|
|
||
|
|
||
|
03/16/2008
"Motivation in Strange Places…"
A few months ago when the weather in Florida was not set on “broil ” I was driving to work and saw a glint of one of my favorite cars of all time on the road ahead of me. It made me want to surge in my lane of traffic to try and catch up to it and due to the almost constant near gridlock conditions during peak driving times (such as 7:00 am – 6:55 am or any day that ends in a “y”) this was not too difficult to accomplish. I have lived in Florida now for 20 years and have noticed that there are many rare cars on the road down here on a regular basis. One day within 5 minutes I spotted a Lamborghini Diablo and a Ferrari 3 something as well as a 2007 Corvette and your run of the mill every day Mercedes, Mustang, etc… What car was it that made me toss caution to the wind and speed up to an almost warp speed of 26 miles per hour… you ask??? It was what I believe to be a kit car of a SHELBY COBRA 427 S/C in a deep deep fire engine red liquid high gloss glorious finish. This, my friend is what caused me to loose my concentration on the avenue I was cruising into work on. I say kit car, because I have no idea how many of the true Shelby cars are out there or would ever be on the road in traffic. I know they are pretty hard to come by, an original that is. I have seen a $500,000 Mercedes McLaren SR1 on the road along with numerous $200,000 - $300,000 Lamborghini, Ferrari’s, or Maybachs. I was able to keep up with this 4 wheel beauty for more then 30 minutes, either next to it or just ahead or behind it – always keeping it in my eye sight. The driver for some reason looked like he could win an impersonation contest if ever there was one for Kevin Costner wearing dark sunglasses and a ratty baseball cap. The weather was quite nice and was apparently set a few degrees below the setting it would take to melt an entire brigade of plastic army men. I have only ever seen this type of car in convertible models and I have seen more than one and they always make me giddy like a little school boy. Since I started to write this article I have now seen another different colored one – the classic Shelby blue (but with no hood stripes)! This day was our very first day of weather with the high being below 90 degrees. You can tell I started this article some time ago. When I did finally make that final right hand turn off of the road that this gorgeous piece of machinery was on it was with bitter sweet emotions. I was thrilled to drive next to one of these creatures and was very excited to tell my fellow co-workers about my experience. I did receive many “Wow that is cool dude” and “Whoa those cars are killer” from my then co-workers. I was also left with a strange feeling that I have not had very often recently – and that is the urge to hunt for die cast cars. It appears that by spending some time in the presence of one of these wonderful cars I was left with a need to find some Shelby Cobra 427 SC like die cast. This specific car is one of my “niche” collection areas. I always love to find one I do not have, but yet I never spend much time hunting down ones that I may need or do not own. I was just reading on Joe’s on the Main Die cast page that the Shelby collectible guys came out with one of these in a 1/64th scale model and I all of a sudden felt this same strange motivation to go out and try and find one of these like so 10 minutes ago! I will admit it is not the “gotta have it” that used to strike me when I was a newbie in this hobby. It is more of a mental note reminder to look for one when I am out and about. The event of me hunting at the pegs is becoming more and more rare. I know that the Shelby line of toy cars is only carried by a select number of distributors and that makes this task even more difficult. I know that Hot Wheels came out with a larger than 1/64th scale one of these and you know, I do not think I ever saw one on the pegs. I was able to pick up one Cobra from the “For Sale” series from Jada, but I am not sure I want to open that one. I know that I have missed quite a few of these beauties recently due to my lack of motivation of getting into the stores to scan the pegs. Matchbox had one out in a set of sorts not too long ago and I think I picked that one up. It might have been part of a Barrett Jackson line or something. I do not remember all of the details. I recently picked up a blue Jada one in the classic Cobra colors paint scheme. I just love the way the Cobra has such sexy lines. I think it is one of the all time best looking cars ever produced. I think it is also well recorded that it is not a timid opponent dealing with performance. I have seen a couple different ones in my life. There used to be a guy that I worked with (in an office of 2,000) that would drive his Cobra into the office only on Friday if it was going to be a nice day. I had an extra Hot Wheels Race team Cobra that I stood up on his windshield the one day so he would find it when he returned to his wonderful beast of a car. I heard from a friend of his later on that he got a kick out of my little stunt. From the time I started to write this article until I was finished I have a little life change happen. I have been working at AT&T now for over a year this time around. I was a full time regular employee of there’s back from 2000 – 20004. They had some major cut backs and head count reductions during this time and I was hit on December 3, 2004 (made for a great holiday – let me tell you). Well they had hired me back as a contractor making better money with no benefits. There were rumors going around about my new department being outsourced to a different state for cheaper labor. This came to fruition just this Oct 12. I had been very confidant that this was coming so I landed a job teaching again. I was an Elementary School Art Teacher for 5 years from 1995 – 2000. I am at a wonderful school and love the fact that I could get back into teaching. This is an odd profession for a number of reasons. There is this great “teacher shortage” nation wide it appears and yet it is rather difficult to jump through all of the hoops needed to become a teacher. There is more paper work in this job than I ever had working in corporate America. There are certain tests that I had to pass to become a contractor working for a large company, which I did not have to pass to work in a school. Right now I can happily say “I LOVE MY JOB” and I hope me and my family can make it all work out. I have a few ideas that I am kicking around for up and coming articles… so keep your eyes peeled and your tires spinning! “Steve a.k.a---ThunderRoller You may reach me at: ThunderRollerSS@Yahoo.com |
||
|
Have you missed any ThunderRoller Chronicles? Click Here |
||
