via Steelworks: Do the right thing…
“I mean, who wants to see a D-type Jag with mirrors underneath it? That gives me the same awful feeling as seeing a polar bear in a zoo laying on a fiberglass rock in 90 degree summer heat. Gives me a strong sense that someone somewhere needs to be reprimanded in a big way for going against nature.”
I read this and had to link. It is saying something I often say, and honestly I’ll go beyond David’s application of it to Vintage Racing and say just get out and DRIVE any old car. Even if it is your mom’s 1979 Buick Le Sabre. There is something about an old car that drops social barriers and serves as an invitation into people’s lives. I LOVE to drive my dad’s old Jaguar places. People smile. People wave. People come up and talk to you at gas stations. They stop and offer to help when you have problems. No matter if you are driving something as ubiquitous as a ’65 Mustang or as rare as that D-type Jaguar, old cars need to get out and drive.
Take them to your local car show and let people (especially kids!) sit inside. Drive them on trips. Take them on vintage rallies and tours. Make up your own vintage rally or tour! The last place these machines should be is under glass at some museum, languishing like David’s metaphorical polar bear. Going against nature indeed.
GET OUT AND DRIVE!
I was saving this photo as an upcoming “road photo of the day” but found that it perfectly illustrated my point, so here it is. 😉
“GET OUT AND DRIVE!”
Hear, hear! And, let me tell Mad Doggie and other Jagnuts who gather here) about my 2011 trip, to celebrate the E’s 50th birthday. The *general* plan is to drive around the desert southwest, around the Page/Grand Canyon/Four Corners area, my *favorite* area of the country. So far…!.
Hope you can join us, MD!
My two oldest daughters drive Corvairs and they LOVE the attention they get – other than “creepy, old guys” coming up to them at gas stations and regaling them with their own Corvair stories. My daily driver is also a Corvair, and I get waves, comments, questions, and praise from men and women of all ages, races, and classes. I’ve heard some very interesting stories about racing and wrecks, breakdowns and engine swaps, ex-wives and ex-boyfriends, the old cars kept and the ones that “got away”. An old car, any old car, breaks down a lot of barriers.