Race Cars & Dream Cars
Today was a funny day, a sign of something no doubt, but I’m not going to try to figure out what, just in case the answer depresses me 🙂
At the edge of the Mary Lake subdivision where we live is an abandoned stock car track. A honest-to-gawd good-ole’-boy dirt-track just a half-mile from my house!! There are probably a lot of people in Whitehorse who have no idea how much fun we used to have out here. Today I headed for town to do some errands but got side-tracked and instead took a detour and took Subie for a run around the track.
Here’s what things looked like on that same curve in 1993!
The finish line on a particularly fine day in ’93 (the prints got wet when I had them out at the track in a rain shortly after shooting them).
The finish line today.
Okay, just one more lap and I’ll go….
Back in 1969 I bought a brand-new SS/rs Camaro – I spent a whole lot of money on it, had a whole lot of fun, and somehow survived despite myself. Not until the last couple of years has Chevy really brought Camaro back to a design that I want, but I’ve been good, staying away from Klondike Motors (where Lady Temptation lives). Until today. I was just driving by, minding my own business, when I caught a glimpse of it…
The ad below shows you what triggered the flashback that made Subie’s brakes come on and the steering wheel crank hard over so she was pointed back towards that Camaro. The 1969 Camaro Z11 Indy 500 Pace Car – 396 cubic inches of engine under the hood of “testosterone on wheels”.
This is a photo of my ’69 after I’d made a fast car very fast. Maybe too fast – the kid that bought it when I sold it killed himself and crippled his girlfriend in it.
41 years has passed – it hardly seems possible, but there you have it. The 2010 Camaro is a very different car than the 1969 (better designed in every way from what I’ve seen), but the cost for a comparably outfitted car has risen from $4,100 to $45,000. I shouldn’t have sat in it – I knew that. I certainly shouldn’t have adjusted the seat and steering wheel to fit me perfectly! The practical side of this old guy now says “don’t be ridiculous!” – the other guy says “you could….” 🙂
A video at Youtube (screenshot below) shows how I spent countless nights. I do love cars…
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