At Home Mechanic

Do you enjoy driving? The chances are that if you are reading this article then you have an interest in cars and driving them. Of course that is not a guarantee. I knew a guy who was crazy about airplanes, his apartment was filled with airplane models and he had literature and canceled tickets from nearly every airline in the world. But he had no interest in learning to fly an airplane. For the purposes of this entry I will assume that you are a person who enjoys driving.

Why do you like your car? You do like your car, don't you? If you don't like your car why are you still driving it? What compelled you to buy the car you are driving now? Was it a good price? Was the financing attractive? Does it have a flashy paint job, big wheels or a cool entertainment system? Is your car a fashion statement or a lifestyle statement? Do you care what other people think about your car? Are you driving the car you think other people think is a cool car?

"Back in the old days..." If your current age is younger than the average life experience of the cast of "The OC" you really must hate to hear us old folks use that phrase. "Get with the times old man, your era ended when the dinosaurs last roamed the earth," my children are fond of telling me. Well abuse me if you must, but there were some good times back in the old days.

Buy or lease a car? A lease will get you into a car cheaper than a purchase and the payments for a lease can be cheaper than a purchase. But is a lease always a better idea? The answer is: It depends.

Until recently I have never been much of a Subaru fan. My initial impression of Subaru was not very good. I remember when they began imported their weird little cars to America back in the early 1970’s. The Subaru Company was the bastard child of Fuji Heavy Industries (maker of industrial machinery) and Datsun (before they changed their name to Nissan) who united to create another automobile brand and to gain some front wheel drive experience for Datsun before they put their good name on a front driver. Sadly, Datsun did not wait long enough before introducing their first Front Wheel Drive model, the F10, which was lamented by the car magazines of the era as being a Datsun product development project that was subsidized by the consumer public.

It is a slow day in the office and my mind starts to wander. Besides the topics that I cannot mention on a family web site like this one, I tend to daydream about cars. Cars that I have a realistic chance of owning. Cars I could own if feeding, clothing and educating my children were not important to me. And cars that would require matching six lucky numbers for me to own.

Call me a romantic fool but I believe in taking my special lady out and showing her a good time. Just as we used to go on dates when we first met, we like to keep the romantic spark alive by treating ourselves to a special night out at least once a week. Dinner and a movie are our typical evening out, but we like to mix it up by socializing with friends, hunting for bargains at the antique fair or just strolling through the local mall. But I like to reserve a particular spot for one of those “special occasions.�

My lovely fiancée insisted that I take her to the junkyard. So what is a gentleman to do? I took her to the junkyard. Her 16 year-old son, who needs some parts for his 1978 Z28 Camaro, and I were going and so it seemed natural to her that she tag along. My fiancée's 19 year-old daughter thought that she might be missing an adventure, so she came along also. And when my fiancée's brother heard that we were going to the junkyard he jumped on board as well. In total there were five of us packed into the sedan for a family trip to the junkyard.

My recent postings about building a kit car apparently struck a nerve with a lot of readers because that has generated a lot of private email and comments on this site. Of the responses I have received, most of them are of the, "Gee, I always wanted to do that," variety. Others have been helpful with suggestions about donor car for major parts.

I have to admit that I have not done much research on currently offered kits before I wrote that posting, the last time I looked into building one was more than a few years ago. At that time, Lotus Seven kits came from England and used European-market engines and transmissions.

My tradition is to compose a rhyming verse for the CRX community this time of year. This is this year's version:

When you step on that long skinny pedal on the right, what does that thing do and what do we call it? I know that we step on that to make the car go and we commonly refer to that pedal as the Gas Pedal. But how does it make the car go and is it really connected to the gas? Like knowing how microwave ovens work or why windows-based PC need to crash every couple of days, how the "Gas Pedal" makes the car move is generally a mystery to most drivers.

I have a confession to make. I drive faster than the posted speed limit. Shocking, I know. But it is true. It may be hard to believe that someone would willfully violate the law of the land, but I freely admit that I am an outlaw.

Are you smirking with self-righteous indignation at my transgressions? Are you furrowing your brow with concern for my wanton disregard for the health and safety of the rest of the general public? Before you condemn me, ask yourself if your hands are completely clean. I suppose that none of you have EVER driven faster than the posted limit. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.