Cars…Then, Now, Next
As a young teenager I was fascinated by cars…not as power objects or symbols of my manhood, but as gadgets, cool machines that looked and functioned “out of the norm.” I loved cars that looked like space ships or land yachts or lab experiments gone wrong! For instance, an older kid in my hometown, Chad, I think was his name, had a 1930-something car he’d turned into a hotrod like “American Graffiti’s” Milner’s Coupe. Chad’s machine was a “not-so-natural” fusion of nostalgic curves with a powerful engine. You could hear him coming from blocks away and, oh, the speed. In truth, I don’t remember too much about the car, my mind slips between a vision of a car and a hotrod pickup. I just remember always hearing it when he’d drive into the parking lot across the street from the junior high school. Rumor was he kept a shotgun in the door. Maybe I’m remembering more fantasy than fact. Ahhh…that’s the lot of someone my age.
I used to call out the year, make, and model of passing cars to my grandparents. My grandfather asked me once how I could tell them apart so easily. I clearly remember thinking before I responded and then saying, “Well, it’s the total look but really, you can always tell by the rear end.” My grandparents laughed and laughed but my 10-year-old mind didn’t get the joke. I do remember the gull wing shape of the 1959 Chevy, the Star Wars power of the 1960 Chrysler Imperial, the notched rear window of the 1960 Lincoln Continental, and on and on and on. All awesome designs of form (story) and function (only power counted).
I learned to drive when I was 12 or so on a 1957 Rambler station wagon. At some point, my parents bought a brown 1954 Chrysler New Yorker later replaced with a hand-me-down 1956 Chrysler New Yorker (from my grandparents). That ‘56 Chrysler was my “teenage” car, a cool push button transmission but with only a two speed automatic transmission. I had to get used to not having a clutch. Things were different then, no seatbelts, no crash test dummies, no warning systems. And gas was about 20 cents a gallon.
I was never into “working” on cars or having the most powerful car…I just loved the gadgetry and the looks. I bought my first car in 1968, a 1965 Mustang. Automatic transmission, 289 cubic inches with a huge two barrel carb. It had seat belts in the front! It was burgundy with a black interior. I had it painted bright yellow, I think they called it Chevy Racing Yellow. It was cool. It tended to “float” when I drove over 100 mph so I didn’t do that more than once or twice. I didn’t work on it except to wash it. I am not a “car guy,” it’s all I can do to keep them gassed up. When I graduated from pilot training in 1972, I bought a 1973 MGB. A fun, fun car to drive but one that required a lot of “work.” Hence it sat in the garage quite a bit of the 20 years I had it before giving it away.
Today’s cars are…well, more gadgetry than stylish. That is, the common people’s cars are that way. The billionaires’ cars, the Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Rolls, McClarens, Corvettes, etc., are still kind of cool looking, but…. Well, the rest are sort of same-O, same-O. Appliances, toasters. Squint your eyes the next time you look at a Tesla and you might be looking at a giant computer desktop mouse!! And try to quickly pick out the Camry from the Accord or the Maxima or any model of Tesla. What did Henry Ford say about getting the color of a Model A? I do appreciate all the gadgetry in the new cars and would love to have a go at one of them. But, it’s not compelling enough, not safe enough…not cool enough to spend the crazy amount of money they want for a new car these days.
And tomorrow’s cars?!? I can only imagine. The next frontier of divisiveness in America may be about cars. Imagine if all cars had to be self driving. We would need fewer collision repair shops. Health care would not need to support the highway tragedies we see every minute. Traffic control would be a piece of cake reducing the requirement to patrol highways and streets for speeders and drunk/reckless drivers. Ideally, we’d be able to put any “skin” on an auto drive car and so could show off our manliness, wealth, fashion or whatever but the innards of the car would all be the same. Southern California would be apoplectic. Imagine all the good things that might happen if we didn’t drive the cars ourselves. (I can feel the angst a-rising!)
The image above was taken at the Virginia State Fair just before what I think was the Dressage competition. Graceful pairs of people and horses, intent and intense.