Its funny how sounds and smell can evoke such a strong emotional response.
Remember your first whiff of castrol at the races? The sound of many
cylinders being fed by lots of cams and valves (v12 ferrari?). Nothing on
this earth sounds like the door of a Porsche Speedster closing . . . .
So I'm e-mailing this guy about his tiger for sale - picutres and
descriptions and questions. I ask, can you send me a video tape? The
thousand mile drive is a bit much unless I can be more sure.
I get the tape in the mail - a good tour of the car and he points out the
items that make this a driver (very clean though) and not a concours car.
Almost as an after-though he says, Maybe I should start it for you and
reaches over to twist the key. About this time a string of profanities
start to form as I listen to this 10.5:1 compression, too much carb and a
"bit of a cam" pretend to idle - I know I'm hooked!
rumpity-rump what a sound (I had to video tape it so I could enjoy it with a
foot of snow in the drive.)
happy motoring
> Sorry list readers, but the ending to this story will have to
> be in two
> parts. Apparently it was too long for the server. Thanks
> for your patience.
> ML
>
> I decided to take Lisa to Road and Tracks 1st best driving
> road in Vermont
> and 2nd best driving road in the country, route 100. This is
> a very scenic
> north to south road that winds through valleys and small
> towns. The speed
> limit through the towns is usually 25 mph and the open road
> about 40 and
> sometimes 50. Here you can get some thrills and still stay
> under 100 mph.
> The road is mostly driven by tourists, and for some reason,
> you very seldom
> see a cop. It's close to 90 miles in length and has, most
> recently, become
> a race track for crotch rockets. On weekends you can see
> them trying to lay
> the bikes over through the curves and trying to drag their
> knees the way the
> pros do. I don't believe they belong on the road. My most
> memorable event
> on this road was the day that I was pushing my Tiger along at
> what I thought
> was a pretty good clip. I'm entering a curve and hear a
> whine and a whoosh.
> It's the sound of two turbos mounted at the rear of this red Porsche
> convertible. I mean I figure I'm at my limit for this curve
> with the Tiger
> and this red thing blows by me like I'm standing still. Of
> course I have no
> idea how the guy could see through the mountain, that we were
> winding around,
> to know that there wasn't a minivan full of tourist coming in
> that other
> lane. Since that day, however, I've had a different
> appreciation for the way
> a car can be built to handle. The standards have definitely changed!
>
> This is also the kind of area where you can appreciate the
> sound of the car
> if you have some nice loud mufflers. Get on the heavy pedal,
> run it up to
> about 4,000 rpm and you can hear the sound echo off the
> mountains you are
> passing. Come up on a car (when you can actually see around
> it), get down
> into 2nd or 3rd gear, pull out and put it on the floor.
>
> I have Lisa snugged up with that old 1966 red seat belt and
> she seems to be
> enjoying herself. Each time I glance over I notice that she
> has a look that
> is almost like a young boy. She has the forever tanned face,
> those big brown
> eyes and muscles that occasionally tighten up in those high
> cheekbones. I
> keep studying her cheek muscles to gauge her reaction to the
> ride. I know
> she wants to act cool and not show that she's enjoying
> herself too much.
> When she starts to break into a grin she instead clinches her
> teeth and tries
> to stop the smile which is normally on her face almost all of
> the time. This
> causes the muscles in her cheeks to tighten up, just making
> her all the
> cuter:) The ride thus far is fairly tame although to a
> stranger such as
> Lisa it might appear exciting. With the car winding in 2nd
> and 3rd gear and
> the glasspacks barking as they do, one gets the impression of
> more speed
> then is actually present. It seems that the more senses
> that a person can
> get involved in the action, the more the action is enjoyed.
> I believe that
> the visual sensation is intensified in the Tiger because it
> is built close
> to the ground. The road appears to pass by faster than it
> actually does.
> Try a go cart two inches off the ground and 20 mph feels like
> 50. Now, old
> gear heads like the smell of the older cars like Tigers.
> When they idle the
> raw, unburned gas will fill the air and bring back memories.
> I think with
> Lisa it was the trees flying by, the wind coming from behind
> and blowing that
> long brown pony tail around her face. I'm sure she would
> have guessed that
> it was going to blow straight back like in the cartoons. I
> think more than
> anything, it's the noise. If you watch people crank up their
> music you can
> almost see it filling their body. When I watch the Air Force
> F101's take off
> near my house and the humid weather forces them to kick in
> the afterburners,
> it isn't the sight so much as the sound that stirs me. It is
> so loud that if
> I'm on the telephone I have to stop and just listen to the
> planes. Many
> people, not all, get the same feeling from the sounds of
> cars. It's almost
> hypnotizing. I believe this was Lisa on this day. I
> continued to glance at
> her cheeks under difference situations to gauge her interest
> or enjoyment.
>
> I come up behind a minivan and spy two young boys in the
> rear. They stick
> their fingers in their ears and wiggle them at us like young
> kids like to do.
> Their father is tooling along at about 30, sightseeing. The
> kids are bored
> and fooling in the back. I decide to play along with them.
> I see a long
> clear stretch ahead and drop way down to 2nd gear. Then I
> just put it to the
> floor. As I get beside them the sound is blasting their
> car, they stare at
> the Tiger and their eyes are as big as saucers. Lisa, for
> the first time,
> can't hold the grin in. I look at her and the smile is ear
> to ear. I'm
> sure she thought we were passing at about 70 or 80 mph.
> She'd never know for
> sure because my speedometer has been disconnected for 2
> years. We probably
> never got over 50 or 55. The father seems to be taken by
> surprise and is
> overcome by the sudden Tiger sound. He's trying not to run
> off the road,
> trying to avoid the people on bicycles on the other edge of
> the road and
> trying to read the script on the little car, all at the same
> time. Probably
> sees that V8 symbol and wonders what it is. Now I start to
> feel just a
> little foolish. I promise myself to behave better from that
> point on.
>
> Of course sometimes the problems that develop appear to just
> happen, but in
> fact, we often do contribute to them. Even after promising
> to behave I was
> still just an immature kid behind the wheel trying to impress
> a female. I
> was, however, behaving pretty well until I looked in my
> mirror. There
> sitting on my rear bumper was a black Miata, top down and
> all. Driving was a
> guy about 45 years old with his sunglasses and white
> baseball hat, brim bent
> in a curve as is the style ,and the hat almost completely
> covering his eyes.
> As a joke I yelled to Lisa, "I think we've got a race." She
> gave me a real
> puzzled look. I pointed over my shoulder. She took a look
> and yelled,
> "YAAAA! " And I instantly thought to myself, "Oh Shit!"
> Now I had a
> choice. I can let this guy go by us and I can guarantee, by
> the way he's on
> my bumper staring up those two pipes, that he wants to try.
> This will then
> be the "granny ride" that I wanted to avoid. Or I can try to
> keep him behind
> me. I've read a lot of the reports on Miatas and I'm pretty
> sure that with
> my stock, worn out 260 that he can blow by me and also
> out-handle me in the
> curves. One other thing, I've never professed to be a race
> driver. My last
> race was over 30 years ago driving my roommate's father's
> brand new Buick
> Wildcat 455ci against a blue Falcon convertible, 4 speed
> 260ci. That Wildcat
> with 5 of us in it whipped the Falcon with 2 people. Since
> that day I never
> forgot the saying of, "There's no replacement for displacement."
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