Am I over it? If so, what's next?

I'm 56 this year. I still enjoy cars and driving them. I enjoy tinkering with them. I enjoy the howl of a v8 or the scream of a high-strung 4-cylinder. But I think I have a problem. 

I am sitting trackside at CMP for the weeked and I'm not particularly interested in what is happening on the track. I didn't want to buy the tires for the Mustang, so I'm only here to support my wife who is instruction the intermediate group, and to drive the RV so she doesn't have to stay 20 miles away at a hotel. 

It's a good thing I didn't bring a car because I have zero urge to drive. I don't even particularly want to watch. I spent some time at the evening social last night. Everyone was talking about cars and tracks and I'm like meh. Not that I don't care but it's not something that is high on my list of things to talk about. 

I have spent most of my time in the RV listening to music, reading, and beating on the computer. I think I'd rather be at home tinkering with the Falcon or the Bentley. 

I'm starting to wonder if I'm getting old. Maybe it's time for a Classic Motorsports subscription. 

Same thing happened to me about 15 years ago.  During a track event I kept thinking about sailing my hobie.  Guess I got a serious case of OSB, other sports beckon. So got out of track events and back into sailboats.  I think fondly of the track days but never have regret.  Still nice sharing car stuff on this forum though.

Heard this. Mosport doesn't do me the way it used to. I'm finding myself more and more wanting to do less and less with it. More into the experimental and artistic side of it- not necessarily hotrod building, but... IDK. Exploring the stylistic end. Maybe it's time to learn fabrication. 

In reply to Toyman! :

I've never had a serious urge to drive, and I'm not good at it. The past four seasons I've been helping out on a dirt modified.  I go to the track, help out, and enjoy myself and don't have the headaches of maintaining a racecar during the week and dragging it to the track. If I didn't have a busy work schedule I'd probably put in a few nights at the shop but for now this lets me go racing on a level I can fit into my life without any stress.  

Yeah, this is kind of why I finally got a Willys truck project.  If it ever does anything besides looking cool, it will be in the dirt, going slowly.  There's that, and I will win the parking lot award for coolest thing that hauls a mountain bike around . . .

I can't say that I've ever watched cars on track during an event.  I like to drive and hang out with my friends.  There have been a few times lately when I've felt sort or ambivalent about driving, mostly because it seems like I've plateaued ability wise.  I'm not willing to push as hard as I need to, in order to move forward because I don't care to injure the car or myself.  So at that point I just sort of feel like I'm doing really fast parade laps.  I should hire a drivers coach to help me get over the hump...

End of the day, you get to choose what you like to do and how you want to spend your time.  Nothing wrong with moving away from a hobby, either for a period of time or forever and doing something else you enjoy more. 

An ancient question: "Doth not the appetite alter? A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age"

Not a problem unless you feel it's a problem, but sounds like it's time for something new. I had a similar experience this summer, driving my first Lemons race ever after a few years away from the track. It was very enjoyable but confirmed that I wasn't doing track stuff because I didn't find it compelling anymore.

What's next is a good question. I've volunteered at a couple of Street Survival young driver training events, that's super satisfying. 

In reply to rustomatic :

Pics and details please. 
 

The first vehicle that I ever worked on was my friend's 1960 Willys truck. He still owns it and there will always be a special place in my heart for those things. 

In reply to Toyman! :

While I still have and read my GRM subscription, I realized about two years ago that CM is starting to hold my interest more, and I'm a few years younger than you.  I remember the first time I picked up a copy, probably about 10 years ago, maybe more, flipped through it, and rolled my eyes at all the stupid old man content.  Now I eagerly await it so I can have a beverage, sit in my favorite chair, and read and enjoy all the old man content from cover to cover!

You know, life is just a series of phases.  If you're enjoying it, then do it.  If you're doing it because you feel like you should be enjoying it or because it used to bring you some sort of joy, then there's nothing wrong with moving to another phase.  And there's no rule that says you can't come back to it later if you miss it.  Maybe you're just at a point in your journey where you have other priorities and other interests, and it's better to live life as the man you are now and explore those rather than hang on to where you might have been before.

(I don't believe that philosophy applies to everything in life, but I think it is applicable when it comes to hobbies.)

Yes you are quite possibly over it.  Happens to most of us at some point.

what other hobbies interest you?  That's what's next.

Toyman! said:

I'm 56 this year. I still enjoy cars and driving them. I enjoy tinkering with them. I enjoy the howl of a v8 or the scream of a high-strung 4-cylinder. But I think I have a problem.

I turned 61 this year. Gone are the days of driving half a day to pick up a parts car, swapping engines after dinner and building a race car from a shell I bought with a dream. I'm a fiddler now, that's all I am. Modern technology is moving on without me, and I don't have the energy or the drive to even start a project at this point. 
What I've noticed, though, is that when I do get excited about something that energy suddenly comes back. So why am I not excited about the things that used to drive me? I have no idea, but after not racing bikes for almost seven years I entered a few events early this season and started getting excited just thinking about it and can't wait til next season starts. 
 

Why do these things happen? I wish I knew, but I don't think you can fight it, and I  don't think you can force it, so just let it happen and go with the flow. That's what I'm doing 

paddygarcia said:

An ancient question: "Doth not the appetite alter? A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age"

You sent me down a Shakespeare rabbit hole which has given me something interesting to read about today.

I may have to run the Kenneth Branagh/Emma Thompson film for listening in the garage today.

Maybe it's time for a break?

I've been on a track break for about 18 months, and while I want to go back once I've addressed some of my health ailments that played a role in this, I'm not feeling a massive urge to do so right now. In the meantime, I've enjoyed tinkering with motorcycles and just going for a ride when I feel like it.

In my case I went a bit too far into the shallow end of the rabbit hole while not necessarily willing to commit like I needed, and maybe it's time to pull back and just get a car that doesn't need as much care and feeding.

For me the other thing is that I haven't quite found my tribe around here yet - "here" being on track, I'm not talking about this forum.

I think it's normal to go through phases like this.  I'm in a similar place; I've spent the last 10 years with a hard commitment to cars and racing, and this summer I kinda hit a wall.  The easy part of the learning curve is over for me in racing, now it's a lot of work at and away from the track to find 1/10ths of seconds to be competitive.  Add in a complicated work schedule and I decided I just need to drop back and remember what I loved about the track when it was new to me.  I still love cars and love going fast, love dicing it up with my friends, but the competition part of it was wearing me out.  I have a tendency to treat my hobbies like 2nd jobs, and need to constantly remind myself that nobody's paying me to be a racer, and if it's only for fun it shouldn't cause me as much stress as a job.

This is why I set up the new BRZ to just be a fun car to toodle around on back roads and enjoy vs the expense/time commitment of doing track stuff. I do miss the driving and hanging out with friends, maybe I should finally try AuotX at some point? But that doesn't really interest me either.

I'm finding in general the last year or so, a lot of my hobbies don't really have any interest for me. Playing guitar, sim racing, building the LEGO technic kits (I haven't touch the BMW motorcycle build I started in a year), etc.

Although I think a lot of it at the moment is bleed over from wanting to find a change in employment and feeling stuck in the current house because of % rates and prices and buying something else. With us both working from home, we really need a home with a 4th bedroom, or a different 3 bedroom home with an office for one of us.

Or something with a large enough backyard to put an insulated shed to build an office in to keep work space away from living space.

docwyte said:

I can't say that I've ever watched cars on track during an event.  I like to drive and hang out with my friends.  There have been a few times lately when I've felt sort or ambivalent about driving, mostly because it seems like I've plateaued ability wise.  I'm not willing to push as hard as I need to, in order to move forward because I don't care to injure the car or myself.  So at that point I just sort of feel like I'm doing really fast parade laps.  I should hire a drivers coach to help me get over the hump...

End of the day, you get to choose what you like to do and how you want to spend your time.  Nothing wrong with moving away from a hobby, either for a period of time or forever and doing something else you enjoy more. 

My feelings exactly. Got to the point I am "fast enough" for an advanced DE group and sorta stopped progressing as I dont PUSH hard enough. Always seemed to risky to go much harder and not worth the risk of wadding myself up getting close to the edge with a car fast enough to be very dangerous. Coach is a good idea, or maybe I just need to go to an Elise where the straightline speed isnt so much a factor. Fully caged racecar and still dont feel "safe" in a potential brake failure, overdriving, or wheel explosion event. 

I would say 75% of my enjoyment nowadays is meeting up with my family/friends at track events 4 or 5 weekends a year to hang out since we are all long distance. 

I'm all done with fun cars (except maybe a mk1 AH Sprite if I find one).

I just shift gears when I get bored.

I still like motorcycles but snowmobile drag racing is starting to look like fun. I saw a 500hp turbocharged Yamaha sled last week.

I'll be 55 in December. I love the atmosphere at the track, in the pits or the paddocks, or even a cars and coffee. I haven't autocrossed in over a year. Haven't done a track event for longer than that. I was scheduled to turn wrenches on a Vee this summer a few times and that changed when the driver's financial situation changed. Then of course there's supporting my wife's growing business when I'm not teaching. Summers were supposed to be for car stuff, but the school has me teaching DE 6 of the 8 weeks I'd be off in the summer. I get my car fix now through here, Youtube, and Motortrend TV. And yet I have two C3 Vettes in disarray, Astro and a Safari minivan, and the 16v 87 Scirocco. I have full intentions of making things happen, but thing I've got too much to choose from.

Let's not forget the model car stuff I've ignored since the pandemic ended.

Different circumstances for sure, but I'm wondering how important most of this is if I'm not making the time for most of it?

I got bored about 15 years ago.  I did Auto-X and track days with a 3 Series, occasionally with a 914 and a few times in my brother's Formula Vee (no open wheel racing for me!)

I tried hang gliding in the late 70s, got out because if you don't know someone who's died, you will.  I'm 3 miles away from an airport with 2 Soaring Clubs.  Wifey got me an Introductory Flight and that was it.  Cost $500 to join and then $25/tow to get up.  The use of a two person high performance glider and the instruction is free.  Commercial operations are exponentially more expensive,

I like a challenge and get bored easily.  Imagine being at 2,000 feet, 40 miles from home, YOU WILL NOT BE BORED!  =~ 0    It can be family-ish, once licensed you can bring a date.

As others have said, you need to find you.  Could be just a break, could be a change of direction, could be something that will surprise the hell outta you.

Motorcycle is your answer.

I'll never be over it.  A gentleman I knew attended autocrosses until he was 90, and continued to drive the wheels off of his car until the end.  That's my goal too, if I should be lucky enough to live so long.  Here I am at 65, still competing with the kids and still getting top ten PAX scores.  I guess success keeps me going, but even when I'm too old to be that successful, I think I'll still enjoy the hell out of competing.

In reply to jstein77 :

"My" previous SCCA region has/had quite a few people like that in it, and I've always admired them. I'm hoping I'll still be on a track at 65 (which isn't that far away...).

Appleseed said:

Motorcycle is your answer.

They often are.

Appleseed said:

Motorcycle is your answer.

The nice thing is you can get a lot of bike for the money and they're typically very reliable. And if you buy the right bike you can do a number of different things with it.