Rabbit doesn't care about cars.

In Rabbit is Rich, there is a lack of spirituality that permeates the entire story. Rabbit is a Godless man in a lacking world created by Updike. He attends no church, has no epiphany and feels nothing new. He compulsively sleeps around, but just as easily would sleep with his wife. He is a serial philanderer and is bored with sex and bored with his life. He plays golf but dislikes his partners. Rabbit sells cars but lacks the depth to care about what he is selling. He could just as easily sell other products.

This is the key point to me. A man with soul loves his car. A man with heart works on his car. And a man with pride shines the emblem on the hood and proudly wears his fuel injected, piston powered, overhead cam fired heart on his sleeve. Cars are a way of life to me. I am proud to be the great-grandson of a machinist, grandson of a body man and son of a mechanic. I have been in garages and shops since I could walk.  My father has built and rebuilt vehicles for the better part of thirty years.  He has an innate ability to work with his hands and produce a strong running machine. He began working at Newlon Chrysler Dodge Jeep and Eagle before I was born and cut his teeth on 2.2l powered K-cars and minivans as well as seeing the last days of the 318 ci V8 in trucks and big cars. But this passion for cars, especially Mopars, is something that he has passed to me. He has what Rabbit lacks. Rabbit sees the cars as appliances, necessities that transport people here and there and nothing more. And as far as cars are appliances, the small ricer machines he sells are the epitome of that. Small, cheap, underpowered and Spartan interiors abound in Toyota products of the 1970s. Now, the 70’s were not a kind decade to the Chrysler Corporation. But look at the difference:

Notable Chryslers:

-Chrysler Cordoba

-Dodge Challenger

-Dodge Charger

-Plymouth Road Runner

-Plymouth ‘Cuda

-Plymouth Duster

Notable Toyotas:

-Cressida

-Corona

-Carina

-Celica

The Chrysler cars above connote power, comfort and speed. Even the cheap Plymouth Road Runner could be had with Chrysler’s Hemi engine rated (more like underrated) at 425 factory horsepower. But that engine block can be modified and worked over to produce in excess of 1,000 horsepower.   They were large and had a long and low and wide stance. Toyotas are tin crapboxes that can’t get out of their own way. Would you rather have a 1970 Plymouth ‘Cuda breathing fire with a 440 ci V8 pushing 390 hp, three two bbl carbs on top with rallye wheels and purple paint? Or would you prefer a Japanese made Cressida with a 2 valve per cylinder I-6 pumping out a brutish 108 hp? In the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, as quoted in Talledega Nights, “America is all about speed. Hot, nasty, badass speed.”

I have strewn way off topic to once again proclaim my love for the Plymouth brand. But, men who drive Plymouths are like me and my father, men who care about how fast their car is and know how to make it faster. Soulless men like Rabbit drove Cressidas and got their doors blown off at every stop light. Not because the Plymouth driver is mean or brutish, but because he can blow the doors off the Cressida. And in that ancient maxim: the strong do what they will, and the weak do what they must. Give a man a Plymouth, and make him a car guy for life. Give a man a Toyota, and he probably doesn’t care about much.