Wandering with Warren column for June issue

Hello,

I am writing this while lying on the grass in a park in Brooklyn NY. There is nothing between the statue of liberty and us except water. We are on our first stop of our all-expense-paid adventure.

The streets around here are very similar to the way they were in 1915 when my Marmon was purchased by my grandfather Percy.

Many of the streets in this area are still cobblestone. Some of the intersections have had potholes develop over time. When a cobblestone street gets a pothole it is not because of ice or frost-heaves but because the bottom has dropped out beneath it. People will drop rocks, lumber and anything else into the hole to try to fill it up but it is still a significant two foot wide hole that can do major damage to 16-inch wheels. We saw one hole last night that had a traffic cone in it and the point was about level with the sidewalk. If it was raining at night the hole would be rather difficult to see.

My Marmon has powerful springs and kind of adjustable shock absorbers and VERY cushy seats. The 36-inch wheels (with 48-inch O.D. tires) can traverse a 24-inch pothole at high speed without damaging the car although a passenger might be launched. My Marmon has no windshield wipers as a safety feature to discourage rainy night driving.

This traffic moves fast! My Marmon can accelerate to seventy MPH very quickly and the large rear brakes will stop you quickly enough that it is not a very long trot back to see what you have just run over.

Blocking an intersection and then honking at everybody else seems to be a popular sport around here.

My driver's seat is the same height as a Peterbilt. I have a rugged looking spring steel bumper and I have a 12V Klaxon horn that is so loud that it can burn the paint off any car that dares to stop in front of me.

Yep, my Marmon is an ideal city car which explains why my Grandfather drove it daily to downtown Boston for many years.

Alas, for our adventure we are traveling in a mini-van that has a radio, tinted glass, and [probably] a wimpy horn.

I am invisible now. When driving the Marmon I am never invisible (except of course to the people pulling out of side streets in front of me).

I am really going to miss not driving my old jalopy this summer, so think of poor Beth and Warren driving around the countryside in a boring modern vehicle.

Fire up your old car (of any type or age) and cruise around. Be sure to wave.

Warren

bethandwarren.com