My Best and Worst List - On The Line

Best Collection of Automotive Stories
Modesty precludes me from including my own work in this list (ISBN 0-9729445-2-4, www.riversbendpress.com), but three stellar books come to mind and I can't choose between them. Ken Purdy wrote his "Ken Purdy's Book of Automobiles" in 1972 and there was nothing else like it, before or since. Denise McCluggage wrote her wonderful "By Brooks too Broad For Leaping" in 1994 and David E. Davis, Jr. wrote "Thus Spake David E." in 1999. Any of these three books are perfect to read while sitting by a fire with a large glass of port. I never met Ken Purdy (though God knows how I would have liked to), but nothing makes me prouder than knowing Denise and David E. are my friends.

Favorite Car Owned
I've owned my 1952 MG TD longer than anything else (coming on 10 years now) so I guess it must be my favorite. It isn't fast; it's uncomfortable and is starting to look a bit ratty (I'll call it patina), but in the company of a dozen other slithering and sliding T-types on a racetrack, nothing is more fun.

Least Favorite Car Owned
Crazy as it sounds, there was always something appealing to me in every car that I have ever purchased, even if some of them only stayed with me for a matter of days.

Best Motorcycle Owned
My first, which was a BMW R100/7 and which I stupidly sold last year. I regretted it before getting to the bank to cash the check.

Best Ride Ever (not driving)
Peter Hardman took me for a few laps of the Millbrook Proving Ground in the 1959 Le Mans-winning Aston Martin DBR1/2. A close second place was a ride in a 1927 Type 35 Bugatti on the original Targa Florio circuit in Sicily. The car was rumored (by its owner) to be the winning car from that year.

Looking over this list, I might be accused of being an automotive name-dropper. That wasn't my intent. I'm sure if I were a golfer, my list would have been peppered with the names of my golfing heroes. But I don't like golf; I like cars. Maybe you do, too, or you won't be reading our magazine. I'll bet if you were to think about it, you've probably been within a degree or two of separation from your own heroes. If not, you need to get out more.

I urge you to sit down with a blank piece of paper and start making the same kind of lists I did. Use my lists as a starting point and then add your own bests and worsts, highs and lows and favorites as you go. It won't put food on your table or cure male-pattern baldness, but it is fun. If nothing else, it really helps you figure out what you have been doing with your life.