The essence of the Hooniverse community is our unrepentant love of cars. We’re passionate about anything automotive; we are the misfit gearheads, the slightly obsessed, the fanatical. Our adoration of our respective automobiles transcends rationality. Frequently we find ourselves trapped in the situation where we are trying to explain our love for our chosen steed, and are faced with the confused and blank stare of a non-believer. But not here; here, we understand. Here, we share that irrational, unreasonable, illogical adoration. We’re like a support group for star-crossed automotive admirers.
And for that reason, our COTY must be The Beast.

Okay, in this particular case, it’s not so much the car as it is the story, but in a sense, that remains true of every project car.
For those who haven’t seen the movie Love the Beast, it is the story of Eric Bana’s 20-year love affair with his 1974 Ford Falcon Coupe. Eric’s friend Tony commented that he’d never met anyone who’d had such a long love affair with a car that was “such a piece of shit”. If there’s anything we can sympathize with, it’s that.
Eric Bana spoke with Jay Leno and Jeremy Clarkson in the making of his movie. Jay Leno says that his enjoyment comes from getting a car, building it up, finishing his project, and moving on to his next car. Bana, on the other and, has never been able to move on to another one. His Falcon Coupe has become his Eleanor; it is the project that will never truly be finished, because the car itself can never attain the perfection he imagines it to have in his mind. But more importantly, it never should be finished. It’s his baby, his One True Love, and it’s only at its best when it’s being worked on.

Without spoiling the movie too much, Bana does completely rebuild the Falcon into a full-bred race car, and then crashes it while competing in a race that he had run with it a dozen years before. He seems heartbroken at first, but we car guys know that’s not really the case. Yes, it’s a sad event, but there’s also a latent joy in it. If your project car is never finished, you never have to put it aside to work on something else. It’s a part of a car guy’s life, and finishing a project and parking it is as much a final sentence as crashing it, unless you choose to rebuild afterwards.
Love the Beast is a story of a love affair with a car, a story everyone here at Hooniverse should be able to understand and relate to. It’s the story of a car guy, and his irrational adoration for a car that doesn’t really deserve it. We’ve all had our vehicles that really shouldn’t have earned the huge place in our heart that they hold, but somehow we can’t help the attachment they hold. We, the car guys, know that it’s an emotional attachment, a totally illogical, emotional, gut-level response; we know it’s no different than our love for our significant others, whoever they may be, despite whatever flaws or foibles they may have.

There is one scene where Bana’s mother talks about how she has decided that it is time for his father to sell his old Thunderbird, the car that has been his pride and joy for 30 years, and the car with which his father has the same irrational love affair as Eric has with his Beast. The look on Eric’s father’s face says it all; it says, “She can think what she wants, but that car isn’t going anywhere.” That is the true essence of a love for a car, and it’s what the movie is about.
So why have I nominated The Beast? Simple. The movie is about the Beast, and it is about us. It is a movie that is intended to explain to everyone else why we are the way we are, and in tribute, it is our responsibility to give the Beast the nod as our Hooniversal Car of the Year.