Select Your Hero! Choosing Your Automotive Character
© Jared Auslander
Whether you're just embarking on your car journey or adding a new project, choosing the steering wheel you want to sit behind can be a daunting task. The pool of vehicles on offer is more of an ocean, and with more and more cars coming out every year the tide continues to rise. Year after year car manufacturers have devoted countless man hours to trying to help you understand why their car is the one for you. Parading the virtues of horsepower, luxury, utility, etc. like Thanksgiving floats – it’s no surprise that these concrete criteria play out like the be-all end-all in determining what's best in the market and therefore best for you – but are they?
Press pause.
Anyone who's flirted with car culture knows that the automotive landscape is complex. Take a look at a still frame from a local car meet – you're not going to see foot-pounds of torque or fuel economy. The composition of this world is filled instead with community, trends, passions, and personalities. What you're looking at isn't so much a lineup of cars but rather a cast of characters; characters alive in this world. So how does someone know what car is right for them? How does someone find out what fits? How do you choose? What's fundamental to consider is it's not about choosing your car; it's about choosing your character.
@ Capcom Games
If you grew up over the last three decades - or tried to - chances are pretty good that you've found yourself holding a joystick or a controller while staring at a player select screen in one form or another. Whether it was on a Coin-op Arcade machine, a grainy CRT, or some ultra-thin OLED resolution monster, you were presented with a defining opportunity: the chance to pick who you wanted to be. No matter what, the call to action was always the same: “Choose Your Character!”
In the world of gaming the act of choosing a character can also feel like a daunting task. A frantic first glance at a player select menu chock-full of characters of all different shapes and sizes can seem as impossible to navigate as the automotive pages of eBay. Should you focus on the “power” and “luxury” of a character's stats? It's understandable to want to pick a character with the power to help you in beating a difficult adversary; or one capable of traversing a volatile landscape bereft of comfort. The act of going through the game can be made easier with the right tool for the job, so on the surface there's definitely merit to the practical approach. But gaming isn't necessarily at its best when it's practical. These characters you're choosing from have stories and elements that prevent them from being one-note caricatures. Consider the choice seriously: are you choosing a tool or are you choosing a character?
© Jared Auslander
Unpause.
Flip back to that car meet snapshot or the pages of eBay – a menu chock-full of all shapes and sizes – a character select screen of another kind. Pages full of sports cars, SUVs, luxury sedans and all purpose trucks. As with their gaming counterparts, the stats can be a good way of determining which tool is right for the job; there can be value in finding the right vehicle for the right application. But similar to gaming, car ownership isn't always at its best when it's practical.
You can choose a car as a tool, but in doing so, you risk forgoing its character. You risk missing what makes that vehicle special and what it is about a given vehicle that undeniably draws you to it. There's inherent value here that transcends the right tool for the right application approach, which is why - in the car community - you see so many unique choices and pairings between car and driver.
So now, as you drag your mouse cursor over the cars on eBay, you can see them less as the tool advertised and more for the avenue for expression they represent. In this world of social avatars and curated media projections a person's car is often a means of speaking one’s truths. Remember that you get to pick which character you want to be; there's a blank canvas on offer and an invitation to play how you want. Oftentimes that practical character is dangled in front of us but we know our path lies elsewhere. It's why there are so many different schools of thought surrounding how to modify cars and why these differing opinions are encouraged. Ride heights, wheel choices and exhaust notes aren't designed to help you go through the motions; instead it's about making those motions worth going through. Choosing your character and forging your identity is what helps separate car owners from enthusiasts.
© Capcom Games
You can see these identities play out across car enthusiasts and gamers alike. For every person who chooses Leonardo as their turtle in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game, there is a Michelangelo. What's important to understand is that either turtle can get you to the end of the game. For every gorgeously modified street machine, there is an obsessed-over, Concours caliber classic and both vehicles drive the same roads.
Whether it's a video game or a vehicle, what is important is the ability to choose. To be able to dictate how you want to be seen and, depending on your exhaust, heard. So as you get ready to pull the trigger on the car of your future, consider your interests; consider your character. Do you want to be the brash rear wheel drive talisman, or the faithful go anywhere stalwart; the quirky vintage charmer or the unapologetic rough-and-tumble cruiser. As it turns out, the correct choice doesn’t boil down to the right car but rather the right reasons. Who do you want to be? What do you choose? The controller is in your hands.
Peter Yacovacci
for The Curb Cut