I forget not everyone is a car guy
 

Talking to my neighbor, brilliant guy, chemistry professor at Ohio State. He was admiring my new-to-me Cayman. I explained that it was the last of the normally aspirated Caymans. He said he didn't know what that meant. So I said it does not have a turbo or a super charger. *blank stare*. Yeah, he drives a Tesla.

About 20 years ago, I volunteered to drive a couple of authors back to the airport after appearances and readings in our little town. I can't recall the lady's name, but the guy was Dennis Lee,(Alligator Pie). On the way, I mentioned my car was a Turbo diesel. He had no idea what that meant so I ended up delivering a brief discourse on compression ignition. Nice guy, just not a motor head.

Best
Les

One of my wife's nephews turned 17 and is working and in college. He got some new Hyundai, and I saw him as he pulled up to my mother in law's house. I walked over to ask him about it. I asked about the engine, and got a blank stare. It is an automatic, but he was happy to show me the new floor mats that changed colors synced to the music. I tried to be positive, but was trying hard not to laugh.

Car guy...an endangered species.

Back in the day when I needed some car talk I’d run over to my buddies place. He was a shade tree mechanic, mostly VW’s. He passed away and I got all his tools. I miss him and there isn’t anyone near me that understands car talk.

Its so frustrating . Im thrown into all these situations with parents, and kids parties, neighbors and car guys are totally a dying breed.
Im not into sports, or politics. All I have ever done was lived, ate and breathed cars, trucks motorcycles, equipment and man stuff like that
Its so rare when I find someone I click with

Should have told him his car is powered by coal.

Danica Patrick at the time didn't know how many cylinders her race car had.

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when I taught shop class, we had about 15 Chinese students that visited the US for the semester. The started out in CA and worked their way to the east coast spending 2-3 weeks at the high school. The three young ladies, between 15-17 was in Autoshop. Tom, the teacher said, OK today we will disassemble a 4 cylinder engine and see how it works. Thinking this will be a threat to the new students thinking they have never seen how an engine actually works. He explained how it works and these girls already knew what a piston, crank, and the 4 cycles of an ICE. He was floored and has to ask how did they know all this. The reply was, they had to know the basic ICE engines in the 7 or 8th grade. He came over and said to me, we lost, we already lost this fooking war. Sadly, he mentioned more then 90% of the adults on this high school campus do not know how an engine works. We had about 55-60 people at the time.

No, not everyone is a car guy, but at least have basic knowledge. I really believe people in their 60 or older all have some basic understand of how an ICE works.

Walking downtown there was a young woman standing over a knocking engine with the hood up and a little bit of smoke. A 5yo cheap DD much newer than my own. I asked her to turn it off. Checked the oil and it was black jello at the very end of the stick. I asked when the oil was changed last. "I don't know, I just add more when it's low". I recommended call a friend, not driving it without full oil, and then take it to a mechanic. Probably could have done more. But then..

Dear Penthouse Letters or Hustlers Beaver Hunt............

I think Danica is at a disadvantage.

I remember listening to an interview with an Indy car driver several years ago, a self proclaimed car guy. During testing he was able to relate to the team mechanics at their level to properly set up the car.

Chuck Yeager didn't have a degree in aerospace engineering (or degree in anything) but grew up on a farm surrounded by machinery, he had a lot of mechanical aptitude. During development of the X-1 he could speak with the engineers of the aircraft to work through issues and resolve problems. He stated his upbringing had a lot to do with that.

The elimination of shop classes (auto, metal, wood, etc) in high schools and the lack of interest by kids will hurt this country in the long run.

Related. My whole family is packed with engineers. I think like an engineer. I can talk to them even though I am not one.

This one ability is the core advantage I have had in my sales career.

Why? Because 99% of the world doesn’t understand how stuff works.

Now back to how there are no car people...

I feel that farmers were the some of the first at engineering. They had to be self-sufficient. If you look at the early days of manufacturing, many factories were built in small areas near farming where they could draw manufacturing talent

I think it’s a commentary on technology advancement. Modern cars are reliable and require little/no mechanical intervention for daily use. Add in that young folks were raised with iPhones and video games that just work. Face it…can any of us explain how an iPhone works and repair it ourselves…if it’s ever needed?

Same is true for automobiles today.

I've always been an oddball car guy but my kids have almost zero interest.

They only worry about... Does it get me from A to B reliably, comfortably and safely?

For most, it’s an appliance, to get from point A to point B.

Although little rocket son is somewhat into cars, when he takes over my toolbox, I don’t think he will know what to do with it.


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Exactly. I don't generally do that well in social small talk situations because I don't know and don't care who's playing in the game this weekend, last weekend, etc.... I don't even usually know who's in the superbowl unless it's posted here. Years ago, I worked in a bar. I came to work on Tue after the superbowl, and one of the bartenders wanted to talk to me about the game. I asked him who won, and he was so disgusted that I didn't know that he refused to tell me who won or talk to me about it.

That could be me. I'm a "car guy" but I have no interest in modern vehicles. The newest vehicle I've worked on to actually fix something was my 2003 Tundra. I have enough to do keeping my 4 air cooled Krautwagons on the road without learning how to fix a bum direct gas injection pump or a turboencabulator thingy.

That's why I come here. I don't know a single human being who I can sit down with and talk old cars. A problem is the car people I do know are all hot rodders and I have no interest in modern hot rods. I just don't care about lifting, slamming, or the techniques of applying fake patina.

For the Win!

:D

Les