Whatever happens with politics, business, or bailouts, the American automobile industry - and the vehicles themselves - will look different, maybe a lot different than it has for the past century.

But Cruizin' with the Oldies participants aren't about to let 20th century motoring drive gentle into that good night.

"We're going to keep the vehicles alive in spite of the downturn," said Shane Miller, owner of S&L Classics.

Miller has restored hundreds of vehicles ranging from muscle cars to classics to even my little black MG TC.

The TC, bought by my father 50 years ago, came out of a long arduous restoration two years ago with the help of S&L Classics, Rick's Rod Shop and a host of other businesses from here to Helena to New York to Denver.

I grew up in it, and even have a photo of 9-year-old Tommy Morton behind the wheel with a white racing helmet.

Besides being a family heirloom, I came to learn that the TC is regarded as one of the most significant cars in motoring history. It's been nicknamed "the sports car America loved first," because the country went bonkers over the cute and nimble vehicles that prompted the creation of the Corvette.

Yeah, I love it. I know that it's a part of history and needs to be preserved.

Miller and others who've spent fortunes and thousands of hours on their sedans, convertibles, muscle cars and trucks intend to keep their hobbies and a slice of history alive, too.

"Even in the last 10 years, a lot of junkers are being rehabilitated," Miller said.

A lot of the effort is sentimental, he said.

For example, he resorted a four-door 1957 Chevy for a Texas man who still stops by S&L Classics for a chat, he said.

Detroit didn't build and people didn't buy those cars with the idea that they would make a mark in American history worth preserving.

They did, but that wasn't what the Texan wanted with his '57 Chevy, Miller said. "It's his history."

While some car collectors have more money than fuel to burn, that's not the norm, he said.

"It's not all the rich guys that love this," Miller said. "it's the guys who work every day and save their dimes."

The hobby, actually obsession, often grew from teen dreams and mid-life crises.

Jerry Russell owned a Mercury Park Lane when he was a teenager, got rid of it, and bought another one as an adult, he said.

The first one was red, the current one is blue, Russell said.

They're both massive.

"I love big cars," he said. "I love to put the top down and go cruising."

Russell can rattle off statistics about the size of the production runs (4,200) of the 1965 Park Lane; the transmission (only one-third of 1 percent of all four-speed Park Lanes are known to exist); and the weight (4,000 pounds).

The owners of the cars along Yellowstone and Elm on Saturday share the same passion, he said.

"Every car up and down here is unique in its own way," Russell said. "you'll never see them again."

Jerry Cover Jr., sitting behind his orange 1970 'Cuda, wants the car heritage to continue through events such as Cruizin' with the Oldies, he said. "They definitely have got to keep this going."

Cover, who was sitting with his father, doesn't see much hope for the automobile industry as we've known it, especially with the bailouts and bankruptcies.

The bailouts will let the major car manufacturers off the hook for their bad behavior, and let the great names such as Pontiac die in the process, he said.

GM will become better known as "Government Motors," Cover added.

Flip Cooper expressed his pessimism as well.

"They'll all be electric some day," Cooper said while watching his brood of a replica Shelby Cobra, a 1968 Shelby KR 500 convertible, a 1967 Shelby GT 350, and a 2006 GT.

"This is our American heritage," he said. "Henry Ford put this country on wheels."

The industry may change, and cars may look a lot different in the next decade, Cooper said.

But people like him intend to keep their personal passions for cars alive and the heritage itself just like gun owners do.

In other words, he said, "You'll take my cars out of my cold dead fingers."

Reach Tom Morton at (307) 266-0592, or at tom.morton@trib.com. Read his blog at tribtown.trib.com/TomMorton/blog.