Saturday, October 11, 2014

The Internet Is Cool #2 - OOH SHINY, With Another ID

OK, not sure this is quite as cool to most of my boatblogging friends as the unsolicited tugboat ID (that was really neat, especially the article the ID led to), but I got a kick out of it! 

One cool thing about being at Oak Beach on a Sunday morning, as TQ and I were a couple of weeks ago for our tides and currents and surf zone classes, is that it happens to be THE meeting place for all the classic car buffs in the area. There used to be a club here, the Oak Beach Inn, and according to what I was told at one time the car buffs used to come here to go there, and when the inn burned down they just kept coming.

I'd forgotten that it was Sundays and that it was so big - we'd had a cavalcade of bikers through on Saturday (fundraising ride for medical research of some sort, I think it was - oh those awful bikers, NOT) and I'd thought that was it but when TQ and I got there on Sunday we were almost embarrassed to drive in in Mighty Taurus (who has been a darned good yakwagon for years, but still...). Fortunately we did have a couple of slick machines strapped to the roof to distract from the vehicle.

We actually ended up having a pretty nice lineup of boats up on the lawn later when the rest of the gang arrived, some of the car and bike folks came up to say hi and check them out. That was fun. The vehicles were different but I think the spirits were kind of similar - obsessively in love with our respective traveller's hobbies.

TQ and I were early enough and still organized enough from the day before that I had some time to walk around and admire.

I wouldn't call myself a car buff, but I do find nice cars, and especially old cars, to be very pleasing to the eye.

I like the colors,

I like the lines,

I like the way the owners

like to make 'em shine!


And I liked this one because it looked just like a big red robot face! :D
And that's where the internet ID came in! I don't think of TQ as particularly a car buff but he's totally a guy kinda guy and it turned out he was really glad I'd taken all of these pictures - he was the head instructor this day so he had a little more prep to do than I did and didn't end up having a chance to go check out the cars and was happy that I had pictures for him. I think half the fun for him was ID'ing the cars -- I was taking pictures because "oooh shiny", didn't even cross my mind to ask what kind they were! Anyways, he was doing really well until we got to the shiny red robot face car. You can see the badge on the photo but it was hard to make out the details, even in the full-sized version. TQ was working his way through the list of zoomy cars (Ferrari? Nope. Bugatti? Nope? etcetera etcetera) without any luck. Thinking back I don't know if he was REALLY stumped (he said he was but I bet he would've gone back to look more sometime), but he took a break for a minute and at that point I decided I would try one of my groups on Facebook. It's a group of friends from Hawaii, but there are a few notable car buffs on there and I suspected one of them would be able to sort this out for me.

I think I specifically addressed it to the lady who works with her husband in professional racing but another friend there nailed it in about a second. Literally. I uploaded the picture and the question and hit "post" and my fingers were barely leaving the keyboard when I heard the "beep" indicating his response. Dodge Viper, he even specified the year, and a second later he posted a confirming picture and this was all before TQ came back into the living room, a minute or two after he'd walked out! He was impressed. The Viper picture kicked off a fun FB discussion among the car fans, I joined in later with more pictures from the morning and the gang enjoyed them. 


More from the day: Anybody need some muscle?

Shiny bikes with the shiny cars

Taking a wild guess, here, I think it's a Chevy? Maybe?

Trans-Am twins - the owners were taking the same pictures as I did here, they got such a kick out of seeing these two side by side. 

And my favorite car of the morning, just for the sheer outrageous hot-roddery of all -- here's this guy again!

Willy's FC Coupe according to my car-savvy friends

Particularly cool - apparently when you win at the Adirondack Nationals, they make a Hot Wheels version of your car. Don't know if this was actually the winner (it was 2002, plenty of time to add flames and stuff to the paint job), but the way they have it displayed here I sort of bet it was. 
And the next time I find myself at a car thing, maybe I won't be so shy about asking questions. 

2 comments:

clairesgarden said...

they look fabulous

bonnie said...

Lots of fun seeing this, I was glad I had time for a walk around!