The series
of articles, with an accompanying photo, on locals who own classic cars and
trucks has lots of interest. It occurs to me that unlike politics, hard news or
religion, classic cars bring people together because they don’t have to pick a
side. In that same vein, Paul wants us to set our minds not on what divides us,
but what unites us, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your
hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (Col 3:1-2
NIV).
1 comment:
Gail;
-----I wrote to a friend about Ford’s 427 single overhead cam hemi. He profoundly objected that Ford ever made a hemi, and refused the proposition that any recent automotive engine bore a single overhead cam. I too much remembered Danny Ongais and Pat Foster to relent to his “slander”. They drove Mickey Thompson’s blue and red funny cars to win every national drag race of 1971 except one. And except two national events that year, either the red Mustang or the blue Mustang won by beating the other in the final round. It wasn’t luck. It was Mickey Thompson’s bank account being fat enough to feed those two single overhead cam hemis the exorbitantly expensive parts required to keep them running better than anything else on the strip.
-----“Sneaky Pete” Robinson was not wealthy enough to feed his Ford hemi all those cashy parts. So he tried every trick in the book and then added to it several chapters of his own tricks, until one trick he tried in 1970 blew both him and his top fuel rail into little bitty pieces. I cried. Every month I had impatiently awaited my Hot Rod magazine to find out if “Sneaky Pete” finally won that month’s top fuel event with his 427SOHC instead of just squeaking in second.
-----Under the glass top of my desk at work I have some thirty or forty pictures of 1968-1971 dragsters. All of the 427SOHC pictures are on my side of the desk so I can look at them. All the Chevy rats are on the other side of the desk where I don’t have to be bothered by them (yes, “rat” was the affectionate term for Chevy’s large block semi-hemi. Actually, it was a beautiful engine.)
-----So I assured my friend I knew certainly that Ford once made a single overhead cam hemi. I proclaimed that as I was writing this assurance to him I was also looking at a photograph of the 427SOHC of Keanan’s Cougar with a valve cover off, and certainly, yes! There it was! One camshaft running the length of the head -over the head- not under it. He replied that he did not know what a “Keanan’s Cougar” was and that if the V8 had a camshaft running over one head, then it also must have one running over the other head, therefore making it a dual overhead cam engine.
-----Oh, good grief! I had to finally visit a technical website from which I downloaded and sent to him a page discussing the Ford 427SOHC hemi using all the vernacular and everything. He never admitted the reality of either that engine nor the vernacular by which it was known. He merely dismissed the entire matter as irrelevant to his life and never mentioned it again.
-----In all truth, one would think that such things as classic auto interests would be free of side picking. But there are always people who seem to see themselves as a side which they indelibly pick in any category of life one might present for friendly conversation. These folks are somewhat more common than we might wish to imagine. And the ones more skilled at it usually pick politics for careers. Well. Since I am yet studying how to and practicing loving him, I will say nothing about our current President.
-----Indeed, unity grows from admitting that we now see dimly as in polished brass (the mirrors of Paul's day.) It is nourished by outdoing one another in showing honor. And it is sheltered in loving one another affectionately from the heart.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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