Drag racing is a term whose origin is surprisingly ordinary and deeply tied to the environment in which the sport itself was born. The word did not originally refer to engineering, physics, or an organized form of competition, but rather to a place. In American slang, drag referred to a long, straight stretch of road. … Read more
Kustom Kulture is a term that sounds as if it has always existed. In reality, it is a relatively recent label for a cultural phenomenon that was born long before anyone knew how to give it a common name. This is not about a single hobby, nor even about one subculture, but about a broader … Read more
The term hot rod may sound simple at first, but it carries a surprisingly layered history. It is not merely a label for a certain type of car; it represents an entire subculture that emerged in a specific time and place, traveled across continents, and transformed itself several times along the way. The term hot … Read more
Traditional car culture and hands-on automotive enthusiasm are going through a period of transition. The average age of car enthusiasts keeps rising, hair in garage crews is turning gray, the ranks are thinning, and conversations more often begin with the words, “Do you remember back when…” Younger enthusiasts still find their way in, but in … Read more
I’ve been producing events since the early 1990s—in many different roles and across a wide range of productions. One of the most important has been the family-friendly classic and hobby car event Big Wheels – The Summer Meet in Pieksämäki, which has been part of my life since 2002. Over the years, Big Wheels has … Read more
Local clubs and associations once thrived on skills, contacts, and the exchange of information. Today, the same knowledge and networks are available online in seconds. Hobbyists haven’t disappeared—but they no longer need to join a club. Just a few decades ago, the idea of “community” was straightforward: it was your village, your neighborhood, or your … Read more
The American car hobby is a phenomenon you can both see and hear—one that brings much more than shiny chrome and the rumble of a V8 from decades past. First arriving in Finland around the turn of the ’60s and ’70s, the pastime has grown from young men tinkering in home garages into a vibrant … Read more
In recent years, electric vehicles have gained an increasingly strong foothold, with massive investments fueling their development. But what if the same level of investment had been directed toward making the traditional internal combustion engines more sustainable? Could traditional engine technology still have a future—one that is greener and more viable? The biggest challenge facing … Read more
A while back, Finnish Mobilisti – a traditional classic car magazine – sparked some discussion when it devoted an entire cover to Leonid Brezhnev, the bushy-browed statesman who led the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1966 to 1982. While younger car enthusiasts might not be able to tell Uncle Leonid apart from magazine’s … Read more