Enzo Ferrari, proclaimed it to be the most beautiful car ever made. It has a modest energy output of 250 bhp. Compared to any modern Toyota or BMW, you can see how that would fail massively.
If you're a performance-oriented person who has a thing for vintage cars, you can't afford to stop at just restoration. You have to bring the vehicles up to modern racing standards. It's not uncommon to see vintage cars with respectable engine capacity and handling at pro-racing tournaments.
Pricing
Interestingly, not everyone does restomods for the love of classic cars. For some, it's a pure business venture. Getting a vintage car up to modern standards is a challenging and expensive job. Apart from costing a lot in terms of the parts to be replaced, it also takes a lot of time and expertise to put together.
For those reasons, car owners can command a higher value for their cars than they usually would. Restomod vehicles can cost anywhere from $50,000 for the modestly priced ones, to as much as $1 million for exquisite ones. In fact, it's quite reasonable for restomod cars to cost six figures.
Restomods don't always count for a net increase in earnings, though. The personalization can count against the price, especially when it isn't done well enough. That said, what really counts is the degree of professionalism put into it. It's no surprise companies like Revology cars have carved a niche for themselves in that area. You can take a look at one of their offerings here: https://revologycars.com/car/1967-shelby-gt500/
Safety
Apart from performance, safety is also one place where restored cars and restomod cars are differentiated. Bringing vehicles from another era back to life most often means that they will fall short of current safety standards.
For example, most '60s and 70's cars used drum brake systems that are slower and more clunky than the disc brakes we're more accustomed to. It's typically one of the first things to do during a restomod as it's an important safety system.
It's not only about the driver's safety, too. Even the safety of others and the environment must be considered. The emission system will have to be brought up to par with state code and regulations, alongside noise production.
Conclusion
Opposition to restomods typically comes from purists who prefer that vintage cars be left the way they are. They believe that they are a part of car history, and as such, shouldn't be tampered with. The challenge, however, is that if you want to use those dream cars, you have to get them up to speed with the day's standards. If you'll be changing some things to meet regulations, why not change everything to suit your taste?
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