Road & Track’s Peter Egan no longer visits my garage
Peter Egan no longer dwells in my garage. For many years I have looked forward to Peter’s monthly “Side Glances” in Road & Track magazine. We were distant brothers, about the same age, and similar automotive interests. But now Pete has gone “up market” on me. Where is that “hands on” guy who could resurrect a rusting hulk with bondo and a box of used parts? A favorite old column of his described how one could rid oneself of accumulated used parts by storing them in dated cardboard boxes. Then after a respectful period, perhaps a year or two, if the box had not been opened, one moved it to the dumpster. Not! Of course we couldn’t trash those potentially useful items. They just continued to accumulate, but now neatly stored in dated boxes.
In the December R&T, Peter tells us of his latest restoration project; a worthy one, a vintage Lotus Elan. He had a good start, given his clever separation of body and chassis, but it all went up scale from there. Bought a new chassis to the tune of $3K and shipped the body off for a many month restoration at a body shop. Yeah, I know it all looks really great: in fact so great Pete is now paralyzed with the fear that the car has become magically attractive to anything that might mar the finish. How is he going to get the courage to drive this thing? And poor old Sam (his dog) is probably banned from the garage for life.
So now all that’s left is screwing it back together; and using all new parts, I bet.
So I yearn for the return of the Peter E I once knew. The one who spilled coffee on the new seat covers, stored empty beer cans in the trunk, and spent hours sand blasting old suspension parts for reinstallation.
Sigh. Pete you may have moved up scale and may even be thinking of moving to a warmer climate, but you will still write the first page I turn to each month in R&T.
November 12th, 2008 at 4:17 am
Thanks! Nice post.