GO SEE CAL! (please?)
Auto sales are so dismal that even the great cowboy of car sales Cal Worthington ("Go See Cal!") is scared. Worthington, well into his 80s, built one of the biggest Ford dealership networks in the country and still flies to check up on his dealerships in a Lear Jet.
Worthington soberly told National Public Radio: "this is absolutely, beyond a doubt, the worst time I have ever seen in the car business." And he's been selling cars for quite some time, having started his franchise in the early 1940s. Worthington even makes a chilling comparison to the Great Depression: "if we don't do something drastic, this is going to be a 1928, '29 deal."
So the immediate future for U.S. auto sales looks about as bright as Worthington's kitchen after "wife number three burned the house down sauteing mushrooms."
But enough negativity. Let's drift back through the technicolor dream machine and take a trip to the circus! The circus of automotive sales ploys, that is, financed by the heyday of U.S. car sales in the baby boom generation. Back when it seemed everybody had a brand new Impala, Galaxie 500, or Belvedere parked proudly in the car port.
Worthington built the biggest tent in the land, and his increasingly gonzo pleas to "Go See Cal!" included snakes, skunks, pigs, planes, killer whales, and bears. Dealer lot hijinks included tigers jumping from Buick to Buick, grizzlies in the pasenger seat, and, yes, even a monkey careening on rollerskates.
[source: NPR]
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
Twelve Days of Christmas: Motor City Dream Garages
This Christmas, purchase the book that takes you on an intimate tour of 20 incredible garages throughout Detroit. In "Motor City Dream Garages," journalist Rex Roy gives you an intimate look at collections held by garages like Henry Ford's Fair Lane in Dearborn (referred to as "The First Dream Garage"), The Mopar Cathedral, the Big Red Barn, and The Racer's Garage.
Each garage is visually and verbally unveiled, detailing stunning automotive collections inside the structures purpose built for them. Included are the garages of legends such as Bob Lutz, Larry Smith (chairman of the Meadow Brook Concours), and Kip Ewing (engineer behind the Ford GT).
With more than just a detailed tour through impressive automotive collections, Rex Roy provides the reader with the history of the dream garage right down to the very first one. Whether those on your gift list are automotive enthusiasts or historians, Roy's great writing and sparkling photographs will make for great reading and likely lead to a fair amount of daydreaming and drooling as well.
To purchase the book or just have a closer look, head over to RexRoy.net. The book retails for $34.95.--Colin Mathews
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This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
