Adam Dorey: The Best Car is the One You Drive
“Wheels are put on cars to take ‘em down the road, pool tables are meant to sit in your garage and talk about.”
Doug ‘Boots’ Cline gave an interview to 1320 Video in 2015 on Rocky Mountain Race Week, and it was all about getting out to enjoy your car. The whole quote is below, but it’s a good way to think a hobby that is prone to stagnation.
“Hey, I got something I wanna say to you guys... Uh... I wanna talk to all you guys with car show cars, and these uh mileage... mileage counted cars like ‘68 Camaro convertibles that are in all these garages all over America. This car right here, it’s a pretty valuable car, I mean it’s not the most in the world, and neither is (Larry) Larson’s, but they’re both really nice, but yet we take em out and we’re drivin’ em down the road, and we’re having a good time with ‘em. That’s what cars are made for. Wheels are put on cars to take ‘em down the road, pool tables are meant to sit in your garage and talk about. So if you’re sitting at home and you’re polishing it with a duster, you need to put your wife in that damn thing and take her to the drive-in on a Saturday night, and forget about the mileage. Because if you don’t, one day your son or daughter is gonna sell that, and I’m gonna buy it and I’m gonna take my wife.”
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I’d love to have the numbers as to how many cars that were previously sitting are now driving around the country due to the invention of drag-and-drive. The blow-up of the sport is undoubtedly getting more vehicles driving around than before this insanity blossomed. Even if you aren’t planning on pulling your car out for a week of pain and suffering, get it out to a Cars and Coffee, or put your lady in the passenger seat and go for a scenic drive somewhere, or go spin the tires for some kid somewhere.
This interview came back into my head after a friend of mine talked to me about what to do with his cars if he passed untimely. He was talking to his wife, who does not get the car addiction, about what she would do with his cars, and she said, “I don’t know, I guess give them to your friends?” It got him thinking about where his pride and joy cars will end up one day. A 1970 Chevelle he’s had since high school, and a recently aquired 1955 Bel Air hardtop, the exact same car he’s had his eye on for over 20 years. While they have an obvious monetary value, that’s nothing compared to the memories he could make in them.
Make sure you do get out and enjoy your stuff, and make sure you talk to your people, so everyone knows where you want that stuff to end up, just in case. Otherwise, your kids will sell them for what you told your wife it cost to build and something that was so important to you will be gone for pennies, and a big part of your life will just disappear into the ether.
Put your wife in that damn thing. Take her to the drive-in on Saturday night. Forget about the mileage.
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