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Auto-Biography Archive
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CC Memoir: My Checkered Career With Checker Cabs
Posted on June 4, 2024 | 95 Comments(all photos by the author) (first posted 8/25/12) My first real job was in the summer of 1964 when I worked for a taxi company in San Juan, Puerto Rico. […] -
Auto-Biography: The Volvo 343 GT Project
Posted on June 2, 2024 | 28 CommentsOne of the parking-lot curiosities I noticed after joining Volvo of America Corporation in mid-1976 was a diminutive, boxy two-door sedan that bore absolutely no resemblance to any of […] -
COAL: The ’67 Alpine — A “Failure to Proceed”
Posted on May 26, 2024 | 7 CommentsAll was well for the first several months of my ownership of my first “fun car”, the ’67 Sunbeam Alpine. I drove it to work a few times, braving […] -
Auto-Biography: Emblematic of Emissions
Posted on May 19, 2024 | 29 CommentsOne of the significant contributors to what is sometimes referred to as the “Malaise Era” in automotive history was the industry’s need to comply with increasingly strict exhaust emissions […] -
Auto-Biography: Lost Vintage Snapshots of Niedermeyer-Mobiles Found (1965-1982) – The Towson Years And Beyond
Posted on May 14, 2024 | 29 Commentstaking my brothers for a drive, age 12 I visited my youngest brother Franz in Seattle a couple of weeks ago and asked him about old family photos. He dug […] -
Auto-Biography: Volvo and the Odd Man Hypothesis
Posted on April 28, 2024 | 15 CommentsThe “odd man hypothesis” was first advanced in Michael Crichton’s 1969 seminal techno-thriller novel The Andromeda Strain. Crichton presented it so convincingly that for decades afterward, I believed it to […] -
Auto-Biography: The ’74 Audi Fox Becomes a Commuter Car
Posted on April 21, 2024 | 14 CommentsWhen we last left this saga, I was deep into my year at Syracuse University and had exposed my ’74 Audi Fox to the worst of a typical Central New […] -
Auto-Biography: Thinking Small in Syracuse — The PTV (Personal Transportation Vehicle) Project
Posted on April 14, 2024 | 14 CommentsMan, I really hit a nerve with my Audi Fox recollections. Who would have thought that a simple, square-rigged, German two-door would have elicited such emotion? There are more foxy […] -
Curbside Classic: 1968 Chrysler Newport – My Fountain Of Youth
Posted on March 26, 2024 | 67 Comments(first posted 3/26/2018) Most of us have fond memories of the cars of our youth. Didn’t you just love the stuff that was in showrooms before you reached, say, […] -
The Great American Anti-Towing Conspiracy – Update: There’s Actually A Good Reason Why It Exists
Posted on March 24, 2024 | 89 CommentsSon Will on the day we “towed” four houses in 1997 (Update: this was first written in 2011. Not long after I became aware of the key reasons why towing […] -
Auto-Biography: My 1966 F100 Is Overloaded Once Again, But For A Good Cause
Posted on March 19, 2024 | 11 CommentsSince I’m covering for Rich this week and it’s been a while since I’ve done an update on the official CC company truck, here it is, still hard at work. […] -
Auto-Biography: The Art Center Years – Have You Designed a Ford Lately?
Posted on February 18, 2024 | 23 CommentsLast week’s post described a fifth-semester Art Center design assignment involving a domestic automaker investigating the use of a “not invented here” powertrain for use in several of their vehicle […] -
Auto-Biography: The Art Center Years – Wouldn’t You Really Rather Airbrush a Buick?
Posted on February 11, 2024 | 13 CommentsStrangely enough, two of the transportation design projects during my Art Center years involved assignments to develop a vehicle powered by an engine supplied by a different automaker. Remember, this […] -
Auto-Biography: Tales From High School Auto Shop
Posted on January 31, 2024 | 74 Comments(first posed 1/31/2018) I never really took auto shop in high school. It wasn’t offered at my school, but I found a way around that… -
Road Trip Journal: 1972 Dodge Polara – Grand Canyon and Pumice-Crete Revisited
Posted on January 30, 2024 | 39 Comments(first posted 1/30/2018) Memories are deeply bound up in smells, sights, touch, and for us at this website, cars. All those senses—and more—were deeply stimulated on a […]