Wednesday, February 14, 2007

My teenaged DAUGHTER noticed a car…

People who know me in real life know that amongst my many closeted personalities lives a ‘gear head’ – I did have a lot of brothers – Brothers, Mom, Dad, and Grandmother all drove race cars – we went to the races a lot when we were kids, and even more as teenagers. I even worked on a pit crew for short flirtatious stint one summer. So it comes as no surprise to those that know of this alter ego that I watch the Barrett Jackson auctions with husband and the boy, that the boy and I have spent time surfing fabulously wonderful dream cars on various occasions – GAWD the internet is so much better than trying to choose which magazine to browse like we had to do back in the 70’s and 80’s. I fell in love with the Maybach – I suppose it’s a testament to the little old lady alter ego that lives inside of me and adores luxury and performance – that is not to say it has replaced my dream cars – the ’66 Chevelle SS or the ’66 Ferrari Dino – it is to say I have grown and so has the list of dreams. My son wants a Bugatti – can’t say I blame him… oh shit I digressed from my point. My point, the girls, they think that car browsing, interest, etc. is so much bullshit. They have zero interest in seeing a Shelby Cobra when it is driving down the highway right in front of us, nor do any other high-performance-make-you-drool-all-over-yourself vehicles even cause their necks to twitch, let alone turn around 180 degrees, causing the drool to actually run down their backs between their shoulder blades. They will go to the races with us, on those rare occasions that we can find both time and money for such an outing – but I believe they spend the entire time eating concession stand food (there’s that whole money thing again), bitching about the bathroom facilities and of course looking at butts – you know the ones inside of the wranglers on the boys strutting around the track looking at butts. So, it came as an enormous shock, in fact I nearly needed one of those portable defibrulators, that her head not only turned, but she actually had to wipe drool from her chin the other day when a Porsche 911 GT3 drove by us on the highway – now, as a seasoned veteran of peeing my pants with envy and desire when a car like that is in visible vicinity I knew it wouldn’t be long until she began to hyperventilate and her eyes would become fixed on the last little visible speck of the car in the distance, so I knew that in spite of my own selfish needs, I had to keep myself together, there would be time later to restart my heart from the pure shock of her statement “Oh My God that Car is so F***ing Sweet – THAT is the car I want” (ps the shock had nothing whatsoever to do with the F word, that I can handle, it was that she was noticing a car). I didn’t even comment that her dream was ONLY a Porsche, and not nearly so unique or fabulous as a Shelby Cobra, Bugatti Veyron, Maserati, Ferrari, Lambourghini, Spyder, etc – and in fact it was a fabulous car, just beautiful, truly fantastically enjoyable – we tried to catch it (rofl in our 4 cylinder Chevy Impala – the kids’ car, but I drive it a lot right now because of both gas mileage and weather – My old lady luxury car [Lincoln Town Car] doesn’t get nearly the gas mileage) just to see if it was a hot guy, a hot girl, or an old bald fart driving it. Oh yeah it had a vanity plate too – something really decadent, I can’t remember it now. I don’t know if this is the result of some sort of late blooming switch finally firing, or if she will really only ever love this one car, or if she was temporarily possessed by some other entity that does actually appreciate fine automobiles. She has mentioned it a few times since, so I think that possession is not really the cause. She even asked her sister (who aspires to be a broadway actress/dancer) to buy her one when she is rich – keep in mind the oldest aspires to be a surgeon and should have plenty of $$ herself to buy one – but she continues to live in this strange little fantasy land that her brother and sister will both be far more wealthy than she will be with their careers in theatre and professional sports – hmmmm, we’ll just have to see about that.

FYI –
Porsche 911 GT3 – MSRP $100,000
Maybach 62– MSRP $386,500
1966 Ferrari Dino 206 SP – Auction Value $1,000,000 (no I did not put too many zeros)
1966 Chevelle SS - $20-$30,000 (though I did run across a numbers matching L78 Convertible for $105,000)
Shelby Cobra – Barrett Jackson Auction Price - $5,500,000 (no I did not put too many zeros)
Bugatti Veyron - $1,100,000 (not too many zeros)

5 comments:

moosema said...

WTF woman... I don't hear anything for MONTHS and now I'm behind 1,2, 3....4 blog entries? Jesus Christ you've been busy!

My dream car: 1966 Mustang Convertable - preferably baby blue. I've asked for one by my 50th birthday.

Now on the next entry...

Anonymous said...

I KNOW! My oldest is 10, and likes the newer Mustangs, but he doesn't get it when I say that I was named after the Shelby. I had a '67 Mustang all through high school, fixed it up to show quality (myself and a friend), and then it got stolen from the parking lot in college. They found the doors. Waah. I then bought my grandma's '66 Mustang from my brother...it had all of the receipts including the window sticker from when they bought it-but it was really rusty and once I had my first kiddo, there was no money to restore it, so I sold it for practically nothing. I still drool when I see old cars going down the road, all fixed up...I also see the potential in the cruddy primered ones-just a gearhead at heart.

momumo said...

And do you both roll down the window (regardless of the weather) just to hear the engine... I realize you are both Ford girls - nothing wrong with that, but the sound of a big block chevy absolutely makes me wet!

momumo said...

moosema - you left me hanging 'now on the next entry...' - and there's nothing. Did you see I replied to your email "publicly" here, I meant to email you and say hey - I replied, it's on my blog - but I'm a slug and what I mean to do and what gets done are almost always at odds.

Anonymous said...

Yes, actually I do roll down the window...it's even better if they're right next to you at a light, with their engines vibrating the whole car. And, really? I only like Mustangs, other than that it's Chevy all the way, baby...and I, too, LOVE Chevelles.