Roger Dodger on the washboard roads. I don't know if you ever noticed, but washboard roads make an unique dust. If you've ever lived near one you'll know. It is super duper fine. The dust cloud is super thick and extra long lasting.

Handy for avoiding state troopers. It's impossible to keep up with a car on a dusty washboard road.

Talk about nostalgia. Our state was dry, if you know what I mean.



That dust feels like silk in your hand.

 

I had a 51 Buick, I hesitate to say special. It had two big headlights, huge front grill, and sloped back.

It had a straight eight engine that purred like a kitten as it propelled close to 5000 lbs. around.

Had the wonderbar on the vibrator driven am radio.

Great driving car and good on snow.

Special Eight I believe it was called.

http://www.allcollectorcars.com/for-sale/1951-Buick-Special-Eight/1809370/

My mother had a 53 Buick similar to that. It was a cool car; hers was a two door and was two-tone green and yellow. I was fascinated by the radio antenna; as I recall, there was a knob on the inside that allowed the antenna to be adjusted. Of course, it was just a gimmick, but it was cool. Even then I was interested in the technology.

 

My grandfather had a Buick Roadmaster. I got my first scar from an electrical spark under its dashboard.
It's hard to believe I was crawling under the dash of a car at about 8 years old trying to figure out how it worked!
I still have the scar. A little divot just to the right of my upper lip.

That car was good on the washboard roads of Kentucky. The trick was to find the right speed for the wheels to be coming down hard just as they came to the top of the next ripple in the road. Somewhere around 55 miles an hour and the road would seem to smooth out. Of course, you were floating the suspension, and floating the car from bump to bump. As long as you could keep it in the middle of the road you could sustain that posture for miles. Then another car would come along and you had to slow down and get to the right until it passed. I wonder how long the shocks lasted under that kind of punishment! Probably a few weeks.

Speaking of the washboard roads, I suppose you remember that they had only three "ruts" for the tires: one on the extreme right for the right side tires in one lane, one on the extreme left for the right side tires in the opposite lane, and one down the middle that was used by the driver's side tires of cars going both directions...except for the brief time that they were meeting. That may have been the beginning of playing "chicken."

My grandmother never had a drivers license, and the local sheriff/moonshiner knew not to mess with her.
That would be bad for business, not to mention what would happen when granny told his mother.

Nostalgia.
I haven't thought about coming out from under that dashboard for 50 years.

Do you remember that the gravel roads usually had only three tire ruts...one for the passenger side wheels for cars going one direction, one for the passenger side wheels for cars going the opposite direction, and one for the driver side wheels of cars going both directions? Could make for some interesting games of "chicken."

 

Roger Dodger on the washboard roads. I don't know if you ever noticed, but washboard roads make an unique dust. If you've ever lived near one you'll know. It is super duper fine. The dust cloud is super thick and extra long lasting.

Handy for avoiding state troopers. It's impossible to keep up with a car on a dusty washboard road.

Talk about nostalgia. Our state was dry, if you know what I mean.



That dust feels like silk in your hand.

The gravel roads where I grey up were mostly yellow chert. Dusty when it was dry, muddy when it was wet, and rough all the time.

 

There are quite a few of those cars. There was a Camry SE 5 speed, before that Taurus SHO, Omni GLH / GLHS, MR2 mki supercharged and mkii turbo, or some Civics....

Even the late Pontiac G8 can be tremendously fast down the highway.

But that's where the american approach to sports cars stops: they are all about large displacement and brutal force - aka the Ferrari approach. The other approach focuses on power / weight ratio - the Porsche approach.

 

Had a 63 Rambler Ambassador sedan with the AMC 327 during my Navy training days. Built like a tank and just as heavy but she could rumble. Not the fastest car on the block but it was mighty nice to have those big wide bench seats in the back after a beach party in San Diego.

Back in the 50's, I had a cousin who lived in Kenosha, WI. His father worked for American Motors and they drove a Rambler back to Tennessee to visit. At the time, I thought the Nash cars were ugly, but in retrospect, not so much; they certainly were practical.

 

There are quite a few of those cars. There was a Camry SE 5 speed, before that Taurus SHO, Omni GLH / GLHS, MR2 mki supercharged and mkii turbo, or some Civics....

Even the late Pontiac G8 can be tremendously fast down the highway.

But that's where the american approach to sports cars stops: they are all about large displacement and brutal force - aka the Ferrari approach. The other approach focuses on power / weight ratio - the Porsche approach.

Europeans are more about handling that straight-line speed. They know there is more than straightline breaking after a quarter mile of acceleration. Racing in the two regions mirrors (mirrored?) the interest in muscle-car vs. all around performance. NASCAR - a banked continuous loop of simulated straight-away (a.k.a - Left, left, left, left, repeat) and the F1 racing favored in Europe. I must say, the last few times that NASCAR was on when I flipped through the channels, it appeared that attendece may have fallen off. Huge sections of stadiums empty and all the fans packed into "sold-out" sections. I think milennials are not as interested in cars or racing like their parents. Either that or NASCAR ruined racing when then decided keeping everyone in a pack on the same lap is more exciting and, equally annoying is NASCAR's implementation of the "Car of Tomorrow" concept. A common chassis and body that that are modified with stickers to make the grill and tail lights look like a current model of ford, Toyota, GM or what-ever-brand-you need. Who would bother following such a hoax. Oo000h, look at those beautiful simulated headlights on that... (guess the model, wait, what difference does it make?).

 

Do you remember that the gravel roads usually had only three tire ruts.

If I didn't already know you were in Tennessee, you would have proved it with that sentence.

Either that or NASCAR ruined racing

I feel that all racing has gone the way of the U.S. elections. It takes big money to even get started, and before you know it, big money is the only thing you're working for. There ain't no more, "put dual quads on my Hemi" or, "run what you brung". There isn't even any, "I built it and I drive it." Racing isn't a sport, it's a business...and that's not fun. Every car is exactly the same, they all cost a million dollars, and there's no room for amateurs.

 

That dust feels like silk in your hand.

I put an electrostatic air cleaner in my sister's air conditioner in Kentucky. It was a bet I lost.
She lives a quarter mile off the nearest public road and you can tell how the weather has been lately by how thick the dust is in the house.

 

I always wanted an Opel Manta A. I'm probably going to get one as a restoration project and swap the engine with a small block V8.