Welcome!

Hello, and welcome to Cowl Shake!

Cars are a lifelong passion of mine. I started this blog when I realized I had too much to say about them for my regular blog, WmWms, to comfortably accommodate.

I have lots of automotive affection in my blood. My dad had an endless stream of cool stuff in and out of the garage when I was growing up.

He owned:

• '53 MG-TD, green, then red. This was our ice cream car when we were little. It's on its third owner since Dad sold it, but fortunately (uncannily?) it's gone to only people he went to high school with and still knows well. So I could still visit it anytime. Expect a post or two on this little British beastie.
• '67 Riviera, gray (above). This was my dad's daily driver for fifteen years, and mine for two. I'll have much more to say about the "Big R" in the weeks to come.
• '69 Corvette convertible, black (below). I learned to drive a manual transmission in this car. Dad's logic was that if I could deal with this torquemonster, I could deal with any other stick I was likely to encounter. His logic, as usual, was solid.
• '71 Corvette convertible, silver, then gray
• '79 Corvette, black
• '84 Corvette, black

He owned briefly, restored, or helped restore:

• '46 Chevrolet pickup, black
• '53 Chevrolet panel truck, orange
• '56 MGA, white
• '56 Packard Caribbean, turquoise and white
• '60 Mercedes-Benz 190SL, white, then red
• '62 Corvette, white, then red
• '63 Continental retractable, black
• '64 Riviera, beige
• '64 1/2 Mustang coupe, beige
• '65 Mustang coupe, red
• '65 Satellite, beige
• '65 Thunderbird Special Landau, copper. This was my first exposure to sequential turn signals, and I loved them forevermore.
• '66 Mustang coupe, dark green
• '66 Mustang convertible, red
• '66 Mustang GT convertible, red
• '67 Cadillac convertible, red
• '68 Shelby Mustang GT500KR convertible, white (below). This was the crown jewel of everything that ever came through the garage (only 318 produced).
• '68 Datsun 1600, silver
• '69 Firebird convertible, green
• '69 MGB, orange
• '74 Fiat 124 Spider, white
• '74 MG Midget, red
• '75 Caprice Classic convertible, dark red. This is a beautiful unrestored beauty to this day, with something like 38,000 miles on it. It belongs to one of Dad's old high school friends.
• '79 Corvette, white

I grew up thinking that engine exhaust wholly untouched by emission controls was one of the sweetest smells in the world. I still do. It smells like good, wind-in-your-hair times: an ice cream cone with my family, or a trip to the auction with my dad.

In addition to that stream of constant stimulation, I have a couple of significant dealer connections. My great uncle (paternal grandmother's brother) is a longtime Buick dealer in Birmingham, and my maternal grandfather was the controller for one of the largest Chevrolet dealerships in the Southeast.

And I sold them myself. I had some good and memorable times as a leasing and sales consultant for Jerry Damson Acura-GMC in 1993-94.

In short, I was the kid who was always helping my dad whenever he was turning a wrench; the kid who saved his allowance for a Road & Track subscription. I've had my nose in one or another of those magazines for 30 years.

I have particular interest in American cars from 1960 to the present, as well as the strategies and tactics of all automakers worldwide, from 1970 to the present. I enjoy sales war stories. I'm not much of a racing fan, but may touch on it from time to time.

And please, don't look for a pattern. I may breeze through 50 years of engine history in a paragraph, and then I may turn around and burn 500 words on taillight lenses. I'll have a bit to say about the cars I've owned; not many of them particularly remarkable, but all of them special to me in one way or another. It'll be about what turns me on, and I really don't know whether it will turn anyone else on. That's part of the experiment. I promise competent writing and occasional irreverence, and I'll be discovering the rest as I go.

I anticipate a slightly more leisurely pace for Cowl Shake than I do for my regular blog. Expect a post or two a week. And I'm sure I'll find time to gussie it up a bit in the next few days, too.

Welcome. I'm glad to have you along.