The summer of ’22 has been going as fast as that Hot Rod Lincoln that turned telephone poles into a picket fence (look it up). June is gone and July has rounded the last turn. There have been great rides, lots of car shows, some great races, a few hiccups and some great stories along the way. Sometimes the short stories are the best. Here are a few.
I’m a big believer in Karma, although I was late to the party. You Tube has endless clips of Cops being there when they’re needed, bikers kicking car doors and then crashing, and all sorts of examples of fate getting even with dummies. My most recent example was on a test drive in the ’72 911.
I don’t drive it as much as I should, so when I had an opportunity to make a little noise with it last week, I took it. After warming up the oil, which took a few miles on the back roads in Medfield, I stopped at a T intersection to open the Speed Box on my phone to check the accuracy of the speedo. There were no cars about when I stopped, but before I was ready to go right, a Prius had pulled up behind me to also turn right and began to blow the horn. I quickly rolled around the corner onto the shoulder, stopped and let him proceed. The road was a long straight that goes past the town Transfer Station with plenty of visibility for a speedo test. I got on it through four gears and was closing in on the “battery box” at a relatively high rate of speed. It was a 55 mph zone and he was doing everything he could to exceed it.
I thought for a moment that I should just blow by him to show how a real car goes, but since he seemed to be exceeding 70 mph (probably as fast as it would go), that seemed too easy, so I backed off as we crested a rise in the road. By then I was about 100 yards behind and was the second car to see the Medfield police car up on the left with a radar gun pointed down range. Of course the cruiser lit up the lights and made a U turn as we drove by. Imagine my surprise when he passed me and pulled over the Prius. I rolled by as quietly as I could, some days things just go right.
The ’72 also delivered a great victory to me in the form of a minor repair. After the Endicott Estate car show (1100 entries, 35 imports ??) I drove home and put the car in the garage. As I closed the driver’s door the latch wouldn’t catch on the second click. Strange, it worked just fine the last 15 years. I thought that I would take the latch out and see if it could be fixed. Also, that window has been hard to roll up and down for years, maybe that could be addressed “while I was there”. To repair or replace the latch, the armrest, door panel, and window frame had to come out first. I discovered that new door latches for a 50 year old car were not available but there were some good used ones on eBay. Sometimes these wear items can be renewed with a new spring, a little cleaning or a little massaging so I dove into the job without a replacement part in hand.
I have the luxury of having more than one car available so if a job doesn’t get finished the same day, it’s not a big deal. Years ago when the only car we had was needed to get to work every day, a job wasn’t started unless all the parts needed were on hand. Sure enough, the shaft on the latch itself was worn so badly that it wouldn’t hold it straight enough to keep the door closed tight. So it was back to eBay to buy a used one on the left coast. The garage light went off for the night with tools and parts all over the floor. With the kids well out of the house, everything is always exactly where I left it when I get back to the job.
I don’t drive it as much as I should, so when I had an opportunity to make a little noise with it last week, I took it. After warming up the oil, which took a few miles on the back roads in Medfield, I stopped at a T intersection to open the Speed Box on my phone to check the accuracy of the speedo. There were no cars about when I stopped, but before I was ready to go right, a Prius had pulled up behind me to also turn right and began to blow the horn. I quickly rolled around the corner onto the shoulder, stopped and let him proceed. The road was a long straight that goes past the town Transfer Station with plenty of visibility for a speedo test. I got on it through four gears and was closing in on the “battery box” at a relatively high rate of speed. It was a 55 mph zone and he was doing everything he could to exceed it.
I thought for a moment that I should just blow by him to show how a real car goes, but since he seemed to be exceeding 70 mph (probably as fast as it would go), that seemed too easy, so I backed off as we crested a rise in the road. By then I was about 100 yards behind and was the second car to see the Medfield police car up on the left with a radar gun pointed down range. Of course the cruiser lit up the lights and made a U turn as we drove by. Imagine my surprise when he passed me and pulled over the Prius. I rolled by as quietly as I could, some days things just go right.
The ’72 also delivered a great victory to me in the form of a minor repair. After the Endicott Estate car show (1100 entries, 35 imports ??) I drove home and put the car in the garage. As I closed the driver’s door the latch wouldn’t catch on the second click. Strange, it worked just fine the last 15 years. I thought that I would take the latch out and see if it could be fixed. Also, that window has been hard to roll up and down for years, maybe that could be addressed “while I was there”. To repair or replace the latch, the armrest, door panel, and window frame had to come out first. I discovered that new door latches for a 50 year old car were not available but there were some good used ones on eBay. Sometimes these wear items can be renewed with a new spring, a little cleaning or a little massaging so I dove into the job without a replacement part in hand.
I have the luxury of having more than one car available so if a job doesn’t get finished the same day, it’s not a big deal. Years ago when the only car we had was needed to get to work every day, a job wasn’t started unless all the parts needed were on hand. Sure enough, the shaft on the latch itself was worn so badly that it wouldn’t hold it straight enough to keep the door closed tight. So it was back to eBay to buy a used one on the left coast. The garage light went off for the night with tools and parts all over the floor. With the kids well out of the house, everything is always exactly where I left it when I get back to the job.
KTF
