Or is the other way around?
While we wait for some other victims AutoPuzzles readers to answer our slate of 22-questions, I figured I subject myself to the same interview. I learned some interesting things about myself that I wouldn't have guessed.
Here is the Q&A:
Recently,
1. Tell us about yourself and when you became interested in cars?
I was born in Detroit, the 'motor city', the youngest of three boys born to my immigrant parents, who had come to the US about 4 years previous. We lived in a tiny asphalt-shingled home with my Uncle, who had been recently discharged from the army, having served in Korea. He always drove white Chevrolet convertibles. The first one I remember is a ’59 ‘batmobile’ convertible with a red interior. His future bride, who visited quite often, drove a Corvair convertible, also white. I don’t think my folks owned a car yet. However, I had a hand-me-down pedal-car fire engine that resembled a Pontiac. How I loved driving that tyke car, wooing the pre-kindergaten girls up and down the short city block, up until the day I drove it into my neighbor’s poorly maintained pool. The algae! The smell! Plus, I almost drowned, which was the beginnings of my life-long fear of water, I guess.
That crowded, tiny house was located on a dead-end street, which was adjacent to a railroad switch yard. I remember standing at the fence, staring for what seemed like hours, as the soon-to-be-retired steam switcher locomotives moved reefers, boxcars, and other freight up and down the yard. I was mesmerized by the motion of the pistons and driving wheels, and the smell, and the sounds - hissing, chugging, clanging, and the mighty ka-whumps - as new consists were assembled.
My early exposure to cars, driving, and things mechanical have set the tone for my life ever since. Things mechanical have brought me much joy, occasionally, bitter sadness.
2. What was your first car?
The first motorized car I owned was, oddly enough, a Corvair as well. It was not a convertible, though massive amounts of ventilation were available by opening the vent-wing windows and pulling back the rubber floor mats to uncover the rust holes in the floor boards.
3. What is your daily driver?
My ride now is a well-used Escort station wagon. No show car, but like any tool you take care of, it’s held me in good stead, and I was saving gas when saving gas wasn’t cool.
4. What classic or special cars do you currently have?
I have none, unless one counts some die-cast models I own. I have a Ford GT-40, a 1/18th scale replica of Nigel Mansell’s Lola Indycar, and scads of Hot Wheels miniatures.
5. What made you choose to buy them?
I love well-made things, and things the elicit an emotional reaction, whether it be purely aesthetic, tied to a memory of a particular driver’s prowess in competition, or if it elicits a pang of nostalgia.
6. Have you ever just missed buying a particular car, and lived to regret it?
Yes, as I’ve recounted elsewhere in this site, I most regret not taking a step away from independence to buy a GT-350 Mustang on offer near where I worked. To make the note on that car, I would have had to give up my swingin’ bachelor pad (shag carpeting, baby!) and move back home with mom and dad.
7. What would be your dream car?
There are a lot. I’d love a two-seat AMX, an Austin Healey, a mid-50’s Cadillac... Again, most any car I find visually appealing, capable of spirited performance, or very well-crafted.
8. Which car do you regret having parted company with?
None has really broken my heart, but if I had the time, I would like to restore and drive a Corvair or an AMX or Javelin.
9. What is your favorite drive in your classic or special car?
Not applicable, I guess, since I can't drive my classics. But if I had a A-H, I think a drive through Michigan’s UP, all the way to Copper Harbor, camping along the way, would be awesome. I also miss riding my long-gone Honda bike though the farmlands of Michigan’s ‘thumb’.
10. How much work on your car(s) do you carry out yourself?
Change the oil, wash ‘em, not too much else. I recently had occasion to hook my wagon up to one of those newfangled scanners at the auto parts store, when the ‘check engine’ light came on. After, researching what the code mode meant, I bought the offending failed component (an EGR control module) and installed it. Not as much fun as installing new points and setting the timing with a handheld strobe, or synchronizing the carbs on my old bike. So why bother, except to save money?
11. What do you carry with you when you go out in your car(s)?
Lots of CD’s, bottled water, first aid kit, and a Leatherman.
12. Do you get involved in the club scene, and why?
No. I find I have enough politics in my life without some tweedy type telling me my choice of automotive accessories is in violation of club bylaws.
13. Do you take an interest in motor sport, and if so where is your favorite venue(s)/club meeting(s)?
I used to be a huge F1 fan, but find most of the joy has been regulated out of the sport. I do enjoy the American Le Mans series, though I miss the wacky Panoz prototypes that used to mix it up with the Audi’s.
14. What is your worst memory involving a car?
I don’t wish to dwell on that here. I’ve, as they say, ‘paid my debt to society’, but I’m not sure my maker considers the debt settled.
15. What is your funniest memory involving a car?
After enjoying way to much, um, contraband, and then sitting though some awful Doug McClure sci-fi flick, a friend and I got into a car which, in the dark theater parking lot, looked just like his, and we lit up again. The owner was quite shocked to find her car filled with smoke and two smelly long-hairs, when she got off work. We were fortunate that she didn’t turn us in or call the cops.
16. What is your most enjoyable moment involving a car?
Parking in the woods on a summer’s night with a pretty girl.
17. Best road food?
A hot dog and onion rings at a drive-in...if I can find one. I find driving while eating to be rather unsatisfying – especially when driving a manual!
18. How would you define a ‘classic’?
My definition is anything that is beautiful, performs well, or has withstood the test of time. However, I also have a sweet spot for oddball and orphan cars, I have absolutely no use for the AACA’s ‘true classic’ snobbery. Politics, again.
19. What in your opinion, is the worst car regarded as a ‘classic’ and why?
I don’t know – to each his own, I say.
20. What in your view will be a future classic?
Probably the usual suspects – high priced Ferrari’s and such. As for mass-market cars, who can tell? There have been no truly memorable designs in the past decade or so. I suspect the Pontiac Aztek will attract the same sort of old car fans that the Edsel did, after 20 years of hindsight.
21. What question would you like to ask, and to whom?
I’d give almost anything to sit down with my father, and talk with him about everything that’s happened in the two decades since he left this earth.
22. What car publications / car websites do you regularly read / visit?
I enjoy Collectible Automobile, Hemming’s Classic Car, and, as time and money allow, purchase some of the British collector car and racing magazines. Online, I’m sure I have over one hundred sites bookmarked, but spend most of my time here, enjoying the knowledge, camaraderie and fellowship of the AutoPuzzles community.
