Top Down

I'm a closet car guy.  I really like cars.. Not just shiny ones, either.   Whether a Rusty pick up on blocks and half-concealed with overgrowth or a sweet, show-ready, freshly waxed Porsche GT3 I see around town with the vanity tag: "NOWIFE".  I really like cars.

(and I love my wife) :)

There's interesting and subtle art in the curves of car bodies and the oxidizing decay of metal over time.   The stories and the history from the car culture Americana of the 50's through the street racing rice-rocket tuners: it's all super fascinating and interesting.   The art is there, the history and the people.  Car people are typically cool to be around.  Especially the sorts that load up and sit around in lawn chairs at car shows.  

Something about a functional garage too....  The mixture of smells from gear oil, GoJo and transmission fluid and the sounds of impact wrenches and the distinctive (clank clank) sound of a breaker bar hitting a concrete floor.     Like Starbucks ambiance for the motor-head soul.

This.. leads me to owning two super impractical vehicles.     This one, a high-ish mileage R171 Mercedes-Benz AMG55 and a 1990 AM General Military HMMWV in a Vietnam-era Camo paint scheme.    On the plus side of things:

Neither vehicle is particularly expensive in used-car form.  Choosing a car for a commute is a little like the select-a-car screen from the Cruisin' USA Arcade game.   The convertible has a snappy 5.4l V8, that will go 0-62 in 4.9 seconds with 200MPH on the speedometer, stiff suspension and a throaty exhaust that sounds like the offspring of an American-made muscle car and a Euro-Drift  tuner.  The HMMWV has a 6.2l Detroit Diesel engine pushing a beastly 5200lbs.  It rides on 37" MT Military on/off road tires, offers 4WD, and 0-65MPH in about three days, which is also the top speed.  It is built for ruggedness, can be forded and is super-simple to work on.

On the down side of things, neither vehicle is particularly suited for Long Range trips with cargo.   The Benz burns premium fuel, uses nearly 9 quarts of the most expensive oil possible.    Neither vehicle make me a particular great steward of the environment in terms of fuel economy.
I also, generally like to fold in and out of the public without being noticed like a hermit-ninja.  It turns out that ostentatious vehicles increase the difficulty of this task... considerably. :)

At any rate... that's my car-stuff ramblings for now.   I ran before a gathering of photographers to the Fairhope Pier and snapped this photo.  Adventures were had but more on that another time...

Find a car show near you and go listen to the rumble of a V8, flutter of a Turbo, whistle of a Supercharger or the purr of a tuned European exhaust system and tell me it isn't infectious..