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Guys who blow but don't know

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J

jayhawk

Jedi Warrior
Offline
I went for a little cruise last night and stopped at the local Starbucks for a decaf. As I came out a guy said something like, I didn't know they still made those, nodding toward my TR3-- then asked what it was. I explained that it was a TR3 and that mine was 45 years old, assuming the guy was not familiar with British stuff or was just starting conversation. Then he said "I thought the TR3 was more square" and asked whether I sure mine was a 3. I asked maybe if he might be thinking of a TR4 or TR6. Then he went on about other cars -- eg he asked what the old rounded Porsche was from the same period. I asked if he meant the 356, the poor-man's porsche and he confirmed that. Then he said "that 356 porsche was even expensive way back then, "about $50-60,000" This continued until my coffee was cool enough not to cause serious damage if spilled in my lap and I excused myself and said good night.
Now, I am not a real expert on autos but when I don't know I tend to ask rather than blurt out "facts". Early on, I bit my tongue and decided to be curious and amused by this discussion rather than be annoyed. He seemed to be otherwise appropriately oriented to time and place. You guys know the type? What's the motiviation?
Pete
 
I've met his cousin. At a overnight motel stop on a 2-day car event I was parked next to a 356 Porsche that had a 1959 Arizona plate (in AZ you can register an old car with an old plate from the 'year of manufacture').

I pointed out to the owner that my car (right next to his... we were looking at the rear of both cars) was also registered with a 1959 plate. He said "Nope, I'm the only one in Arizona that was allowed to do that -- I'm a personal friend of the Motor Vehicle commissioner".

I thought maybe he didn't understand me so I pointed to my plate and noted mine, like his, was also registered with a 1959 Arizona plate.

He reiterated that no, he was the only person who was ever allowed to do that... etc. Like you I just gave up and walked away.
 
Ah, a Caffinated Know-It-All! We have a few of those at our local Starbugs, too. Here we also have the Baggy Pant Panhandlers and a few Did-You-Forget-To-Take-Your-Meds-Again? types. Now you know one person to avoid eye contact and conversation with, when you go for a cup of coffee.

Starbugs shops around my neck of the woods do get an interesting bunch of motorheads. One local shop is a regular meeting place for a bunch of Yuppie bikers that I have occasionally joined for a nice ride in the hills around here. Great bunch that rides all sorts of bikes and have no prejudices for or against choppers, crotch rockets or retro cruisers... Anything goes. At another shop I often run into and chat with a group of gearheads who seem to be a cross between American Muscle Car and 4x4 enthusiasts.

You *do* see some interesting vehicles at Starbugs. Some years ago I saw the only Ferrari SUV I've ever seen parked in front of the shop on Magnolia Hill in Seattle. The car was red with tan interior (what else!).

Funny you should mention "bathtub" Porsche. Back in '77, when I bought my TR4, I was shopping for a sports car and it came down to three final candidates. The TR4 won out on price, fun and convenience. Another candidate was a 356, pale yellow with red interior with a freshly rebuilt engine: $2500 (could have used a paint job). The third candidate was a '62 or '63 XKE, white with black interior, but was 1500 miles away: $2500. $2500. The Porsche easily topped 100 mph on a test drive. The Jag had 7500 miles on the clock, had been in storage since '65.

But, I was a starving student, the TR4 was under $2000, drove great, although it was painted orange at the time. I have no regrets!

Cheers!

Alan Myers
San Jose, Calif.
'62 TR4 CT17602L
 
Oh god, I run into more of these kind of people than I care to think about. Seems every time I go to our local Friday night cruise in they're coming out of the woodwork.

This is my fav BS car story, was there one night with my buddy. We're looking at a 67 Shelby GT350 Mustang, 289 HiPo with the factory optional Paxton blower. I casually know the owner, he bough the car from the original owner, has the original window sticker with the sale price and all the options listed on it, full documentation since the car was new. The car is absolutely beautiful, nearly perfect and original, not quite concours but very close. Anyway, this guy walks up and sort of pushes himself into our conversation. He starts to tell us that the car isn't right, that Ford never offered the Paxton as an option on the 67 Mustang. I proceed to tell him that thats correct, but it was offered by Shelby not Ford, and then only on the GT350 but not on the GT500. He insists that thats not correct, there was no blower option from either Ford or Shelby and the car is obviously bogus. We tell him to take a look at the window sticker, it's got the Paxton option printed right on it. He says that the sticker must be a fake and the owner is a BS'er....OK, whatever man. Thankfully the guy who owns the car wasn't around or we would have been pulling him off this guy. He then starts to tell us about this gorgeous all original, concours correct 66 fastback he had a few years back that he used to win all these shows with, says it was a big block 396 car. My buddy starts laughing so hard he almost falls over (he's an even bigger Stang freak than me). The guy asks whats up with my friend, and I proceed to tell him that he's cracking up from the story he just heard. I then politely inform him he must be remembering the wrong car, since not only was there no big block option in the Mustang in 66 but the 396 wasn't even a Ford motor, it was a Chevy motor. He hastily corrects himself and says he meant a 390, and that it was a rare preproduction test mule for the coming 67 model year. At this point my buddy is nearly unconcious from laughing so hard and I'm so slack jawed from the BS I'm hearing that I can't speak either. While I'm sure its possible that Ford could have built something like that to test, I'm pretty sure I've never read or heard of anything like that reaching the publics hands at any time. If so it would be like the rarest Mustang ever built. At this point we just said have a good night friend and walked away shaking our heads.
 
i think i work with that guy.......


mark
 
I have always found that the smartest person in the room is usually the quiet one in the corner. Those who start blabering a bunch of crap usually are full of the same. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
I run into these sorts all the time at work. The trick to getting rid them is to act like you are busy and go into the shop and start digging through your toolbox and ignoring them till they leave.
 
I found one the other night. Two and a half years ago I sold a rough 77 MGB to a guy across town. He got right to work on it and within a year I bumped into him again. He had had some auto body students paint the car for him. They did ok, BRG with an offset white racing stripe. But then they tried to put a red pearl over the paint and it turned the stripe a pinkish orange. ( I say this to prove I know it's the same car)
So the story continues, his son is driving the car this summer and he is friends with the kid living on the corner of my street. So I start seeing "my" old car parked in front of my house.
One night last week I happened to be out front when he pulles up. So I say "looks a lot better than when I had it" And I explain that I sold his dad the car. So he starts with this semi-prepared speech about what his dad did to it (must be he gets asked a lot about it) and that they pianted it green beacuse thats what color it was, bla bla bla... After about the third time he tried to explain somthing to me as if I coulden't tell an MGB from a Miata and the fourth time I had to say "I know, that's how it was when I sold it" I excused myself and went back to working on the Triumph.
The other one we have locally is a guy with a 67 mustang painted white with blue Shelby stripes and licence plates that read "GT350R" Yea right! not even close pal.
 
Funny stuff, but if I may so rudely change the subject. All the mentions of Shelbys reminds me of the pictures of a massive wreck a co-worker showed me a couple days ago at an SVRA race at Road America last weekend. All big block stuff, a couple Shelby Mustangs, a Cobra that now looks like an aluminum accordion, a pile of shucked (as in oysters) corvettes, even a v12 Jag. And they all looked like writeoffs to me. The kind where you save the serial plate, engine and drivetrain and start over. The "Brian Redmon Race' or something like that you can probably google it. Very ugly.
Tom Lains
 
Check the "other cars" forum thread titled "Vintage crash"
Very nasty situation.
 
Guess I'm going to have to stop going in Starbugs if you're going to be that rough to us know-it-alls,
thought I was on the AH page for a minute there /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devilgrin.gif
 
I always get:

"I didn't know the motorcycle company made cars too!!" /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazyeyes.gif

Or

"Is that the same company that made Triumph Motorcycles??" /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/pukeface.gif

and:

"Is that a NEW Car??"/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

and the best one:

"Nice car, I used to have one of those ... what is it?? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/square.gif
 
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devilgrin.gifLike I always say, "If you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, then baffle 'em with BS!" /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devilgrin.gif
 
Ugly! Expensive!!. The pics are on the Healey Forum.---Keoke /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yesnod.gif
 
I have a dog that everyone wants to know what it is. They always figure that he is a cross between a greyhound and an Aussie. He's Blue Merle, short hair and long nosed, very tall. I pateintly let them know that he is a South Auckland Kiwi Hound, very rare in the United States, but prized in New Zealand for their ability to protect the sheep there from the Kiwis that come at night and pull the fleece of the sheep for thier nests. They nod knowingly and say that they think they have heard of the breed.

In reality he is a Smooth Collie, just like Lassie except without the grooming bill.

Just for fun, I took a page out of my dog book and applied it to my car.

Some know-it-all was talking about my "MG" to his girlfriend and about how he had had one years ago. I asked him which MG he owned and he said it was a '67. When he found out that the car being discussed was mine he wanted to know all about it. By the time I was done, I swear I could have written an Ebay sales brochure, with all the peppering of "rare", "one of a kind", and "experimental prototype" in my description.

I'm so bad. I think he believed me.

One of the things I have really appreciated about the club I have joined (Valley British Auto Club, Fresno CA) is that the know-it-alls are pretty rare and easily avoidable. Everyone is laid back and no one pushes their opinions.
 
thats bad gsalt. If for no other reason, then that when the rest of us have the misfortune of running into one of these poor saps you have lied so much too, they will start in about how one of a kind prototypes and such. Then we will have to listen to your recycled BS.
 
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