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My
first memory of cars is from the farm in Appalachia where I was born
and lived until I was age 6. In the winter it would go down to 0-20
below for about two weeks every year. In 1949, my
dad had a 1946 Chevrolet four door fastback. Often, on cold nights, he
would cover the car with a tarp. In the morning he would carry out a
pan of glowing coals from the stove we had for heat. He would lift up
the tarp and shove the pan under it. Then, after about half an hour,
the oil would warm to where the six volt battery could crank it over.
If that didn't work he would roll the car downhill and try to jump it.
Everybody knew to park facing downhill.
If you had a liitle
money, you could buy an electrical heating element from J.C. Whitney. A
110 volt cord stuck out through the grille. Twelve volt electrical
systems put an end to all that.
There were no repair shops or tow
trucks - no emergency road service. People were jacks of all trades and
masters of none. We were pulled up hills by tractors when the roads
turned to mud and once were pulled out of a ditch by a team of horses.
After about ten miles, you were "out on the hard top" as
paved roads were called. You were responsible for maintainence
from the county road to your house. Our road was about a 1/4 mile long
and ran along a hillside. It would "slip" at least once a year. The
county would park the grader by the end of the driveway for a day
because my dad was a school teacher.
But everyone knows this sort
of thing so what's the point? For me it is that people helped each
other and stopped for someone on the side of the road. So what again,
they all knew each other. But did they help because they knew each
other or know each other because they helped? People cooperated with
each other because it was necessary to survive. They still do today but
something is different. Our progress seduces us into an illusion of
self-sufficiency. The shattering of this illusion may come with
devastating consequences. Well maybe not - I'm spending more than the
annual income of a significant number of people on this planet for
cable and cell phone and I think it is because of some kind of natural
superiority.
Geez, I thought this was a car blog.
Any
way, in the late 80's we ran the SCCA Runoffs with a TransAM/GT-1
Camaro. They were at Road Atlanta in October. It would be 40 degrees
before the first session at 8:00 AM. Before we left from Texas, we put
a heating element in the dry sump tank to warm up the 50 wt.oil. At
7:00 AM, we covered the tires and wheels with a tarp and pointed a
portable jet type heater under it. We hit the track with 200 degree oil
and tires. Now the big buck boys have electric blankets to wrap around
the tires and dry ice coolers for their qualifying fuel. Now that's a
real fancy J.C. Whitney oil heater.
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