Sere, tawdry, virid, obdurate, vacuous
There he stood, vacuously obdurate, all proud of the sere hunk of tawdry metal that hadn't run in years, barely visible in the virid tangles of twisted Kudzu, swearing like he had for years that he was going to fix it up, make it run again.
It could be suggested, I suppose, that his old metallic blue Corvette is tawdry. It certainly is in the flashy part of the meaning of the word. But, I must say that although it might look it, given all its cracks (fiberglass doesn't dent, it cracks and breaks off), this sports car is anything but cheap.
The hot rod purist and especially the old car restorers would find it nothing short of an obdurate sin that he 'glassed over the original headlights and stuck 'em in the grille. But most obdurate of all is the secret that I reveal here. It might say it on the hood scoop, but there isn't really a 427 in it.
Putting 427 tags on a car that has a 350 in it is the most vacuous thing you could do. The numbers mean nothing. I'm not saying it's not still a fast, scary car to drive. But, you'd have to be plenty vacuous yourself to even think of doing that. 'Real' car aficionados are more inclined to the 'Sleeper' mode. That's the exact opposite. You stick the biggest damn engine you can get under the hood without having to put a scoop on. You keep the car completely stock or only tastefully and subtly customized. You leave the original engine cubic inches tags on the car. So, it might say 289 on your Mustang, a decent enough power plant, but you have a 351 c.i. Cleveland shoehorned into the engine compartment. You might even do the inverse of the 'Vette. It says 350, but you are barely hiding a monster 427 under the hood. Chrysler is an excellent one to go Sleeper with. You get some old Le Mans or even an early Goat, pull the 283 and drop in a fully blown Hemi.
Sometimes the most Sleeper of all is the unfinished project. A sere, grey patched, jacked up but not quite right classic, caught somewhere between decline and delight, love of some teen aged boy's life screaming anonymously around country roads is often the fastest thing out there. If for no other reason than that the kid behind the wheel is fearless and free for the first time in his life. The first time a person feels freedom, all they want to do is run around. At the speeds he prefers, the rural landscape goes virid with all the subtle greens of woods, fields, and lawns blurring.
I don't know if a 'sere' hunk can also be 'tawdry'. What a great exercise. I've been meaning to do this for a while.
I luv' You all. Steve
It could be suggested, I suppose, that his old metallic blue Corvette is tawdry. It certainly is in the flashy part of the meaning of the word. But, I must say that although it might look it, given all its cracks (fiberglass doesn't dent, it cracks and breaks off), this sports car is anything but cheap.
The hot rod purist and especially the old car restorers would find it nothing short of an obdurate sin that he 'glassed over the original headlights and stuck 'em in the grille. But most obdurate of all is the secret that I reveal here. It might say it on the hood scoop, but there isn't really a 427 in it.
Putting 427 tags on a car that has a 350 in it is the most vacuous thing you could do. The numbers mean nothing. I'm not saying it's not still a fast, scary car to drive. But, you'd have to be plenty vacuous yourself to even think of doing that. 'Real' car aficionados are more inclined to the 'Sleeper' mode. That's the exact opposite. You stick the biggest damn engine you can get under the hood without having to put a scoop on. You keep the car completely stock or only tastefully and subtly customized. You leave the original engine cubic inches tags on the car. So, it might say 289 on your Mustang, a decent enough power plant, but you have a 351 c.i. Cleveland shoehorned into the engine compartment. You might even do the inverse of the 'Vette. It says 350, but you are barely hiding a monster 427 under the hood. Chrysler is an excellent one to go Sleeper with. You get some old Le Mans or even an early Goat, pull the 283 and drop in a fully blown Hemi.
Sometimes the most Sleeper of all is the unfinished project. A sere, grey patched, jacked up but not quite right classic, caught somewhere between decline and delight, love of some teen aged boy's life screaming anonymously around country roads is often the fastest thing out there. If for no other reason than that the kid behind the wheel is fearless and free for the first time in his life. The first time a person feels freedom, all they want to do is run around. At the speeds he prefers, the rural landscape goes virid with all the subtle greens of woods, fields, and lawns blurring.
I don't know if a 'sere' hunk can also be 'tawdry'. What a great exercise. I've been meaning to do this for a while.
I luv' You all. Steve
posted by Steve-O at 8:50 PM
1 Comments:
I like it. It's a tiny bit stilted but as an exercise, I think it's really cool and I think it took a lot of skill.
Post a Comment
<< Home