oldcarfudd

There is a sort of guest card you can get, renewable once, for a car that is on their approved list but hasn't gone through the full approval routine. Fortunately, the 1904 Curved Dash Oldsmobile I bought last year, intending to take it this year's run, had gone through the whole certification procedure when the prior owner took it on the run a few years ago. Of course, due to the COVID plague, I'm not going this year, even if the run occurs. Next year, I hope. But I'll be 85, and running short of opportunities.

I've had a 2-cylinder Buick Model F. I know several people who have them, and others who have 2-cylinder REOs, which are comparable. Those cars can keep up with a Model T unless the T driver is in a real hurry. On HCCA tours for big cars, they do pretty well, and they dominate 1-and 2-cylinder tours. The smaller twins, like the AB Maxwell, are much weaker. They perform more like single-cylinder cars, like Cadillacs and Oldsmobiles. They'll go anywhere, but much slower, especially on hills. I've never had a small twin like an AB Maxwell, but I've toured with them while driving my singles, and I've ridden in some small Maxwells. They're very nice cars. There are also more powerful, larger Maxwell twins that are quite potent, more like the Buicks and REOs. That said, you ought to talk to Bob Bailey in Maine. He has an even smaller Maxwell - an A, I think - and he and Liz tour that thing in any terrain and any weather.

Q. Why are the employees so proud of the new Lucas vacuum cleaner? A. It's the only thing they make that doesn't suck.

Was that Tom Reese's car?

I'll continue the guessing with 1915/16 Chevrolet Baby Grand.

That was a helluva backfire!

I still don't have mine. I mentioned it to my mail carrier the other day. He said things were so screwed up that some certified mail was taking over 3 weeks.

A fellow in the Horseless Carriage Club drove a 1912 Pierce Arrow, a pretty hot car in its day. And he didn't spare the horses; if he wanted to go 60, he went 60. He told me he couldn't stand to have a car like my single-cylinder Cadillac, that cruises at 23 mph on a flat road and climbs 15% grades at walking speed, because it was "too damn slow". I told him that, if I were in a hurry, I could put the Cadillac in my trailer behind my VW Touareg tow vehicle. I could then out-accelerate, out-climb, out-run, out-corner and out-stop his Pierce, and use less gas doing so. At the early end of the hobby, speed ain't the name of the game. P.S. PK, I knew you were kidding. P.P.S. The guy with the Pierce bought a single-cylinder Cadillac and a two-cylinder Buick and has learned to enjoy them.

The timing device can be an hourglass, or maybe the Mayan calendar.

When they were new, those were all fine cars. Now they're pushing 100 years old. They've been exposed to a century of maintenance (or not), they've had numerous drivers, they may have incurred one or more restorations or just repaints of varying quality. Some may be dogs. A well-sorted one will give you pleasure whichever brand it is. A dog will be a pain in the @$$ whichever brand it is.

The Stanleys often referred derisively to IC engines as internal explosive.

The plane is a Sikorsky S-40, one of three built for Pan American Airlines. It first flew in 1931 and was the first plane that Pan Am called a Clipper. It's said that Lindbergh looked at all those struts and wires and called it the Flying Forest. It's hard to imagine that they persuaded people to buy tickets to fly in the thing. I, by contrast, would go up in it in a heartbeat if I could ride up front!

Let’s move up a year or three. You’ve found a car that’s well sorted, fun to drive, and pushes all your good buttons. What are you going to do with it? I presume you don’t intend to commute in it, except maybe once in a while on a long spring or summer day when you can be home before dark. You may, or may not, enjoy giving rides to neighbors and curious strangers. On a nice day, you’ll probably like to take it to the gym/the bank/ your yoga class/ whatever. You’ll go for a long ride on back country roads and soak up Virginia’s wonderful scenery. You’ll go out for a pizza with your spouse/significant other/prime squeeze. You might take it to a local show, or Cars ‘n’ Coffee. Then what? If you’re an introverted, curmudgeonly hermit, that may be more than enough. But many of us use our cars socially. We find other nuts and tour with them. It adds tremendously to the pleasure. In my own case, I have 5 brass-era cars: a Model T, two single-cylinder cars, a small Buick touring car and a steam car. But I go (in a normal year!) on five or six week-long tours a year, plus a bunch of weekend jaunts and one-day tours, plus the usual C&C, kids’ rides, and pizza. If I didn’t have compatible groups to tour with, I wouldn’t maintain these time-and money-consuming toys. You might consider looking into the local clubs as part of your search procedure. Where are the other people who enjoy their cars the way you want to enjoy yours? When you find a group you like, do their activities fit in well with the kind of car you’d like to own? Or might you discover that there’s a friendly group with wonderful activities that enjoys cars with a 35 mph cruising speed, even though that’s not what you initially thought you wanted? If you buy an old car, you’re buying into a lifestyle. Be sure the whole package, not just the car, is where you want to invest your time, money, and emotion. (Unless you’re an introverted, curmudgeonly hermit. In that case, ignore this post.)

Maybe that's what inspired the quote attributed to Ettore Bugatti: "Bentley makes the world's fastest lorries."

To drive a million miles in 16 years, you'd have to drive over 60,000 miles a year. So, for most folks, it's not much of a promise. Now, if it could go 500 miles on a charge and recharge in ten minutes like my gas car, I'd pay attention.