my first car

[low_delta]

1959 Edsel Ranger, two-door hardtop. This is the only surviving picture, as far as I know.

That car was a blast. It was big. Roomy inside. Swimming pool blue, with a brown/white/beige interior. It had a V8 (262 cid, maybe?) and a two-speed automatic transmission. I still have the owners manual. It shows all of the available options, and this car had five of them - side view mirror (driver's side), chrome wheel covers, sun visors, AM radio (tube style)... I forget the other one. I don't remember if it had seat belts. The windshield wipers were run by vacuum, so the faster the car went, the slower the wipers went.

It was in horrible shape. The entire bottom half of the body was Bondo. The frame was rusted out. The transmission leaked fluid. The engine wasn't quite right either.

I still have the grille.



This one doesn't look like a hardtop, and the color is different, but other than that, it's almost exactly right.

Comments

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

That car would be half a century old, if it were still around.

The old cars were so solid, they were actually more dangerous to be in, when they hit something. New cars crush, and that absorbs a lot of energy. Your body goes from 60 to 0 mph in a longer period of time, now.