Gearhead Gathering

I have long contended that when you live in this part of the country there are several things which you never want to own, but definitely want to be friends with a person who owns that item and allows you to have access to it. In my years of thinking about it I have come up with the following items for this list (not surprisingly, many of them are weather-dependent): pool, convertible, boat, beach house and country club membership. Basically, the list consists of items which are very nice, but very expensive to both buy and maintain and thus not worth it when you remember that you can only use them for a few days in the summer and the rest of the time they are just sitting around collecting dust and probably costing you even more money to pay for their upkeep. (This is where it needs to be pointed out that even though I know how silly owning these seasonal items are, between myself and the members of my family we have pretty much the whole list covered. I never said we took our own advice.) It is much easier to let your friends do the hard work and just hope they want to share the wealth (which they will because what is the point of having nice things if you can't show them off to your friends?). Well, this afternoon I was reminded you should add 'classic car' to that list.

In the last couple of years I have noticed that as soon as the weather gets nice car shows start popping up all over the place. Most of the time they do not appear to be very well-organized - a group of people just show up and take over a parking lot. I saw such a rag-tag operation this afternoon when I pulled into a parking lot near my house and out of the corner of my eye I noticed a very nice Corvette. I would say it was from the mid-1950s. It was definitely well-maintained and buffed enough to take a second look but that should have been it. However a couple of spots down there was another shiny Corvette, this one from the 1960s. Next to that was yet another classic Corvette. It was then that I noticed there were actually about a dozen Corvettes in this parking lot, covering styles from nearly 5 decades and there was a group of people sitting in folding chairs nearby. I didn't see any signs about a car show in the parking lot, but I think it is safe to assume they didn't all show up at the same time by coincidence. (By the way, the new Corvettes are pretty ugly when compared to the old style. Also, I seriously hope this groups shuns whomever owns the new Corvette because it really doesn't belong in a car show. It's not old enough to be important and the owner didn't have to restore it at all, which means they don't really belong in this club. It's like when a rich kid's parents buy his way into an Ivy League school and he starts to think he's actually smart. Go home, junior.) I didn't get close enough to hear their conversation, but I can offer a pretty good guess as to what they may have been talking about.

I'm not sure if these flash car shows are interesting or annoying. On the one hand there is something quite irritating about any group which feels like they can commandeer a public place and the rest of society should just be glad they showed up. But, I guess as long as they don't block the store no one can complain. Either way I totally understand why they would want to show them off, because I find the idea of owning a classic car to be very enticing. I happen to think cars from that period were just better. Not only were they made from higher-quality material and looked better, there is also something to be said for the fact that their engines were much less sophisticated than the engines of today. If an engine failed on a car from the 1970s and you were motivated enough to work on it yourself you could look under the hood and start working your way through its components until you found what was broken and replace it yourself. That is almost impossible for a car from today due to all the computers and electrical components attached. Hell, half the time the only way to know what is wrong is to hook the car up to a computer that only the dealer has access to. Beyond that there is something in every guy that likes the idea of having an old car to work on in their garage. But seeing as how I don't know anything about engines and don't have a garage, that dream never really got off the ground for me.

It is not like I would even drive a classic car if I ever rebuilt one anyway. I get nervous wearing nice clothes because I am afraid I'm going to spill something and stain them, so I can only imagine how nerve-wracking it would be to drive a car you put that much time, money and sweat into restoring. The whole point of owning something like that is to show off your work and enjoy it, but I doubt I would ever be able to relax enough to let that happen. There is simply too much out of my control to ever allow me to fully unwind because while I may be a great driver, I can't vouch for the rest of the idiots on the road out there. The odds of some under-insured teenager slamming into me while texting are high enough as it is, but put me behind the wheel of a car I spent years and thousands of dollars restoring and I can almost guarantee it will happen. And while it is true that insurance would probably cover the costs of the repairs, cars never quite drive the same after they have been in an accident and the idea of having to start again from scratch would probably be too daunting to even think about. So, unless you can promise I'll have every road to myself I think I will pass on buying a classic car. But if anyone out there wants to let me take theirs for a spin I have a beach house they can use for a week. Just don't ask which one is worth more, because I'm pretty sure your car would win.