Companion Thread to "Who does your car attract"

Have other vehicles ever caused you to feel the need to communicate with their owners? Not talking about giving the finger in traffic, or waving to someone who let you merge, but have you simplely felt the need to communicate to someone else based solely on their vehicle? And if so, how, and to what sort of vehicle. 

Myself, I have given more than a few thumbs up while on the road, but I can't remember just walking up to someone else's ride, and striking up a conversation unless it was at a car show or cruise. 

My thumbs up are usually preceded by a quick tap of the horn, and are either something incredibly uncommon, or never seen by me before on the highway or daily driven. But I doubt I do it more thsn a couple times a year. The vehicles are usually tiny, old, European, or a combination of those.  Though my last thumbs up was almost a month ago for a 70s motorcycle/sidecar setup (Almost positive it was a BMW, but that part doesn't stick in my head because of what I will say next) with a large dog in the sidecar. 

The last time I can remember going out of my way to communicate with another car owner, outside of a car show or at the vintage races, was a few years ago at a gas station to find out what the event was that they were partaking in.  The tiny tourist town we were taking a long weekend in was practically overrun one day with 'vintage speedsters'.  Apparently they were having some sort of road rally/tour.  They didn't have much time to chat, but were kind enough to field a few questions before respectfully taking their leave.

I've raced Lemons for 5 years and yet I still don't know everybody in our region. Often there will be some rare spec street car in the paddock of a team I've never talked to. One of the Smokey Unit guys drives an LHD Pontiac Crewman which had me bee-lining to talk to him. 

First generation Broncos and most el Caminos will get me to stop and talk for a little bit. Even if it's just a "damn, nice ride". 

A buddy and I did follow a first gen viper around one afternoon because we had no idea what it was. Guy was really cool and happy to talk to us, still the only one I've seen in western PA. 

As autocross chair for my club, I approach anybody driving any car that's even remotely sporty.

"Excuse me, that's a nice car, have you ever autocrossed it?  Want to try?  Our next event is blah blah blah..."

I wave at other Miata drivers with the top down, does that count? :)

In reply to codrus :

Not so much.  I have been doing the Jeep Wave since I first bought my Scrambler in '92. 

The only notable ones for me are where it's the same vehicle type as I was driving at the time and it was reasonably uncommon. When I had a motorcycle I'd do the usual two finger wave to motorcycles, and back when I had an S2000 I'd usually wave to the few others I've seen. I sometimes waved to Porsche sports car drivers but locally not many returned it so I don't so much anymore. Usually the Cayman/Boxster guys wave; I guess a lot of the late model 911 drivers don't do car culture as much.

I was driving around in my Miata and stopped at a light next to a minty fresh Sunbeam Tiger driven by an older gentleman.  I said “Hey man, nice car!  How long have you had it?”  He gave me a sideways glance and looked straight ahead, not even a smile.  Corksniffing SOB.

That actually made me LoL

I'll give a thumbs up to cool/unusual vintage cars that are nicely restored/maintainted (an old BMW 2002tii, for instance), but that's about it. Never for exotics or modded modern cars, even if I like them. They're just not that special to me.

Since I have a WRX, I feel generally obligated to give a small wave or couple fingers up on the wheel to other WRXs, but I usually wait for them to do it first. I don't really care that much about seeing a WRX though.

Older, well maintained J-tin gets a wave or a thumbs up from me. It makes me happy when I see an old CVCC, Accord or Datsun that is appreciated and not riced out or beat to death.

I got to sit in a 1937 Cord, because I knew what it was. I was maybe 23 or so, and I walked up to one at a local car show and said, " That's a beautiful Cord. What year?" The owner let me sit in the driver's seat and explained how the electric selectors for the automatic transmission worked. I felt privileged to be allowed to sit in it and thanked the owner for allowing me to do so.

Since I'm the type of person that will engage the cashier in a conversation when I'm shopping, it's not unusual for me to talk to other drivers when I'm buying gas. 

A couple of weeks ago I was filling my Ralliart wagon and said, "Nice RX!" as the owner walked past. He was very happy to talk, ended up taking about his car, the other RX-8 owners that he knows, my lancer (unicorn), my new Miata, autocross....

Even if it is just an immaculate 30 year old appliance I'm likely to compliment it. 

RevRico said:

First generation Broncos and most el Caminos will get me to stop and talk for a little bit. Even if it's just a "damn, nice ride". 

A buddy and I did follow a first gen viper around one afternoon because we had no idea what it was. Guy was really cool and happy to talk to us, still the only one I've seen in western PA. 

thanks!

however ive only done this once, to a scarily thin old lady wearing a pink and slightly fuzzy sweater. the car was a mk4 supra, i said hi because i didnt believe my eyes; she was nice and we talked for a few minutes

I’ve talked to plenty of people. 9/10 times it’s to inform them: 

their car has broken parts hanging down, the fuel fumes pose a fire hazard, the tires are bald, I can see their seat belt is shut in the door, it’s leaking coolant, if they clean the back seat and trunk out they’ll get better gas mileage, to move their vehicle that leaks oil, etc.  

In reply to Trackmouse :

Admittedly, i am a serial brake-light-out informer.

I like talking to anyone with an neat car because, chances are, we have a common interest.   

I'll go out of my way to talk to rotary owners and non-spider Alfa owners or to make sure they get a "thumbs up"  (nothing against the Spider, it's just we had a pretty big hipster crowd in the PNW and they tend to gravitate towards that particular model).  Old Toyota car owners (like pre '85ish) are usually good for a chat, and Saab 900 owners (the o.g. 900.  Like the one an architect would drive in Top Gear) are another favorite of mine.  I've also been known to talk to people who were obviously in the middle of their project car (one girl in an AE86, and her boyfriend in an 240sx) see what their plans are for the build, etc.

I stopped in a repair shop after seeing an RX-3 wagon and a BMW 2002 out front from time to time  aaaaaaand I left the only "if you ever want to sell this car..." note I've ever written on a Volvo P1800.

 

Last summer there was a guy dailying a 240z.  I had seen him three or four days on the feeder road for the highway.  Gave him the thumbs up and told him I thought it was awesome he was really using it rather than letting it sit.  

I find people usually respond more enthusiastically if you’re also in something sporty or clearly enthusiast owned, they can tell you’re not just making conversation.  

Once, about 15 years ago, I was on the highway in my '66 Dodge Dart when somebody pulled alongside me in a '64 Dart. We ended up stopping in a parking lot to talk about the cars.

Any neat or cool car I see I will try to start a conversation about it. gas station, stop light, driving down the road. when I see a car that stands out, its clear that the owner cares for it or has put a lot of work into it, I want to know what they've done. 

I met a guy at a gas station when I was in the minivan that had designed and built a chassis with a cage that had a mid engined chevy LS mated to an audi 6-speed manual transaxle through a custom adapter plate. 

Another time I chased down a 1st gen celica on a city surface street just to yell "I love your car!" to the guy. 

The cars and coffees I go to blow my mind. Too many people to meet but I love it. 

Another time I was sitting at a stop light in the M5 and a new 911 pulls up next to me. I don't even look over because I figured he wouldn't even care. Boy was I wrong. The light turned green and he lit off like a bullet! So I hammered down in a vain attempt to try and keep up, which failed. It was so fun though. Eventually he slowed down enough that I pulled up next to him and looked him in the eye and we both burst out laughing, then went our separate ways. Can't always tell who the car people are. 

Edit: 1 more. Getting gas in my work truck there was a 55 chevy that looked freshly restored with restomod wheels at the other end of the pumps. I walked over and got talking to the guy and he showed me around it. They had just finished it and the engine bay had a new ls3 in there it was insane. 

I have two stories: one of me asking and one of me getting asked. 

One beautiful Sunday morning, I found myself at the grocery store. After shopping, I came out and saw a stunning drop-top 1968 Barracuda sitting next to my car. 

With these badges on the back :

I started looking over the car, and I saw more clues of greatness, like these gauges:

I actually sat there waiting for the owner to come out. Turns out he was super cool! His name was Bob and he wrote the book on turbocharging and fuel injecting the Leaning Tower of Power.  Well, not quite a book, but he did write a bunch of info for a website! 

He used GM 3.8 Turbo Grand National stuff to make the Slant Six faster. It worked great, and with minimal tuning to boot. He had been running this setup for 15+ years! He said it was super reliable and he did all the work himself. His favorite part was the spark control box, which was made from a kid's plastic crayon box he found at a dollar store. He basically wrote that article so he wouldn't forget how he did it. He was getting older, and this was his "retirement car", so he wrote all of the swap info down so he could have a mechanic or his son fix it down the road when he couldn't turn wrenches anymore. 

The other story involves me and my Trans Am. As stated in the other "Companion Thread", it attracts old "Timmy Tuff-Nuts" know-it-all car guys like moths to flame. I was driving it once, and was sitting at a light, waiting to turn. A guy going in the other direction in a Dodge Caravan slammed on his brakes, rolls down his window, and starts yelling "WHOA!!! TRANS AM!!! YOUR CAR RULES!!!" and started having a full-on conversation about how he has one (a 1981 Pace Car) and he was so happy to see another 1979-81 that wasn't black and gold running around. Meanwhile, he was holding up traffic and people started honking. He told them to all "shut up" because Trans Ams were way more important. They didn't appreciate that!

Finally, my light turned and we took off, but that was the first time I saw someone hold up traffic to talk cars. I wonder if he ever finished his '81?