Re: IML: It's a Mad Mad Mad Imperial World: Another Sunday Ride
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Re: IML: It's a Mad Mad Mad Imperial World: Another Sunday Ride



Great story Jack!

I have been gradually getting my fleet of 25 footers back on the road since 2003. That year I joined the IML and managed to get three of them road worthy. The big test is the drive to my mother's house in Fall City. It is a 90 mile round trip, mostly on busy and fast highway.

During the this last year, I have managed to get five more of them back on the road. We had a break in the weather yesterday, and I promised to see mom in the late afternoon. I chose to drive the '65 Crown. I have been working on it the last couple of weeks and am now on a first name basis with the guys at Atlas Obsolete! They are expensive, but good, and have had everything I have needed so far.

I have owned my 1965 Imperial for over 30 years. For many of those early years it was my regular driver, back when the big beige car was considered an ugly gas hog. Even at the ripe old age of 20 years, it didn't inspire much attention from passer's by. The relatively conservative style, and the unexciting color seemed to make it blend in with everything else at that time. In the late 1980's other cars came and went (or mostly stayed), and my life got busy, so the '65 basically was parked in the garage.

Yesterday's drive was great! It ran wonderful, and suddenly that conservatively elegant styling is once again commanding the attention it deserves. Gleaming along I-90 headed East at 80+ mph all of my work, and years of preservation came together in a terrific bolt of pride of ownership. The car ran fabulously and it looked great going down the road.

Thank you for sharing your story, and inspiring me to recount mine. It isn't difficult to feel a sense of great appreciation for the engineering and quality that was built into our cars, when they are running well and being driven the way that they were intended.

Paul W.


-----Original Message-----
From: YBSHORE@xxxxxxx
To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; mailing-list-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 5:32 am
Subject: IML: It's a Mad Mad Mad Imperial World: A Sunday Ride



Fellow Imperialist's:

 

    Here in New England this weekend it was unseasonably cool for the time of year [low 70's/low humidity] which of course makes for wonderful driving conditions:  cool and dry.  This summer I feel I have been neglectful of my cars in much the same way Paul W. has alluded to in the past, for I know they NEED to operate and NEED certain attentions, but for periods there just isn't time to make and this summer has been that for me.

 

    Anyway, the weather being so accommodating and my children otherwise happily occupied, I decided it would be the day to drive each of my humble collection of three '10 footers' to maximum operating temperature. Now living on the coast of Northern Massachusetts'/Southern New Hampshire affords me many options of varying driving time lengths and each has its own attractions.  I have driven these roads for too many years and know them intimately.  Yesterday I chose the 'coastal route' which is a 2 hour loop drive through Rockport, Ma and takes me along the Atlantic clear to the beaches in N.H.  I leave pointed south and come home from the north and the last leg is Interstate 95 which 'cleans up' the cruising build-up....LOL.  

 

    Now the reason I am taking the time to relate this is due to the attention certain cars command.  I elected to drive the same route for all three cars as the ocean was magnificent and the fishing boats private and commercial alike were working the traps or headed to Georges Banks for netting.  This road is loaded with tourists, so though in the off season it is an intimate drive, but during the summer it is a ride in the sense one doesn't stop, except at the no tourist stops off the beaten path.  I took my '55 New Yorker first, then my '68 300 convertible.  Both commanding cars in their own right and did in fact cause some rubber necking and when stopped, with the usual compliments, which I am always appreciative of as we work hard on our vehicles, whether a scale 1 or a 10.

 

    Then I took out 'Turq', my '56 Imperial, and followed the same route.  Where the NY'er and the 300 are gawked at and mostly recognized, the Imperial draws applause.  People are attracted to it in a way only an Imperial can hypnotize a crowd: What kind of car is that?  All that is stainless steel and chrome?!?!  Are those brake lights?  Where do you put the gas?  Where is the shifter?  It has A/C?, they had it then?  Is that an eagle woven into the seats?  POWER SEATS!?  Can you open the trunk?  WOW!!, do you rent that space out?  A HEMI!?!?!  Etc., where the ride for the other two is straight forward, the Imperial ride is a journey......and EVERY time I take her out after feeling like I have been not so nice to her, feeling perhaps even neglectful,  I find that she brings me all the attention and I realize and KNOW my 'things to do list' for her will grow smaller as my journey along with her continues to bring open roads to me.....she deserves it the way I deserve it, time and money willing.......and with the priceless members of this list who BAR NONE are the greatest car resource ever imagined, she will be, like a still fresh Kerouac, forever On The Road......

 

Most Sincerely to All,

 

Jack




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