Life is a funny thing. Many folks have a general idea of where they might want to end up in a year or two or five, but then life has a habit of just pulling you in whatever direction it wants. Sometimes, you end up in a place that a younger you just couldn’t fathom.
Resident car rescuer Stephen Walter Gossin told the story about how learning the saxophone in 1990 somehow resulted in him saving a Nissan Xterra from a bouncer’s driveway. I highly recommend reading the story, and the comments are heartwarming, too. TheDrunkenWrench:
I’m glad this adventure didn’t require any high speed montages with Yakety Sax overlayed for comedic value.
And excellent catch & release, with some very true words about finding your path.
If you’d told me 15 years ago that have a family and be writing curriculum to teach EV transit buses to technicians, I’d have called you crazy.
People always like to ask “what would you do differently” in your life.
Honestly, the further down the path I get, the less the idea of changing my past sits with me. For every decision I made got me the life I have, and I’d hate to lose any person that’s been a part of it.
My Other Car is a Tetanus Shot:
The driveway’s jammed with broken heroes,
On a last chance wrenching drive,
Every spark’s out on the run tonight,
But there’s no PCM left to hide,Baby, we were born to run.
Jason has decided to make a car name game. Remember the game where you place ‘anal’ in front of the name of an RV? Well, Jason’s made a bizarre version of that by placing the word ‘clam’ into a car’s name. TheDrunkenWrench:
Can you name the truck with four wheel drive,
smells like a clam and seats thirty-five..
CLAMYONEROOOOO.
Borton:
This is exactly why I pay my membership fee. 10/10, no notes. I’m particularly fond of “Thunderclam”.
SAABstory:
Sponsored by SHELL.
Tbird:
Toyota Clamry.
Jack Trade:
Ford Musselstang? Wait, I may not be doing this right…
A. Barth:
Hindustan Clambassador
Dodge Clampage
Any model of Clambulance
Alright, you got me with “Clampage!”
Hangover Grenade had the same idea as Jack Trade:
Mussel Car.
Jason also wrote about the Pope straddling a BMW R 18 Transcontinental, a sweet bike. Rippstik:
The Pope wasn’t the first holy man to ride a motorcycle.
“And lo, the roar of Moses’ Triumph was heard throughout Israel”
That is not what the scripture says, but I’ll allow it. Have a great evening, everyone!
Top photo: Mercedes Streeter
Yay! I’m relevant again! One day when I’m not poor I may even pay for a membership! Damn you, Canadian exchange rate!
If I didn’t buy a Subaru SVX after my freshman year in college to replace a 260K Honda Accord that worked perfectly fine except it no longer had 5th gear I probably wouldn’t have been as much of a car guy.
If the center differential in that SVX didn’t grenade for the third time in 3 years just weeks after I switched from college to real life, I probably would have rented an apartment immediately but I decided to stay with my parents a little longer and went out to buy a 350Z based on my extensive test driving experience in Gran Turismo. 🙂 The car honestly wasn’t that good once I actually drove it. I considered an MRS that I fell in love with when the top’s down, but as tall as I am I can’t see anything to the sides when the top’s up so she was out. A WRX was my backup plan and ended up pre-ordering an RX8.
Half year later when I’ve caught up enough financially and had the RX8 about 2 months (still before they’re on the dealer lot other than the display model) I buy a house and skip renting altogether (hey, money was free back in 2004…) and the guy next door happens to own a company making Miata race parts. As we’re both car guys and enjoy autocrosses, track days, etc. we immediately become friends and I 5X my knowledge.
That led me to both buy 2 RX7’s from a co-worker that were left in a field for the last 10 years as I now had the confidence I could fix them, and connections of his that raced RX7’s I could reach out to for help. It also convinced me that when a rear shock blew on the RX8 that I should get Ohlins to make a shock for this car rather than warranty it as they haven’t worked on one of these before and were interested in making them. Perfect timing too as I was about to go on a 4 week work trip and they’d need to have the car for 3 weeks for all their testing and calibration. (At cost, they weren’t cheap)
Later the RX7’s get turned into one well working RX7 and I guess I was done with that project… Immediately my neighbor asks if I want another project, his friend has an NA Miata with 190K on it that broke its timing belt he wants $400 for. We all knew it’s a non-interference engine but his wife didn’t so I have to pretend to have done major engine work so he can justify buying an NC Miata as his toy car. Move to Chicago, sell it at 210K to a friend back home for $1500. He graduates, gets a real job and a real car and asks me if I’d like the car back for free now with 240K as he has no place to store it. I give it to my sister with 245K as her car got totaled, and she gives it back at 250K.
Start doing Lemons racing about 15 years ago and eventually give the Miata to another team when it had 260K on it as I needed the space, but they deemed it too worthy to become a lemon and kept it on the road. Later I paddock next one of the guys that worked at Ohlins and he recognizes my specific RX8. He tells me there’s 2 mounting points they moved to improve the geometry in the suspension but refuses to say where, and I believe him. I’ve raced 3 RX8’s since and they all don’t feel as “correct” but still haven’t figured out what exactly they did.
All this because I decided to buy the used SVX instead of the Maxima, Accord, or other practical fun-adjacent car I should have when I was 19.
Bravo, my dude!
Somebody has to make a mobile seafood shack from a Subaru Sambar kei truck called The Subaru ClamBar.
Moses had good taste in bikes.
Clamayota