Reality Bites

Reality Bites

So I have a small arsenal of cars – the newest of which is a 1990 Porsche RS clone. It has slowly turned into a pseudo track car/investment, so it doesn’t get driven all that often at all. Given that, the newest “real” car I own is a 1964 Ford F100. It’s not a “collector car.” It’s a farm truck that I drive every single day. It’s really my daily driver.

Before that, my daily driver was the Tardel/Cochran coupe – a flathead powered 1930 coupe. It’s one of my favorite cars on the planet, is probably the fastest flathead powered car I’ve ever driven, and is almost 100% era correct to the late 1940’s. It’s also the worst daily driver I’ve ever attempted to use. Hot, uncomfortable, and loud as hell…

Before that, my daily driver was a 1965 Buick Riviera. The 63-65 Buick Riviera is, in my opinion, the most comfortable American made car ever produced. I’d even put it right up against anything Cadillac makes today. Seriously. It’s as if this car was designed for my comfort… and mine was just about perfect. But, I sold it after my buddy who painted it passed away. It just made me sad to drive.

Before that, my daily driver was a ’39 Ford sedan. I sold it when my wife got pregnant with our third… and to this day, it’s one of the worst decisions I’ve ever made. I miss that car so much. I put 30,000 miles on it in just over two years and they were some of the best miles in any car I’ve ever owned.

Before that, my daily driver was a 1960 Chevrolet wagon street rod. It was yellow, on bags, a/c, zz383 crate motor, 700r4, etc… It was also boring as hell. It was the car that taught me that as soon as you make an old car new again, it ceases to be an old car anymore. And when they aren’t old cars, what’s the point?

So… I’ve gone about a decade now without a late model vehicle. It sounds super romantic, right? And it is… And I often wonder why more people don’t do it. I mean, the financial benefits (no depreciation) alone outweigh any negatives that come with relying on antiquated technology day in and day out. You just have to take the leap of faith and do it. Grab life by the balls and jump in without a safety net.

There is a caveat though. And it’s one that I often take for granted. See, I live in the country. My kids go to school in the country. My grocery store is in the country. Almost everything I need is in the country. But every now and then, I have to go into the big city and it’s then that I realize why more people don’t drive this old shit every day.

Yesterday I had to go into Austin to pick up five sheets of plywood. It’s a thirty minute round trip that took me three hours because of traffic. About 2 and a half of those hours were spent staring at my temperature gauge – the remainder was spent sweating and swearing and stressing and…

Point being, sometimes it’s just not in the cards. But if it is in yours, stop thinking about it and just do it. Reality doesn’t have to bite.

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