Automotive Reviews
Posts tagged old cars
Orphan Car Show, Ypsilanti MI
Jun 9th
I’ve managed to miss the annual Orphan Car Show in Ypsilanti every year for the past decade or so. Not on purpose–it’s just that something always seems to come up. This year, I was determined to attend the event, which as its name suggests is a gathering of “orphan” vehicles whose manufacturers have gone out of business. (The most recent inductee to the ranks would be Mercury, and it’s a fair bet that next year will see a collection of Cougars and Montereys joining the festivities.)
Unfortunately, this year’s show was rained out. A brace of thunderstorms squatted over southeast Michigan and dumped enough rain to flood the river-side park where the event was to take place. Even though the sun came out, the planned show grounds were a marsh. All was not lost, though. A few of the cars that had gathered for the show turned up in the parking lot of the nearby Automotive Heritage Museum, also known as the world’s last Hudson dealer–so I had some interesting vehicles to check out. And when will I ever complain about getting to do that?
Spirit of the machine
May 5th
Going to get a little metaphysical today.
I thought for a while about the strange life of cars. Well, not so strange; it makes perfect sense to me. A car’s more than just a transportation appliance (even if it’s a Toyota Camry). There’s a soul, a spirit of the machine if you will, that exists the moment a thing is put together and starts to work. A car is a big machine made up of lots of smaller machines–engine, transmission, windshield wiper motor, brake calipers, headlights, cigarette lighter, power door locks, etc.–and so its “soul” is the collective mechanical consciousness of all these things working together. All of these various components hanging together on the chassis and body work together and create the car’s spirit and its personality. More >
Resurrecting Maisie: Part Two
Apr 23rd
Working on Maisie is an interesting mental exercise. I think, “Holy shit, I don’t know how to rebuild an engine! What the hell have I gotten myself into? I don’t know what I’m doing!” Then I look at the next step, which says something like, “Disconnect throttle cable,” and I think, “oh, okay, I know how to do that at least.” So I do it. Then I look at the project and flail around thinking, “Gaah! What the hell am I doing? Someone’s gotta do this for me, I’m not the right guy!” Then I look at the next step, which says something like, “Remove all vacuum and emissions lines from intake manifold.” Well, okay, I know how to do that. So I do it…and so on, you get the point by now. More >