Antique & Classic Cars Blog
When Your Wheels Got Turning
Friday, February 15th, 2008A woman called me a few days ago asking for an interview. I wasn’t sure why someone would want to interview me, but she hadn’t said “Detective” before her name, so it sounded OK. Turns out she was doing a piece on car-book authors for a regional publication called, “What’s Playing.”
One of her questions was, “When did you first become interested in cars?” To a non-car nut, that may seem like a reasonable–even essential–question. But car nuts will tell you that they’ve always been interested in cars. It’s like asking someone from Latvia, “how long have you been Latvian?”
When my brother and I cleaned out the family home several years ago, one of the old photos to emerge shows a tow-headed two-year old astride a red plastic Triumph TR3. I am grinning, of course. The photograph predates my memory, yet I am a car nut then as now.
I wonder how many readers of these pages can remember some moment that triggered a fascination with cars…. My guess is almost none.
Car fascination is akin to appreciating a mountain range or a roaring waterfall or a soaring eagle, even if it’s the first time you’ve seen one. You don’t decide to appreciate it; you appreciate it because it appeals to your sense of wonder or freedom or power or speed.
It was no conscious decision to emerge from the primordial muck any more than it was to invent the wheel. The former led to becoming a creature with arms and legs. The latter set the stage for the car, so we could use our limbs to steer and brake and shift.
Isn’t the universe great?
3 Responses to "When Your Wheels Got Turning"
Although I’d always had a fascination in general with cars as long as I can remember, I’d just been nibbling at the bait for the most part. The person I can point to as being the one who set the hook is my uncle, on the day he brought his newly purchased 1940 Ford Deluxe Opera Coupe over to show me. It had a 1957 Olds V8 with the J2 TriPower setup, backed up by a Lincoln Zephyr tranny, and a Hallibrand quick change rear end. Pretty standard stuff for 1963, when I was a very impresssionable ten years old. I remember my very first ride in the primer red car, complete with the red and white tuck and roll interior. When those outside carbs cut in, the howl was incredible. With a full race camshaft and headers, it was pretty quick. Or at least it seemed like it to me. It even had a Hurst Shifter decal on the dashboard that stated: “Caution, this car is equipped with a Hurst shifter. Excessive force may cause injuries to your hand.” More of a boast, than a caution of course.
By the way, how are you coming along with that BW/Saginaw shifter modification program?
That’s a cool car and experience Dave. When I was a youngin’, the coolest cars around were at my grandparents’ place in Center City, Minnesota. There was a ‘54 Ford, a ‘53 Pontiac Chieftain and my aunt’s ‘59 Impala convertible–black and white on the outside, white top, red interior. WOW was that car beautiful. Riding in that Impala, looking at the big, thin-rimmed steering wheel and subtle design touches like the radio speaker nestled between the tops of the rear seatbacks, helped me appreciate hthe art in cars. They didn’t just haul you around; they were very carefully crafted to appeal to the eye.
I am on the verge of ordering Hurst linkage for the T10. I could make some, I’m sure, as we did with the TR8…. but somehow I want it to be Hurst, the very bars and bends designed for this setup. Trick is, a ‘63 Buick based T10 is a rare find and most of the Hurst parts lists don’t spec that; mostly they speak of full-size Chevy and Corvette T10s of that period. I’m in the process of trying to determine which set puts the shifter exactly where I want it. The Buick T10 has two sets of shifter mounting holes. I want to use the forward set. I’ll edit this post with links to the choices in case anyone wants to weigh in.
“By the way, how are you coming along with that BW/Saginaw shifter modification program?”
I’m thinking about ordering a Hurst kit and then selling my Saginaw linkage rather than trying to modify it, but it’s not clear which kit is right.
http://www.show-cars.com/images/5833.jpg
Show Cars in New Ulm has this, which they describe as:
Hurst linkage for T-10… Ea. $121.00
(you might have to copy and paste the link, rather than click, to see the photo; it’s nested on the page.)
Jegs sells this one, which looks similar.
http://www.jegs.com/i/Hurst/530/373-4734/10002/-1
Covered vehicles:
Chevy
Full Size 1955-57
Full Size 1960-63
Custom Pickup Installations
Pontiac
Full Size 1960-64
Studebaker
Hawk 1959-64
Seems like one of the Vette kits should work too–they had T10s; or why not the ‘65 Skylark? (I’ll ring a few places and see if anyone handling the phones knows what’s up.)
http://www.jegs.com/p/Hurst/749299/10002/-1/10523
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MotorMouth Kris Palmer, freelance auto writer and editor, blogs about vintage cars, the collectible auto scene and just about anything else that goes vroom.
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