Old cars...are they TIME MACHINES too?

I just drove my old car to a cruise night and back to the garage, then did the rest of tonight's driving in my modern car. What a difference.

When driving the old car, it just brings me back in time. Suddenly I'm about 19 again....without a care in the world! It just seems like I'm always in a good mood and thinking happy thoughts when behind the wheel of an old car.

Anybody else feel the same way?

 

All the time man! Driving the roadster or the Buick to work always seems to make the day better and the drive home no big deal. Running errands is more fun too. Drive on!!!

 

im only 21, but it does "take me back" to drive around in my 49 chebby, especially when i p*** anouther hotrod. And the day seems to fly by at work because i can see the car sitting in the parking lot and im thinking about how much fun it's going to be to drive that ***** to the bar, or to a friends house or whatever that nite

 

yeah,,,i'd like to think that is why we are ALL here,,because of 'THAT' feeling...

,,i would hate to think that there is anybody else HERE for other reasons than that...

 

Well Ive had my 38 Chevy coupe since 1974 when I was 22 so I guess I feel like I'm 22 every time I drive it.

 

Hell, I even get sorta like that when working on em I was doing some body work on a guy down the streets 70 chevelle which looks like it was a street machine in that era listening to led zeppelin I thought it was 1974 all over again. Not that its traditional but, I understand the feeling

 

Every time I slid behind the wheel of my friend Burl's Track Car, my Old Roadster, my son's 57 BelAir, my old 48 Plymouth Woodie, or any other old car I've driven or owned, it is a trip to another world. The miles roll by, the tires sing, the exhaust rumbles, and there isn't a trouble in the world. There is NO better therapy for a crazy world than a few minutes or preferably hours behind the wheel of an old car going absolutely no where, drifting with the wind.

 

Yeh, ****** like shifften a three on da tree with a flatty aruuummbblleem unda da hood!.......Roach.

 

Yeah, I have a column shift three speed too....can't be shifting that in a hurry! It's kind of funny when you leave a light, the delay in shifting first to second usually catches whoever is behind me off gaurd. Driver's aren't used to that anymore...or me having to come to a complete stop to grab first gear in the non-synchronized transmission. Again, it just brings you back to simpler times.

 

I guess it probably helps that I'm driving the same type of car that my first car was. From inside it is almost identical.

Mine has none of the modern "creature comforts"....No power steering, power brakes, automatic, etc... I can only imagine the difficulty that the "little old lady" that drove my car must have had driving to and from church on Sundays.

 

When we got Mike's T roadster running last fall, and went out cruising the gravel roads near my house, it truly felt like we were transported back in time. It was/is unreal to be putting along at 30 mph with the banger singing....p'tatah, p'tatah, p'tatah,....

 

I took a good freind of mine for a ride to the store the other day in "Trouble Maker"....he's not really into old cars like I am, but he can appreciate 'em and likes to go fast. Many stories of us 'hoodlums' in my Charger from years ago....

Anyway,
On the way to the store, he just starts laughing.....I ask (actually yell, PU is LOUD) "What are ya laughin' at?".......he says...."Dude, it feels like were breaking SO many laws"......hahahahahaha!!!!! I start laughing as well.....

That's one of the feelings I get.....that driving an old style Hotrod almost seems "illegal" in this day and age........that to me is FUN!!!

 

It is a ton of fun! I'm only 33, but I can imagine what it felt like to ride back in the day. I am always grinnin, and I never have a ****ty thought in my head while behind the wheel of my Buick. What a great thing!!

 

I'm 23, and for me it is definitely a time machine. It just takes me back to an era I WISH I was from. My dad and uncle both raced tri-five chevy's in the 60's. My uncle's was supposed to be a real barn burner, too!

Even when I was attached to imports and compacts, I loved hearing their stories about the way things were done. Racing for parts cause nobody had any money to put up. Spending half the night trying out some crazy tip or theory that some guy's dad who was friends with someone who had a garage recommended, just to pick up an extra 1 or 2 horses.

I've jumped ship to the Ford camp, but it still takes me back to an era I wish I had experienced. Great stuff.

 

I came here to meet chicks.......yeah....
and sponge beer......

yeah, that's why I'm here

I ain't had a car done in so long I've almost forgot that feeling. Hope to rectify that situation soon.......

 

being in an old car is surreal, yeah kind of like a time machine.

I like seeing my chevy parked in any busy parking lot or at work with all the other later models. It's at this time that it feels like going back in time.

 

Yup, Like going back in time. I get into my Fairlane with Manual Steering Manual Brakes and a 4 speed and Ya have to Drive, I mean really drive. The sounds, the bumps all of it is so freakin cool.

 

The owner of the building where my "shop" is, used to be an old guy about 90 years old. He used to tell us stories about driving in the old days.

His first car was some kind of Model T speedster....he couldn't remember whether the body was home made or bought from a catalog....but anyway he bought the car for $75 and it came with the license plate. He did recall that it was painted red, but couldn't for the life of him remember how he managed to get a hold of $75 which was a sizeable amount of cash in the late 20's.

The stories would get good when he'd mention that his was one of very few cars in town. The town's constable (cop) rode a bicycle and was constantly reprimanding the young speed freak about speeding/kicking up too much dust.

He told me that one night him and his best friend were driving the speedster to a dance...alll dressed to kill the ladies...and they got a flat tire. He told his buddy to hide in the woods while he turned his shirt around backwards and put his suit jacket back on. A few minutes later another motorist approached and said "need a hand changing that tire Father?". They got their tire changed and made it to the dance without messing up their clothes or hair! I wonder if St. Peter reminded him of that little episode when he got to the pearly gates a few years ago?

 

yep,
Every day is like the first day it was fired. Its like an escape from reality.
I have been told that they never heard a flathead sound like mine and p***ing someone who is apparently pre-occupied with their chores or whatever and seeing them stop dead in their tracks with their mouth hanging open is the second best thing.

 

Kinda the same....

Was in paso this weekend, heading north on spring street past the show. there wasnt a lot of people out. i was in my 50 chrysler, was a guy behind me in a 52 buick, an old chevy pickup past me going south.....i looked up the residential street i was p***ing to see an a roadster pickup driving south on a parallel street... magic is a good word....

 

Now if we could just come up with one more ****on for the time machine dashboard...one that would delete the cell-phone zombie in the Cadillac SUV running six inches off the rear bumper...

 

Sure. I wasn't around in 1954 but there is hardly a day that someone who was doesn't stop and look and you can see the *****le of days gone by for them.

Happened today. Stopped at Sears and an older gentleman in a new Cadillac parked nearby. He at first just made a comment "Nice car". You could see the recollections come back to him. He stopped and asked if I cared if he looked it over better. I told him to have at it.

He tells me he had a 54 and then asks "What kind of mileage do you get now, around 16"? I chuckled and said yeah.

 

Nah....you don't want to "delete" the SUV zombie, just zap him/her about 60 years into the future so they could see how it feels to have whatever even more obnoxious vehicle riding their azz !

 

Old cars are the ultimate Fountain of Youth..........

 

its like being in a better time, a time with out cell phones , computors , blackberries, blueberries, rasberries, texting,and all the other **** that gives us stress, and premature grey hair. we are all like H.G.Wells in a small way. its just a shame that when you get out of old car or off that old scooter, the present day **** comes rushing back. i often wonder, who rode in my cars before me, where did they travel to , and are the spirits of those people still in the car with me as i travel to places. mike

 

"i often wonder, who rode in my cars before me, where did they travel to , and are the spirits of those people still in the car with me as i travel to places. mike"

Sometimes you don't have to wonder, and that can be pretty intense...
My '48 Ford was bought new by my Father with his saved pay from WWII service in the Marines--it was delivered new to him in Nanking China, and very shortly thereafter I rode home from the hospital in that car. Every childhood memory I have, here, China, and Germany, sits in that car...I know every thread in the upholstery and every bolt in the ch***is. It is part of me, and just sitting in it can be overwhelming sometimes.

 

It's funny how our opinions change. The sound of that inline 6 in my 54 is sweet. However, when I was a kid and we used to rummage through the auto wreckers, we'd run over to the new arrivals, pop the hood and say "****, it's got a 6 in it"....
Todd

 

My '50 was owned by a friend of my family's so I rode in it as a little kid. When I got into my teens, I fixed it for the old fella as he was gettin' on in years and needed some help. After more years, when he p***ed, his widow wanted me to have it 'cause she knew I'd take care of it. (The old fella p***ed away driving himself to the hospital ) My wife says she's gonna bury me in it (maybe sooner than later ) 'cause I've been with it longer than her. My kids use to complain the radio only gets "old" stations but the keenest interest in it is my young daughter - she calls it her "sister". I love to ask unsuspecting people to hop in and take a ride...the look on their faces is all youth and sweeter times gone by.

When I drive down the road and look in the mirror - there's the old fella' sittin right behind the wheel...

Powerband

 

Hell,I can have a ****ty day and come home to crank my car up and just hearing the engine purr makes me feel better,like someone else said,its that feeling.

 

The best part is being 50 and having a bunch of twenty year old cuties pull up beside me and checkin out the ride. Dont care theyre looking at the car. Reminds me of all the good times I had cruisin and pickin up the gals. Nothing better than pickin up girls in an old HOT ROD, as my younger son is starting to find out