OMG. These things are poetry in motion. Y’know what I hate? Ya open the lid on a new car and instead of an engine, there’s a module in there. There’s black boxes and computers and wires in all the frooty colours of the rainbow. The cars park themselves now because people are too dumb to do it themselves. Or they take over if you pass out and are about to drive into oncoming traffic. They’ll bleep and blort and glurt at you like R2D2 if you try to back over a tard. Not even Phil at the Busted Knuckle Garage knows how they work - and he doesn’t want to know BFYTW. I don’t blame him.
Pop was telling me I need to buy an electric motorcycle. They’re silent dontchya know!! Maybe I should get adult diapers, Velcro shoes and drink a two-four of Metamucil too, Pop? How the mighty have fallen; Pop used to work on Rolls Royce jet engines.
British Racing Green too. Advancing technology and science has not been good to us. We’ve traded our souls and our manhood for it.
My grandpa ran a garage out of the big building he built in his back lot . He was a Buick specialist among other skills . He used to tune up the old inline strait 8's by putting a cup of coffee on the valve cover and adjust everything until it idled so smooth you couldn't see the coffee move in the cup . They aged Buick cast iron blocks back then for 7 years until they machined them and then built the engine and put it in a new Buick . That's why you could bust a radiator hose and drive the car 20 miles home and it wouldn't crack a head or a block . Fill er up and get on the road again . We've lost something in America . Try that shit with yer Yoda .
ReplyDeleteYeah, I remember back in the old days tuning up a car by "ear" since none of us could afford things like a timing light. Clean the plugs with a piece of sand paper, regap them, throw in a new set of points and condenser, clean the contacts on the distributor cap and you're good to go. Maybe tighten the fan belt and change the air filter since you're under the hood anyway. Afterwards do something stupid like drive to the quarter car wash to power spray the engine to make it nice and clean. Then not be able to start the car or have it missing like a bastard since you got moisture in the distributor and have people behind you in line bitching because they have to wait for you to pop the cap and dry it out. Lather, rinse, repeat the very next time that you tune it up.....
ReplyDeleteI remember being in the comment section somewhere and the kids weer saying this is the Best Time Ever. I suggested that the technology was great but the people are Fkd.
ReplyDeleteAlso, remember in 1970 or so when we all thought the future was going to be great?
Bought a 75 chevy van a few years ago. Finding parts is kind of a pain, but when I can find them, they’re cheap, I can do the work in my driveway and they’re NOT METRIC! Hell, the thing has a carb on it!
ReplyDelete"Advancing technology and science has not been good to us. We’ve traded our souls and our manhood for it."
ReplyDeleteIt's a mixed bag, Glen. Some of this new technology is stupid and I do miss not being able to troubleshoot my own car problems. But then again, as I got older, I've gotten to where I would rather take a beating than work on any car, old or new.
However, I do like some of the newer technology. I like disk brakes with ABS. I like crumple zones and modern seat belts. That auto restart and lane-minder bullshit I could do without, but I like having the backup camera and the obstruction detector that keeps you from backing over the tard ...or the neighbor's wandering toddler.
I like modern sound systems, the GPS, and steel belted radials. And I like the fact that modern cars, if properly taken care of will last a quarter-million miles or more. Older cars - especially pre seventies - not so much.