Let’s take a ride together

I bought a 1964 Buick Skylark for $600 when I was 15. I'd been working at Round Table pizza, and a couple other jobs, for a couple summers and had saved up enough for the cheapest of cars. I spent my free time dreaming about cars and pouring over the Nickel Ads every week. Anything pre-1970 and with two-doors was an option. I spotted the ad and my Dad and I drove to Sandy to check it out. The guy owned a lumber mill and had been using it to haul wood around. We thought we could easily swap in a Chevy 350 and use Chevelle parts. I could fix it up and sell it for something better. 

I spent a week cleaning sawdust and wood chips out of it. I changed the oil, did the brakes, replaced the tires and I became the guy with the car who drove everyone everywhere. I drove to prom, I drove it on my honeymoon, I drove my kids home from the hospital. I drove it to California and back 3 times. When the internet became a thing, it became my personal brand (skylark64.com because Skylark.com and other variations were taken) when starting out as a designer. So much for selling it for something better. 

Gendering things is problematic nowadays, but the name Betty came about naturally. When my kids were young, they used to beg for stories about "Betty Buick." Betty, a name chosen primarily for its alliteration with Buick, would get a phone call from the President or NASA or Dale Earnhardt and have to go and save the day on a secret mission or driving on the moon or winning the Daytona 500. There were dozens of stories and they were great for getting kids in the mood to go to bed. 

I had the car painted in 2008. I did the interior and rebuilt the original 300 V8. In addition to dailying the car until 2016, I occasionally go to the Late Night Drags at PIR. That led to the most recent work building a 455 Buick big block, swapping a 4-speed manual transmission, installing a 3:36 posi rear end, and upgrading the suspension all around. The big block took my 1/4 mile times from a painfully slow 17 seconds, to a dependable and exciting 13 second time. Working on the car is an analog balance to my digital design work. My latest adventure is autocross. It seems like an odd choice for autocross, but those tales of daring do inspire me to try different things. I have a whole pitch for a show about Betty going around the world and being a fish out of water at the Nürburgring or Bangalore or the Japanese drift scene. 

The biggest thing about the car is just getting out on the road and driving it. There are tons of little bugs, and I'm always saying I am going to put the trim back on, but it's too much fun to grab gears and carve corners. Getting it running is more important than getting it perfect. Kind of like shipping a product instead of getting every feature polished.