Sadly, in a way, I've found myself in the same position. When I was MUCH younger, and 'Car Craft' and 'Hot Rod' magazines were packed with "go fast" articles, I read them like they were the bible. And I frequented the "speed shops", picking up the latest and greatest parts (there was no internet, then). And slowly but surely, my "daily drivers" turned into loud, uncomfortable, quasi race cars.

Now, I still like a fast car, but the places to go fast, without getting busted, are much fewer and farther in between. "Suburban sprawl" took care of that, as well as $$$ traffic tickets and jacked-up insurance rates, for violations more serious than a parking ticket. Yeah, I do sort of miss the 60s and 70s....

 

Yea same here man, around the same age. Constantly hit the track and was always worried about being faster then the next guy. Married w/ 2 kids and I haven't raced in close to 20 years and I could careless whos faster. Still love the speed but like you said now its a nice weekend/free time car. Funny I posted some recent dyno numbers on another board and somebody asked if I was going to "back them up" at the track. The answer was no, I have nothing to prove or care what it "runs".

 

I felt the same way about my cars until a couple of years ago. My situation changed a while back, and I lost some of my storage/work area, which made tinkering with my cars more difficult. After I retired, I looked forward to the additional time I'd have to play with the cars, but without the dedicated work space I previously had, it just became a hassle.

It came time to make a choice, and I kept my Corvette, but sold the Camaro, as I wasn't driving either of them as much as I previously did. It just didn't make sense to keep them both........

 

As we age, we get wiser and more responsible.

 

As we age, we get wiser and more responsible.
I haven't raced on the street for years, did not go to the drag strip for over 10 years. I want my cars to be comfortable with a/c blowing cold.
Years ago when I was removing a perfectly good a/c from my Pontiac, my older and wiser buddy tried to convince me not to do it. I did it to save weight from the front of the car in the name of performance. Guess what, I am installing a/c in my Pontiac right now. Next project is to find a catalytic converter for Mac mids good enough not to choke my exhaust. I'm tired of exhaust smell.
My wife never wants to get in my Pontiac, but she is more than happy to go for a ride in our bone stock Z28.
I am 45 years old with 3 young kids. I had my kids late because of my passion for performance cars. I was afraid having kids will put the end to my hobby, it didn't, but affected it drastically. No regrets, my kids is the best thing that ever happened to me and if I knew that, I would have them much sooner.
I did not abandon my hobby, going to garage wrenching on my Pontiac is how I unplug from my daily routine and noise. I do it frequently, for an hour or so. I don't hurry to finish projects and enjoy every moment doing it with my favorite music playing in the background. Needing to run to hardware store for house supplies is a perfect excuse to take my car for a spin and I usually take a nice detour on less traveled roads.
I told my wife, Pontiac is my mistress and I need to spend time with her from time to time. She understands...

 

I find out that the older I get the more I want to race against cars that are worth my time. I felt a lot like the OP when I was in my 20's and I still just look at imports as noise makers but the car scene has changed a lot and there's so much stuff out there it doesn't matter that much anymore like it used too. My poison will always be a V8. Even in the early 2000's my car was a cut above what everyone else had my age because like OP I put a lot of time and money into it. When you get older you want more than just a fast time slip life isn't just about yourself and your car anymore it's more about peace of mind. That being said for me at least I really enjoy going fast that won't change. Street racing though was over soon as they decided to turn it into a felony which I always thought was silly and still do. But having a family and kids I think is what changes most peoples lives. You start playing it safe and selling off your goodies.

I'll never forget when I would work on my car at the shop how many "old guys" would come up to me joyfully talking about their fast little hot rod they had in their youth and then got rid of and then they'd start staring painfully off into space. I made a vow to myself to never end up like those guys. You never lose sight of what you love or good memories. So many guys miss their hot rods and try to recapture it when they're youth has long passed them by buying a corvette or something only to go 50mph forever.

but that's their game, their rules. I'm not going to fight them I'm going to race them. That's what I know, that's what I am, and only by admitting what we are can we get what we want. One day in the end you'll look back and think of those days of riding your car to work with your drags on and you'll say... "why did I ever stop". I bet those trips were the funnest commutes you ever had to work in your life.

Life sucks we all get old and die so just enjoy it all of it. Enjoy your family and enjoy your car don't compromise.

 

I know what you're saying, and agree with a lot of it. But sometimes we "older guys" let our cars go for a reason. My first brand new car was a 1971 Chevelle SS454. It wasn't the car I started out to purchase, but a deal I had on something else, fell through, and I wound up with this Chevelle. I bought it right off the dealer's showroom floor, as a "previous model year left-over", and got quite a deal on it.

Initially I loved it, but after a couple of years of dealing with a HEAVY engine over the front wheels, with no power steering, and a clutch pedal that practically took both feet to push in, driving it got kind of "old" after a while. And since I wasn't in a position to have a second car, at that point in my life, this was my DD. Trying to drive it in the snow was a REAL adventure. Sadly, the car lost it's luster, and I let it go. BUT, it was fun for a while......

Several years later, I ordered a 1977 Firebird T/A. This car, I planned on keeping forever. By then, I was in a position to have a second car, for winter duty, so I kept the T/A out of the salt. However, the build quality wasn't too good on those cars, and the car wound up with rust issues, anyway. Sadly, I decided to let it go, and traded it off for my Corvette, in 2001.

I feel badly for my fellow "old timers" who sold their "hot rods" because their new wives couldn't drive a 4 speed, or the baby seat won't fit in the back seat, but that's life. Many times, we look back at our lives, and see the good times, and forget the not so good times, but frequently, it's the bad times that force us to make compromises....

 

The older I get the quieter I want my vehicles to be.. I refuse to put a cat back system on my Silverado.. I also wish I would have kept my stock muffler on the Camaro and just did long tubes and a cutout.. My next car is gonna be a Vette most likely and I might still do cam and bolt ons but best believe that muffler will be stock lol..

 

I'm 25 and was called out in a fb group for a race, but they wanted it on the street. I said no because of the risks, and I'll be damned if almost everyone in that group lost their mind about it. I guess I am one of the few younger guys, that don't care for it on the street. Besides, for the racing part, I actually prefer dirt. My dad was out of drag racing before I was born, so we didn't go much when I was younger, but I had many family members, and family friends that raced on the dirt as I was growing up, and spent many friday nights at the track. I currently have 6 93-02 fbodies, but only one is a go fast. I had always been around cars growing up, as my dad has owned a shop for nearly 35 years now, but my fbody love started around 3rd or 4th grade, when he picked me up from basketball practice in a mint 82 z28. Red with the silver at the bottom. From that day on, I always wanted one. When I had the money to buy one, I ended up getting a 97 for $1500. It had a hotcam, bolt ons, vigilante converter and strange 12 bolt. Ended up wrecking the car, but that drivetrain, along with new mods, has been in three different cars now, including my current one. Judging by the replies here, I'm kinda ready to hit this older and wiser stage, because it seems I'm on cl everyday looking at 4th gens, and throwing money away lol.

 

For me it depended where on the street. There were always plenty of backroads around with no intersections, plenty of shut down space and there'd only be a handful of people to witness instead of making it an internet **** show. In the 90's when I lived in DFW there'd be hundreds of cars out all at the popular spots and you just lined up like you were in a staging lane and someone would flag you. Cops would show up, chirp the siren and everyone would scatter to the next location. That went on all night during the weekends and some weekdays until a bunch of bystanders were run over by a drunk driver who was not affiliated with the racing. After that cops started shutting down and arresting/impounding. Wasn't long after that street racing became a felony charge.
From what I've seen in about every street racing crash reported it's always because it's done on a street with traffic where idiots run lights or go through an intersection in triple digits and hit some unsuspecting car, or go on a winding road only to loose control and end up wrapped around a tree.

 

well like some fine red wine....I have "mellowed" as the years piled on. 21 years ago when I bought my 96 I swore I would never do any mods to it as it was then my DD. Well we all heard the same voice..."mod it" and the CAI and CAT back went on. Saturdays at the Test n Tune 1/4 mi started the full addiction I had when I was a 16 year old pulling the front bumper off my 57 Chevy and jacking up the rear end for bigger tires.

100's of 1/4 mi passes over the next 10 years and a long list of mods to take a stock 14.xxx car to 13.xxx to 12.xxx. Getting up at 4:30 am to drive 2 hrs to a track with my son and his friend in the back seat. Have to admit those were some fun times.

So now it still is a tame 12 second car but I have not had it down the track in years. Not that I miss the "rush"...just the 4:30 am wake-up and now a track with pits full of dumb *** punks who park in your pit when you are in staging lane just for maybe to get 2 runs in my 5pm. F that.

Admit tingly I have "showed my HP" to some wantabe in some late model whatever it is but even those instances are far and few between as my age tells me "the ticket $, traffic school $ let alone possible wreck" thoughts keep my right foot in check.

I now just drive the car for fun and do exceed the speed limit in back country/canyon roads occasionally and hit the cruise days on weekends to see "the other stuff"

Guess my Dad was right when he said "wait till your my age..." :-)

 

Truth.

I am a relatively young guy (31). When I was 16, i was fortunate enough to have a nearly mint and low mileage 1978 Z28 with a 4-speed. The car was awesome. We used to beat the he'll out of it and although I never had much more than bolt ons...we thought it was fast. Eventually the car was Sold, when I was building a 1984 z28 that i shoved a 454 into. Then i bought and sold a few more and ended up getting myself ino lt1 cars. About 4 years ago, the car collector, that owns my 78 z28, offered it back to me for what he owns it for. It's a great deal, and I would love to have it back. But after thinking about it for a while (I had the money ready to go to) I decided to let the guy keep it. I am in the middle of building my dream 4th gen right now (its a slow process). It has always been a better built and better perfoming car, with more potential than my 78 z28. My memory of that 78 is almost always good. And it makes me smile and laugh everytime i think about it. But in reality, it would be another project that I don't need. And I'm sure there is some stuff I don't like about that car nowadays. My current 4th gen is being built to make me happy, it has a long and crazy list of stories to go along with it as well (owned it since I was 21). And I'm pretty happy with keeping the memory of my 78 a good one.