To All the Cars I’ve Loved Before

 

I tried to wake Sarge, but he just grumbled something about being in a Tryptophan coma so I'm giving him some more time off.  Here's a piece I wrote for the San Diego Mustang Club newsletter.  It's not our usual fare here, but it might be interesting for some of you.  Most all of us have cars so we have at least some interest in them, although maybe not to the extent I express below.   For some car enthusiasts, it's a lifestyle, for others, just a mode of transportation.  I've been on both sides of that, but being an enthusiast is a lot more fun.  I get good SPG-  Smiles Per Gallon. 

I have loved cars since I was a little kid.  In my lifetime I’ve owned my current ride, a 2017 Ruby Red Metallic Ecoboost Premium convertible, a 66 Mustang Convertible, a 67 Fastback, a 1972 Chevy El Camino, a 1980 Datsun 240Z, a 69 Dodge Charger, a 74 Corvette, a 1979 Jaguar XJS, a 73 VW Baja Bug, a 1974 Porsche 911 Turbo, a 1979 TransAm, a 57 T-Bird, a 1975 Ferrari 308 GTB, a 78 Econoline Van, and a 1971 VW Beetle.  Those cars set me on my way to a love of cars in general, vintage cars especially, and Mustangs most of all.   I went all over the world with most of them- in the Alps, the rugged woods of the Pacific Northwest, the streets of Monaco, the Autobahn in Germany, and in my own neighborhood.  Unfortunately, only the first and the last one were cars I was actually able to drive, the rest being my favorite Hotwheels cars of my youth, taking them wherever my imagination drove me. 

 
That’s where it often starts for us though, as kids with our toy cars, not knowing anything about what’s under the hood, but loving the styling, the lines, the fire-chicken on the hood of a Trans-Am, or the jacked up back-end with the extra wide rear wheels on hot rods.  I saw these cars in the movies (Bullett, Smokey and the Bandit, Bond films), on TV (Magnum PI, Dukes of Hazard, Vegas), and on the streets and roads of San Diego and Southern Oregon where I grew up. I’d see wild ones in CARtoons magazine with Krass and Bernie. I also read about them in my first car magazine subscription- Popular Hot Rodding. I didn’t understand why at the time, but it was the only magazine my mom would let me read.  However, I figured it out once I hit puberty, with cars and hot girls going together like PB&J.  The other mags had a little too much skin for a 10-year-old, but PHR was just about the cars.

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Now it's Car and Driver- a magazine I've subscribed to since the late 80s.  I love its motto on the front cover of every edition-  Intelligence, Independence, Irreverence.  Slickly humorous writing which I really like.  Every once in a while a letter to the editor complains about the magazine covering cars that no one can truly afford save for the richest of the rich.  That's part of what the enthusiast likes about it- seeing and learning about cars we can't even come close to.  Maybe they are dream cars, but it's nice to dream.  

It has been a life-long love affair with cars for me, although one that was rarely consummated.  In my early 20s I bought a new Acura Integra, which I loved, but had to sell it as the Navy sent me to Japan for my first duty station after flight training.  Then with a wife and small kids, cars were just tools- practical vehicles that were good family cars- the econobox (some white Japanese things that were basically disposable for them- and cheap for us .mil types), the four-door sedan (a couple Camrys), the mini-van (a new model Odyssey), the four-door pickup (Tacoma) for hauling Boy Scout camping gear.  But I never forgot my first love, the 67 Lime-Gold Mustang convertible with the center console. 

My mom bought it new from the same dealer I used for mine, just 50 years earlier.  I was able to drive it on the back roads of Oregon a couple times, but only while sitting in my dad’s lap. We lost her before I could drive, (the car, not my mom), but I never forgot her. Fortunately, now as empty nesters, practicality doesn’t mean anything.  We have no kids to ferry around, no cargo to haul anymore.  So now I have the car I love, a younger version of my first crush, but perfect in her own way. 

So am I alone in my semi-unreasonable interest in Mustangs, or maybe cars in general?  What do you drive?  What car was your favorite and what do you wish you had or had never let go?