Thread: Hello fellow car nuts!

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Posting as suggested after I join.

Been a car nut ever since I can remember. Having grown up in Europe I was into European cars for the most part. Dad was a big Bentley fan and has an appreciation for British cars in general. He's had a ton of Bentleys, everything from the prewar Bentley beasts to the modern stuff.

I grew up a huge racing fan and loved Porsches and rallye cars (Lancia Stratos mostly). As I got old enough to buy my own cars, I dabbled more in Italian cars for fun and German cars for daily duties, steering away from British cars since Dad was such a British car guy.

The thing about modern cars is they're all becoming to be the same thing. I remember one could relatively easily tell the difference between a car's drive by feel alone. Heck, you could tell if it was a German or Italian car by just shutting the door. Driving a Ferrari on the freeway at 60mph feels not so different from driving a Toyota nowadays.

So I got into classic cars. After meeting some great folks I realized it may not be for me. Great to look at but maybe not as great as I'd like to own.

I had never really looked into classic American cars though. Went the muscle car route and saw the market explode to the point of being ridiculous. So I started looking at the prewar cars and was really amazed at the cars out there. Far better than their European counterparts a lot of the times. A friend of mine has a Deusenberg and the thing absolutely blew me away. The complexity and and the technology for such an old car is magnificent.

Again, not exactly the sort of thing that you want to drive everyday or even close to it. Then I discovered what to me was a pretty unexplored part of the automotive world in rods and customs. Really fantastic stuff.

I love the do-it-yourself, incredibly customized, and deeply personal culture of rods and customs. So here I am. I have extensive driving experience with all sorts of different cars. I pride myself in having had a lot of different cars I've driven a good amount on (not just around the block but a few hundred miles). Rare stuff like Dad's old prewar racing Bentley, to my Lamborghini Murcielago which I drove over 20k miles in the first year. But I've never had the pleasure of being behind the seat of something that one could essentially build completely to their liking.

I look forward to learn and ask dumb questions until you're all sick of me. Don't have much to give back to the community other than my own knowledge if anyone is interested in stuff I know and respect to those who contribute.

Cheers!

Welcome Stick. You have really driven some awesome machines. I like th muscle. You can still find some great old cars for resonable prices. If you have any particular car in mind let me know and I will hunt around.

Welcome aboard. I'm glad to see another rodder coming into the fold, however, your intro leaves me with some questions about how long you will find hot rods attractive. Please understand I am not being critical, just asking some questions I think you need to ask yourself before you commit.

Hot rodders are a special lot. We are willing to put up with many obstacles and solve many problems along the way, and even once the car is running we accept the shortcomings and idiosyncracies of our rods. Regardless of how we all say our rods "drive like a Cadillac", in reality they do not. Oh sure, with modern IFS and IRS systems you can get a rod to ride in a very decent manner, but the envelope is still basically 80 year old technology and not designed to match the comfort level of newer stuff.

I would suggest you actually get to know some rodders and see if you can con one of them into letting you sit in or maybe even drive their car a little. While these things are fun, they don't come without issues. Lots of people look at a hot rod and think it would be fantastic to own one, but in the real world people buy and then sell them quite often because they find out they are not willing to put up with the aforementioned issues.

But as jyardgirl said, we are here to help in any way we can to get you to your goals.

Don

Welcome to CHR, Stick. I like all kinds of cars, from old to new, from this side of the pond and from the other side as well. Bentley's are biggies, but they do seem to hold up well. A friend has a 1964 RR Mulliner Convertible that he bought new. Still drives it after all these years, still sounds and rides as good as when new. I've had a few of European cars in my life, mostly Italian and they were all great rides, although a lot more finicky than the usual American iron.

We love photo's, so if you have any of your current or past rides, let's see 'em. We old folks like photo's more than text.

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

Welcome aboard. I'm glad to see another rodder coming into the fold, however, your intro leaves me with some questions about how long you will find hot rods attractive. Please understand I am not being critical, just asking some questions I think you need to ask yourself before you commit.

Hot rodders are a special lot. We are willing to put up with many obstacles and solve many problems along the way, and even once the car is running we accept the shortcomings and idiosyncracies of our rods. Regardless of how we all say our rods "drive like a Cadillac", in reality they do not. Oh sure, with modern IFS and IRS systems you can get a rod to ride in a very decent manner, but the envelope is still basically 80 year old technology and not designed to match the comfort level of newer stuff.

I would suggest you actually get to know some rodders and see if you can con one of them into letting you sit in or maybe even drive their car a little. While these things are fun, they don't come without issues. Lots of people look at a hot rod and think it would be fantastic to own one, but in the real world people buy and then sell them quite often because they find out they are not willing to put up with the aforementioned issues.

But as jyardgirl said, we are here to help in any way we can to get you to your goals.

Don

First off, thanks to you both for the offers to help.

Don, that's exactly why I'm here. Although I have very very little experience with rods, I do have a lot of experience with old cars. Now I've never driven a '33 Ford, but I've driven 1920s Bentley speed six, 1930's Hispano Suiza, a couple of 1930s Duesenbergs (roadster, phaeton, landaulet), and so on. So I'm not completely oblivious to what it's like to drive something with no power steering, power brakes, a/c, heck no top at all, and a gas pedal in the middle for that matter.

As for goals, something I've always wanted to do is build my own car. Another thing is restoring a car. I figure rodding or building a custom is pretty much a mix of the two things in a way. I don't have what it takes to build a car from scratch (a Simpson's episode where Homer's long lost brother tasks him to do it comes to mind), so rodding is neat because you start of with a template so to speak and then take it from there.

What I'd love to do is find a 41 Caddilac or something along those lines. Again, haven't looked into things as much as I'd like yet so I'm just going by interesting cars I've seen. A beat up old car that I won't feel bad tearing to bits to make it into whatever I want.

No, there is no guarantee that I'll fall in love with rods and never look back, but I'll never know if I don't look at least.

Originally Posted by mopar34

Welcome to CHR, Stick. I like all kinds of cars, from old to new, from this side of the pond and from the other side as well. Bentley's are biggies, but they do seem to hold up well. A friend has a 1964 RR Mulliner Convertible that he bought new. Still drives it after all these years, still sounds and rides as good as when new. I've had a few of European cars in my life, mostly Italian and they were all great rides, although a lot more finicky than the usual American iron.

We love photo's, so if you have any of your current or past rides, let's see 'em. We old folks like photo's more than text.

I have some pics of my cars. I think I may have some of the Porche Turbo, the Ferrari 360 (video too of that one I think), Mercedes CL600, Aston Martin Vanquish, and maybe a Diablo Roadster. I'm pretty sure I have pictures of the airboxes at least since I had them custom made in carbon fiber.

When I get home tonight I'll look for them. I used to frequent other forums so for sure there are pics of other cars I had in them.

Ok, here's one set, have to resize all my pics it seems.

Aston Martin Vanquish. Car next to it is my brother-in-law's girlfriend's Mini Cooper S. I can snap more pics of that one if you'd like!

Couple more...

Was gonna post others but the site crashed?

Anyway, back up so here's the Benz. CL600.

The car is at my mechanic's shop in Houston TX. I sent all my cars to him even if they were under warranty. The best mechanic I've ever met and a very dear friend. Unfortunately he passed away recently. Haven't seen these pictures in a while so they definitely pull at the heartsrings.

The shop was Pinnacle Motorsports and the owner was JR Vallandingham. He fixed my Murcielago when the factory couldn't, ditto my Ferrari and here he is taking in the Benz. If you look at the background you'll see a whole slew of Lamborghinis, Ferraris, and the odd Porsche here and there. He always had at least 10 exotics in there at a time in for major work. He's done restoration jobs for people I know in Japan on some pretty hardcore Italians. 275 GTB 4 cams, 2 cams, F40s, F50s, my friend's Enzo, Daytonas, a few racing ones. Alba Ferrari comes to mind from the 80s. A couple Can-Am cars I saw pictures and video of. Great stuff.

Some more of the Benz...

Of the instrument cluster. The car has no key. Just a card you carry with you in your wallet or pocket. You then press a button on the shift lever and off you go. That's the warning on the console.

And my camera's clock is accurate! Woohoo!!

Next is the Ferrari. A 2002 360 Spider that I got as a Valentine's Day gift for my wife. I have a preference to Lamborghinis while she likes Ferraris. I snapped a picture of the windshield. The sticker you see is of the Lamborghini Club of America and Lamborghini Owner's Club. The dog is mine. Her name is Lilu and she would travel to Houston every time we sent cars over there because she adored JR. She's now 7 years old and misses JR dearly.

The car is also parked in front of a friend's house in Houston where I took it for him to check out while I was there. They are friends I met through a Ferrari forum much like this one, except not as good . He detailed my car and we snapped a few pics. The yellow Porsche in the garage is his. He's a member of the Porsche Club of America and was trying to convince me to join (I had a Porsche Turbo at the time). Now I have a Cayenne Turbo and I'm still not in the club although I hear great things about it.

Having an attorney detail your car is something else

Some of the heart of the beast. Well maybe not a beast, more like a kitten.

And some of the center console.

I complained about the bottom of the front scraping on everything because the dumb thing was so low to the ground and living in San Francisco with all those hills didn't help.

JR machined some skid plates out of titanium and fitted them on. For anyone who's worked with titanium I'm sure you know what a monumental pain in the behind it is. Seem to have lost pictures before the skid plates. I kept my pictures in little usb jump drives and my dog ate 2 out of 3 of them

So...blame the dog.

Funny thing about titanium...it sparks when you scrape it hahaha. So ever time I went over a speed bump you'd see some sparks. Quite dramatic.