Post by Mike B on Dec 20, 2008 11:39:43 GMT -4
The interior of Tony Shick’s 1963 Ford Fairlane is in pretty good shape. Courtesy photo
Old Cadillac is big as a boat, but gas mileage is better than you might expect
My Favorite Ride: By Laura Lane H-T columnist | llane@heraldt.com
January 20, 2008
BLOOMINGTON — Herb Terry has a big car, a 1988 Cadillac four-door sedan that’s two blocks long and weighs tons.
OK, his Fleetwood d’Elegance is just 17 feet long and weighs only 3,463 pounds, 537 short of two tons.
Still, it takes up some room on the road, I noticed as I drove behind him one day this week. The road was slick, and I wished for a boat of a car like that instead of my minivan, which slides around. I have a love and appreciation for weighty vehicles.
I knew it was the Indiana University telecommunications professor ahead of me. His license plate reads “Herb T.”
So I called him up, wondering how he keeps the gas-guzzler on the road when unleaded 87 octane gasoline costs $3 a gallon, often more. When the car was new, and quite an investment at $28,024, the same gasoline cost 95 cents per gallon.
Terry said he gets about 13 miles per gallon driving around town, and logged an impressive 25.3 mpg on a recent trip to Washington, D.C.
“It doesn’t get the best gas mileage, but it’s not bad,” he said.
The Caddy is high mileage, with more than 236,000 miles on the odometer.
The car is front-wheel drive and its engine is well-maintained, contributing to its efficiency, given that this is no compact car.
Terry sees himself as a car collector and recycler of sorts, who keeps and maintains older vehicles — often cars that are no longer produced. He calls them “orphans,” and figures he is helping preserve the environment by keeping his collection of automobiles on the road and out of junkyards and scrap metal collection sites.
“For good or bad, I drive older vehicles. I recycle, on a very long schedule,” he said.
He is the Fleetwood’s second owner; the first, former Indiana University budget dean Ward Schaap, traded it in for another vehicle in 1990 at Stephens Oldsmobile-Honda.
“They had it there on their front row, and I was looking for something,” Terry said. “I tend to keep whatever I own forever.”
He has never bought a new car, preferring instead to re-use others.
“I cannot justify the environmental consequences, or the cost,” he said.
That explains his 1963 Corvair, the car his parents bought him for $500 that he took to college at Stanford in 1966. And the classic 1966 Oldsmobile Cutlass he inherited from his father.
“It was his last interesting car,” Terry said. He restored the vehicle, and his father got to see it looking brand new before he died.
He also owns a 1973 Ford Mustang convertible and two rare Chrysler TC two-seat luxury touring convertibles — a 1989 and 1991 — with bodies manufactured by Maserati. Then there’s the 1993 Cadillac Elante he bought six years ago in Texas on eBay and drove back to Bloomington nonstop, literally, because the car had a problem: It would not have started up again if he had turned off the ignition. It’s fixed now.
But it’s the Fleetwood he drives most often, his car of choice for his daily drives and also on trips across the country.
He was married when he bought the car, and his wife got custody of the car in their divorce. When the transmission started to go, she bought a new car and the Cadillac came back to Terry. He had the transmission replaced and got it back on the road. Last year, he removed the cast-iron heads and replaced the gaskets, returning the 4.5-liter V-8 engine to its factory compression ratios.
Indiana University telecommunications professor Herb Terry bought his 1988 Cadillac 18 years ago and has kept it on the road ever since, in a world where almost everyone else is opting for smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. laura lane | Hoosier Times
He keeps in close touch with Chuck Forney at Auto Heaven, lifting parts from old Cadillacs that have seen their last days. “This car includes parts from several other donor cars, over several years,” he said. Among them: maroon leather seats that he bolted in to replace the original gray ones that came in the car.
Terry has a habit of visiting junkyards when he travels out west, returning with all sorts of parts for use in car restorations. Before luggage safety restrictions imposed after 9/11, he could pay curbside baggage attendants a tip and convince them to load whatever he had — once he flew from Las Vegas to Indianapolis with a floor pan for his Corvair.
“There are these wonderful junkyards near the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. When I’m out there for a conference, I take a day and go out,” Terry explained. “I had them cut the floor out of the Corvair and had them wrap it up in a box. I dropped it off there at the curb at the airport and gave the guy $20 to put it with the luggage.”
He found a top for his dad’s Cutlass, too, but it was too big to fit into the plane cargo hull. He received a special-cut windshield for that car the regular way: through the mail, from South Africa.
He spent years restoring the Corvair. A few years ago, the shiny black car won Best of Show at the Hoosier Corvair Show. The car features a rare accessory: original wire wheels. Just 300 sets were made, and he paid, without hesitation, $700 apiece.
“When I take the car to the state Corvair show, I am usually the only one there with an original set of wire wheels.”
Terry purchased them from a guy who bought them from a drunken man he met at a 7-Eleven convenience store. When the purchaser got interested in restoring Morgan automobiles, he sold his Corvair parts.
It was just another great, albeit expensive, recycling opportunity for Terry.
Got a story to tell about a car or truck? Call 812-331-4362, send an e-mail to lane@heraldt.com or a letter to My Favorite Ride, P.O. Box 909, Bloomington, IN 47402.
Old Cadillac is big as a boat, but gas mileage is better than you might expect
My Favorite Ride: By Laura Lane H-T columnist | llane@heraldt.com
January 20, 2008
BLOOMINGTON — Herb Terry has a big car, a 1988 Cadillac four-door sedan that’s two blocks long and weighs tons.
OK, his Fleetwood d’Elegance is just 17 feet long and weighs only 3,463 pounds, 537 short of two tons.
Still, it takes up some room on the road, I noticed as I drove behind him one day this week. The road was slick, and I wished for a boat of a car like that instead of my minivan, which slides around. I have a love and appreciation for weighty vehicles.
I knew it was the Indiana University telecommunications professor ahead of me. His license plate reads “Herb T.”
So I called him up, wondering how he keeps the gas-guzzler on the road when unleaded 87 octane gasoline costs $3 a gallon, often more. When the car was new, and quite an investment at $28,024, the same gasoline cost 95 cents per gallon.
Terry said he gets about 13 miles per gallon driving around town, and logged an impressive 25.3 mpg on a recent trip to Washington, D.C.
“It doesn’t get the best gas mileage, but it’s not bad,” he said.
The Caddy is high mileage, with more than 236,000 miles on the odometer.
The car is front-wheel drive and its engine is well-maintained, contributing to its efficiency, given that this is no compact car.
Terry sees himself as a car collector and recycler of sorts, who keeps and maintains older vehicles — often cars that are no longer produced. He calls them “orphans,” and figures he is helping preserve the environment by keeping his collection of automobiles on the road and out of junkyards and scrap metal collection sites.
“For good or bad, I drive older vehicles. I recycle, on a very long schedule,” he said.
He is the Fleetwood’s second owner; the first, former Indiana University budget dean Ward Schaap, traded it in for another vehicle in 1990 at Stephens Oldsmobile-Honda.
“They had it there on their front row, and I was looking for something,” Terry said. “I tend to keep whatever I own forever.”
He has never bought a new car, preferring instead to re-use others.
“I cannot justify the environmental consequences, or the cost,” he said.
That explains his 1963 Corvair, the car his parents bought him for $500 that he took to college at Stanford in 1966. And the classic 1966 Oldsmobile Cutlass he inherited from his father.
“It was his last interesting car,” Terry said. He restored the vehicle, and his father got to see it looking brand new before he died.
He also owns a 1973 Ford Mustang convertible and two rare Chrysler TC two-seat luxury touring convertibles — a 1989 and 1991 — with bodies manufactured by Maserati. Then there’s the 1993 Cadillac Elante he bought six years ago in Texas on eBay and drove back to Bloomington nonstop, literally, because the car had a problem: It would not have started up again if he had turned off the ignition. It’s fixed now.
But it’s the Fleetwood he drives most often, his car of choice for his daily drives and also on trips across the country.
He was married when he bought the car, and his wife got custody of the car in their divorce. When the transmission started to go, she bought a new car and the Cadillac came back to Terry. He had the transmission replaced and got it back on the road. Last year, he removed the cast-iron heads and replaced the gaskets, returning the 4.5-liter V-8 engine to its factory compression ratios.
Indiana University telecommunications professor Herb Terry bought his 1988 Cadillac 18 years ago and has kept it on the road ever since, in a world where almost everyone else is opting for smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. laura lane | Hoosier Times
He keeps in close touch with Chuck Forney at Auto Heaven, lifting parts from old Cadillacs that have seen their last days. “This car includes parts from several other donor cars, over several years,” he said. Among them: maroon leather seats that he bolted in to replace the original gray ones that came in the car.
Terry has a habit of visiting junkyards when he travels out west, returning with all sorts of parts for use in car restorations. Before luggage safety restrictions imposed after 9/11, he could pay curbside baggage attendants a tip and convince them to load whatever he had — once he flew from Las Vegas to Indianapolis with a floor pan for his Corvair.
“There are these wonderful junkyards near the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. When I’m out there for a conference, I take a day and go out,” Terry explained. “I had them cut the floor out of the Corvair and had them wrap it up in a box. I dropped it off there at the curb at the airport and gave the guy $20 to put it with the luggage.”
He found a top for his dad’s Cutlass, too, but it was too big to fit into the plane cargo hull. He received a special-cut windshield for that car the regular way: through the mail, from South Africa.
He spent years restoring the Corvair. A few years ago, the shiny black car won Best of Show at the Hoosier Corvair Show. The car features a rare accessory: original wire wheels. Just 300 sets were made, and he paid, without hesitation, $700 apiece.
“When I take the car to the state Corvair show, I am usually the only one there with an original set of wire wheels.”
Terry purchased them from a guy who bought them from a drunken man he met at a 7-Eleven convenience store. When the purchaser got interested in restoring Morgan automobiles, he sold his Corvair parts.
It was just another great, albeit expensive, recycling opportunity for Terry.
Got a story to tell about a car or truck? Call 812-331-4362, send an e-mail to lane@heraldt.com or a letter to My Favorite Ride, P.O. Box 909, Bloomington, IN 47402.