Category: Cars

I am a “car guy”… I love old cars.

Car Photo of the Day: Let down, or all part of the fun?

Yet another Alternator bites the dust!

In the comments section of the article I just wrote on “The Truth About Cars” I was taken to task by one person who complained that old cars will always “let you down.”

Maybe it is perverse of me to think so, but I actually enjoy the challenge of keeping an old machine running. I feel the acts or maintenance and repair enhance my relationship with the car. Over time I can hear, feel, and occasionally smell things wrong with it, and feel immensely satisfied when I’m able to tend to them, and continue on my way. If your life is nothing but destinations, then by all means stay away from old cars and their needs. You will be let down. But if your life is about journeys, and adventures, then hit the road in that old jalopy!

I answered the commentator with a variation of the above theme and posited that perhaps my next article would be “The Joys Of Being Let Down By Old Cars.” A further comment then suggested that I’m nuts. 😉

Perhaps I am, but I’m going down that road anyway. Who’s coming with me? Push-starting the 65E all the way home from Los Angeles? It is the punch line from our great Father/Son Road Trip of 2009. Having a stranger save our lost-bolt brake bracket calamity in Idaho last summer? The best part of my trip home from the GTTSR!

Got a great story to tell, then share it here and maybe I’ll weave it in.

Published.

I’ve had a series of thoughts rolling around in my brain for a while, and a comment made by Robert Farago made them all gell and roll out all at once. I offered it to him as a sort of “rebuttal” to his statement and he published it today. You can read it here:

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/editorial-collector-car-market-the-sky-hasnt-fallen-just-a-few-prices/

I normally “preview” things I write here on my blog, but this one came out so fast it never had a chance to show up here first, sorry.

Car Photo of the Day: It’s from Coventry, but not a Cat.

This Triumph 250 was driven by a father/son duo in a couple of the GTTSR’s I attended a few years back. I don’t know much about the TR5 variant beyond what I read in the wikipedia entry.

This year’s GTTSR event should be starting this weekend. I won’t be there as I chose to do our father/son road trip instead.

2009 Monte Shelton Northwest Classic Rally: Day Two

Remember when I pulled the yellow tape off the top of the Jaguar and stuck it to the nose of the car? All night at dinner I had people asking me “What’s that yellow tape on your car for?” At first I answered truthfully, but as it involves a long explanation after the third time I just started making things up:
“It is holding the headlights on.”
“Oh, that is to increase visibility.”
“Without it the engine falls out.”
“I put it on to confuse people. It is Confusion Tape. It is working!”

I have to admit, this was enjoyable. It became something of a mental exercise to come up with good ones all day today.

Continue reading “2009 Monte Shelton Northwest Classic Rally: Day Two”

2009 Monte Shelton Northwest Classic Rally: Day One

My father and I have been Vintage TSD (Time, Speed, Distance) Rallying now for eleven years and three months, and you would think we’d have it figured out by now. Our first rally together was in May of 1998, and I flew back to the USA from England, where I was working at the time, to join him in his newly restored “retirement project” E-type Jaguar. We won our class and had a great time driving all over Maine in this amazing car. Since then we’ve rallied all over the country, and once even all the way across it. We’ve done stately tours, and insane regularity rallies where we’ve fallen into almost every trap. The one thing I’ve learned in that time is that when we’re on, we’re on. But… when we’re off, we’re REALLY OFF!

Continue reading “2009 Monte Shelton Northwest Classic Rally: Day One”

Car Photo of the Day: Still Life with Bonnet Prop

As a “Car Guy” I love looking under hoods and bonnets. It is always fun to see something unusual, which here in America means something OTHER than a pushrod V-8. Or these days, ANYTHING other than a plastic engine cover. I delight in finding straight sixes, vee-fours, and flat-anythings. Bonus points accrue for side-draft carbs, dual overhead cams, slanted engines, and wild manifolds. This car is a dog’s breakfast of almost all the above (the less said about the bonnet prop the better however!) I could spend an hour staring at it, and in fact did so when I snapped this photo.

This car belongs to an occasional commentator of on this website, so he’s ineligible to ID it, but do any of you other reprobates know what car this is?