chapter 1
another case of love at 1st sight.
https://auto.howstuffworks.com/1950-...tudebaker2.htm (mine was light blue, like the picture)
my 1st car had a feature that has something in common with my latest (xf). when i purchased it, i was working at a large airliner at the airport. i had been flying full size airplanes, but did not to drive a car because city bus transportation was all that i needed. but when 1 of my friends told he was selling his car, at a great price, i couldnt resist. the car was in great shape, and looked the closest to an airplane i have ever seen.
but i didnt know how to drive it. it was when he explained to me the basics that i learned that it had a feature that, would you believe? it is embodied in the crossie too!
to start it, you have to press the clutch to the floor!
and both cars also share something else: both are art deco, and i like that.
am adding this that just found at my files:
-my first car.
At the time, public transportation was good. We could go anywhere. but when a fellow worker at the office told me he was selling his car, that he kept in great shape, and the money he was getting, I decided to buy it, and brough him the money. it was a 1951 studebaker that looked as if it only needed a prop to take-off!
we did the paper work, he handled me the keys, and then...well, i had to ask him the details. like how to start it. the starter worked when depressing the clutch pedal to the floor (something i found many years later in my 1985 firebird). the fact was that i had not driven a car yet. i was into flying, and had some hours behind lightplanes, and even DC3, but was never interested into surface vehicles.
driving home, with that clutch so sensitive, and the trafic so close around me, i had to stay in the car for 15 minutes before i could walk, as my legs were so shaky! took me some days to get used to all and feel comfortable. as i grew up flying airplanes, with safety belt of course, i felt unsafe driving a car without it, so i managed to get safety belts from the airplanes that were being overhauled, and installed 2 sets on the front seat (bench seat, remember those?). people around couldn't stop making fun of me.
at the time not even race cars had them. some racers began using those egg-shell looking helmets, but that was all. since that car, i kept adding belts to my cars, until the government made it a law.
but i will never forget that wonderful car that looked like an airplane.
