Enthusiast-
noun
noun:
enthusiast; plural noun:
enthusiasts
- a person who is highly interested in a particular activity or subject.
What is and is not an enthusiast has come up a few times for me over the past few weeks. I have being seeing lots of examples of what I see is and is not enthusiast behavior and it got me to thinking. Additionally over the past few days I have attempted to explain my watch passion and my car passion to multiple people at their unfortunate request. In these attempts to answer certain questions asked to me, it forced me to look at how I view these two passions. While I see them the same way and assume many of my peers do also, I began to wonder if other people actually see it the same way I do. Because of this I have tried to attempt to define enthusiast.
I live in Southern California less then 5 miles from the Original Cars and Coffee which is still going strong in its 3rd or 4th location in about a decade. What makes this show special besides spawning countless sister shows across the US and the world, is that this show happens every weekend with an amazing amount of cars, from classic American iron, everything Euro, vintage race cars, perfect condition 70-80's JDM all the way to the newest hyper cars, and everything in between. So Cal is special... 1/4 of all 911's came here, 1/3 of all AMG's came here, the largest MB and BMW dealer in the world are here and have 4 other dealerships apiece within 25 miles. Within a few miles from me I have Bentley, Rolls, McLaren, Ferrari, Lambo, and even a Pagani dealership... not to mention everything else. While cars are huge here, we also have low humidity year round and very mild winters so cars last forever here. In addition to the C&C show there are 5 other shows that happen every weekend and at least 3 other shows on a non weekly basis that rotate focus or location. Its insane how many shows there are and new cars are always showing up.. these are not small shows they go up to the hundreds of cars, and are never smaller then 25 with an average size of around 50. How can we sustain this amount of killer cars every weekend in just one small area! This does not include the shows in LA county which are just as numerous...
While trying to explain the show I was at last weekend which was a once a month show with a rotating focus (this month BMW M), I had to explain that car culture at these shows is not about who brings the most expensive car. Often a new Lambo or 458 will show up and no one cares (well some people freak out.) That sweet Mazda Rotary truck, or 70's Alfa is way more interesting. Sure that raced at LeMans Jag D-Type is worth an insane amount of money and is massively interesting but its not price that made it interesting. The Yenko Corvair is almost as interesting as the street driven 904 factory Prototype... well ok that is going a little far maybe... But that real BMW 3.0 CSL and 2002 Turbo are just as interesting as the F40 and 959 parked next to it or even that La Ferrari and 918... Bring a 1969 MB 600 and you get mixed reactions...
So its not the price... and maybe not the rarity either... Historical provenance? A sliding scale between these things ?
I have noticed this on watch forums and at GTG's often times the most looked at watch is far from the most expensive, at least on this forum a killer vintage Seiko gets drooled over just as much as a new GO. Is it about liking and or paying attention more to something actually in most peoples aspirational price range?
Is it about the respecting the passion it takes to own something special? Is an enthusiast someone that is open and respects all types of an object regardless of price as long as for some reason it is considered good? What is good? Style, performance, history, value, rarity, something along a sliding scale...
The way I see it is that someone that just owns a Patek is not an enthusiast... they just went out and purchased the most expensive thing out there with no research... sure its a killer piece but does it show the person is an enthusiast? Similarly is someone that just owns a single current issue Sub an enthusiast? Am I being harsh to a new watch person that only has a Sub C and trivializing/generalizing them?
I see an enthusiast as someone that gets excited and researches and learns about things. The person loves talking with others with similar knowledge and interests. I see that person respecting others that do the same thing regardless of the level they are on, or spending ability.
Respecting the guy that seeks out the perfect Benrus Skychief more so then the guy that just has a Sub and knows nothing about other watches. Enthusiasts are not about money, but about the sharing of knowledge and respecting the passion of people to go out of their way to research and find a killer example of something. Maybe it is respecting the quirks that older items have that give it personality even if it is not as good on paper as something new. That sexy little Alfa is no wear near as good of a car as a new Camry... That guy wearing the 6109 has a watch nowhere near as nice as that New Aquaracer....but I know which owners I want to talk too...
I don't know I don't think I am capturing it in words... What do you think?
