When you’re a car enthusiast, it’s easy to caught up in spec sheets, buff mag reviews, and just collecting cars as objects. Sometimes, what’s even more important than the car ends up getting lost. I’m talking about the stories of the people who own those cars.
The Notorious S.W.G.The Notorious S.W.G., some readers, and myself have been pulling cars out of a compound in deep rural North Carolina. All of these vehicles were owned by an elderly gentleman named Willie, who has more fantastic stories to tell than even some best-selling authors. Willie was a stone-cold awesome motorcycle cop in the 1970s and 1980s. When he wasn’t making a cop-spec Harley-Davidson look cool, he was also a well-known expert in Plymouth P15s and Citroën 2CVs. We weren’t just buying old cars, but pieces of the decorated history of one man’s life. Hearing his stories alone and his continued enthusiasm for these cars was worth the 2,000-mile drive alone.
So, ADDvanced takes an easy COTD win today:
“If only we all could be so lucky to be able to look backward with a smile and to also look forward with his kind grace and calming strength of acceptance of the autumn of our driving days.”
After losing my dad recently, this hit me so hard.
You’re a fantastic writer, but I wasn’t prepared for that. Time is so limited, and after absorbing my dad vehicle collection (4 cars, 3 boats, a motorcycle, a custom freightliner built to tow one of the boats) on top of my fleet (8 cars, 4 boats, 6 snowmobiles) I am completely, and totally overwhelmed. Saying goodbye to projects is hard sometimes, especially ones with personal history, but at the end of the day, it’s just ‘stuff’, which does not matter.
What matters are the experiences the stuff creates, the memories, and the connections we make.
Cheers!
This morning, Matt wrote about how Carlos Tavares, “pictured above,” had to cancel a sweet vacation so he could put out some fires here in America. But he’s going to be here for just a few days, seemingly producing this witty response from NC Miata NA:
Good on Tavares.
CEOs showing up for a couple days of meetings are always the solution to any corporate problem.
This morning, Thomas dropped an impossibly mint Cadillac Cimarron into work chat and then wrote about it. There was a time when it was hard to think of an ’80s box as a car to appreciate today, but I think it’s time to give these cars some love. LTDScott has the right idea:
Anyone saying nope needs to get over themselves. Enough time has passed that this is in a similar realm as the Aztek and has come full circle to the point that these are a quirky nostalgic throwback that you just don’t see anymore, and we all saw what the reaction to the Aztek at Car Week was like.
I would proudly take this to shows. Screw the haters. This would be a hit at a Radwood or the Malaise Daze show.
I agree. I’d love to drive some ’80s classics and not even ironically. Have a great evening, everyone!
I prefer used cars to new cars because you can feel that they have a had a life beyond just being built. As a car is used, it gains its own flavors, its own moods. It becomes something more than it was when it started.
A new car is generic, a used car is individual. The car is the story.
An IROC Camaro is rad. The Cimarron is just bad.
You’ve probably not been to a Malaise Days car show.
The oddball stuff like Cimarrons, Dodge Royal Monaco wagons, and diesel Mark VIIs are what make them so much fun.
Dude, we went to Oblivion and were losing it over a Fiat Multipla.
I seriously might have to plan a trip to Buffalo to visit family at the same time as the next Oblivian show.
Just to rub in my point below even further, my 1985 LTD won best of show *by popular vote of attendees* at the last Malaise Daze show a few months ago. I was legitimately shocked.
Right?
The last Malaise Days I attended – There was an 84 Corvette.
It was nice – and had a lot of lookers – but no prizes.
The brown Royal Monaco wagon was the winner – and deservedly so.
I buy and sell cars pretty often. I have taught my kid (and my wife) that we just stewards for a short time of the life of a car. We are just here to make it comfortable and keep it in driving shape for the next steward. And maybe, just maybe that car will leave my hands a little nicer than how i found it.
While we have the car and while we take care of it thats when we can make great memories, make great stories, and etch it forever in our brains.
I inherited just my Dad’s motorcycle from him while he was still around, needed the basics on maintenance to get back in good shape, and it is, I hardly ride it nowadays(athritis kicking in some days so clutching gets tough around town, not bad on the open road), but any time I think of letting go of it there’s no way. It runs, I can still ride it, the day I can’t actually ride it I’ll figure out a way to keep a part of it and let most of it go, maybe the seat, maybe the trunk pack, but I get it, it’s really tough.
Also on the Caddy Cavalier, it has a place in history so there’s that but still would prefer a Z24 of the same era over it any day.
This COTD selection is kinda mid…
“I thought I had more time”
Thank you for your heartfelt comments. I was so pleased to see SWG call you out.
Well done. This is the reason I’m not going to keep working forever, I’ll definitely do what it takes to retire sooner rather than later.
Sorry to hear about your loss, but from what I’ve seen in your posts, the things that your dad really gave you, you’ll have those all your life. And instead of taking up space or being unfulfilled, they do the opposite…
I’m gonna respectfully disagree with you here, Mercedes: people who tell others with whom they disagree to get over themselves need to get over themselves.
We are all allowed – nay, encouraged – to have and to express differing opinions. Mine is that the Cimarron, despite its near-new condition, is simply not interesting. And apparently I should “get over” myself because of this? Nope.
The Cimarron is a car that actively makes me angry. Not at the car itself, but at the arrogance of the people that gave the idea the green light. “Yeah, just slap a fancy grille on a loaded Cavalier, and those idiots will pay double!”
The car can’t help how it’s made; to paraphrase Steve Magnante- “The car doesn’t know it’s a badge-engineered Chevy”.
Regardless of personal opinion on if a vehicle is interesting, Radwood is for RADNESS.
Boring schlep from the same time period as what Radwood is celebrating is not appropriate imho. It’d be perfect for a malaise era show though, but all 80s/early 90s cars are not rad.
Well good thing you don’t run the Radwood shows, Radwood Facebook group, or anything else under their banner. Their willingness to embrace everything from the era, from a Daihatsu Charade to a Lamborghini Countach, is exactly what I love about that group/show. Gatekeeping of what’s “rad” or cool enough for a show is a toxic trait in the car world and is what I hate about certain factions of the hobby.
Admittedly I am biased from personal experience, as I’ve owned an ’80s car since 2001 that for many years was overlooked and/or made fun of and rarely had a place in a show. Now that nostalgia for the era is hot and I’ve taken my car to several Radwood and Malaise Daze shows, I can’t tell you how many people have come up to me and expressed how happy they were to see it since they hadn’t seen another in a long time. I even got a trophy at Radwood! I finally found a home.
So that’s what I meant when I say, and I will triple down on this…
GET
OVER
YOURSELVES.
Sorry words have meaning, bro.
Cool bro. Let me know when you own the company or the trademark, then maybe your opinion on the topic would actually matter.
Rad is short for “radical”, which has a definition.
“extreme, especially as regards change from accepted or traditional forms”
“characterized by a marked departure from prevailing methods, practices, or ideas, particularly in the arts; experimental; unorthodox”
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/radical
THUS, a car that is markedly different/daring/pushing the envelope of the time period, is rad. A ho hum family car that is not extreme, and extremely traditional, and very orthodox or regular, is…. by definition, NOT RAD.
You can’t just change the meaning of words to mean whatever you want.
One could argue the first gen Ford Taurus COULD be considered radical, compared to all the competition and what came before it…. because it was a major departure.
I’m tripling/quadrupling/quintupling down on words having meaning, not just whatever you feel like they should be.
Do you even know where the inspiration for Radwood came from? It’s a more modern interpretation of the Goodwood Revival, where all vehicles and clothing are required to be in period of 1948-1966. That show encompasses all vehicles and fashion styles of the era, from the demure to the extravagant.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodwood_Revival
Great, you know how to look up the definition of the word “radical.” Bully for you. But in this case, “rad” was a common term used in the 80s/90s to reference anything cool, and as such that era of cars is increasingly being known as the “Rad Era” which basically succeeded the Malaise Era. The organizers of the event wanted an 80s/90s version of the Goodwood Revival. Goodwood + Rad Era = Radwood.
*insert Khabane Lame gif here*
And as this meme that I enjoy accurately shows, not everything in that era was dayglo neon, Solo Jazz stripes, and cocaine fueled extremes:
https://i.chzbgr.com/full/9911943936/hDB2B0BC9/wow-grew-up-80s-no-grew-up-80s-dream-neon
It’s clear you’re missing the point of the show, or perhaps you’re too young to remember what the 80s or 90s were like. You are more than welcome to create your own show/lifestyle brand exclusively filled with dayglo neon, Solo Jazz stripes, and cocaine fueled extremes, but in the meantime the rest of us who actually get what Radwood is about will continue to enjoy it.
Have a nice day!
Totally Rad response man…
-80s kid
I’m definitely an 80s kid, which is why I can tell what is and isn’t rad.
Most stuff in the 80s and 90s is NOT rad.
Again, without words having an agreed upon meaning, we cannot communicate.
Imma die on this hill. Feel free to be wrong though 😛
Way to completely disregard my point about the Goodwood Revival being the inspiration. Top work there.
Anyway, I’m not engaging anymore here, you’ve put your ignorance on display way better than I ever could.
Get over yourself.