The fourth installment in the retrospective exploration of the evolution of a gear head.
Stage IV -The True Gear Head
The Gear Head has overcome numerous obstacles in pursuit of his passion. He’s made real progress on his car. He might have a reputation for having the fastest or best looking car, depending upon his goals. There’s still a few things he’d like to get done, but he’s started to shift his thinking towards new ideas, as he might be getting bored with the seemingly endless influx of newbies to his community asking the same questions.
Speaking of community, the gear head develops a real passion for steering his community. While the Addict is hungry for power and popularity, the true gear head likely has both at this point, and now finds pleasure in being a role model for the newer guys. In fact, some true gear heads might find that they enjoy modifying the community more than they enjoy modifying the cars. After all, all the information needed to make the car anything you could ever dream of (or that 99% of the owners would dream of) has already been discussed a dozen or more times, but being able to possibly inspire younger members to do things right the first time, take their time, and help each other out in order to raise the bar for everyone can be really alluring.
My True Gear Head Experience
Despite Mark freaking Bullett hogging the all motor DSM spotlight (you know I think you’re the man, right, Mark?) and the recent revelation that I wasn’t even all that into drag racing, I began to just enjoy driving Daisy. It actually struck me one day that I truly enjoyed working on the 2GNT community more than I enjoyed working on the car.
The Dreamer doesn’t know that he doesn’t know anything yet. He just wants a damn car. The Experimenter knows that he has no idea what he’s doing when it comes to cars and he’s worried that he’ll do something stupid and be back to bumming rides (which is a terrifying thought). The Addict is so blinded by his passion for all this that he does his best not to think about the risks involved and tries to tell himself it will all work out in the end. But the True Gear Head has come to the realization that it doesn’t matter what happens to the car; no matter what breaks, come hell or high water, he’s fixed it before and he knows he can fix it again. It’s not even about the money it takes to buy the parts or even necessarily the downtime. For the True Gear Head, it’s the realization that every car project – be it maintenance, modification or repair – takes time. The True Gear Head has spent so much time with dirty fingernails, busted knuckles, bruises, cuts, scrapes, sore muscles, and a scary checking account that it’s almost a chore. It’s not a chore, though, because cars are still a True Gear Head’s greatest passion.
At some point a few years back, this car crazy nut job who took a Unibit to the airbox in his 100% stock Eagle Talon because he read how to do it on a random website found by accident on his lunch break was asked to help administrate that website. We decided to replace the old home page which had the power stages on it that I’d found back in 1999 with a new wiki so that members could preserve the details of their projects indefinitely for the benefit of others. It’s been a great ride. And we haven’t reached the end yet.
So are you a true gear head?
Been there? Done that? Have the t-shirt? Share your thoughts on taking that step beyond single-minded modification of your own vehicle and in taking pride in being part of a larger society of do-it-yourselfers who can respect and appreciate anyone else who’s done the work themself.