Saturday was a beautiful day. Weather was nice. By seven in the evening it wasn't too hot. I got a call from my friend Adele, also known as "The lady on the hood of my convertible up at Solitude in the middle of winter." Her '73 MGB hasn't been out since last summer and is hankerin
g for a cruise in the nice weather. So I head over there, she's already removed all the cat hair that's coming off, we take it to the Chevron and put air in the tires and a little bit of gas ($672.35) and hit the road. Well, it's got a little bit of an exhaust leak and even with the top down and moving, after a half hour or so we're craving the nice clean air one gets through a filtered cigarette, and decide to switch into my convertible. We're at the light at 2700 East and 3900 South waiting for traffic to clear so we can turn right when I see a semi loaded with cars coming down 39th South from the direction of the freeway. Like Pavlov's dogs and the ringing of the bell, I start salivating at the sight of a semi full of cars. So, we're sitting there at the light and I'm scoping out the cars and among the Cadillac Escalades and Lexuses (Lexi?) and other non-descript used cars my eye is caught by a classic red convertible Cougar. "Nice Cougar", and Adele looks up at the car and agrees. Now the brain cells start working. I know that Dan & Rae have been looking for a convertible Cougar online for a while. It's on a car carrier, headed from the freeway down 39th South, in the direction of their house. I say "I'll bet that's Dan & Rae's car, they've been looking for one." So Adele says "follow that car!", even though she's the one driving, and darts (safely) into traffic. We followed it through the 2300 E intersection and down the road a little bit, where it turned into a parking lot. Yup, this has to be theirs. Lo & behold, as we're pulling into the parking lot, Dan, Rae and the kids pull up to the truck. Not like they were excited or anything, when Rae saw us walking towards she came running up and gave me a running leap hug. So we got to see them get their classic convertible off the truck. It reminded me of when I got mine almost 10 years ago. The anticipation, the trepidation about whether or not the car was going to be worth what I paid for it, the exhilaration the moment you
first hear the car start up and the sense of joy and relief when you get to check it out and realize you got the car you wanted. Anyway, I'm glad it all worked out for them, it was pretty much exactly what they expected. And it's a beautiful car. Adele and I went to bring back her car and came back with my '70 LTD convertible (by the way, their Cougar is a '69, hidden headlights and all). Mine is a 390 CID, theirs I think is a 351 CID. Mine is about a foot wider and 2 feet longer, but the Cougar is definitely a muscle car, it literally growls when you hit the gas and Danny spun the tires in the parking lot. The LTD, on the other hand, is a boat. It rumbles instead of growling, and instead of spinning tires, when you hit the gas in the LTD th
e front end lifts up and the car starts to move in a manner that says "I'm gonna get that perp." Either way, there's nothing like a late 60's-early 70's Ford. Congrats Dan & Rae, you can now join me at the Henry Ford Clinic.......
g for a cruise in the nice weather. So I head over there, she's already removed all the cat hair that's coming off, we take it to the Chevron and put air in the tires and a little bit of gas ($672.35) and hit the road. Well, it's got a little bit of an exhaust leak and even with the top down and moving, after a half hour or so we're craving the nice clean air one gets through a filtered cigarette, and decide to switch into my convertible. We're at the light at 2700 East and 3900 South waiting for traffic to clear so we can turn right when I see a semi loaded with cars coming down 39th South from the direction of the freeway. Like Pavlov's dogs and the ringing of the bell, I start salivating at the sight of a semi full of cars. So, we're sitting there at the light and I'm scoping out the cars and among the Cadillac Escalades and Lexuses (Lexi?) and other non-descript used cars my eye is caught by a classic red convertible Cougar. "Nice Cougar", and Adele looks up at the car and agrees. Now the brain cells start working. I know that Dan & Rae have been looking for a convertible Cougar online for a while. It's on a car carrier, headed from the freeway down 39th South, in the direction of their house. I say "I'll bet that's Dan & Rae's car, they've been looking for one." So Adele says "follow that car!", even though she's the one driving, and darts (safely) into traffic. We followed it through the 2300 E intersection and down the road a little bit, where it turned into a parking lot. Yup, this has to be theirs. Lo & behold, as we're pulling into the parking lot, Dan, Rae and the kids pull up to the truck. Not like they were excited or anything, when Rae saw us walking towards she came running up and gave me a running leap hug. So we got to see them get their classic convertible off the truck. It reminded me of when I got mine almost 10 years ago. The anticipation, the trepidation about whether or not the car was going to be worth what I paid for it, the exhilaration the moment you
first hear the car start up and the sense of joy and relief when you get to check it out and realize you got the car you wanted. Anyway, I'm glad it all worked out for them, it was pretty much exactly what they expected. And it's a beautiful car. Adele and I went to bring back her car and came back with my '70 LTD convertible (by the way, their Cougar is a '69, hidden headlights and all). Mine is a 390 CID, theirs I think is a 351 CID. Mine is about a foot wider and 2 feet longer, but the Cougar is definitely a muscle car, it literally growls when you hit the gas and Danny spun the tires in the parking lot. The LTD, on the other hand, is a boat. It rumbles instead of growling, and instead of spinning tires, when you hit the gas in the LTD th
e front end lifts up and the car starts to move in a manner that says "I'm gonna get that perp." Either way, there's nothing like a late 60's-early 70's Ford. Congrats Dan & Rae, you can now join me at the Henry Ford Clinic.......
3 comments:
Wow. Congrats Dan & Rae!
That is a really cool car! Honey, will you get me one? ;)
No problem. Except all I could find is a purple Gremlin. That's close enough, isn't it?
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