McCarty's 55 Chevy - Sentimental Value > Market Value

Sentimental value is greater than market value. In fact – authenticity is the one of the few things money can’t buy. You can buy 0-60, you can finance horsepower, and you can lease luxury. Hell, you can order the pinnacle of autonomous automotive perfection online, and they’ll deliver it right to your doorstep & plug it into your wall. But you can’t buy grit, you can’t purchase character, and you can’t finance genuine authenticity. And that’s what puts the true culture in car culture. This is Alex McCarty’s 55 Chevy.

A lot of times, it comes down to the why…

What’s motivating you? Is it a trophy? A horsepower goal? Sponsorships? Perfection? Attention? A follower-count? Or is it something more intimate & enriching? Take your time with that answer, because for a lot of us (myself included), the lines start to get blurred if you don’t stay keen in today’s world. And sure – we’ve all seen no shortage of Tri 5 Chevys. But as they age-on, they increasingly symbolize some of the best eras of hotrod culture AND automotive design.

Many of us envy the older, less complicated approach to hotrod culture…

Before social media overexposed us to global levels of psychological & financial comparison. We dream back of the days when car culture was more local & innocent. Where you’d take grandpa’s old Chevy, or the neighbor’s broke-down Ford in the shed (or even that Civic)… and make it badass. Create something eye-catching, unique, & gnarly… from something that had run its course & become overlooked. Cars with stories! Where how you got it… means as much as anything else.

Alex McCarty is 3rd generation hotrodder…

He runs a shop called McCarty Speed & Fab in Monroe, GA, and this 55 Chevy belonged to his grandfather. His granddad planned on passing the car down to Alex since the day Alex was born. And while Alex was in high school, he & his dad restored it together to more-or-less what it is today. Alex would sooner live in it before he’d ever sell it.

Father & son… Jimmy McCarty & Alex McCarty

That’s authenticity…

And look I get it – we aren’t all born into it. For a lot of us, that level of sentimental value is something we don’t have access to.

But also – don’t fall prey to the modern world of subscription & consumption… ironically often pitched to us under the illusion of “sustainability”. Don’t let them redefine your terms. And by all means, don’t let ‘em suck the soul & spirit out of your human experience… while disguising it as progress, efficiency, & convenience. Car culture is how we keep ourselves centered & right… in a world that’s drifting further & further away from real. And authenticity is not something you buy or subscribe to. Rather, it’s something that’s stirring within. Channel it purely… despite all the outside distractions & chatter.