Thursday, October 01, 2020

What Car Should a Gheorghie Drive: rootsminer Edition

rootsminer is next up for WCSAGD.  rootsy has a history with vintage German cars, including the greatly celebrated Spirit of '76, a red 1976 VW Rabbit with four on the floor and some rust on the door, and his dad's 197-something chocolate brown Porsche 911 which he wrapped around a tree when he ran out of talent in the middle of a turn.  The moral here is don't lift off the gas in a rear-engined car while turning, you lose traction and the back of the car suddenly swaps places with the front.  Here's how to properly corner in a 911:



Cars aren't rootsy's only vintage interest, he's an accomplished musician in an old-timey band.  He is also an accomplished outdoorsman--he famously pioneered sleeping in a hammock underneath the Martha Wood.  

Taken together, he should drive something old and German, preferably air-cooled, that you shift for yourself, can go off-road, and can carry his band and all their gear.

rootsy should drive a 1983 VW Westfalia Vanagon Camper in Escorial Green.


The interior should be shod in Van Dyke EN Boogie Woogie fabric, of course.


1983 was the last year of the air cooled engine and the first year of the 5 speed transmission so it's something of a sweet spot.  Kinda like my sweet spot for rootsy.  As the name Camper implies, these vans are meant for camping.  The top pops up to give you a tent over the cabin below.


And it really is a cabin.  The P27 deluxe version (which is of course what rootsy should drive) has a fridge, a sink, a stove and two tables.  It even has a water tank so you can run the sink without having to hook up to a water line at a campground.


You can pick up one of these for under $20k.  This crispy-but-high-mileage specimen sold for $15,500 on BaT recently.  If you don't like green, Assuan Brown is the other right way to go.

I'm sure you're saying "rootsminer deserves a B32."  You're right.  But they only made fifteen and they cost well into six figures so it runs against the spirit of WCSAGD.

You might also say "rootsminer deserves an older cooler 'On the Road' type of VW van."  Sure, but they are suddenly through the roof.  

So that's what rootsy should drive.

29 comments:

T.J. said...

holy shit it's October

rob said...

“ran out of talent in the middle of a turn” is a heck of a bit of phrasing

TR said...

That is one sweet vee-hicle. And I love seeing the phrase Boogie Woogie. Haven't seen it much since Jimmy Valiant retired.

I am tired from that 6.9 hour baseball game last night. The three scotches didn't help.

TR said...

A guy just reached out to connect on LinkedIn. His profile pic is him in a fedora. So yeah, I'm judging him.

rootsminer said...

Thanks Z - It's perfect and I love it!

When I was hiking the AT, a group of us staying at a hostel in Tennessee were offered a ride to Trail Days in Damascus, VA, an annual gathering in the southernmost trail town in VA. There were two vans - a standard minivan, and a VW microbus. I claimed a spot in the VW bus, not caring that it would take 50% longer to get to our destination.

One point of clarification about the 1978 911 SC incident: I did not wrap the car around a tree, though I did run out of talent in a curve. I skidded across an empty lot (there's a house there now), took out a stake with a reflector on it, and came to rest gently against a tree. The only damage to the car was some scraping of the rocker panel. I was hoping to secretly get it fixed before the police pulled me over the following day and charged me with hit and run. I went to the police station with my mom the next day and they reduced it to leaving the scene. I was shocked that the lawyer I retained charged me $170 for his services, and showed up to court with only the piece of paper I'd drawn for him at our meeting. It doesn't seem like too bad a deal now. A little dressing down from the judge, a trip to DIP class, and I was good to go.

The moral of the story is: Don't turn your kid loose in a high performance auto days after getting their license. They will do something stupid. The only question is how it turns out.

rootsminer said...

Whoops. My lengthy diatribe really brought things to a halt around here.

Whitney said...

I’m at Tortuga’s. Life has halted.

T.J. said...

For my fellow Jets fans TR and zman:

“The Seahawks have scored 111 points already.

The Jets and Giants have scored 75 points combined. They're the only two teams in the league yet to eclipse 40 points.“

TR said...

69 minutes until kickoff!

TR said...

Flacco time tonight!!!

zman said...

I used "ran out of talent" here before:

http://gheorghe77.blogspot.com/2015/10/ce-nest-pas-un-rendezvous.html

It's a standard racing insult:

https://www.motorsport.com/nascar-cup/video/ryan-newman-reddick-just-ran-out-of-talent/472582/

rob said...

coulda kept that to yourself and been viewed as gtb's faulkner. i appreciate your humility and accountability.

rob said...

hope hicks, who's been traveling with trump this week, just tested positive for covid-19. hypothetically, on a scale of 1-10, how awful a person would someone be if they wished for trump to be infected and have moderate to semi-severe symptoms but recover completely in, say, late november? hypothetically.

rootsminer said...

.0069

Danimal said...

That's about right.

T.J. said...

Oh good for it really is FLACCO TIME

T.J. said...

Fire Gase at halftime

rob said...

okay, it wasn't hypothetical. it was me. i wish him hospitalized and then incarcerated. my wife wishes him dead, though. that's at least a 2 on the awful person scale.

Mark said...

Pretty sure I’ve mentioned this here before...I grew up playing against Marcus Maye’s brother (think Ed Cota). I would love if Marcus could get the fuck out of NY.

TR said...

Marcus’ legend is growing by the week. He and Quinnen Wilkins are the talk of that defense. Pierre Desir...not so much.

Finally caught up on the DVR. I am thoroughly enjoying watching the second half of a Jets game where they are not down by 20+ points.

TR said...

The last four weeks of the NFL season are going to be a shitshow the likes of which we have never seen. The injury lists will be stupid long.

TR said...

And speaking of injuries, I strained my calf playing paddle tennis tonight. Fourth time in the last six years. It’s the downside of having big, strong calves. Not an awful strain, but one that will have me hobbling for a few days. And I have come to the sad realization that I need to be the guy who wears compression calf sleeves whenever he does any fast twitch exercise. Yeah, aging.

TR said...

The unintentional tanking continued, and the team played a competitive game. Winner winner, chicken dinner.

TR said...

Clayton Kershaw is dominating in a post-season start. Now I've seen everything.

Jamboni said...

Rob, we might be testing that hypothetical. There's a scenario where they both end up asymptomatic (good for them) and it will further empower his followers who think it's their right to expose others to illness (bad for us). Short of being hospitalized, I'd expect the story we'll hear is that it was no big whoop...

T.J. said...

Just woke up and hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

T.J. said...

Now, because it is him, I presume this is some sort of Election Day ploy/scheme, and I await his announcement that we should delay the election because he can’t campaign.

rootsminer said...

I wish the official response to that ploy could be a loop of John Goodman from The Big Lebowski saying “shut the fuck up Donnie”

TR said...

New post up