Thread: for all the oldschoolers

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Well there is a fine line here having to do with adolescence, hormones and, in the U.S., an automobile license is almost a rite of passage. Sadly, cruising has been banned in Virginia Beach and also in Richmond, but we also have a new Dragway in Dinwiddie county so maybe that is the way NHRA would say it should be. Just two blocks from my suburban home a 16 year-old girl was killed the same day she got her license after a football game in a 280-Z her father gave her. Also I had to take each of my three kids to a required county presentation of accident scenes as each of them got their license. Ron Howard got it right in American Grafitti. The urge for independence and the fascination of the machines all combine into a lifelong obsession as some of us know. Now we have a different group with asian cars who don't fit the old mold but the hormones are the same. I thought I had it figured out with a Pontiac Sunfire ('98) convt. only to find a 120 H.P. 4 cyl is just a sewing machine, so now it is back to old memories in building a '29 Ford roadster. Hormones take many forms, but that is what is behind it! Maybe that is what it is, each generation goes through the "hormone haze" and adapts to the technology of the time and I was just on the end of the flat head V8 era with the appearance of OHV engines and the images of older cars are stuck in my head. Today young people are grappeling with higher gas prices and maybe some of us have not realized that the auto industry is now global requiring metric as well as SAE tools. So just pick out an image that pleases you and stick with it and refine it but don't be surprised if someone else has a different image. If only the parts I have on order would arrive I would be in my garage building instead of blabbing here!

Best Wishes,
Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder