There are many ways to enter The Old Car Club, or "The Establishment" to those in the know. You can show up at a Barret-Jackson auction and shell out half a million dollars or more on the car from your youth, or your fathers youth for that matter. A cherished family member can die, or you find it in a barn and get it for an amazing price. I however came into The Establishment by none of these ways I'm afraid. Oh I do watch Barret-Jackson when I can, and I have had family members die. And if I buy anything in a barn it'll be my Case steam tractor I dream about. No I'm afraid I entered as many people do these days, a happenstance on Craigslist and loan from my bank of $1,500. Thank the Lord for Credit Unions and a car I've already paid off. My entry ticket? A 1970 Standard Volkswagen Beetle Sedan in what I like to call British Racing Green with a hole in the floor you could pass a bowling ball through.
I'm not sure what possessed me to purchase a vehicle eleven years older then myself. Well if I'm to be brutally honest with you, and myself, the truth is romance. Where is the romance in maintaining a 38 year old car you ask? Of finding parts for it? In driving it through a Montana Winter? Well to know that we must start at the beginning. The very beginning.
In the beginning there was God. God created man. Man created car. And he saw it was good. So he made another car. This made the First Car an Old car and The Old Car Club, or "The Establishment" to those in the know, was born. This cycle repeated again and again until New Car was truly the establishment of progress! And then for some unfathomable reason, Man buys Old Car again even though New Car runs well and is much safer, faster, more economical, and more friendly to the environment. And Woman, who showed up while man was figuring out what options to put on New Car doubted and laughed at Man, knowing the hardship and monetary drain he has just purchased, because she is and always will be right. So it has been since time immemorial. Unless you count the first car of course because there was no Old Car at that point. And the cycle repeats to this very day.
Now romance comes in many forms, in many different ways, to many different people. But for petrol heads, it can only come on wheels. And for some of us, older is better. But not because it's old mind you, not atall. Because the vehicle in front of us was once new.
I should explain that for those of you not members. We're not buying the car as it stands in front of us at the time we buy it, we're buying the car it will be. And that is always a much cheaper proposition in our minds eye before we put our money down. The sound, the feel and the smell all conspire to set our hearts racing and we see our soon to be family member not old, but new and pristine. Racing down the autobahn with driving gloves and a scarf on, taking Ginger Rogers to dinner, the valet intoning "No check needed for you sir!". We'll restore it from top to bottom, inside and out. Bring back the glory that for some reason only we can see. We put our money down and prepare ourselves.
And then a strange thing happens. The car, which we could imagine new and restored suddenly becomes the pile of rust and missing parts we've just bought. Funny how you didn't notice the wheels are missing and it's on a flatbed even though you've been looking at it since you arrived. This hard truth can take a while, helped along by an irate significant other and a steadily shrinking bank account but inevitably reality and fantasy will balance each other out. And we stand in the cold light of day with a car that doesn't run, no girlfriend, wife, or mistress and twenty dollars to our name. That's how cars end up on concrete blocks in peoples front yards in case you were wondering.
But even in this most depressing of states, The Establishment will shine through. Another driver will lift a wave off the steering wheel as they drive past in their old car. Someone will stop and admire your car, maybe regale you with stories of how they owned a car just like it or new someone else who did. It's subtle way we members tell each other they know what you're going through. They too have fought to find tires, scraped rust until there was no floor left, fought their engine on a cold morning and lived without defrost. This is what owning an old car is.
So I am a proud member of The Old Car Club and look to my fellow inductees for wisdom and guidance. I drive in another time. My grandfathers learned to drive in cars like this. Before power steering and anti-lock brakes. Before people cared about cup holders and hands free wireless. I drive as generations before me have and trace it back to the first cars. When you had to be your own mechanic, navigator and witch doctor just to keep your car running. And I'll be the first to admit I'm smug about it. Very smug. Because I have found a romance only a select few will get the opportunity to know. And some day my car will be restored as a saw it when I first laid eyes on it and feel hopelessly in love. I can't wait.
"Remember I'm pulling for ya. We're all in this together"-Red Green
