Pick-up, 4×4, SUV, large displacement… The roaring engine and fuel consumption equivalent to the size of the racing car: welcome to America! These big cars, which consume a lot and are expensive, are a legacy of the “muscle cars” of the 60s and 70s.
“Muscle cars” are the kind of body-built cars that Rich Tirak sells in Daytona Beach, Florida: “In France you have Formula 1 racing, but here in America we were racing on the streets in the late 60s and early 70s“, he says.
“Ford, GM and Chrysler were competing to see who could build the fastest, most dangerous car. It was a contest of muscle: you had to show how much horsepower you had under the hood.”
“The bigger you are, the faster you are, the louder you get, the more you squeal the tires, the more hellish the exhaust can be… And when you start the car in the parking lot, people turn their heads and ask what it is. Well it’s an American car“, continues Rich Tirak.
The famous American car with its big voracious and polluting engine, XXL in size to take everything on board: “Here in Daytona Beach, you can drive to the beach. People load up their pickups or their SUVs and they take their coolers and their chairs and their tables and they go to the beach. They arrive at 8:30 – 9 in the morning and they stay until 4 or 5 in the afternoon.“
But America is also driving more and more in small cars. Especially in Democratic cities, New York, Washington, Austin in Texas, Denver in Colorado, California. A shift that the Americans are taking thanks to Asian manufacturers, notes Rich Tirak: “They all make electric cars, or four-cylinders, which can go just as fast with a much smaller engine..”
We even see the appearance of electric pick-ups. But large cars are still the majority in the United States.