January 09, 2007

The Moron, it is strong with this one.

Remember a few months back when I told you about that old Datsun roadster parked out front of the service station there on Main Street?

I notice it's for sale.

Not that big a deal, except I notice it's for sale every single time I drive by, and it's getting increasingly difficult not to stop and copy down the phone number. I have no money to buy it, no place to put it, and no reason to want it other than its peculiarity, yet for some reason, I can't NOT steal a glance at it every morning as I take the kids to school.

And it's not that I'm angry or sad or envious or anything knowing that I simply cannot bring it home--it's hard to explain what the feeling is, other than maybe it's the weird sort of feeling some women must get when they see a guy they think is a fixer-upper. In the end, you know he's gonna keep on drinking and cussing and fooling around on you, but something still makes you wonder what might be if he'd just get a haircut and put on a nice pair of shoes.

Same thing here--you know the top will leak and the sills will rust and the carb will spray a fine mist of gasoline everywhere except down the intake manifold, but doggone it, an impractical, unreliable, yet oddly offbeat top-down car certainly does have a certain magnetism about it.

Posted by Terry Oglesby at January 9, 2007 12:37 PM
Comments

I feel your pain.

Posted by: steevil (Dr Weevil's bro Steve) at January 9, 2007 12:47 PM

I'm pretty sure you and I are twins separated at birth. This moronitude has been a factor throughout my life since before my drivers license was issued.

Posted by: Nate at January 9, 2007 01:53 PM

It is a curse.

Posted by: Terry Oglesby at January 9, 2007 02:22 PM

A 2000 or 1600? We must bound your moronitude.

Posted by: Larry Anderson at January 9, 2007 02:43 PM

...or even a 1500?

Posted by: steevil (Dr Weevil's bro Steve) at January 9, 2007 02:58 PM

Best I can tell, it's a late model 1600, maybe a '67 or '68. I dare not try to find out too much about it for fear of further taking leave of my senses.

Posted by: Terry Oglesby at January 9, 2007 03:09 PM

That would be the mighty 1600 of Datsun 510 days, a vertible fount of power. Can you say Brock?

Posted by: Larry Anderson at January 9, 2007 03:15 PM

You're not helping things, Larry. I keep looking for 510s, too.

Posted by: Terry Oglesby at January 9, 2007 03:22 PM

I love seeing an addiction in action. Do we need to do an intervention? However, I think these guys will bring tools to the intervention.

Posted by: jim at January 9, 2007 03:32 PM

...said the Briggs and Stratton repair guy! You don't fool me--I know you've got a mechanical monkey on YOUR back, too!

Posted by: Terry Oglesby at January 9, 2007 03:39 PM

Well the smaller the engine the smaller the addiction and usually the cost.

Posted by: jim at January 9, 2007 04:03 PM

Wait a minute, there are 510s still visible in the wild where you live? I thought they were extinct. I can't remember the last time I saw a 510 except in pictures.

I do still have a Pete Brock BRE 510 TransAm race car model that I built, sitting on a shelf in the basement. And I still have the street car version, waiting to be built, in a box under the bench... I actually won a model contest with that car, sometime before 1978...

Posted by: Nate at January 9, 2007 04:06 PM

I think this might be English, but then again, you boys may just have started conversing in some new language. I'm just not sure.


Automobilese, I think.

Posted by: Jordana at January 9, 2007 04:12 PM

Not a 240Z, huh? I've always wanted one of those.

Posted by: BillW at January 9, 2007 04:14 PM

Augh! I tried to not succumb and won. There was a cherry looking 510 here in NOLAnorth, not 5 blocks from my house. A measly 1500$ was asked, I was staunch in not falling deeper in to "MoronitudeŽ". Now y'all are talking about it again. I wants it, Wants my precessssss, I do. I saw it sitting on the corner today a bit forlorn still w/the for sale sign.

I wrote down the number. The FSM help us all now!

Posted by: Chef Tony at January 9, 2007 04:41 PM

Jim, it's an addiction, and the size just doesn't matter.

Nate, yes, every once in a while I run across one, but they usually aren't in great shape. eBay, however, usually has something interesting.

Jordana, it's not automobilese, it's moronese.

Bill, yes, a 240 would be okay, but they look nice, and for some reason I have succumbed to an affection for somewhat peculiar-looking cars.

Sorry, Tony. But let us know how it drives!

Posted by: Terry Oglesby at January 10, 2007 08:22 AM