OTHER INTERESTS?

Since FP & DsD opened the door last week to high fashion and Ms. Bristol took it further, I thought it possible that we might introduce some other non musical interests, here's one of mine.

I've mentioned here several times my lifelong musical obsessions which began in adolescence; running simultaneously throughout there has also been a strong interest in cars, not all cars, but rather what we might call 'specialty' cars, ie, sports cars, racing heritage cars and cars with limited appeal. In a way it's similar to my musical tastes which are fairly narrow but also wide ranging, ie. I can ignore large swatches of 'jazz' and still consider myself as a jazz fan and similarly with pop music, my tastes there are also fairly narrowly defined.

Cars: As with most things the majority have improved dramatically in the last umpteen years, 50 years ago in UK many cars were for the most part overpriced, unreliable and uncomfortable, they were status symbols and were used in business as perks. In terms of performance, comfort and reliability they have improved beyond belief, I'm in awe of some paint finishes on 'cheap' cars today, they're the equivalent of what we used to see on cars at Concours d'Elegance and the economy and performance from small engines is also beyond anything we could have imagined. But they've also become the equivalent of mobile washing machines, people no longer view them in the manner of yester-year, they now buy them and treat them as casually as they do laundry appliances.

I've owned quite a few cars over the years, some bought entirely for basic transportation but several for some magical other reasons, almost all bought 'used'. When I landed on these shores my first new car was a Citroen DS, I'd read avidly of that marque in England but was never in a financial position to even think about it. Here my salary increased dramatically plus I married and with both working we were making more money than I ever thought possible, so I bought a milk-chocolate brown Citroen. It was a wonderful car and absolutely unique on these shores, people would ask at traffic lights 'What's that?' Without doubt the most comfortable car I've ever owned. Soon thereafter a friend decided to sell his Jaguar XK 150 and buy a Mercedes 300SL, I bought the 2 year old Jag for $1900, about £750! Another wonderful car, a very fast two seater but noisy, especially with the top down, I enjoyed it but it cured me of ever wanting another convertible. My next purchase was a Porsche, a 1964 Porsche 356C that I bought in 1970 for $3000, I still have it. For many years it was my everyday transportation car, I loved it, fast, comfortable with very good handling, it was a pleasure just to drive it in remote twisting mountainous roads of which there are plenty around here. Today it's worth something over $20,000.

I had started doing as much of the maintenance and repairs myself and with the Porsche it became part of the joy of ownership. I was always interested in racing, specifically vintage car racing and there were several race tracks that had those events each year so I became involved in that. One Saturday morning in the mid '70's as I drove along a busy street I caught a flash of red with a 'For Sale' sign attached in my peripheral vision, God! Was that a Ferrari parked back there? I did a quick U turn and parked next to it. It was a Maserati Sebring series 2, I'd never seen one before, the asking price was only $8000+, I already had two cars but my thought at that moment was that I'd never have another opportunity to own a Maserati. So after some discussion with the owner I bought it for $7000. A scary car, it had so much power and the engine generated so much heat, most of which found it's way into the car that it was intimidating and uncomfortable but also much fun to drive at the races or on the long flat desert roads to and from the races; I once pushed it to 140+mph on such a deserted road. I sold it some years later for 20 odd thousand dollars to a Finnish auto museum. I think I've sold all my specialist cars at some profit, they don't depreciate like street cars if you keep 'em in good nick.

All along the way I've enjoyed taking photos of all types of odd and exotic cars at the races and at exhibitions so I've wound up with a fairly large photo collection, maybe the makings of a book? I think that perhaps my absolute favourite cars are the Delahayes and Delages of the late 1930's, stunning sculptural works of art but I've always had an affinity for Italian cars particularly Alfa's, Maserati's, Lamborghini's and Ferrari's, not so much the current models but especially those from the 50's-60's and earlier. The list could go on forever, Lotus XI, Bugatti, Allard, [which I almost bought] plus Lancia, D Jag, 300SLR, Talbot-Lago, Aston Martin etc. My bookshelf has about 4-5ft of auto books and there's plenty of info and interest on the internet and of course many magazines devoted to very specific topics. If any of you find this interesting there's a website by a very close friend that's packed with his writings on all sorts of auto exotica, it's at: http://www.lacar.com/lenfrank/tableof.htm Highly recommended.

In later years I became interested in Diesel engines, primarily when I built the Iveco vehicle for camping and travelling. It has a German Deutz five cylinder air-cooled diesel engine which has been very reliable and requiring minimal maintenance beyond attention to cooling and regular oil changes. I was intrigued to discover that Deutz was the earliest user of diesel engines, simultaneously having on their staff in the late 1800's three automotive giants, Otto, Diesel and Maybach. My everyday car, a Mercedes 300SDL is a 1987 diesel, I've had it for about 15 years and it's still in showroom condition with over 200,000 miles.


OK, that's it for another of my 'obsessions', perhaps given the headlines and the state of the world this is all a lot of nonsense befitting an earlier age. Does anyone else share these interests? If not what other obsessions lurk hereabouts, I suspect there are some interesting ones. Sorry, I don't have any music for this post, though I do have some albums with racing engine sound effects from various Grand Prix races.