Itinerant Air-Cooled

So, yeah, I visited with Vdubtech in Syracuse NY after my Vermont call then drove to 55 miles northeast of Buffalo to work on my poor 48 year-old Lincoln Continental, the car that started up after a painful year of cold lonely solitude with just seven cranks of that huge cast iron V8 from a 14 year-old Duralast battery:




Don't be fooled by its tidy appearance, it is a looooong car:




. . . this much longer than a VW bus in fact:




What a great car. Still yanks you up to 70 mph with gobs of torque, the mechanical servo-motor cruise control works fine, and the ride is lush Lincoln.

Anyways, I was feeling terminally bad about these great cars sitting here languishing in the barn year after year, so I just spontaneously decided to cursorily check the hoses under the Mercedes:



. . . and hit the road back east to Albany and up to Plattsburg to visit my mommy while giving the poor BobD a breather:



So here I am at a rest stop on the Thruway east of Syracuse after lunch with Cindy in Skankyattletease.......... :

........... with pangs of remorse that I wrested this great old lion awake from its slumber with no more than a car wash and tire pressure check, and hit the road hard. After an hour or so, it started asking for more. One of the last real hand-fitted Mercedes, I know of no other car in my fleet that speaks as clearly as this thing on the road. The steering is immediate, the brakes are uber-modulable, and the engine is sheer Teutonic Autobahn schnell. And don't worry, it is free of the old Establishment Trophy days, nope, this car knows that its owner is strictly appreciative of its engineering as he finagles the oil filter cartridge from under the car in a parking lot behind a closed warehouse. No right turn going on here:

Amskeptic wrote:So, yeah, I visited with Vdubtech in Syracuse NY after my Vermont call

Awww I was hopin I'd get mentioned on this year's Tour. It was a brief visit but I had a hell of a good time. You're always welcome here as you know. If you feel so bad about those cars being so lonely down the road in Rochester, fire me off a copy of the keys and the directions, I'll make sure they get the proper love and affection in your absence. See ya again Colin, safe travels.

Brian makes BobD look like a clown car.

Doesn't that Lincoln look kind of like Kennedy's limo? I had no idea that you had so many cool cars.

Colin, are you from Rochester?

Great collection! What else do you have tucked away in that barn?

Wow! I wish I had a barn.

Amskeptic wrote:...my poor 48 year-old Lincoln Continental, the car that started up after a painful year of cold lonely solitude with just seven cranks of that huge cast iron V8 from a 14 year-old Duralast battery

That's when Lincoln hand fitted and balanced the engines together, ran them 500 miles, tore them down for inspection, and reassembled them before they went into the car.

jimbear wrote:Colin, are you from Rochester?

West of the big city . . . out in that thar countryside that is so gorgeous and serene as it witnesses all of us try to survive.
Colin

Got back to the barn last night at sunset. What a great driving car that Mercedes is. It just ate up the roads through the Adirondacks with that wonderful Mercedes howl whine V8 thunder swooping up and down, and that weird automatic transmission that provides a soggy 1-2 shift then hammers 2-3 home like Ja? You vantt to go? GO! No car tracks like an old Mercedes. No matter the camber of the road, no matter the suspension loading or unloading, these things absolutely hew to the line.

Wine glass posing in 1986 BMW/2010 MB


We had a beautiful little visit with my brother, and a sister, her three kids and their significant others, and we all celebrated my mom's 80th birthday a bit early for her sake, then we stayed up pretty much all night drinking wine and beer down at the water's edge of Lake Champlain. I love this bunch, loosely wrapped though we may be, I adore people who have a pulse and give a damn. (if I get a decent picture sent to me, I will post it here)

Had to empty the Mercedes in a hurry and throw it all in the BobD before the sun went down. Back into the barn. Full gas tank, tires at 50 psi, disconnect the battery, 1,000 new miles on the odometer (122,688), pull the plates, and scram.

Amskeptic wrote: Full gas tank, tires at 50 psi, disconnect the battery, [/img]

Amazing. Living life on afterburner as usual. Looking forward to Maupin.

I'm from Fairport. I miss it up there. But we have enjoyed GA and very much look forward to moving to RI in July. Looking for a northeastern swing from you and BobD in the fall?

jimbear wrote:I'm from Fairport. I miss it up there. But we have enjoyed GA and very much look forward to moving to RI in July. Looking for a northeastern swing from you and BobD in the fall?

Keep an eye on the itinerary. If you see me anywhere nearby, gimmee a PM holler.
Colin

Hey Colin - what year/model is your MB? I had a 450SEL (I think) either an 87 or 88. Wonderful road car. Got pretty good mpg for such a large car....would get 17-18 around the burbs and 22-23 hwy at 80 mph. DANG were parts expensive though...

TrollFromDownBelow wrote:Hey Colin - what year/model is your MB? I had a 450SEL (I think) either an 87 or 88. Wonderful road car. Got pretty good mpg for such a large car....would get 17-18 around the burbs and 22-23 hwy at 80 mph. DANG were parts expensive though...

It is a 1978, same as the BobD. Fascinating to see what we thought was hot stuff in 1978, it won accolades in the press for doing everything right, but lawdy lawdy the climate control and seat adjustment ergonomics and the Blaupunkt stereo are painfully embarrassing. So is the fact that the passenger outside mirror was optional equipment.
But the quality and driving experience are splendid . . . still.
Colin