Being Damn Cool In Winter

Okay - I'm guilty.

I swore I would never use the word "winter" before the season actually began, but there it is. It's equivalent to using the term "Holiday Season" at the end of October. You know it's coming, why rush it? However, I was actually inspired yesterday by the sum of these two factors; Hot Rods + Winter. As I was proceeding slowly in the drive-thru lane at my local bank on Saturday, I saw a nicely done mid 30's Ford pickup truck in the pharmacy parking spaces right next door. Beautiful flat black paint, savage sounding big block engine, the works. It wasn't mint, but it was far from being a basket case or project in process. I couldn't get out of line fast enough before the driver hopped in his classic ride and took off. Granted, it was a beautiful sunny day, with temps around 53 degrees. For the uninformed, that's a heat wave here in Maine when it's mid-November.

That vision and experience brought me back to a story Hot Rod magazine did a number of years ago. They had a staff member do a road trip from Nashville to L.A., approximately 2000 miles, during the month of January. Did I mention they were driving a topless channeled roadster? With no hood or fenders? When I first read this, a very similar journey immediately went on my bucket list. Their plan was to drive for five days on I-40, with a day or two extra in case of bad weather.

Of course, they ran into one day of rain, ice, and snow. Yes, they experienced one or two mechanical issues, but were very minor by comparison. The wild thing was driving in a topless roadster in 20 something degree weather. Think about that for a moment. Would you do 2,000 miles in a rig like this? So let's say you're not that hardcore. What about doing the same thing in a fully enclosed late 40's street rod?

I would make a trek like that without even blinking an eye. I remember driving my street / strip Mustang in the middle of January (when the temps rose above 35 degrees all day). This was usually the cut-off point. If it was between 25-30 degrees, the engine with its aggressive roller cam really let me know it wasn't happy. If the thermometer dipped below 20 degrees, the Mustang wouldn't even start. I've driven more "civilized" hot rods and muscle cars during the winter, but only as an absolute last resort. My best event to date was driving my '71 Dodge Charger R/T through city traffic with approximately six inches of snow through a majority of intersections because my trusty four wheel drive Bronco was giving me some sort of grief. And the R/T had old-school big ass Mickey Thompson 50 series rear tires. Fish-tailing didn't even begin to describe things. But what a commute!

However, I had the chance back in February 2015 to drive the ultimate winter hot rod - a brand new AWD Chrysler 300C. While it only had the V-6, it did have a nice set of Bridgestone Blizzak WS-80 snow tires on it. With almost 300 horsepower on tap, all-wheel-drive, heated everything, a responsive sport suspension, and weighing in at over 4200 pounds, this thing was literally an unstoppable tank on wheels. I drove that car for weeks when I was a fleet service manager for a large rental company. I managed to get this car by accident... literally. The Ram 2500 my district manager was going to get me was involved in an accident, so this was the next best thing until the truck was fixed. After about four days, I never looked back. Even after the truck was fixed, I didn't want it. No matter what the weather, the car never got crossed up - I got sideways a few times - but that was my own stupidity. If I had about 40 grand I'd buy one; then trade it in before the warranty ran out. With all the bells, whistles, and options, that is one car I would not want to see repair bills on. The maintenance stuff was bad enough...

Until next time, chill out.
Dave