While I was running around the front part of Cobo Hall trying to get photos of likely competitors for the Detroit Autorama’s famed Ridler Award for the best new custom car in America, a young couple walked past me. They both looked to be about 20 years old. While I don’t know what she drives, it was pretty obvious from the screenprinted hoodie he was wearing that he drives some kind of Powerstroke diesel powered Ford pickup truck.
While Ford logos at the Autorama are hardly remarkable, the slogan on the back of the sweatshirt read, “Every time she rides, I give her the Powerstroke.” Now I like risque humor as much, or even more, than the next guy or gal and I have to admit that while “ride” is a bit cliched, “Powerstroke” is a pretty decent indecent pun. I can recite many of Lenny Bruce’s routines verbatim from memory, so it’s not that I’m easily offended by humor with a sexual bent, but I reacted almost viscerally to the young man’s sweatshirt. Maybe it’s because of the incident this week with former major league pitcher Curt Schilling having to deal with vile and despicable Twitter comments about his teenage daughter. I’ve been in a similar situation with one of my children. Maybe it’s just that I’m getting old and yearn for when there was just a little more propriety in public. Whatever the reason, I couldn’t help but wonder what her parents would say if he wore that hoodie while picking her up for a date. I think I’d feel a little like a father in the early 1960s seeing her date pull up in a Nash or Rambler.
I think the gentleman, and I use the word broadly, bought his shirt off of the Etsy site, where I found the photo above, but I can choose to where I decide to link to and posting the image is as far as I’m going today to contribute to our era’s public crudity. If you want one to match your own Powerstroke Ford, or female companion, you’ll just have to search like I did for the photo.
Obviously, the young lady was cool with her male companion describing their sex life to the general public, so maybe it’s none of my business, but that’s a little like saying that a possibly offensive bumper sticker or a billboard is none of your business. If you are going to literally wear your sentiments on your sleeve (or back), be prepared to get a comment or two. As I happened to come across the pair again, I tapped him on the shoulder and asked, “And what are you going to do when she wants more displacement?”
Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, a realistic perspective on cars & car culture and the original 3D car site. If you found this post worthwhile, you can get a parallax view at Cars In Depth. If the 3D thing freaks you out, don’t worry, all the photo and video players in use at the site have mono options. Thanks for reading – RJS
My daughter isn’t dating any Ford guys.
MOPAR OR NO CAR.
And if he shows up with a HELLCAT CHARGER I’ll pay for the wedding gladly.
and of course you’d first prefer a Fiat driver, the owners of Fiat/Chrysler.
I know a kid who drives a Fiat 500. This would mean you would not only pay for the wedding/reception you’d also set them up with a home, gratis.
Only if it’s a 500L modded into a HELLCAT.
How would you feel about your daughter dating a guy who didn’t define himself by allegiance to a particular multinational conglomerate?
Do you actually have children?
What happens if he shows up in a Chrysler TC by Maserati? (TM)
He wins.
As long as it’s cream yellow, I agree.
Couldn’t be any other?
Nah, I don’t like the purple. I think they did black as well, and some red.
I think it only launched with a few colors, was’n t aware purple was among them.
Here we are, per wiki:
The TC featured a detachable hard top with opera windows and a manually operated cloth lined convertible top that was available in either tan or black. For the 1989 model year, interior leather colors were ginger or bordeaux. Available exterior colors were yellow, red, or cabernet. The bordeaux interior was only available with the cabernet exterior, both of which were dropped in 1990 when black and white exterior colors were added along with a black leather interior.
http://www.westonkia.com/inventory/1989-chrysler-tc-turbo-fwd-convertible-zc2fp1105kb204062
How bout the ever famous window sticker in the back of the typical snot nosed coal Rollin Cummins powered rig….
“I’d rather be Cummin than Strokin’ ”
As an avid diesel owner and a fan of CLEAN diesel power, I can’t stand punks like that which give diesel a black eye. I have no problem approaching them and telling them just how I feel either.
@jrmason,
Yeah, I don’t know why people want to ruin their diesels and pollute unnecessarily.
We have people, generally under 30s who chip and tune their diesels to produce lots of torque and power.
They then complain about replacing the injectors. I tell them, “well how do you think you are gaining the power? By forcing more fuel through an injector nozzle designed to deliver much less fuel.
Yep. Got on a highway recently, and the clown ahead “rolled coal” all the way up. All my DPF work with my TDI wasted for the next 50,000 miles…..
I’m not sure if its age or the general culture. I’ve seen quite a few 30+ and even the occasional middle aged men running around with 7″ dual stacks blackin out the sky and covering their own 50k dollar truck in the process…I really don’t get it.
I was brought up by my father and his 5 brothers who were all gear heads so building big horsepower engines was a way of life well before I even had a drivers license. I also got into the diesel scene at a very young age, but it was always about making clean power. I can tune a 500 horse engine with over 1000 lb ft of torque and blow hardly a wisp of smoke in the process. Its all about the balance of air and fuel, these knuckle heads running around in a cloud of smoke are the same ones who cry foul and blame it on the engine when they melt a piston or dropping a valve because they were adding waaay to much fuel to the fire.
I guess GM would win the whole penile comparison game with the ladies……… Dura……..MAX.
I can see BTSR’s daughter dating a guy with a HellCat and a T-shirt that reads “Injection is nice but I’d rather be blown”.
It would be icing on the cake if her T-shirt read ” Let go of my ears. I know what I’m doing.”
Truth be told – I’ve seen both T-shirts.
@Ronnie,
Don’t come to Australia then, if you find that offensive.
Here your 18 year old daughter can sit on the beach topless.
That Sloppy Joe (in US speak sweatshirt) isn’t offensive. It’s only offensive if you want it to be so, similar to swearing. Are swear words offensive?
No. They are only offensive because you were told they were offensive and you believe so.
That kid wearing the Sloppy Joe most likely doesn’t have the money to drive a SuperDuty with a PowerStroke. Just because a person wears a CAT cap or shoes, doesn’t mean he own’s a CAT dozer or truck with a CAT engine.
Here’s what we see on our roads (if the links work TTAC (WordPress) is a little sensitive) Maybe you could do an article on these vans.
http://cdn0.mumbrella.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Screen-Shot-2013-04-13-at-3.38.30-PM.png
http://resources1.news.com.au/images/2014/07/17/1226992/369981-f5d7ab46-0d4d-11e4-b832-315b08e711dd.jpg
http://www.australiantimes.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/wicked-1.jpg
http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1910932/thumbs/r-WICKED-CAMPERVANS-large570.jpg
https://questionsforus.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/img_3837.jpg
http://resources1.news.com.au/images/2015/03/11/1227258/177217-dbf63502-c784-11e4-9166-4d92e3fc9897.jpg
http://cdn0.mumbrella.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/20130427-1435-P5G33-S0386200E1429937-Australia-Great-Ocean-Road-Port-Campbell-Wicked-Campers-Van.jpg
http://resources2.news.com.au/images/2014/07/14/1226988/319714-a346de68-0b01-11e4-a510-9f89e2418c8b.jpg
My girlfriend’s father drives an older AMG CLK and he likes my cars and my responsible nature. He invites me to functions all the time.
Only once did he have a problem with me:
I argued that the motorcyclists who harrassed Alexian Liang were responsible for him running them over – in fear.
He insisted it wasn’t a gang. I insisted it was and they got what they had coming for threatening his family (I’d have used launch control on em).
He promptly put me out on some “I’m tired, time to go” nonsense.
Other than that, he’s cool.
He tried to “shock me” by showing me his gun collection, like all those fathers who think guys their daughters date will “get scared”, but didn’t realize I collect rifles too – and I’m a Republican…
“and I’m a Republican…”
I had you pegged as a Communist.
BTSR is a Capitalist
I had the impression he was one of those bleeding heart liberal types with a ” who am I to judge attitude”.
:D
I wonder if Ford actually approved this lack of decorum.
Then again, this is an excellent way to separate the wheat from the chaff – maybe everybody should wear some textual representation of their personality on their duds.
Consider it ‘fair warning’.
Etsy, no they didn’t need to approve. You make your own crap on Etsy!
Ohhhhh — didn’t know about the site. Looked at a bunch of pre-made hoodies with lame-to-incomprehensible memes; looks like they have nothing for everybody!
Chacun à son goût, I guess…
Yesterday the ATF backed off its proposal to ban some AR-15 ammo, and that’s all I got to say on the matter.
‘Murica.
Ronnie, you’re getting old. Young people like to shock their elders, it’s a rite of passage. Back in the 50’s rock-n-roll and dancing were the end of civilized society. It sounds like this young couple succeeded in doing exactly what they set out to do. Sometimes a sweatshirt is just a sweatshirt
Truth. It’s been that way… since civilization began. Roman teenagers donned the dark leather attire of Germanic barbarians for the same reasons.
“Young people like to shock their elders, it’s a rite of passage”
The problem is that each generation has to go further in order to do it. Like Ronnie, I think more restraint is desirable in public places where it’s hard to just opt out (like listening to Lenny if you don’t like the language/topics), but it would be worse to have arbitrary policing of free expression.
“The problem is that each generation has to go further in order to do it.”
I once had a lengthy discussion about how are my kids going to be more offensive than my generation, given that we had a relatively mainstream pop/rap hit WHERE THEY MADE UP A WORD THAT SOUNDED LIKE WHEN YOUR SEAMAN LEAVES YOUR BODY. “From the windows, to the walls, to the sweat drips down my balls, aww skeet skeet MFer, aww skeet skeet aww yeah.”
Yeah, I’m aware that’s not the most violent or graphic rap lyric ever, but holy crap that was a mainstream song. HOW CAN THEY MAKE IT WORSE???? And that’s before we even discuss such pop culture happenings such as the artsy internet clip “2 girls 1 cup”.
When I was a kid the #1 song on the radio was “White Rabbit” a song enticing people to do LSD. My parents were HORRIFIED (especially my mother who’s name is Alice) We lived
When I was a kid it was Don’t Go Chasin Waterfalls – a cautionary tale about doing drugs and sleeping around.
Waterfalls was aimed toward pre-teen girls. I was in high school at the time, and we were listening to stuff like Nine Inch Nails’ Closer instead.
I’m going to have to agree: crude, unthinking, misanthropic behaviour is really nothing new; it just changes forms and vectors.
It’s not good, mind you, but at least modern society makes it so much easier to air that it’s getting attention, rather than being swept away as “Boys will be boys” or suchlike.
That said, I’m not really going to say, one way or the other, that someone wearing this is going to be worst-case. I’ve met a couple of well-dressed, well-spoken sociopaths, and I’d take an unthinking DudeBro who doesn’t know better, thanks very much.
Wait, are these the motors that give their owners Powerstrokes from the repair bills?
BTW Ronnie, I like your comment about “more displacement” to the young man…
My now brother-in-law, when he showed up for his first date with my sister, was driving a conversion van. I gave my strict Catholic parents some crap about letting their daughter go off on a date with a guy in a conversion van.
Every guy I ever knew who had a conversion van had it for just one reason… Well, at least he married your sister ;-)
You kidding? The conversion van used to be the official family ride of every Catholic family in my neighborhood growing up! Plenty of seats, you know?
Why do you think there’s so many Catholics? ;-)
Well, that was going on WAY before conversion vans!
♬Every sperm is sacred, Every sperm is great…♫♪
(Monthy Python’s Meaning of Life)
PrincipalDan – Chrysler had a cool commercial playing up the whole “shaggin wagon” theme. Kid asks the guys daughter out for a date. Choice of rides is Viper and minivan. Dad has a “shaggin wagon” flashback and forks the keys over to the Viper.
Apparently the shirt worked for the guy: he broadcasts that he is basically a douche bag and some girl found that attractive. They are probably in the back seat of his F250 working on creating little douche bag spawn as you read this.
These days the odds of the girl having a father in the house to be upset about anything a prospective date is wearing is very low. The resulting Daddy Issues will explain lot of poor choices in men.
Sad but true.
“and his cousin found that attractive”
FIFY
Reminds me of my friends old rusty 4runner with the bumper sticker “Dont laugh your daughters in here”
I sincerely hope the actual sticker also left out the apostrophe in daughters. Completely disarms the joke for me.
More Displacement-good one!
A guy I work with has some sticker on his truck that says I’d rather be Cummin’ than Strokin’ but to be Strokin’ you need to be ROCK HARD.
1-Dude doesn’t even have a diesel, just a regular old 5.3.
2-The 90’s called, they want your sticker back. Seriously-when was the last time Chevy used the whole like a rock thing??
*Note-it was actually 2004, I looked it up. Wow. Much later than I thought.
I remember teenaged girls asking me if it was O.K. for them to date my Son back then .
I was amazed that Ghetto Girls would bother to ask , I let him date whomever as long as he knew he’d be responsible for any fallout .
he never brought me any bastards nor caught the clap like so many of my contemporaries did in my day .
Guess I’m glad I didn’t have a Daughter =8-) .
-Nate
At least it isn’t a Justin Beiber hoodie.
Translation for this shirt from Coal-Roll-ese:
My dick is really small and mommy denied me the nipple when I was little. Please, please, please pay attention to me.
THANX Mike :
I was thinking of making a similar post but saying ‘ it shows insecurity ‘ .
.
I am greatly enjoying the comments , I wonder if my Son will have these issues with my Grand Daughter…
.
-Nate
I read that hoodie in Mr. Regular’s voice.
Bwahahaha! That is perfect.
My reaction would be complete and utter disappointment in my parenting.
My daughter is not quite 3, but we are moving in the next month to a better neighborhood in a better school district. The town we live in isn’t bad, but the youth in this town seem to have zero motivation to do anything with themselves. I’m pragmatic about the influence that a kid’s friends have, so the first step is to surround my kid with similarly motivated families. It definitely isn’t a guarantee by any means, but it does improve the odds. At least I’m getting a 3 car garage out of the move.
I would react by assuming the dude-chebag was a complete idiot who lacked common sense, education, or a modicum of decency.
Better GTFO.
Then I’m having a conversation with my daughter about her lack of taste, cause I raised her better than that.
She’ll resent you and go right for that guy with the tattoo on his forehead. That’ll fix ya
This is why I don’t need any kids. I wouldn’t have any of these issues with a dog!
I”d invite him in, give him a beer, go for joy rides, make him a better friend to me than her, … anything to get her to dump him before I loose it and make him dig a hole before I show him why I have so much dirt.
So what happened when you made that comment??
But for me, I think its funny, not too offensive, and my wife and I have 2 daughters. They don’t stay virgins forever you know.
I don’t have daughters but have 2 boys. That means i only have 2 peckers to worry about.
They aren’t quite at the dating thing yet but my oldest just turned 13 and he is starting to trip over his gonads.
I personally would be pissed if he wore something like that. I’d expect him to be respectful.
“I don’t have daughters but have 2 boys. That means i only have 2 peckers to worry about.”
You hope. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
Even if he has to worry about 4, it’s not like they’re going to get each other pregnant.
“my oldest just turned 13 and he is starting to trip over his gonads.”
Lol, I have two boys myself, just make sure they’re well supplied with Kleenex. Toss a box in their rooms every couple of days
Kleenex gets stuck to your helmet too easily, leading to awkwardly scraping it off. Go green, use a tube sock.
Bounty works well too
@lie
You said your youngest kid was ~28! That means they’re both definitely old enough not to be needing tons of Kleenex or socks any more. And get em out of your house! Ha.
“Every time she rides I give her the powerstroke”. That just sounds wrong…
“I personally would be pissed if he wore something like that. I’d expect him to be respectful.”
Exactly this. I find no taste or humor in this at all. Especially worn in a general public situation. I mean, wear it to a truck meet or race or something. Where someone can,uh,appreciate it? You know, the other 19 year olds in the greasy Mossy Oak jackets and the tobacco can indentation permanently etched in their back pocket.
This kind of thing is just crass. It’s like someone who curses all the time, even when it’s not called for. I mean -ALL- the time.
I’ve got two boys well below teenage years, they’ll know better than to wear this garbage.
“How Would You React If He Showed Up to Take Your Daughter Out Wearing This?”
I’d laugh him out of the house for being a fan of an unmitigated piece of sh1t line of engines (ok, ok the 7.3L is alright).
I’d rather be a Cummin than a Strokin’! hurr durr
If it offends the father, then hopefully he is deeply ashamed, because he’s the one that raised his daughter to be attracted to that, and probably has a lot in common with the guy.