Cars are most guys first true love..I am no exception, in fact it was love at first sight and I'm still head over heels...
Preadolescence brings the first inclining's; the stirring in the body, mind and soul of what will someday be a raging passion and obsession! Hell, as young boys we are sat behind the wheel, steering the family truck-ster and given dozens upon dozens of Hot Wheels, Matchboxes and Tonkas....we make "RRRRRRR" sounds and screeching/chripy tire sounds on our Big Wheels! Speed Racer....Racer X, The Batmobile, The Munsters, Get Smart, hell even Scooby-Doo had the Mystery Machine all jacked up in the back! KICK ASS!
Shaggy & friends in the Shaggin' Wagon!
Menag'e a-five!
Then there was 70's prime time Starsky's Gran Torino, Jim Rockford's Firebird, Farah's Cobra II, Vega$...dude Dan Tanna ( Robert Urich) in a '57 T-Bird...etc. etc.
Not the best looking Ford, but when Hutch slapped the magnet-siren on the the roof and Starsky nailed it! Wooohooo it was good times!
The Networks all had a Movie night so we got to see movies that had come out in the late 60's and early 70s right on our TV. I still remember seeing Gene Hackman tearing around New York as "Popeye" Doyle in William Friedkin's masterpiece "The French Connection"! And there I was a kid sitting on the couch absolutely riveted, I had no clue about international drug cartels or smack,good guys, bad guys, bad-good guys and none of that shit mattered. What I did understand is that if you drive a 1971 Pontiac Le-mans at high speeds through the crowded streets of Brooklyn it is KICK ASS!
EPIC!
Bullit, The Cannonball Run, Death Race 2000,American Graffiti, Smokey and the Bandit ( Bert F'ng Reynolds!) Man great movies with big time movie stars playing second fiddle to the cars. Bullit without the car chase would still be a great film, but it is simply unimaginable to not have Steve McQueen ripping around San Francisco in the fastback GT 'Stang hold off the bad guys in their 440Charger! Cannonball and Death Race are both car movies with people in them for the occasional boob shot! Otherwise it is cars, cars, cars. American Graffiti is simply one of the great coming of age movies ever, the list of future Hollywood heavies is endless and the cars timeless. Milner's Deuce, Harrison's 55 Chevy, Steve/Toad's 58 Impala, Suzanne Summer's in a '56 T-Bird..The Pharaohs '49 Merc!
I will have a fire chicken T/A one day...oh yes it will be mine...
Milner was Fonzie before Fonzie was cool!
Black Edwards gave us1965's The Great Race with get this...Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Peter Falk and the stunning Natalie Wood and tons of turn of the century cars, well Hollywood cars but still. I loved this film as a kid it was a circle it in the TV guide kinda flick for us and as most all things in my life and this blog it comes back to "pops" a whole blog could be dedicated to just the topic of my dad and automobiles he has owned so many over his some 60 years behind the wheel that I don't think he can remember them all.
Professor Fate's Car
The 73 Eldorado, Silver w/a hood that went on forever etc. etc. There was the '78 Econoline 250 Van! 20 Feet of rolling party pad! We borrowed it heavily during the late 80s early 90s for camping and concerts it held tons of beer and chicks and we never ran out of either! KICK ASS!It was a blast and drove like a dream.
I've gone over the cars in my life before on ESG but that was all good shit here is some bad...they were all hot attractive ladies that I managed to damage one way or another, but they exacted their revenge and hurt me back real bad....
my '67 Riviera I still have she is in the garage recovering from the time I slammed her into an old lady in a Toyota on Burnet and 45th Street...I cried as soon as the wrecker drove off...as god is my witness she'll stay with me and again be cruising the highways as only a 44 year old Buick with a 430 under the hood can!
my '67 Camaro convertible I managed to slam into a parked car on the freeway way back in '87....fixed her but she was never quite the same, after years of storage, I sold her for 8 Grand back in 2000, I could make twice that now....I cried for hours after they towed her to a restorer in Oregon, I bet she's on the show circuit by now....
My '69 Camaro...I had for like a month before I hit a guy walking across the street! Now this dude was a shit faced bum who was intent on getting a sponge bath and a hospital tray full of food! I was heading for work, swing shift on a Saturday evening , this fucker saw me and I saw him, he simply stepped in front of me I was going about 40 slammed on the breaks and skidded right into him he bounced off my hood and flew in the air about 10 feet and rolled another 20...I thought I killed his ass! I mean I never want to feel that again! I cried that day because I thought I had actually killed someone but when I call the hospital later that night he'd already checked himself out and was back chugging Night Train or M/D 20/20 with the homies! The '69 stayed with me through some milstone phases in my life, I drove out of my home town to a new life in Austin, courted ( if that is the right word) my wife in that car had some amazing times in her. I drove her into the ground had a new engine put in her and then...it happened....the Fire of 2000....I was leaving work on a friday...I had money in the bank, was newly wed with a house and bitchin car, good job...on top of the world...she spuddered upon start up but I figured hell it's time for a tune up so I pull onto 183 and she stumbles and I can see flames under the hood throught the scoop ( it's a '69 Camaro so of course she has the scoop)...so I pull over...kill the engine and see the flames getting bigger....I jump out pull the pins..open the hood and.....feed the fire the one thing it really wants..Oxygen! What the hell it was like an explosion! Me and some construction workers managed to kill the fire with water and one dudes jacket but the damage was done...I never drove her again, the only saving grace is that I sold her to a guy who has become one of my best friends in the world. I was his best man, he has been there when my daughters were born and all because of cars. He sold her at a heavy profit to a dude in Louisiana so who know what happened to her by now...I hope she is well!
I still love cars... domestic, foriegn, old, new. They are the most important invention ever... period... well them and motorcycles but that is a whole other story of lust, love and loss....
PS
Was at the 10th Annual ( could it be 10 years?) Lonestar Roundup ( Car Show) this weekend...here is the HAMB link..follow the threads there are even more links inside!
I rode my bike so had no camera!
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=577177
We saw this Metropolitan on the streets MIND BLOWING! If you don't know this is a micro-car, think smart car but 50 years old and cool!
GENIUS!
HEY Don't forget the Armory for Bombshell Pics!
Keep the greasy side down!
The Tank
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