Re: IML: It's a Mad Mad Mad Imperial World: Another Sunday Ride

[randalpark@xxxxxxx]

Great story Jack!

I have been gradually getting my fleet of 25 footers back on the road 
since 2003. That year I joined the IML and managed to get three of them 
road worthy. The big test is the drive to my mother's house in Fall 
City. It is a 90 mile round trip, mostly on busy and fast highway.

During the this last year, I have managed to get five more of them back 
on the road. We had a break in the weather yesterday, and I promised to 
see mom in the late afternoon. I chose to drive the '65 Crown. I have 
been working on it the last couple of weeks and am now on a first name 
basis with the guys at Atlas Obsolete! They are expensive, but good, 
and have had everything I have needed so far.

I have owned my 1965 Imperial for over 30 years. For many of those 
early years it was my regular driver, back when the big beige car was 
considered an ugly gas hog. Even at the ripe old age of 20 years, it 
didn't inspire much attention from passer's by. The relatively 
conservative style, and the unexciting color seemed to make it blend in 
with everything else at that time. In the late 1980's other cars came 
and went (or mostly stayed), and my life got busy, so the '65 basically 
was parked in the garage.

Yesterday's drive was great! It ran wonderful, and suddenly that 
conservatively elegant styling is once again commanding the attention 
it deserves. Gleaming along I-90 headed East at 80+ mph all of my work, 
and years of preservation came together in a terrific bolt of pride of 
ownership. The car ran fabulously and it looked great going down the 
road.

Thank you for sharing your story, and inspiring me to recount mine. It 
isn't difficult to feel a sense of great appreciation for the 
engineering and quality that was built into our cars, when they are 
running well and being driven the way that they were intended.

Paul W.


-----Original Message-----
From: YBSHORE@xxxxxxx
To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; mailing-list-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 5:32 am
Subject: IML: It's a Mad Mad Mad Imperial World: A Sunday Ride



Fellow Imperialist's:

 

    Here in New England this weekend it was unseasonably cool for the 
time of year [low 70's/low humidity] which of course makes for 
wonderful driving conditions:  cool and dry.  This summer I feel I have 
been neglectful of my cars in much the same way Paul W. has alluded to 
in the past, for I know they NEED to operate and NEED 
certain attentions, but for periods there just isn't time to make and 
this summer has been that for me.

 

    Anyway, the weather being so accommodating and my children 
otherwise happily occupied, I decided it would be the day to drive each 
of my humble collection of three '10 footers' to maximum operating 
temperature. Now living on the coast of Northern 
Massachusetts'/Southern New Hampshire affords me many options of 
varying driving time lengths and each has its own attractions.  I have 
driven these roads for too many years and know them intimately.  
Yesterday I chose the 'coastal route' which is a 2 hour loop drive 
through Rockport, Ma and takes me along the Atlantic clear to the 
beaches in N.H.  I leave pointed south and come home from the north and 
the last leg is Interstate 95 which 'cleans up' the cruising 
build-up....LOL.  

 

    Now the reason I am taking the time to relate this is due to the 
attention certain cars command.  I elected to drive the same route for 
all three cars as the ocean was magnificent and the fishing boats 
private and commercial alike were working the traps or headed to 
Georges Banks for netting.  This road is loaded with tourists, so 
though in the off season it is an intimate drive, but during the summer 
it is a ride in the sense one doesn't stop, except at the no tourist 
stops off the beaten path.  I took my '55 New Yorker first, then my '68 
300 convertible.  Both commanding cars in their own right and did in 
fact cause some rubber necking and when stopped, with the usual 
compliments, which I am always appreciative of as we work hard on our 
vehicles, whether a scale 1 or a 10.

 

    Then I took out 'Turq', my '56 Imperial, and followed the same 
route.  Where the NY'er and the 300 are gawked at and mostly 
recognized, the Imperial draws applause.  People are attracted to it in 
a way only an Imperial can hypnotize a crowd: What kind of car is 
that?  All that is stainless steel and chrome?!?!  Are those brake 
lights?  Where do you put the gas?  Where is the shifter?  It has A/C?, 
they had it then?  Is that an eagle woven into the seats?  POWER 
SEATS!?  Can you open the trunk?  WOW!!, do you rent that space out?  A 
HEMI!?!?!  Etc., where the ride for the other two is straight forward, 
the Imperial ride is a journey......and EVERY time I take her out after 
feeling like I have been not so nice to her, feeling perhaps even 
neglectful,  I find that she brings me all the attention and I realize 
and KNOW my 'things to do list' for her will grow smaller as my journey 
along with her continues to bring open roads to me.....she deserves it 
the way I deserve it, time and money willing.......and with the 
priceless members of this list who BAR NONE are the greatest car 
resource ever imagined, she will be, like a still fresh Kerouac, 
forever On The Road......

 

Most Sincerely to All,

 

Jack




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