After a 45 minute drive, I parked in the driveway and walked passed the open garage on way to the front door. The C5 Corvette convertible and 70’s Chevelle gave me no pause. This was Michigan and that’s what Michigan does, crab cakes and football (swap crab cakes with American iron which doesn’t do the line justice). Even a latest generation MAZDA3 parked along side the garage was “meh’d” for being fire engine red and over stylized. I liked the previous generation that didn’t smile at me so much.
The house was in a nice enough subdivision but was still middle America. The amount of information this guy spouted about stereo receivers, in particular the one I was there to buy, I expected little in the way of car guy-ness. I was wrong.
“You didn’t mention you were a car guy,” I broke the ice with while being consumed by three dogs.
” Oh, yeah… something something… yadda yadda.” Bob said. I had to tune out about 1/2 his chat and listen for the meat in his topics. Bob and I spoke three times before finally showing up at his house for the Marantz 2270 receiver he had listed on Craigslist. I knew the gift of gab was his endowment.
“Uh, huh… uh, huh… yeah I’m more of an foreign guy.” I interjected.
“Chastise, Chastise… something something, yadda, yadda. Did you happen to see the little convertible past the Chevelle?” Bob championed.
What was this? How did I miss that? Small convertible and American? Does not compute. Did he mean something foreign as I was still licking my wounds for not being American enough. I knew I needed a bigger American iron vocabulary now that I’m in D-Town. Damn. I’m working on it. But was I really standing in car guy land? What type of cool vintage…
“The first year they came out.” I smacked down so he knew who he was dealing with. We re-bonded.
Say what you want about the Esperante. Dan Panoz did something incredible with the AIV and his LeMans racers. Bob was clearly very proud, and rightfully so, of his car which he said was 1 of 235 made. I knew it was going to be another 30 minutes before I loaded the stereo as we walked into the garage. But at least it was because of car talk… crap the car is red but came with original tool kit.
The above picture is from Panoz’s website but Bob’s car was this one. Optional Jaguar red paint with option chrome wheels. Another fun Craigslist outing in the books. Stereo sounds amazing. Nothing like old iron.
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