Funny, you don't seem like a car guy....

We've all done it, right? This weekend we saw some friends and somehow the conversation turned to old cars--trust me, I didn't take it there.

"I have an old car," she said.

How old?

1965.

Mustang.

Convertible.

With the original V8.

We had a gathering of 6 Fiats in Lawton, OK this past weekend. A few people saw us and wandered over to say hello. One works at a Golden Coral and he had a series of Fiats and Alfas and knew all the right people in Oklahoma City who are connected with them. Another was at the motel and still owned a Fiat Racer. Many Fiatisti don't know these rare hardtop Fiat 850 Spider variants.

Happens to me a lot actually. I usually don't like to talk cars with strangers because (as a general rule) they tend to be close-minded, or just dumb. That being said I accidentally got into a conversation about sorts cars with my boss (who sometimes comes off as a bit of a rich snob). It turns out he owns an FC RX-7.

I was actually pretty impressed with how much he knew about it, and how passionate he was abuot it, especially when I'm pretty sure he's never turned a wrench in his life.

I sometimes get that because my life is compartmentalized. I have friends that know me as a gardener, or as a wine aficionado, or as having several other specific interests, and cars never come up unless someone asks me a question or visits my home.

Always pleasant to hear someone start up on an automotive topic/interest you hadn't realized they shared with you.

I'm the guy no one suspects as a car guy so no one talks about cars with me. I rarely talk about cars with civilians for most of the reasons as Hungary Bill. If people find out, it's like being a doctor at a party when everyone starts looking for free medical advice. Everyone starts making weird noises trying to reproduce whatever symptom their car exhibits. OR, people start droning about the eco-friendliness of their new hybrid.

I guess I don't get out enough anymore.

I was at the start point of a luncheon drive on Saturday & ran into a guy I knew about 40 years ago. He was driving a delicious looking '91 Miata with 16,000 miles on the clock.

I told him I didn't realize he was a car guy. He told me he had heard I died of cancer six years ago. Happily, we were both wrong.

I'm 41 an own a decently modded 99 Civic Si.

The musclecar crowd actually shows a bit of interest in it because I'm not a "young punk", so they don't immediately write me off.

Plus, I have a very good working knowledge of the domestic stuff, so I can appreciate their cars/stories.

On July 4th, I was at my wife's family get together on Lake Murray. I had a fairly long conversation with one of my wife's cousins who is a bit older than she is. This lady is a super hypochondriac. She told me her first husband raced sports cars for a living. I told her you can't make a living doing that and she said, "I know". She also said she once owned a Healy 3000 and apparently later owned a Spitfire.

I kinda want to put a bike rack on the Mini and/or GT6... it would probably blow minds if I showed up at one of my mtn bike rides with either car. Both have rain rails, so in theory it shouldn't be too hard.