A little nostalgia about salesmen and new cars...
I sure do remember when new-car salesmen drove new cars. My dad did most of my childhood. And I think in his mind, he still does.
Read on...
I'm gonna always love the cars he drove in the 70s and 80s. I recall this green two door '73 Impala with a 350, great car. He loved that and it made me hooked on V8s, and I haven't owned an inline 4 and have not since I got rid of a BMW three and a 2002 about 1993. But on the demo front, there were also some very forgettable Oldsmobiles in the late 70s, however. A lot of [censored] with "88" and "98" as well as "Royal" and such in the name and that had fuzzy velour that felt worn out and cheap even when it was new. Whenever a road trip came up, we suddenly had a wonderful Chevy "conversion" van with shag everywhere, a refrigerator and captains chairs in back, running lights and everything that screamed "Keep on truckin..." - including a CB radio. Oh yeah. Good times.
I recall a day in the spring of '82, he was supposed to take me to a dentist appointment and pick me up from school, I recall vaguely mom not quite trusting him with this task but he assured her he was on it the night before. I was out on the curb in front of the school office on time. Then an unknown-to me car fish-tails in the far end of the long school drive, then revs up and hits maybe 70 in the short distance of the bus circle. Then locks it all up with all four smoking and does a complete 180 and slams the tires into the curb 10' or less in front of me, perfectly. A brand-new Z-28 Camaro, the new third generation that was all the buzz, white with blue stripes,those so-cool spoke alloys. The first one anyone around our remote area (outside Louisville, KY) had seen. Dad drops the window and says hop in. So I did. After the denist appt., we got beers and went to a matinee of "Electra Glide in Blue" with Robert Blake as a motorcycle cop (we also rode/ride bikes). It was a 10 year old film by then, but was on the matinee at the Trans-Lux in Louisville. I was not an unpopular guy in HS, but after that stunt, which had been witnessed by many, I got a lot more attention. Including some excellent attention from an upper class cheer-leader who had a '68 Camaro RS-SS perfectly restored. Lotta good memories in that car. Thanks dad!
In 1985, our next door neighbor owned a local Ford dealership. He gave me a cherry red Ford EXP turbo to drive for a few weeks around graduation time, to try to show it off and get a buyer. Apparently those were dogs for Ford, even with "Turbo" on it. One night we took it out to the country to see if it could do the advertised 1XX mph (I can't recall what it was supposed to be exactly). I got within 95% of it, whatever it was, and was running out of road and shut it down. So there's also something to be said for new-car dealership owners who trusted the hormone-addled 18 year old neighbor kid, and had [censored], albeit turbo-charged, Ford products to move. And of course, a tip of the hat to the lax law enforcement practices in Florida that were prevalent from 1845 until, as far as I can tell, now.
I recall another fun event about 1987, I was home from college and he worked at a BMW dealership in Fla. They had a demo show at a mall, and he called to have me and my brother come help shuffle all the cars from the mall back to the dealership about 15 miles north up US 19. Oh man... We lined up three abreast in '87 L6s, 535is, I recall 735is and also an L7, etc. - Some nice iron for the day. And we took all tha tand just raced stop light to stop light from Clearwater to Tarpon Springs, f' the consequences. We did this like three times that night, what a blast. The really memorable moment was we were three abreast at the light, my 17 year old brother in the middle. We hit go and 50 yards later I look over and see my dad two lanes away, my brother is missing. I see him in the mirror well back, but we just say "let him deal with it" and keep racing. Screw him, he'll figure it out, let's race. Thanks Dad!
Oh yeah, then the time dad taught threshold breaking to us by bringing home an ABS equipped BMW (like the first year - '86?) He brought home a new BMW and then found a cul-de-sac. He'd run it up to 70-ish then lock it up as it looked like we'd end up in the living room at the end of the cul-de-sac. He made us note the stopping difference, made us try it, then pulled the fuse and showed us threshold braking. Then made us practice it until we could meet the ABS mark. Thanks Dad!
That skill had paid off so many times, so many places. I have a (sadly) increasingly vintage Audi, a '91 V8 with the very rare 5 speed getrag transmission, sport seats and cams. But it also has twin Torsen differentials front and rear, and a center dash ABS on-off switch! God I love turning that off and practicing real braking skills. I'll never sell that car. But there are no snowmobile trails where I live now where I can go out and really get the full use of its abilities.
I may have made my dad sound reckless and foolish, but he is a really talented rider/driver and I have seen him do things with cars and bikes I did not think possible. He used to race a '66 Chevelle SS396 in street drag back in the day, had done Bondurant schools and also the Richard Petty NASCCAR school on the big walls of Talladega. I also once watched him miss a turn on a group bike ride just outside Mt. Dora, Fla. instead of moseying back to the intersection, He just cut across a plowed farm field, lifted the front of the '90 Harley sportster 1200 he was riding, and wheelied it a 1/4 mile across the plowed field to cut the corner. To this day I doubt what I saw, but I saw it. He texted me just yesterday and asked me to get on Craigslist, find him a dirt bike to rebuild. He's 70. The new neighbors got a mini bike for their nephew, he has spent two weeks linking all the woods of the properties together with a chainsaw and hi Kubota to make a motocross track. Now he wants a dirt bike again... Awesome.
So yeah, I have some good memories of back when they let salesmen drive new cars...
Sorry, her and the kids are away tonight so I have to much time on my hands.
