The days really fly by this time of year.
One day I'm driving around with the top down looking for a shady parking
space and the next day I'm looking for the keys for the car with heated
seats. The change of seasons actually took a few weeks but it seemed much
shorter. It was a couple of weekends of moving parts and cars around in
the lower garage to be able to fit the little dears in at once. I blame
my collection on a short attention span. I tend to buy a car once every
ten years. If I had to drive one car year 'round I would probably replace
it every couple of years. I get bored easily.
With a car for each season I never drive
one long enough to get bored. All of them put together aren't worth as
much as the tools in Jay Leno's Big Dog garage but they allow me to change
my seat often enough to keep me interested. There's something about getting
into a car that you haven't driven in a while that's like putting on an
old pair of slippers. They're not perfect but they just feel right.
There's a 20 year old BMW 6 series in
bright red in the garage that I roll out every spring. It's still cool
enough in the mornings that the warm air coming out from under the dash
feels great. It's not at all like a modern car where the climate controlled
air just appears and feels lukewarm. This is a small stream of hot air
that I have to turn down after only a few minutes. Remember when cars used
to work like that?
It's probably a control issue, but I really
do like the old way of doing things. We were all taught not to turn on
the heater fan until the car had warmed up enough to blow out heat instead
of cold air. If left in place, the setting for the temperature would soon
prove to be too high and need adjustment. The sliding lever just controlled
the amount of hot water from the engine cooling system that was directed
through the heater core under the dash. Sort of like the faucet on the
bathroom sink, turn down the hot water and the flow from the spigot cools
off. Today's modern cars have been programmed to wait for the engine to
warm up like our parents showed us but then the computer pegs the fan distracting
even the most serious driver. It's like someone reached over and turned
the fan up to full speed. Very strange. Am I the only one that ever looked
over to see if someone was in the car with me?
Somehow there never seems to be a stream
of hot air anywhere in modern cars, it's always cool or lukewarm. I know
that it's all relative to the ambient air but I just like some hot air
somewhere. Something that I could turn down and feel like I was in charge.
Everything in that old Bimmer is manual,
just the way I like it. Well, the windows are electric but they don't have
that automatic up, automatic down feature. That was a feature on my wife's
car that I thought I'd enjoy but the more I used it the less I liked it.
I can't seem to get them to stop where I want. The doors open with a key
not an FCC transmitter. I can even put the key in my pocket and nobody
will know that it's there unlike the modern device that looks like its
big enough to arm a nuclear warhead. How can you put two or three of those
on a key ring unless the ring is four inches in diameter, and then how
are you going to get that in your pocket without someone doing that old
banana joke? The seats have a couple of motors in them to move them back
and forth but nothing like the new 17 way heated power seats nowadays.
How often do you really move the seat on the car that you drive anyway?
Once or twice a year to account for that overcoat that you're forced to
wear in the winter? Why do the seats have to move 17 ways? Both of them?
There is a steering wheel adjustment in
my old BMW that allows about 3 inches of travel in and out, that's it.
They figure that if you need to change your position more than that move
the seat. My mother had a T bird back in the '60's that had a steering
wheel that moved over to the center console to allow for easy access. After
we showed all our friends how it worked I don't think it ever moved again.
Once you get comfortable in your car why would you start moving things
around?
"Big Red" rumbles around in the spring
and fall with a stainless exhaust system that keeps dogs in the yard and
little kids on the sidewalk. I wouldn't want to take any real long trips
with it but for running around town its fun to play with. Anyone with a
loud car would agree, they're great to drive but you wouldn't want it to
be your only ride. I'm only going to drive it about 7000 miles each year
so the noise doesn't really bother me. Besides I'm the one that set it
up that way. At that rate the car will probable out last me?
Summertime has the 914 out with the top
off. With the nicest one in the world worth about $8k there's not a lot
of money tied up in this car. Four cylinders, five speed with roll up windows,
no AC and a stereo that can't overpower the exhaust sound. This is a basic
sports car. This example was the last 914 sold out of Clair Porsche Audi
in 1976 and I've had it ever since. It's not nice enough to show but always
gets comments at the gas station. At 33 mpg and about 2000 miles a year
that's not often but I get to see a lot of thumbs up on the road. The car
is set up for an autocross course which means that it doesn't lean much.
I barely get used to the bone shaking ride when it's off in the Speedster
for a 356 gathering.
The Speedster has been running open exhaust
for the last couple of years and it's so loud that when I get back to Big
Red in the fall it gives my ears a rest. Blackie is really a fair weather
friend for summer use only. The German canvas convertible top hangs from
the ceiling in the lower garage, the heater is like trying to warm the
Superdome with a candle and the wipers have only been used once each year
to get a sticker and that's with the blades pulled away from the glass.
With no cushion in the seats or sound deading in the chassis it's like
riding a four wheel motorcycle without a helmet. At least with the five
inch windshield I don't have to worry about bugs on my teeth.
The leaves start to turn and the battery
goes back into Pearl, the Ice Racer which is an Audi Quattro. The current
Audi RS4 is a modern rocket that replaced a long list of '84-'85 Quattros
that went back easily fifteen years. They were black, silver, white, and
three red ones. I think that the most expensive car was $2500 and I never
carried collusion insurance on any of them, they weren't worth it. The
last one was a white edition with a little engine work that took it up
to 140 hp from 122. Big jump for an Audi. It got bit in the rear by an
aged Buick piloted by a newly minted driver that was on the phone. Her
insurance company was the highest bidder in the land and the RS4 appeared
from Ebay.
I must admit that the early Quattros were
a lot more fun to run because with little or no value it was really easy
to run off in the dirt or down a shoulder to get around someone. Traffic
arguments didn't exist because nobody wanted to challenge a twenty year
old car for lane space. Some blew the horn and I always responded with
a cherry wave. All in good fun.
The new car (new to me - it's now 5 years
old) looks like your grandfathers Audi. It is a pearlredecent white, hence
the name, and except for a couple of badges, looks like any grocery grabber
from suburbia. Last years summer project for Pearl was to install a high
performance chip, a boost gauge and a suspension brace to stabilize the
transmission. Those mods boosted the horsepower from 250 to 330 and put
that power down smoothly, but by the end of the winter the poor little
thing had eaten it's young by breaking a turbo shaft. What better reason
to replace the K03 turbos with K04's, bigger is better. Now we're headed
up towards 400 hp and it still looks like it's on its way to the local
Stop and Shop for bread and milk. Until I get on the go pedal and then
the cars in the mirror get smaller in a hurry. Great fun.
Pearl will take me through the cold winter
months with her heated seats and Blizzacks to pass me off to Big Red in
the spring. By then a couple of BMW winter projects like brake pads and
a wax job and the cycle will start all over again. Works for me. KTF |
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