As the years have gone by, I’ve taken fewer and fewer pictures of the Catonsville parade, but I do still pick up the phone to shoot interesting things.
This year, the weather was so hot (“feels like 112˚”) there were probably 1/3 of the usual participants in the parade, and 1/2 the people normally watching. It was just miserable outside. As usual, we spent the day before preparing for it through the heat, and I was outside from about 8AM until 1:15 getting everything set up before I could run upstairs for a shower. Jen’s sister and her family were with us, and it was a low-key day, but it still took everything out of me.
As this beautiful shoebox Ford drove past, one of many classic cars, I commented to my sister-in-law that it was the one I’d want in my driveway out of all the others present. About 20 minutes later, a man tapped me on the shoulder and asked if he could charge his jump box from one of my outlets: it was Larry, the driver of the Ford, who told me the car had sputtered to a halt one house past ours, as the generator wasn’t charging the battery. I got him an extension cord and some water, and we stood in the shade while it started charging the box. Turns out Larry knew me from my trucks and figured I’d be the guy to ask; I didn’t recognize him because he wasn’t driving his sick blue T-bucket hot rod, which he normally has at Cars & Coffee. As I mentioned earlier, the parade ended early, so we walked up the street and were aided by four firemen who helped push the car back and into our driveway, where it cooled off under the tulip tree.
Once the jump pack was ready, I threw my tow straps into the Scout and followed Larry back to his house, where he tucked it into the garage. Along the way we saw another of the antique cars from the parade dead on the side of the road; I think it would be a huge gamble to take my trucks through a parade on such a hot day.
I think the only time any of us were outside was during the parade and its aftermath—it was just too hot to be outside. Our guests left at about 9:30, after a passing thunderstorm cooled things off a bit, and we all collapsed into bed. I had to tackle Hazel while the local pyromaniacs lit off fireworks until 11:30, and then we were able to go to sleep.
Over at the Autopian, founder and chief editor David Tracy had been periodically updating the site with progress on his latest crazy idea: building a new WW2 Jeep from parts sourced strictly through eBay. He’d gone dark for the last couple of months, but reading his July 4th article wrapping up the entire project, it’s clear why: he was working nonstop to get it done by the deadline, so he could drive it 900 miles to Moab for the Jeep Roundup. It’s a great story for anyone interested in foolish ideas, old Jeeps, or road-trip adventures.
Having seen the new Scout Motors models in person, and having talked directly to several of the company reps, I came away incredibly impressed with everything about them. But I haven’t put a $200 deposit down on either vehicle, as much as I’d like to. I have no idea what price point they’ll actually release at, but I’d wager it’ll start somewhere in the mid-$50K range, which is just too expensive for our family to justify. I would definitely go for the Traveler model at this point, as much as I’d like a pickup truck; the small dimensions of the bed pretty much negate any advantage having an outside box would bring. The primary reason I bought the Travelall was to have a 4-door SUV with hauling capabilities, and that need hasn’t changed any.
However, Slate is coming out with a no-frills EV truck platform they swear will start at $25K. it’s supposed to get about 200 miles of range, which is more than enough for 95% of the driving we typically do every year. And it’s customizable, where adding an extra $4K would build an SUV-style truck. This is more my budget and style; as much as I’d love a Traveler with the range extender, I see a Slate fitting in my driveway—and my wallet—a lot easier. We’ll see how it shakes out.
I was headed back from the auto parts store this weekend and took a route I rarely every drive; while passing a local auto body shop I spied a peculiar shape among the rows of modern appliances and quickly reversed to take a closer look.
This is a Porsche 356, and even though I could see down to the ground between the rocker panels, there’s obviously no engine, and every panel is covered in bondo, rust, and regret, this shell is probably worth $30K as it sits. Double that if whoever owns it has the engine stored away somewhere.
I think vintage Porsche pricing has come down a bit in the last decade, but air-cooled examples like this are still worth a mortgage, if you have the money for it.
This is the newest video in the Project Slowflake series. Publishing this one means I’m finally caught up, almost three weeks after we shot the last footage…!
Today’s ASMR: watching this guy drop the chassis out of a Karmann Ghia, disassemble the whole thing, cut out and weld new metal in, and re-assemble. No gratuitous talking, minimal music, and a lot of the tedious stuff sped up. I think I learned more about how an air-cooled VW was made in 20 minutes than I thought was possible.
I saw a great reel on the Autopian’s Instagram feed about a beautiful harlequin Series II Land Rover spotted on its way back from Monterey Car Week the other day and immediately mashed the LIKE button. They got so much response from it, they followed up and got the full story, which is even better.
I’ve got a ton of open tabs in two different browser windows right now, so that’s my sign to offload them here. In no particular order, here are a few:
- An excellent writeup on Hagerty about car alternators, and the differences between one, two, three, and four-wire versions. This explains a lot about the three-wire alternator in the Travelall and the one-wire in the Scout.
- With the passage of the Big Stupid Bill in Congress, all incentive credits for EVs are now gone. Which means that $40,000 EV will now be north of $47,500. Not that I was ready to buy an EV, but this will change the math for millions of people and fuck up the EV market for years.
- This is a really good video by a guy tuning his carburetor to run better; there’s a lot of basic knowledge that’s just good to absorb for future use.
On my way down to Southern Maryland last weekend, I saw the shape of a semi-familiar vehicle out of the corner of my eye but didn’t have time to stop and check it out. On my way back north, I pulled over to give it a better look, and found a very rare 4×4 here in the states: a first-generation Nissan Patrol. These were only sold in the states from 1962-69, so this example is a unicorn. It’s in excellent shape: the sheet metal looked good, and the interior was clean.
I can’t say that I’m a huge fan of the color, but it is unique, and could very well be period-correct.
It’s always great to see an antique 4×4 on the road.
