Ferrari Mailing List: Re: A little OT - car projects

[Charles Perry (charles]

When I bought my TR my daily driver was a 93hp 1982 Volvo 240DL wagon, 4 speed stick with button overdrive. It was an absolute tank. I learned to drive a stick on that car, and then taught a dozen friends to drive a stick on it. It still only went through three clutches in 273k+ miles. It suffered a lot of indignities through my high school and college years – everything from rear ending a 6’7” member of the UVA women’s basketball team to having the headliner shredded while a possibly drunk friend and I tried to re-allocate some gas station’s Pepsi machine. When we finally donated it to the Kidney Society it was only because it was rusting so badly around the windshield that it couldn’t keep water out. Mechanically it was bulletproof and electrically it only suffered from wiring insulation that would dry out and crumble off a mere 15 years after build.

 

I got asked pretty regularly how I could stand to drive that car when I had the TR in the garage. But I loved it – it was the right tool for most of my jobs and had a simple elegance to it. It was beige with a brown interior – impossible to get much more boring. But it made Nicholas Cage’s line in The Rock so glorious for me – “Listen, I'm just a biochemist. And most of the time I work in a glass jar and lead a very uneventful life. I drive a Volvo, a beige one.” And then he, like I, shortly moved on to a yellow/black/black F355 spider… J

 

I would take the 240 back in a heartbeat.

 

 

From: Ferrari [mailto:ferrari-bounces+charles=carolina-sound.com [at] ferrarilist.com] On Behalf Of Fellippe Galletta
Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2014 8:09 AM
To: Charles Perry
Cc: The FerrariList
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] A little OT - car projects

 

I'll always pay attention.....family had a 740 wagon growing up and I had an 850 for a little while.

 

I do find the bulletrproofness of an old 240 (or 300D diesel benz) intriguing....

 

It's a shame we live in a society that judges people too much for the cars we drive -- the Ferrari list has known me as a real car guy, but own a Volvo and the outside world will stereotype the shit out of you in a not so cool way. True story.

 

FG