Classic cars

My late father

I just love classic cars.

This interest probably came about because I adored my late father more than anything else in the world, so I was constantly tagging along behind him and from as far back as I can remember, he fixed his own cars.

After another upgrade, the Mercury on the left sits in the garage

The first car I remember seeing him tinker with was the 1938 Plymouth he owned.

According to my cousin Barry who was a bit older than I,  that car had only one trafficator (which is what a turn signal was called) on the driver's side which he would activate by pulling an electrical cord. He also said it had one red tail light and no park lights.

My dad  did everything on it from changing the oil, changing spark plugs, turning up the carburetor and even fixing punctures and pumping the tires with a hand pump. 

I was right behind him at every turn.

Later he upgraded to a second-hand 1946 Mercury. This was a black car with a round back and a big window at the back and to me it was extremely ugly but he loved that car.

Over the years he kept modernizing until the family shrunk and he finally bought a brand new VW bug.

One of the restored autos at the Sunrise show

By then however, he had begun to get all sorts of ailments so I never saw him working on that car although I recall that it gave lots of problems so it was always going back to the dealer.

Although he is long gone, I have always maintained an great interest in period cars, despite the motor industry moving to mass production and improving by leaps and bounds.

I suppose it is because of my upbringing why in 1987,  I enthusiastically got together with a few friends of like-mind, and established the Jamaica Classic Car Club. 

This club was family oriented and quickly gained national recognition.

All our families really looked forward to Sunday runs, where we would all proudly line up our vehicles at a central point in Kingston then drive slowly in line to some town in the countryside. There we would meet up with other classic lovers from  various parts of the island, who had also spent a lot of time and money also having their cherished cars restored. They would drive to the selected spot to participate in a mini-show with us on the designated day.

 People would come from all over to admire our prize vehicles then later all the families would go to a restaurant to socialize.

Some of the great classics in the club at the time were, Model T Fords, Porsches, E type Jaguars, Mustangs, MGAs and B's and some other really great cars from bygone days.

1964 MGB convertible. Mine was red though

I started out with a red British-made MGB convertible but later bought a rare sports Volvo, similar to the one driven by Simon Templer in the British detective series The Saint.

There were only two cars of that type in the island and I really loved mine but was it every heavy and thank heavens petroleum was fairly cheap at the time as it gave probably five miles to the gallon!

A few years after the club was established, we  organized Jamaica's first Classic Car Show at the National Arena. It was an overwhelming success and our cars became the talk of the town for months afterwards.

For that show, I was lucky enough to have been able to convince the international paint company Sherwin  Williams, to restore my wonderful Volvo, red of course.

 It came second in the show. 

Of course, maintaining classic cars is a very expensive affair, so as my kids grew older and things like college had to be financed, I had to find a cheaper hobby.

First I got rid of the MG and devastatingly, the Volvo next.

Despite not being able to participate in classic car treks any longer, I have always maintained a solid interest in those vehicles. That is why I attended one in Sunrise, Florida last week and dragged my grandson along in the vain hope that he might love to appreciate the beauty in these carefully made cars of old, but I don't think he was particularly impressed.

 I guess it's because to young people, details are not really important, as all they want in a car is good mileage, speed and of course automatic transmission, a/c and power steering!

At the Sunrise show, they had quite a few real classics but a number of the cars on display were just old American cars that proud owners had restored.

 The greatest collection of such vehicles that I have ever seen in my life though was at the motor vehicle museum in Santiago de Cuba, although most were not really immaculately restored.

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My thrill for the day however was when a proud owner allowed me to pose for a photo inside his immaculately-restored Ferrari, while most other owners had stickers on their vehicles saying "Look but please do not touch!"