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In Reply to: The year, 1962 posted by DavidLD on March 10, 2007 at 06:38:46:
Great fun!Let's see, in 1962 I was out of college and living in a batchelor pad with 2 other guys. We were all engineers for United Aircraft divisions.
Our TV was an old 23 tube RCA black and white that wouldn't die.
The hi-fi was my Eico HF-20 with a Garrard RC-88 changer (single play spindle, of course)and the speaker was a huge Able-Wood cabinet with a 15" wharfedale woofer, an 8" wharfedale for the mid, and an AR ST-3 "range extender" sitting on top. It was the AR-3's 1 3/8" dome tweeter and high pass filter in a box.
We had quite an inventory of wheels: my 1958 Alfa romeo Spyder, my '55 Olds convertible, and my old green '55 Pontiac 4 door, George's 1959 Jaguar XK-150, George's 1950 Ford with the Olds engine, Charlie's 1961 TR-4, and a Ducatti 200 CC scrambles bike. Plus 2 sailboats: my Sunfish, and George's DIY (which kept trying to be a submarine).
It was the year I got engaged; and yes, I'm still married to her.
It was good times. Innocent times, but cold war times, too. Kerouak's books were out and all the buzz. Kennedy was president. Folk songs and psuedo folk songs were popular, and Joan Baez was new and making a big name. The New Christie Minstrels, the Kingston Trio, Chad Mitchel Trio, Pete Seeger, and Bob Dillon was just recently out, too. Mary travers hadn't joined Peter and Paul yet. Oh yes, and Julie Christy ("the misty miss Christy"), sigh!
Follow Ups:
But don't forget the Cuban Missle Crisis in October of that year, a terrifying time if you were old enough to know what was going on and I was (turned 13 in June). Seattle hosted an exposition that year, with their Space Needle as the centerpiece (still standing). American Graffiti (1973) was set in the year 1962 - the film had it down pretty well. On a personal note, it was my Bar Mitzvah year, an event still vivid. Later, much later (1994), I dated my co-partner's sister. Where is Lois Cohen now? Anybody know?
Ah yes; the Cuban Missile Crisis. Boy, is that a vivid memory. I was living in manchester CT and working for the Hamilton-Standard Division of United Aircraft Corp. The plant was located at Bradley Field, the Hartford-Springfield Municipal Airport.Kennedy made his famous speech to the American people in the evening, and right after, my parents called and asked me if i thought it was serious. Itold them no, I thought it was just saber rattling because we were one of the alternate fields for Westover AFB, a SAC base, and if things were serious they would be dispersing their planes to alternate fields and i hadn't seen any.
Next morning I drove to work, and there at the southeast corner of the field was a seven plane flight of B47's all lined up with their mother ship with the orange tail that carried all the ECM gear. At the southwest corner of the field was a U-2 and it's support plane, and the Connecticut Air National Guard at the north corner had all their F-102's rolled out on the runway on 2 minute alert status. Once I got into the office I found all the National Guard members were missing from their desks. And later that morning a C-123 cargo plane taxied over to our plant (the main taxi-way extended onto our property) and they began loading supplies from the warehouse. A lot of military contractors were paid to maintain stocks of spares for just such an event. In the afternoon, a second cargo plane arrived.
It was painfully clear that Kennedy was not just talking and that the US had put one of their war preparedness plans into action. Meanwhile, my fiance' was in Miami at a Dental Convention.
Scared the heckout of my parents. I had told them that if they were worried to check their local county airport and see if any military planes had showed up there. Next morning they drove over there, and sure enough, there were a bunch of planes there, too.
My roommate worked for pratt & Whitney, another UAC division, and they had the same experience. All the National Guard and reservists missing and cargo planes landing at their field.
It didn't last long, but it was the highest alert level I can remember from the cold war.
I had a white '57 Alfa 101 Normale and had lots of fun with it, later I had a '58 XK150 (pictured)...Wish I still had either of them.
Mine was black, a Normale Spyder. George's Jag was also black and the roadster. What's a 101?Joseph Lucas, the man who invented darkness.
Between us we spent many fun-filled hours changing voltage regulators, generators and starters and rebuilding Smith's tachs and speedos and the Girling power brake booster. Almost forgot the infinite number of servicings on the electric fuel pump.
Thankfully, the Alfa didn't have SU carbs, but it was one of the ones with Lucas electricals.
Your Jag coupe looks really nice. A real GT car. How was the heater? George ended up building his own using an American heater core.
The good old days. We would have killed for a Miata back then.
oops it was a 750 not a 101, I had a 101 later. I currently use a '87 Spider as my daily car. The only "classic" I still own is a '52 Rolls Silver Dawn that I am hoping to restore one of these years...LUCAS stands for:
Loose Unprotected Connections All Shorted by the way. Its scary to think they did electrics for aircraft also. Good thing they never got into pacemakers.JAGUAR:
Jinxed Auto Guarantees Unreliability and RepairsI never really cared about the heater much as I lived in AZ at the time. Motorola hired me out of college so I moved from the Chicago area to work there at the old 52st plant in Phoenix working in the Computer Services Group. The biggest thing with the 150 was the LUCAS bullit connectors (pronounced BULLSH*T connectors). They were bullet shaped metal crimped on connectors that plugged into a sleev with a slit in it and put inside a Bakelite tube to insulate it. They were open at the ends so moisture, dirt etc got in them and corroded them big time so every time you hit a bump or went around a corner fast you'd have a whole new set of electrical problems. They even used these stupid connectors for the grounding tie points. I finally got tired of chasing the gremlins and clipped out every one of the damn things and replaced them with those crimp together splice joiners that at least sealed the connections somewhat. Hardly ever had an electrical problem ever again. Curiously the other car in the picture, the 54 Sunbeam, hardly ever broke and I drove it 50 miles a day to and from work...
I had the misfortune of buying a brand new Miata the first year they came out and it was the biggest pile of crap I ever owned, in fact I never bought a new car ever again because of that experience. It actually broke down on the way home from the showroom and spent the first 3 weeks I owned it in the shop. It was never right and I kept refusing to accept it from the shop til they got it right and they wouldnt exchange it for another new one. I ended up having to get a lawyer to get my money back and they had already sold the Mercedes I traded in so they had to pay for that also. I ended up getting a '87 FIAT Bertone X1/9 and surprisingly it preformed better than the Miata in every way. Better mileage, better handing, faster etc. By 87 they had most the bugs worked out of the X1/9s although they were junk for most of the previous years. Unfortunately many were owned by college kids that thrashed them so not many survived it seems..
Dave,One of my great mistakes was to buy a used '65 Ford Cortina GT. Very willing engine, but Lucas electricals (Lucas and electrical is almost a contradiction in terms, isn't it? Did they start out making candles?) and the same bullitt connectors. I remember wailing down a twisty road in CT, hitting a bump, and suddenly being without lights. They mounted the connector block on the radiator header, right up front in the weather.
I eventually had a brake failure and rolled the thing down a hillside. That solved the reliability problems once and for all.
The handling was really, really bad. God knows how the reviewers could give it high marks. It was plagued with roll oversteer. As the car rollled in a hard turn, the rear end steered out. That decreased the turning radius and increased the G loads inducing more roll and more rear end steering. The only fast way around a corner was to pretend you were on a dirt track and toss it into the turn with full opposite lock and steer with the right foot. Quite a trick with 1600 CC. It may have been unreliable, but at least it had treacherous handling.
Then there was my Giulietta. The handling was phenominal, even though it cornered on its door handles and you could see the whole underside of the car on hard turns. But it stuck like glue. The engine itself was unbreakable. I shimmed the valve springs and put in Super rod bolts and it would turn 8000 RPM in first and second gear. Mine also had an Abarth exhaust, a stiffer clutch, and a Weber 2 throat downdraft carb instead of the stock Solex. The previous owner had cobbled together the exhaust and it was really, really loud, but all high pitched, so it shrieked rather than roared. At 8000 RPM the sound was incredible. It was clearly audible for 1/2 mile over traffic noise. I took it to sports car club events for 2 years and nothing streetable ever was louder.
I also had the weber conversion on my Alfa and a low restriction exhaust that was so loud I felt bad starting it in the morning under my carport to go to work (which just amplified it even more). I'm sure I had some neighbors cursing me..
Speaking of rolling cars down a hill. I had a Maserati Citroen SM (rare 5 speed version)and it ate me out of house and home. It was a blast to drive and looked like a little space ship but every time you turned the key something broke. The last year I owned it it cost me over $5000 in maintenance and it only had 28k miles on it. One day I was driving it to Maryland from VA and on the beltway near DC a semi crossed into my lane and his cabs tires hit me and the car spit out into and over the guard rail and down a steep embankment and into a chain link fence near the bottom that kept me from going into the run off pond which was full. The trucker never stopped and kept going. The guy that had been behind me thought I was going to hit him after the truck knocked me out of control and he spun out and caused a minor pile up. When the trucker was later caught he said he thought he had killed me so he took off. The car was amazingly intact considering but the wrecker did way more damage than the accident did winching it back up. The insurance wouldn't total it because of the high value the car still had then so it got repaired. I sold it to a guy in San Fran who had another one with a blown engine and wanted mine so he could use his for parts for it. He called me a few months later to tell me he got caught in a storm somewhere and the car got totally submerged under water so I guess that car was just jinxed.
I know the SM. Never owned one, but got a hair raising ride in one in Salt Lake City. Impressive performance! I was riding shotgun, and I'm OK with that kind of driving, but the guys in the back seat were terrified.These days my ride is a 2004 Chrysler 300M, the last of the earlier FWD 300's.
My son has an SCCA competition license and when he has time runs a Dodge Neon SCR in Showroom Stock. It's a low class, but like all racing is expensive. Joke: Do you know how to make a small fortune in racing? Answer: Start with a large one.
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