Car Spotting in OKC

[ctchandler]

Did I forget to say that I loved that car?
Even with the European heater with the little hand actuated valve between the seats?

RM,
When you say heater, you mean the vent/wind driven heater don't you? I know none of the ones I rode in had a blower, if you were sitting still, there was no heat, they relied on outside air. Maybe the ones from Germany were different. I don't remember the year they started putting real heaters in them, but I am guessing at somewhere around 68-70.
C. T.

[ctchandler]

You're not feeble at all C.T., your a heck of a guy from where I stand, and I enjoy your postings.

It's just been over the last couple years that I've gained more interest in old Beetles. It's amazing what prices can be fetched for nice clean vintage examples. I'd love to have that one up on the corner.

Rezman,
I have a lot of "stuff" in my mind, but instead of the important "stuff", it's things like VW Bugs. And I can tell you things about 50's-60's cars that most people don't know, I was a car junkie as a child/young man. If we had a trivia thread on the that era of cars, I could probably contribute some things. By the way, I spent a few days at Yosemite National Park in a VW camper, it was brand knew in 1964. That was quite an experience.
C. T.

[Cocaine]

I saw a green Tesla Model S near OU Medical Center a few weeks able. It gave me a smile.

[RadicalModerate]

RM,
When you say heater, you mean the vent/wind driven heater don't you? I know none of the ones I rode in had a blower, if you were sitting still, there was no heat, they relied on outside air. Maybe the ones from Germany were different. I don't remember the year they started putting real heaters in them, but I am guessing at somewhere around 68-70.
C. T.

That is exactly the type of heater I was talking about.
No fan. Not much heat. Still can't figure out how or if the defroster worked . . .
On the upside, you never had to worry about anti-freeze because it didn't have any.
Oh! And you never had a problem with the automatic choke because it had a manual choke.

Here's a picture of the luxurious interior of one exactly like mine, except cleaner.
The heater control is down there by the stick shift.

[rezman]

Rezman,
I have a lot of "stuff" in my mind, but instead of the important "stuff", it's things like VW Bugs. And I can tell you things about 50's-60's cars that most people don't know, I was a car junkie as a child/young man. If we had a trivia thread on the that era of cars, I could probably contribute some things. By the way, I spent a few days at Yosemite National Park in a VW camper, it was brand knew in 1964. That was quite an experience.
C. T.

I love the old cars C.T, and learning new things about them, so would love to hear your stories. One thing that was cool is that you could look down the street and identify just about every make and model from a distance. Hard to do that with with todays windtunnel designed jelly beans.

One website that I like to visit is Hemmings Daily Blog. They post a lot of vintage street scenes and let you post what you see. For example....

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2...on-texas-1956/

[Plutonic Panda]

From https://www.facebook.com/brantleycowan?fref=photo on Facebook. Taken at Classen Curve.



- https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...7369073&type=1

[Jeepnokc]

What was going on at Classen Curve that all these cars were there. Christmas party for thunder Players?

[Plutonic Panda]

What was going on at Classen Curve that all these cars were there. Christmas party for thunder Players?

Ferrari Club of Central Oklahoma lunch meet.

[White Peacock]

Sounds like you know your Beetles C.T.
Those flipper signals, also called semaphores, were pretty cool and used up until '55 on American versions, and into the early 60's in Europe. There were several changes in the glass over the years. The oval rear glass replaced the split window in '53, and the rectangle replaced the oval in '57 and the windshield was also enlarged. In '65 the front and rear glass were enlarged again along with the side glass. Subtle changes in sheet metal took place up into the late 60's & early 70's and the Super Beetle.

My first car was a '74 Super. I drove it off and on for about 13 years before I finally killed the engine for good and had to sell her. Really miss driving that beauty, warts and all.

[rezman]

There was a this article on Hemmings a couple of days ago... Great story.
SIA Flashback ? Restoration Profile: 1958 Volkswagen Sun Roof Sedan | Hemmings Daily

[rezman]

My first car was a '64 Dodge Dart. Man I loved that car. You could fix anything on it with a hammer and a bottle of WD-40. Push-button automatic and the slant 6 was a dream to drive.

Man they just don't make them like they used to, do they?

That old Slant 6 was a heck of an engine. First produced in 1960 and was used in Chrysler vehicles into the late 80's. The engines outlasted most of the cars they were installed in.

[White Peacock]

Man they just don't make them like they used to, do they?

I wish they did. I now drive a '14 Jeep Wrangler, and I love it. But if anything goes wrong, it requires a lot more to fix it, and with the heavy involvement of computers in the operation of the vehicle, it's not often something you can easily do/diagnose from home.

[RadicalModerate]

When I was given $2,000 upon graduating from High School to buy a car (to replace my faithful VW bug) or to take a trip to Africa, I opted for a new BMW R-75/5. And the rest is history . . . =) I'd guess that Ferrari Lunch Meat is extra good . . . especially at Whole Foods. The carbon footprint metric is lower.

But speaking of "car spotting in OKC" . . .
I'm sure glad that I spotted that Cadillac Escalade in the left lane, southbound on Robinson, at about 9:00 am the other day that blithely and blindly decided to make a right turn onto 13th street causing me to consider, in a split second decision, whether to let them wreck my Chevy S-10, occupying the space to their immediate right, by not responding to their idiocy and allowing them to ruin the side of their road barge while doing minimal damage to my vehicle. I opted not to be late for my appointment, braked and swerved. Maybe next time . . . =) I fairly sure that I could have pried about $4K in damages out of them . . .

I hope the scrawny little blonde toothpick soccer mom at the wheel of that automotive behemoth reads this blog . . .
(that's "road rage" sublimated. I thought the driver would be some sort of overcoat clad hurried businessman who thought he owned the road, but when I saw the sorry specimen attempting to steer that vehicle at the next light, after changing lanes, I couldn't even bring myself to honk . . . until now. =)

[ctchandler]

My first car was a '64 Dodge Dart. Man I loved that car. You could fix anything on it with a hammer and a bottle of WD-40. Push-button automatic and the slant 6 was a dream to drive.

Man they just don't make them like they used to, do they?

Sid,
Actually, how many cars in the 50s to the 80s could go 100,000 miles without a tuneup. I'm 71 years old and loved my 63 Plymouth Sport Fury, 383 ci high performance and four in the floor with a Hurst shifter, but it needed tuning every 3,000 miles. My neighbor owned a garage for quite a few years and would tell you how much better the cars of today are. Electronic ignition, fuel infection and lots of other things. Our cars in our younger days were great memories, but wouldn't hold a candle to today's cars.
C. T.

[Mel]

I finally remembered to take a pic. I don't know why they seem to always stop at the Arby's in Mustang but besides newer cars they always have a classic or two on board. The inside of the ambulance was totally restored with medical equipment of that era, even a glass IV bottle.

[rezman]

I finally remembered to take a pic. I don't know why they seem to always stop at the Arby's in Mustang but besides newer cars they always have a classic or two on board. The inside of the ambulance was totally restored with medical equipment of that era, even a glass IV bottle.

'64 Pontiac pro car with coachwork by Superior.

[Mel]

It was huge. Seemed like it took 5 minutes to drive from end to end.

[Oh GAWD the Smell!]

Sid,
Actually, how many cars in the 50s to the 80s could go 100,000 miles without a tuneup. I'm 71 years old and loved my 63 Plymouth Sport Fury, 383 ci high performance and four in the floor with a Hurst shifter, but it needed tuning every 3,000 miles. My neighbor owned a garage for quite a few years and would tell you how much better the cars of today are. Electronic ignition, fuel infection and lots of other things. Our cars in our younger days were great memories, but wouldn't hold a candle to today's cars.
C. T.

FINALLY.

Somebody else says it.

Modern cars are the cats ass.

Of course they don't "build them like they used to". Because they way they used to build them was noisy, smelly, unsafe, unreliable, ineffecient, and in all measurable ways worse than today's cars and trucks. If your Chevy pickup didn't throw a rod or burn oil by 80,000 miles, you counted your blessings and rebuilt the motor anyway. It also wouldn't haul half as much as a modern half ton. And the new ones will run for a quarter of a million miles and people STILL don't think "I need to rebuild this soon".

A new Honda Accord will outrun 99% of the muscle cars from the 60's with the AC (and the vented seats!) on full blast and with 4 people in the car. Plus, it'll handle well and not actively try to kill it's occupants in a collision.

Oh...And the people that say that it's too hard to work on today's cars...Don't really work on cars anyway. You just need a couple of additional tools to do it. Tuning a carb is black magic. Tuning an ECM is a laptop and some basic math. I have a car with somewhere around 650 horsepower that gets 28 mpg on the highway if I don't get frisky. It drives like a regular car until I mash the gas. It doesn't smell, it doesn't idle like somebody unplugged two spark plugs, it doesn't offend small mammals, it's not even loud. And I built it (not the car, the setup). I'm not a mechanic. I'm a dude in the burbs with the will, the tools, the time and the Google.

Now, does an Accord look better than a 69 Charger or a 70 Chevelle? Not to my eye, not by a mile. But beauty is subjective, and in another 40 years, maybe it is the ringer at the auction instead of the 69. Maybe today's Accord is the E-Type. Okay, that's a stretch

[rezman]

FINALLY.

Somebody else says it.

Modern cars are the cats ass.

Of course they don't "build them like they used to". Because they way they used to build them was noisy, smelly, unsafe, unreliable, ineffecient, and in all measurable ways worse than today's cars and trucks. If your Chevy pickup didn't throw a rod or burn oil by 80,000 miles, you counted your blessings and rebuilt the motor anyway. It also wouldn't haul half as much as a modern half ton. And the new ones will run for a quarter of a million miles and people STILL don't think "I need to rebuild this soon".

A new Honda Accord will outrun 99% of the muscle cars from the 60's with the AC (and the vented seats!) on full blast and with 4 people in the car. Plus, it'll handle well and not actively try to kill it's occupants in a collision.

Oh...And the people that say that it's too hard to work on today's cars...Don't really work on cars anyway. You just need a couple of additional tools to do it. Tuning a carb is black magic. Tuning an ECM is a laptop and some basic math. I have a car with somewhere around 650 horsepower that gets 28 mpg on the highway if I don't get frisky. It drives like a regular car until I mash the gas. It doesn't smell, it doesn't idle like somebody unplugged two spark plugs, it doesn't offend small mammals, it's not even loud. And I built it (not the car, the setup). I'm not a mechanic. I'm a dude in the burbs with the will, the tools, the time and the Google.

Now, does an Accord look better than a 69 Charger or a 70 Chevelle? Not to my eye, not by a mile. But beauty is subjective, and in another 40 years, maybe it is the ringer at the auction instead of the 69. Maybe today's Accord is the E-Type. Okay, that's a stretch

It's hard to argue with most of this. Today's vehicles are more reliable and safer. And tuning is an affair that now takes minutes as opposed to hours. New cars handle better, hook up better, go faster, and stop better. ... No question, in fact, I didn't even know that was being debated.

On the other side of that ,,, most of the ECM/Laptop crowd couldn't find their way around a carburetor. And most 60's muscle cars didn't even have A/C.

Today's technology, and the guys who run it, have it going on. Yesterday's rides have a hell of a lot more class and style. I like factory stock vintage vehicles, but combining the old style with today's technology like many are doing now, is very cool.

[rezman]

For those who are in doubt about the safety.

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=...EDA2D16B8656D1

[White Peacock]

Crumple zones (probably saved my life once), electronic ignition, top notch fuel injection, TPMS, a system that tells me all of my vehicle's stats and the percentage of oil life I have remaining...don't get me wrong, my '14 is an awesome machine. As Sid said, I was being nostalgic about the simplicity of the old beasts, which is something I find admirable. I wouldn't trade my '14 Wrangler for my '74 Super Beetle, but I sure wouldn't mind having them both.

What I don't miss: the car randomly stopping or refusing to start because the damned points found themselves improperly spaced.

[zachj7]

Seeing a lot more Tesla's in OKC these days.

[Mel]

No doubt newer cars are safer and faster. But the feeling of riding around in an old muscle car with glass packs and a 3/4 race cam is hard to beat.

[RadicalModerate]

I'm a bit surprised that the Westinghouses haven't supplanted the Teslas . . .
(especially in regard to the room under the hood in which to nap)

(Alternative History has always been one of my favorite subjects)
(btw: from a Geezer Perspective: Every Observational Opinion of New Cars as compared to Old/classic Cars rings true.)

The fact that I'm backgrounding Jeopardy--featuring Genius Kidz Week (and that Canadian KwizMeister)--may have influenced my judgement on this topic. =)

Yes: They do spell "Judgement" with the extra "E" in Canada. =)

[Oh GAWD the Smell!]

No doubt newer cars are safer and faster. But the feeling of riding around in an old muscle car with glass packs and a 3/4 race cam is hard to beat.

You can do that even more so with today's cars. Or at least with today's engines. You can go much bigger on the cam due to the flexibility afforded by the sensor array and the computer's ability to adjust to it. Most hot rodders these days remove the catalytic converters as well...So you can even get that stinky exhaust that smells up your clothes and your woman's hair while your car lopes and shudders like it's trying to hit an 8 on the Richter scale.