It’s Wednesday. Here’s something you don’t see every day. Today I have some automotive goodness of the earliest kind! While visiting Dexter, Michigan, one of my readers stumbled upon a group of men and their cars from days gone by. He caught up with them at a local restaurant to get a better look. Maybe it’s just me, but whenever I see vehicles like these from the dawn of automotive history, it puts a smile on my face. I can’t help wonder what their designers and engineers would think about today’s modern vehicles and how proud they would feel knowing their creations are still on the road.  And not only are they still running, but they look and function perfectly. What an incredible find. A huge thanks to Brad for allowing me to share his story and photos!

-keep

Keep! Long time no write! While visiting Dexter, MI, i saw a really old car go by. Then another, and another. I followed them to a restaurant where they were taking a midday break and got to see these classic beauties from the early days of automotive goodness up close. They were on a two day tour from Greenfield Village to Okemos, then return, about 100 miles each way. Due to their age (the cars, not the drivers), there were three mechanic support vehicles following.

The closeup shows the suspension on the Brush. The chain must be kept clean, and there are two oil cups that need to be filled. The spring is obvious, but what damps the spring motion is a friction disc (under left oil cup) that rotates when the axle moves up and down. And that needs to be adjusted occasionally!

It would be a treat to putt along in one of these on the old blue roads for a day!

-Brad from Kent OH

[ngg_images gallery_ids=”26″ display_type=”photocrati-nextgen_basic_thumbnails”]

 
It’s Tuesday. Well, damn. I woke up yesterday to the news of Ric Ocasek’s death. Ric was the lead singer of the rock band The Cars. They hit it big in the late 70s and early 80s with songs like “My Best Friend’s Girl”, “Since You’re Gone”, “Magic”, “Let’s Go”, “Drive”, “Just What I Needed”, “Good Times Roll”, “Bye Bye Love” and “Shake It Up”. They were very much a part of the soundtrack of my highschool years. When CDs first came out, their album Heartbeat City was one of the first I ever purchased.

Ric Ocasek was known for his mop of black hair and black sunglasses and was the band’s primary song writer, though often sharing lead vocals with bassist Benjamin Orr. Ocasek married supermodel Paulina Porizkova after the two met while shooting the video for 1984’s “Drive” and had two children together.

The band had 13 Top 40 singles and four Top 10 LPs and were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.

Ric was 75 years old.

-keep

It’s Monday. Had another good weekend. The weather was beautiful on Saturday so I went out to the Route 66 Dragstrip where they were hosting the Super Chevy Show. They had a huge car show, drag races, swap-meet, food, and music throughout the weekend. There was so much automotive goodness that I will have a very hard time picking out my favorites to share with all of you. Aside from the incredible collection of cars, I’d have to say my second favorite attraction was the jet cars. One cannot describe what it’s like of seeing and feeling these things race down the dragstrip at well over two hundred MPH—it has to be experienced. Absolutely unbelievable.

After leaving the Super Chevy Show, I met a friend out at a marina on the Des Plaines river. It was a gorgeous day so there were plenty of people out on the water. It was nice just hanging out and having some drinks while watching an endless parade of boats. In another month or so it’ll be too cold to be out there and all those boats will be put away for the winter. Damn.

My Sunday was fairly uneventful. I caught the Bears/Broncos game which was actually pretty good. They nearly blew it at the end but got it together in time to win 16-14. 

Back to work…

-keep