driving (pic heavy)

In this life, I’ve owned nine cars that I can think of right off the top of my head.  I’ve had a variety of cars, some of which I have pictures of and some I haven’t yet (and cannot for awhile) scanned into the machine.  (since most of the scans are hi-res 35mm shots, they may take a bit to load on dial-up- sorry)

The first car I owned was a 1970 Mustang:

This is one of my high school friends.

(Hmm.  The editor is not cooperating)

I bought this car for $500 and drove the shit out of it.  It was already on it’s last legs anyway, and as is fairly typical for a guy’s first car, I pretty much killed it.  It wasn’t so much the parked car I slid backwards into at 40 plus miles an hour as it was the transmission/engine, both of which wore out under my not-so gentle abuse.

The second car I owed was a 1972 Mazda RX-2, which I drove across the country three times and up and down both coasts a number of times.  I paid $400 for that one, and while I was in the Navy, used the auto hobby shop on one of the bases to replace it’s engine and clutch (new factory engine from the dealer, $535, a very good deal).  I ended up selling it for something like $350, but put almost 70,000 miles on it.  It is or was one of my favorite cars.

Here I’m checking the oil, at my brother’s apartment on xmas leave in 1983, after driving from Chicago to California (and back).  Behind us is my brother’s truck, a lowered Datsun pickup.

In 1984, I got married to my friend, a Japanese woman whom I had met three years before in California.  We got married in Rhode Island, where she was going to school, and one of the nice things about that was that in the Japanese tradition, they don’t give you a bunch of junk for the wedding, they give y’all envelopes of money.  We bought a 1984 Toyota 4×4 pickup truck, the only new vehicle I have every owed.  I ended up driving that one across the country four times (and up and down both coasts and into Canada and Mexico) , and put almost 66,000 miles on it, trouble free.

It was a Toyota, ya know.

Here I am with my Toy, above Wiscasett, Maine, in 1984.  This was another of my favorite vehicles- it always ran right and got decent mileage too, but it was a rough rider, because of it being a 4-wheel drive.

When we went to Japan in 1985, it sat in a storage unit for two years, then we came back to the US and drove it from California up to Oregon.  I kept it for another year or so, but sold it in 1988 for about half of what we paid for it new because it had only two seats, and wasn’t really a practical city vehicle.  I do miss it though, and occaisionally wonder how it lived after I parted with it – being a Toyota, it may well be still around!

I have more car pics to post, but will just post these three now, and end this with text instead.

I am a professional driver.  I get paid to drive, thus am a professional.  Let me give some tips for driving:

!.  For maximum mileage, whatever you drive, drive it as though there is an egg between your foot and the gas pedal.  No sudden starts, no flooring the pedal.  Use cruise control if you have it, or drive at a steady speed if you don’t.  Most cars will get better gas mileage if you stay under about 62 mph (or 100kph) because above those speeds, you are pushing the vehicle through the more resistant air.  (My RX-2 got it’s best mileage at 70 mph) I drive a van now, and although it cruises really nicely at 65mph (110kph) and above, it is like pushing a brick through the air, and gets noticably better mileage at 62 mph(100 kph) and lower.

2.  Don’t waste money on a higher octane gass than your vehicle needs to move without pinging or knocking.  Some feel that they are "treating" their ride, giving it plus or super gas, but it really is a waste of money, and your vehicle will not be any happier,  The oil companies will be, of course, but your wallet will be that much flatter.

3.  Generally, drive the speed limit.  The time you think you’re saving by driving faster is not really enough to make a difference, unless you are going a long ways for a long time.  Driving across Montana, you’ll gain a few minutes if you go over the speed limit (I think it’s 75mph now…) but in the long run, the time you gain will not be very much, and you will be at risk of that speeding ticket, which will cost more than the time you save is worth it.  I have never *knocks on wood* gotten a speeding ticket, although I certainly deserved one many times.  That Mazda would would do 100+ mph (170kph) easily all day long, and there were times when I did, for long minutes at a stretch, but here in Oregon, now the speed ticket you’ll get for 100+ mph is at least $1000.  Do you have an extra thousand dollars?   Do you wanna be on the Oregonian’s website, on a police car’s dash board cam?  You will be if they chase you.

4.  Keep your tire pressures up to the ones posted on your car’s driver side door.  The manufacturer set that tire pressure as the comfortable limit for the vehicle.  You can, and I do, look at the side of your tires, which will have a max. inflation pressure listed there.  You can inflate the tires up to that limit, but your vehicle will ride that much harder.  You’ll get a tiny bit more gas mileage too.

5.  Keep you rig maintained.  Fresh good oil in the crankcase, enough in the transmission, and the good spark plugs correctly set will let the engine run "right" and at it’s best economy.

That’s it for this entry, but I have owned and driven many different cars and have the pics to post – stay tuned.

*****