Over the last 5 years or so there have been articles in Hot Rod, R&C, and all the mainstream pubs on flathead Fords, nailhead Buicks, Caddys, and a few other non SBC engines. Even with all that you still don't see them poking out from under every other hood in town. Some has to do with overall cost and availability of parts but I totally agree that the hobby has progressed to the point where it now consists of 3 main groups.
The first is the check writers who have a car pro built. The second is the assemblers who can put together a car as long as it is all done with kits and nuts and bolts. The last group are the builders, those who can fabricate and adapt to get the finished product.
As Inliners we are fortunate to have enough manufacturers providing us with some great products and the rest we do the old fashioned way by fabricating or altering to get what we need. Since that puts us into the 3rd group I feel pretty confident we won't see a deluge of inlines on the streets anytime soon. The check writers aren't interested. The assemblers want it the easy way. The majority of the bulders and fabricators have a mental block towards anything with less than 8 cylinders.
If and when the rest of the car people decide to get inline they are going to have to turn to someone for advice - us!
Mike G ( 4355 )
