And wait till you get a load of his daily driver; a four-door Pontiac Laurentian sedan, in factory original "firemist red metallic," three-on-the-tree, in case anyone remembers what that means, and a straight six! The darned thing is almost older than he is!
The humiliation must be constant, especially given Kipling's stature in the "supercar" community back in the day. That word had different associations fifty years ago. Today a "supercar" is a Maclaren or Bugatti a mid-level Ukrainian intelligence operative would be tooling around Monaco in, whereas the word formerly referred to American iron that was 500 hp or better, or at least close to it.
It wasn't hard to separate the wheat from the chaff in that arena. A 12 second quarter miler with wheelie bars is a sure sign you're a poser, not a player. That's why Kipling was a local legend after he'd had three bona fide American supercars for sale on his front lawn at the same time! We're talking not one, but two of the legendary solid-lifter big-block SS Novas, and, hold on to your hat, one of only eight '66 hemi-Chargers sold new in all of Canada!
Fast forward 150 years or so, and the poor sod was up eyeballing the Mustang Fifty that's been sleeping under a blanket of birdshit in my garage the last ten years or so. On a good day she wouldn't have made half the horsies of a hemi or a rat, but by golly, my old pal is in the mood to fix up something not-too-scary for the grandkids who get a little closer to driving age with every passing year.
In the three or so hours of poking and prodding under the hood and under the car itself, we learned she's not the worse for ten years coated in bird droppings, and when his grand-daughters hit driving age, they'll show up to their high-school in a 40 year-old classic!
Well, the cars may be slower, but Kipling still has the touch. Had I taken the 'stang to a shop in town, I would have bid farewell to the better part of a grand to learn what my old pal figured out in three hours, for the price of breakfast!
Oh shit! I think he even paid for that!
No comments:
Post a Comment