The Car

Again, for those of you who live where decent public transit exists this will seem to be an extreme example of indulgence but the simple fact remains for almost any California kid, particularly those of us who manage to live in the more rural areas, wheels are a necessity. And since this is, after all, California, image runs a close second.

So just any wheels won’t do (unless, like your humble Scribner you realize practical realities override primal needs to ‘go fast’ & be cool, not that I’m immune to those mind you, but sadly there are limits to budgets).

It should reflect some aspect of its owner - which has lead to months of searching and anguish attempting to find ‘the car’ for those squalling aliens that grew in to my offspring. For daughter it was more a matter of enforcing the budget and being patient enough to wait for the right ride (seeing a new Eclipse spyder elicited the gushing “…this is so my car” which was squelched with “…its so not your budget…”

Son, the rockgod in training wanted a hemi, preferably ‘68 to ‘72 vintage Charger, erm, price one of those, running, in California recently? 50k and up! After many test drives including a ‘01 cobra (awesome car - even if it looks like a mustang, it doesn’t drive or sound like one – however, “too preppie” was son’s verdict) back to searching – since son has shown some mechanical aptitude and willingness to get greasy search criteria was more on potential than current condition.

The first car son ‘really, really’ wanted was a ’68 Camaro set up for drags - including fuel shut off, kill switch and the ever important front break lock switch (required for burn outs, don’t cha know?) while the back seat was still there (why?) it was accessible only by contortionist midgets due to the roll cage, while getting in the front was not too bad, getting out without crawling to the ground on was a bit of an exercise for this aging bod and while it had a strong engine there were no wipers, headlights or heater.

OK so, I’ll concede a few points for cool, practical – its not

Finally, stumbling across this beast




While not my cup o tea (prior to children there was a long list of two seat sport cars and motorcycles) and it is a nice example of a (now) classic street rod. It looks somewhat ominous sitting there and when you fire the beast up, everyone in the area is looking for the source of the rumble - and the sound of that big V8 doing its thaing (yes, it does bury the speedo on the fast side with no difficulties) is awesome to behold!