I was very active in the car thing as a hobbyist pursuit, not so much for daily drivers. I loved cars from the time I was a kid. When I moved to NYC for my career, I quit driving altogether and let my license lapse. I had no need to drive and in that environment, little interest in it, or in maintaining a car, paying for garage space or dealing with a car in such a dense urban setting.
Then, one morning- in my early ’40s, I think, I woke up and said, "man, I can afford a Ferrari!" So, I did my research and bought one. Had to get a learners permit to drive the thing (and yes, eventually got another driver’s license). That led to a 15 year tear of exotics-mostly Italian, some German, some new, some vintage. Bikes too. Loved the history, the people (the old time collectors have pretty much aged out or are gone now).
I’ve pretty much quit driving altogether at this point. When we moved to Austin, we decided to live ’in town’- so I have no need and I’d have to get out of town to drive in any spirited way.
Did a lot of rallies and events, including the Targa Florio in Sicily and several multi-day sanctioned rallies over the years.
Had the good fortune to be in a feature article in Road & Track and a couple other magazines back in the day. Met lots of collectors, enthusiasts and people with great stories- the history fascinated me (and still does).
Lot’s of old survivor iron here, along with American hot rods and pre-war cars that have either been restored to look original or have been chopped, channeled and rodded. There’s a very cool car culture here in Texas, which is a bit different than the exotic Euro-sports scene.
A daily in NYC was always a challenge. One of my favorites, as a practical car, was a "works’ Mini- crazy fast and lithe. I have some great memories of long drives through the countryside. I never did much at the track though I’ve been on a few over the years- I liked the scenery, the landscape and the changing topography of those days-long drives in the countryside. Great fun as long as you didn’t break down in the middle of nowhere.
One of the more challenging cars I had was a pre-war boat-tailed speedster- right hand drive, crash gear box (left hand shift), center accelerator pedal, cable brakes and a real commitment to drive. You realize how far cars have come in some ways- and how little they demand of owners now. The manual for this car had descriptions of how to pull the motor to work on it!
