getting attached to objects:

[Vindekarr]

Im really hoping I'm not the only person like this. I had a really strange experience in a really strange place this afternoon and I think it warrents talking about. Sometimes I just find stuff thats... special. And I find myself wondering what it's story was before I found it. For example I had a habit of buying scrapped cars to restore, its a little pricey, but I cant explain the joy of resurecting a once proud sports car-its something truly special. And thats what Im talking about, For me there is just something about buying the rusted dead skeletal corpse of a car, and turning back into something beautiful and working.

 

I was off looking for a new project, after finding what I'd been meaning to turn back into a road car had a hornet's nest in it's boot(my hand still hurts whenever I open a car boot, they all gushed out at me in a swarm... ow) and terminal rust problems in some really really important places like the firewall-meaning not even fools like me could bring it back to life. I was wandering around the rows upon rows of dead cars when I found, partialy buried under some old hoods, just such a special item. It was a 1976 Ford Falcon. Im australian and very into motorsport, and when my dad was my age(19), this was the car kids wanted. Two years before, Allen Moffet and Colin Bond had driven the previous generation of these cars to glory in australia's most presigious motor race, the Bathurst 1000, with an exceedingly rare first and second place. Ford celebrated by releasing the brutal "King Kobra" a big, low slung, agressively style coupe with a titanic american V-8. 200 Cobras were made. But the street GT coupe wasnt exactly boring either.

 

This particular one was obviously once something much more special. It looked like it had suffured some terminal internal problem. The engine was gone, as was the transmission and the interior, and the hood had been twisted out of shape. But even still, there was just... something about it that grabbed my attention. Old falcons are common in australia but this one felt diferent to the other six dead gt coupes I'd passed to get there. The paint was flaked off mostly, but I could see the faint outlines of proud white and black racing stripes on the roof, and the traces of sponsorship on the doors. It also had mounting points for a primitive roll-over cage and the wheels though broken and with three missing were shaped to hold an old fashioned racing tyres. On the whole, this thing was a hunk of junk, almost worthless, but sitting where the seat had been made me wonder who'd owned it and what sort of history it had-the compliance plate showed that it hadnt been bought as anything special, but it really did look like it had been a race car once, maybe a drag car. Obviously it had been a race car at some point in it's career because you dont use soft compound tyres on a road car-nobody is willing to replace their car's tyres every week, as you'd have to with the ones that fitted onto these partiular tyres. And a rollover cage is pretty needless unless you're obsessed with safety.

 

Thats what Im talking about anyway, PROVERBIAL kudos to you if you're still reading and didnt skip that paragraph, but its that sort of interesting air of history about old stuff that I really find interesting. Anyone else had an experiencde like this?

[SilverDNA]

I know exactly what you mean in wondering, what stories behind something and you can't quite figure it out to only to some point because of the clues that are given away. I could fell your enthusiasm and your need to know more about the car and it's history in this post. I would be interested to hear more about the history of the car. I didn't find it boring, it was interesting, because I bother myself with nearly the same line of questions about people & things and whats behind their statements. So I find it good to know that I'm not alone seeking answers in the people & things around me. Thank you for sharing this with us, Vindekarr.

[grannywils]

Yes, I too, sometimes find myself daydreaming about someone or something that has caught my attention; and I will write a whole scenario in my head about his/her or it's life; where its been what brought it to here and now; where it will go. It is a fascinating hobby. I can look out over a sea of buildings, especially in the evening when the windows are lit and imagine the lives of the families within; or one small industrial building will catch my eye, and I can go into a whole world of the people within and where they go for Thanksgiving, etc. Perhaps I should have been a writer. But anyway, I do understand what you mean. And with specific reference to the automobile, my husband is also into that sort of thing, and used to drive in road rallies, and he gets the same way over old wrecked autos.

[TheCalliton]

i am very attached to a couple items

1. my first sword. given to me by a man that is now dead, he was such a friendly guy

2. a cross that belonged to colonel henry godman, given to me by the guy who gave me my first sword

[ub3rman123]

It's a habit of mine, I'm frequently amazed by how unique everything is. Maybe I'm modding Oblivion too much.

[Illiad86]

There's lots of beautiful homes here in Oshkosh...I always wonder who lived there when they were built in the 1800s...what they did back then, what they looked like inside at that time. I also wonder what people did in our building back in the day. Nearly everything is original here...(creepiest basement ever :P, looks like a dungeon haha), wonder what people thought of it when it was built....musta been top of the line crap back in the day :P

 

I daydream about a lot of things...it's a good escape.

[Vindekarr]

Yeah-I've got a few friends off line who like me are avid car nuts, and they think Im a bit of a kook. Because while they were polishing their Subarus and Mitsubishis on the weekend and fiddling with their magnetic suspension and intercooler temperature settings. I was buried to the waist in bits of a 38 year old Ford I'd impulse bought for less than the price of a second hand Xbox. I've always liked older cars. Sure, Im a big fan of some modern vehicles too, and Im by no means a luddite, but for me there really was something special about some of the cars the 1960s and 70s produced. It was back then that the ideas that today's cars are made from were first put into practice. Let me give you an example. In 1966 an Italian man called Ferucio Lamborghini, who owned a very successful tractor company, decided to make sports cars. His first vehicle was the Miura. The Muira was the future. Almost all modern sports cars and race cars are built along the same overall plan as the Muira was-and that iconic flowing shape influences cars even today.

 

But I also like them simply because of what they ARENT. My best friend has a Subaru Impreza STI. That's got a powerful enough engine, but it gets it's track advantage by being able to outmanuever and turn harder at higher speeds than cars twice its price. Now, it does that by having an onboard computer that registers what the wheels are doing and re routes engine power and braking force to give you the best possible grip and agility. Now, when it was new, this Falcon had two electrical systems in it's entirely form. It had headlamps so you could see at night. And it also had sparkplugs so the engine actualy worked. that was it. It was also extremely powerful, extremely heavy, and rather devoid of saefty features. Now, in the Subaru, you feel safe, I test drove one a while back and they feel idiot proof. There is a real sense of confidence you get on a race track because you just feel like no matter how recklesly or badly you drive, the clever systems will save your bacon.

 

I've also driven old muscle cars and you have to treat them with respect. Its like riding a horse. You make a mistake and it WILL go beserk and kill you. They've got an apocalyptic amount of engine power. but they dont have any sort of sophisticated devices or modifications to keep you on the road, just tyres and brakes. So you have to drive your best when you're on track in one. That, for me, combined with the sense of history you get out of them, makes them well worrth the pain and struggle of finding bits and constant repairs.

 

With these, you can spin out if you use too much power in a corner, if you brake too hard the wheels will "lock up" and you wont be able to steer till you stop, and no matter how technologicaly advanced they are, modern cars cannot match the shear sound and presence these things have. I mean, my buddy's subaru sounds like a high tech semi race car. The 1972 Chrysler Valiant I drove a few months ago sounded somewhere between an apocalypse, a volcanic eruption, and an enraged Tyranosaurus.

 

They arent just cars, they've all good unique sets of problems, strengths, and weaknesses that are unique to each individual vehicle. And they take real skill to drive without killing yourself, so yeah, I'll take a two hundred dollar chassis that I've got to rebuild any day. because when its done, these really arent just cars.