Of Snakes and Toasters

"JohnnyWasASchoolBoy" (JohnnyWasASchoolBoy) 11/20/2014 at 17:01 • Filed to: None

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With the announcement of the new !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! I went and made the comment that the original 1965 GT350 (especially the R model) was bar-none, my favourite car of all time.

Some pedant decided to completely miss the point of my post (GT350s are probably one of the most iconic, and coolest American cars ever produced) and went on a rant about a new Accord being able to run rings around it.

Fine, whatever. The reality is lots of new cars of any repute can lay down a faster 0-60 or 1/4 mile. Most can pull higher numbers on a skid pad. All are safer. All are quieter. All have more features and all are more comfortable. I'll concede that.

But it just doesn't matter.

I made the point that he wasn't even comparing apples to oranges. He's comparing apples to filing cabinets... or to use the vernacular of jalopnik, apples to toasters.

New cars are great. I've driven lots of modern toasters that are faster, quicker and more nimble than a GT350. Big. Damn. Deal. I've also driven a '65 Mustang on an extended road-trip, and I've had the pleasure of driving a real GT350 for an afternoon. I'm sorry but the modern toasters just don't compare.

The GT350 is just a badass car. I have driven a multitude of old cars: '54 Chev pick up, '65 Mustang, '68 Camaro SS, an old Boss 302, a Galaxie, a Canso Acadian, a '60 Impala... the list goes on. They're all special.

Sure, their hp ratings were over-stated for marketing purposes. I don't care. Sure they're a little loose in the front-end. I don't care. I'm not driving these old cars as DD commuters. I'm driving them for the love of driving. I'm driving them for wind noise and engine noise. I'm driving them for that faint odour of fuel that comes through into the cabin. I'm driving them for the love of slick bias-ply tire fun.

I'll commute in the toaster.

With-a-G is back to not having anything written after his username > JohnnyWasASchoolBoy 11/20/2014 at 17:25

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I know exactly what you mean. My number one probably-attainable-in-this-lifetime dream car is a 1971 Plymouth B-body (Satellite, Roadrunner, or GTX). It must handle horribly, and unless you have a Hemi (sorry, Mopar extremists, I'd rather have a 440+6, but I'll probably have to settle for the 318) it doesn't even accelerate well by most standards. In the pantheon of iconic American muscle, it's not even really up there, even though John Herlitz said it was his favorite car he ever designed.

BUT:

If the point of being a "driving enthusiast" is to be enthusiastic about driving , then I can't imagine a better car for me.

That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms > JohnnyWasASchoolBoy 11/20/2014 at 17:40

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My Corvair is slow, loud, smells like gas when I fill it up, doesn't have a working radio, and doesn't have six square inche's where the paint matches it. There isn't a new car being built that isn't "better" by regular person standards. But the experience of driving that car is so different from driving a new car that, as you said, a comparison just really isn't valid. Also, whoever said that a Honda Accord would run rings around a GT350 is, in a very special way, the dumbest man in the world.

T5Killer > JohnnyWasASchoolBoy 11/20/2014 at 17:50

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I agree 100% My cousin drove a 64 galaxie to high school and I used to ride with him and even drive it sometimes. Man that was fun and a experience and I always told him I would trade my 95 Mustang I had in HS for it. Old cars rule.

desertdog5051 > JohnnyWasASchoolBoy 11/20/2014 at 21:27

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Well said, my friend.