Post by Mike B on Dec 20, 2008 18:47:36 GMT -4
The long and the short of it
Size does matter in comparison of 1975 VW and 1978 Lincoln
My Favorite Ride: by Laura Lane H-T columnist | llane@heraldt.com
March 2, 2008
BLOOMINGTON — Side by side, Don Keele’s 1975 Volkswagen Super Beetle and Joe Stover’s 1978 Lincoln Continental Town Car represent the range of cars available three decades ago.
From small and compact to two blocks long.
Keele’s round-bodied 1600cc VW rear-mounted engine gets great gas mileage and is easy to parallel park. Stover’s Lincoln has a giant 460-cubic-inch engine housed inside a vehicle that’s 19.4 feet long.
The VW weighs about 1,900 pounds; the Town Car, more than 4,850.
So when Keele noticed Stover parked outside Bloomington’s Wal-Mart a month ago, the elderly gentleman and his car got his attention.
“There was this big car, just a monster, and I felt compelled to walk up to the man sitting inside. I hadn’t seen a car as large as this one in a very long time,” Keele said. “As I was driving away, I got up next to him and realized how different our cars were. So I parked next to him, and took a bunch of pictures.”
It was nighttime, but the photos taken under parking lot lights came out. Last week, he delivered a set of pictures to Stover, who lives in Morgantown.
“I pulled up alongside of his car and aligned our front bumpers,” Keele said. “My rear bumper was essentially even with the middle of his rear door.”
Stover bought his Lincoln, which he calls his mafia staff car, eight years ago this April. He was living in Lebanon and had his eye on Carol Zimmerman’s vintage ride for years.
“She kept it in the garage and had it hand-washed. I was trying to buy it from her for four or five years,” he recalled. “She would see me coming down the street and would hold up her hand and say, ‘Not yet, Joe.’ She was nice about it.”
He would see her around town, often behind the wheel of the car.
“She was a little bitty thing, maybe 90 pounds. She had a little white poodle and they both had cushions in the front seat to sit on.”
One day, he got a call from the woman’s son. Mrs. Zimmerman had suffered a stroke.
“He said my name was all over her house, on a piece of paper on the refrigerator, on a notebook by the phone. He asked if I was still interested in the car, and I said I would be there in 45 minutes.”
He wrote a check for $2,500 and drove the Town Car home.
He’s been driving it about every day since — it had 64,000 miles on the odometer then, and 138,000 now.
Keele bought his 1975 Volkswagen in a nostalgic moment. When he and his wife married, she had a 1963 Volkswagen he loved to drive. “I admit, I kind of fell in love with that car.”
So a year ago, he bought his old Beetle.
But he still appreciates the big cars of the past. Today, the Lincoln Town Car is the largest American-made vehicle, all 18 feet of it — 16 inches shorter than Stover’s 30-year-old model.
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.
When lined up at the front bumpers, Don Keele’s 1975 Volkswagen Super Beetle reaches about half the length of Joe Stover’s 1978 Lincoln Continental Town Car. The two compared their vehicles recently in the Bloomington Wal-Mart’s parking lot. Courtesy photo
www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2008/03/02/deh_autodominant_0302+Z.jpg
The Lincoln is wider than the VW, too. Courtesy photo
Size does matter in comparison of 1975 VW and 1978 Lincoln
My Favorite Ride: by Laura Lane H-T columnist | llane@heraldt.com
March 2, 2008
BLOOMINGTON — Side by side, Don Keele’s 1975 Volkswagen Super Beetle and Joe Stover’s 1978 Lincoln Continental Town Car represent the range of cars available three decades ago.
From small and compact to two blocks long.
Keele’s round-bodied 1600cc VW rear-mounted engine gets great gas mileage and is easy to parallel park. Stover’s Lincoln has a giant 460-cubic-inch engine housed inside a vehicle that’s 19.4 feet long.
The VW weighs about 1,900 pounds; the Town Car, more than 4,850.
So when Keele noticed Stover parked outside Bloomington’s Wal-Mart a month ago, the elderly gentleman and his car got his attention.
“There was this big car, just a monster, and I felt compelled to walk up to the man sitting inside. I hadn’t seen a car as large as this one in a very long time,” Keele said. “As I was driving away, I got up next to him and realized how different our cars were. So I parked next to him, and took a bunch of pictures.”
It was nighttime, but the photos taken under parking lot lights came out. Last week, he delivered a set of pictures to Stover, who lives in Morgantown.
“I pulled up alongside of his car and aligned our front bumpers,” Keele said. “My rear bumper was essentially even with the middle of his rear door.”
Stover bought his Lincoln, which he calls his mafia staff car, eight years ago this April. He was living in Lebanon and had his eye on Carol Zimmerman’s vintage ride for years.
“She kept it in the garage and had it hand-washed. I was trying to buy it from her for four or five years,” he recalled. “She would see me coming down the street and would hold up her hand and say, ‘Not yet, Joe.’ She was nice about it.”
He would see her around town, often behind the wheel of the car.
“She was a little bitty thing, maybe 90 pounds. She had a little white poodle and they both had cushions in the front seat to sit on.”
One day, he got a call from the woman’s son. Mrs. Zimmerman had suffered a stroke.
“He said my name was all over her house, on a piece of paper on the refrigerator, on a notebook by the phone. He asked if I was still interested in the car, and I said I would be there in 45 minutes.”
He wrote a check for $2,500 and drove the Town Car home.
He’s been driving it about every day since — it had 64,000 miles on the odometer then, and 138,000 now.
Keele bought his 1975 Volkswagen in a nostalgic moment. When he and his wife married, she had a 1963 Volkswagen he loved to drive. “I admit, I kind of fell in love with that car.”
So a year ago, he bought his old Beetle.
But he still appreciates the big cars of the past. Today, the Lincoln Town Car is the largest American-made vehicle, all 18 feet of it — 16 inches shorter than Stover’s 30-year-old model.
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.
When lined up at the front bumpers, Don Keele’s 1975 Volkswagen Super Beetle reaches about half the length of Joe Stover’s 1978 Lincoln Continental Town Car. The two compared their vehicles recently in the Bloomington Wal-Mart’s parking lot. Courtesy photo
www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2008/03/02/deh_autodominant_0302+Z.jpg
The Lincoln is wider than the VW, too. Courtesy photo