How This Hoon Became A Hoon

Welcome to my first post here on Hooniverse.

Late last week, this olelongrooffan dropped an email to Hooniverse Virtual World Headquarters with a sampling of some of the blogposts I had done over at my personal blog. I thought maybe some of the stuff I post over there might be of interest to some of you Hoons out there.

Well, this olelongrooffan is honored to have received a limited edition key to the vault that is Hooniverse. I am still working out the kinks I have with the host site so your patience with me is much appreciated.

However, I would suspect there are many of you Hoons out there wondering what "web cred" this, previously unheard of, olelongrooffan possesses to have been bestowed this Honor.

First off, a little about myself. I am an independent General Contractor, yeah, lots of time on my hands these days, down in The Birthplace of Speed, Ormond Beach, Florida. I'm divorced and have the ability to do pretty much what I want when I want.

Yeah, I know, I am lucky. I am pretty fortunate in usually getting some good passes to events out at the Daytona International Speedway and there are car shows pretty much year round down here and I try to get to every one of them.

My posts tend to be experience related and this olelongrooffan hopes you enjoy them.

Yeah, as if some auto manufacturer is going to give this old man the keys to any shiny new automobile or truck to hoon around the Ocala National Forest!

Anyway Kids, this is how This Hoon Became A Hoon.

I have always been interested in all things auto related. Just look at the below image of this 10 year old longrooffan laying on the floor in my Dad's den with my favorite reading material.
Now, we oldtimers will recognize, even though just a part of that television on the shelf behind me is showing, that it is an old black and white set, and yes, it received three channels. And those books on the bottom shelf of that bookcase? Those are Child Craft books and World Book Encyclopedias. Google that youngsters.

So, I would suspect that, at 50 years old, a seat in the senior section of The Hooniverse has been reserved for this olelongrooffan.

So, as far as being a Hoon, check out the vehicle of choice for my dad, TheGentlemanFarmer, starting when I was still at the formative age of 13 years old.
Yeah, a 1972 Citroen DS21 Palas. The only one around! It was a gorgeous Work of Art and that era DS's and SM's still are. And we lived in a small city in southwest Missouri! My dad, a Roman Catholic newspaper editor was able to get a Vietnamese refugee, who was also a mechanic, relocated to Springfield, MO, just to work on that car! And I got to drive it! Often!

But that wasn't the first unique automobile my dad owned.

Long before this olelongrooffan was a gleam in TheGentlemanFarmer's eye, he had one of these, at least to me, highly desirable Willys Station Wagon.
And he owned the, not one, but the two of the first Volkswagen Microbuses sold in St Louis, Missouri back in the early 60s. My three older brothers are pictured with one of them in the following image.
Why two VW Buses? Well, this olelongrooffan comes from a family of ten kids plus Mom and Dad and there were no, and still aren't any, vehicles to transport all twelve of us to Sunday Mass in one car.

As a matter of fact, I think one of the reasons my Dad asked Mom to marry him was that her Dad owned a cool old Woody Wagon.
In the mid sixties, my Dad tried to recreate that with the plastic wood clad siding offerings put forth by the Blue Oval at the time.

Both this '65 towing Dad's '32 Model "A" when we moved from St. Louis to Springfield, yeah, a 33 year old project with ten kids. I still don't know how he managed to have his projects.
And later, the Pacific Blue '67 Country Squire that still triggers the lust I have for longroofs.
Around the same time, he picked up a '63 Corvair convertible, shown in the image below with my Mom and the owner of that original Woodie Wagon mentioned.
After Dad decided to become TheGentlemanFarmer, he sold that oleragtop and picked up a rather pedestrian 71 Dodge 3/4 ton pickup for duties around the 173 acre farm.
Along with an International 'C' tractor that the wheel fell off! Yeah, honest to God true story.
In the late 70's, after moving from the farm back to the city he owned a pair of '66 Pontiacs, a Catalina sedan and a Bonneville convertible.
To the right in the above image is my 72 Volvo 144, one of the 50 plus automobiles and trucks this olelongrooffan has owned in the past 35 years.

In his later years during the '90's he had this 63 Coupe deVille.
And the final fun car he had was this Fiat 124 Spyder. After Pop passed on, my brother sold it on ebay and the Hoon who bought it flew in from Washington state to southwest Missouri and drove it home. Yeah, he is probably reading this right now!
Well, to those of you out there in Hooniverse, I think definitely establishes How This Hoon Became A Hoon.

But wait, what about the brothers to this olelongrooffan?

Well, one of my brothers, the Bus, had this
but sold it to buy a 1946 Willys CJ2A. But he kept his Bus.
Another brother, thehorsefarmer had this
uncut 66 Bronco but sold it to buy a Blue Oval dually to haul his miniature horses around. Luckily, he still has another highly modified 66 Bronco to hoon around.

And my brother, thejeepjunkie? Well he has this pristine, also a, 46 Willys CJ2A
while his son, my nephew, the Kid has this 67 Jeep CJ5.
Now, lest you Hoons think that the Ormond Beach based CJ2A and CJ5 are trailer queens, check out the following two images.

thejeepjunkie's 2A, prior to the bright yellow paint job.
And the Kid's CJ5 when he was out without a tag vehicle.
Now, this olelongrooffan is sure you Hoons are wondering what I possess to make me "Hoon Worthy"?

For starter's, this 88 E30 ragtop, the third one I have owned
as well as my 63 Ford Falcon Station Bus. And if you are wondering what that is hanging from the Florida Antique license plate, click here.
And here is my olestationbus bearing a shiny new coat of paint at the Grassroots Motorsports corral at the 2010 Rolex24 at Daytona.
To the rear of my olestationbus is my Budweiser beach chair, cooler and laptop ready for posting the blog this olelongrooffan did about my experiences over that 24 hour period.

So, in conclusion, while my posts tend to be more wordy and less technical than many others here, this olelongrooffan hopes you approve and enjoy my offerings.

And until the next time we get together, remember to

Celebrate Life.

Happy Birthday Mom

Just thinking of my Mom on the 82nd anniversary of her birth.

Another Random Image From The Library

I have been sorting out some of the over 4,000 images in my library, and yes, most of them are auto related.

Anyway, this olelongrooffan came across this image of the Daytona International Speedway's backstretch from May 2009. We had some torrential rains down here and the track was severely flooded.

That rainwater is about 20" deep on the topside of the track.

This olelongrooffan can't help but think those rains contributed to this and this.

By the way, International Speedway Corporation is repaving their flagship speedway, to the tune of $20-22 million, starting right after the July 4 NASCAR race and it is scheduled to be complete by the first week in January.

All events at the track have been cancelled making me wonder about the Turkey Rod Run this Thanksgiving.

Anyway, ISC is setting aside a section of the bleachers for the general public to view the process.

And it's free admission.

You can bet this olelongrooffan will be blogging about that as I

Celebrate Life.

Parade Of Homes Road Trip, Day 2

As this olelongrooffan mentioned in this post, I was honored to be asked to judge the Parade of Homes down in MickeyMouseLand for the Metro Orlando Home Builders Association.

Well, this past Saturday was the second day of judging so this olelongrooffan hopped on that Eisenhour Interstate System and hot footed it on down there.

Now, on the rare occasion this olelongrooffan drives on the Interstate, I always set the cruise control in my oleragtop at around 79 mph and that Saturday was no different.
So, here I am ambling along Interstate 4 just west of I-95 and cruising at 10 over the speed limit and low and behold, a SMART car
blows by my oleragtop like we were sitting still! By the time I picked my trusty Polaroid up off the passenger seat and got it turned on, about 4 seconds, this is how far that SMART car was ahead of me.

So much for fuel economy and the automobile designed for urban driving.

So, anyway, I arrived and spent a few hours looking at some really nice homes and returned to the Association offices and got in the oleragtop for the ride home to the Birthplace of Speed and the Taj Mahal.

Now those of you Counting Along With Me will know that, as I mentioned, this olelongrooffan rarely travels on the Interstate, after all, as TheGoodAttorney says to me, "How can you find the World's Largest Frying Pan if your doing 80 down the Interstate?" And, of course, thejeepjunkie tries to berate me by telling me, and anyone else who will listen, "Yeah, olelongroof is the only guy I know who can take a three hour trip and turn it into a seven hour trip."

Yep, that's me. And I ain't changing.

So, anyway, this olelongrooffan pulled out of that Association parking lot at around a Japanese dentist appointment, you know tooth hurty, and headed up Highway 17-92 towards home without an Interstate in sight.

Well, as I passed through the urban intersection of of State Road 436 and 17-92 in Casselberry, this olelongrooffan catches sight of a 3' x 5' sign advertising a car show today in Lake Lloyd Park.

The only Lake Lloyd this olelongrooffan is aware of is Lake Lloyd at the Daytona International Speedway and this olelongrooffan thought it odd that they would advertise a car show in Daytona Beach down here in Casselberry.

So, this olelongrooffan pulled to the curb and got out my trusty rural road atlas for the State of Florida (they publish them for most states and are $20 at WallyWorld).

Yeah, I love this thing. You can't navigate urban areas with it but it shows every rural road in the state. Dirt trails in the National Forests, every county road whether dirt or paved. It refers to the Interstates, not with the national designation, but with the State Road number!

But, more importantly, it labels nearly every significant body of water, whether rural or urban. And sure enough, in downtown Casselberry, Florida, adjacent to the city municipal offices is Lake Lloyd!

Yes, those of you who have been Counting Along With Me for a while will remember this is the atlas who sacrificed its cover for use as a funnel during this adventure.

But the best part is that park is just ahead on the east side of 17-92 directly adjacent to the road this olelongrooffan is traveling upon!!

Yeah, somebody someplace is watching over me!!

So, just a few blocks up the road, I spot an "Event Parking" sign and follow it to the field where the spectators were directed to park. After giving the Boy Scout a buck donation, the oleragtop came to stop and this olelongrooffan headed over to that park to see what could be seen.

The first automobile this olelongrooffan saw was a fairly rare one and in pristine condition.
It was a 1966 Lincoln Continental four door convertible.
And she was opened up like one of the stars of Larry Flynt's magazines
happily displaying all her charms for all of us to see.
Yeah, but this one has alot more class and wide whites to boot!
And this olelongrooffan thought it was one of the best in shows and, appropriately enough, parked in the same slot as this olelongrooffan is old!

The next one I spotted was this beautiful and rare 1941 orphaned Oldsmobile.
The reason this car is rare is that during the 1941 model production year, all U.S. automotive manufacturing was halted and those plants were converted to the production of military equipment for World War 2.
And this one has an even rarer Hydramatic!
I have finally learned to get an image of the information placard so this olelongrooffan can remember What I Saw Today!
Parked next to it was a 1940 Buick Club Coupe.
It was bright red and in excellent condition.

Parked next to it was a Mustang Shelby Replica. At least the owner had enough mojo to call it out as a replica as opposed to the guy I saw last month with the "recreated" Yenko.
It was a nice ride, though the roof is to short for this olelongrooffan, TheKenMan would totally hoon it!

I did like this early 60's GMC in near original condition. Maybe a repaint but that was it.
And the roof is plenty long enough for me with this ride!
And if I remember correctly, it was a 3100, signifying a one ton chassis.

Next door was this well done El Camino.
It was nothing like this one though. Incidentally, this olelongrooffan recently spotted the subject of that post painted this same shade of red.

And, of course, this image was gotten just for thejeepjunkie and the Bus.
It was on the front of this old military flat fender.
And, just to let you know, this is how these things were worked on back in the day.
While there were plenty of run of the mill tri-5 street rods and Corvettes, this olelongrooffan had to get a couple of images of this Mark Macguire-like steroided out 57 Chevy tudor post.
I mean, this guy must have over a hundred grand in this thing. Plus, I bet it gets about 4 mpg.
The shoes on the rear end of this thing are nearly a foot wide!
And the interior? There is not one stock piece left in it.
But, different strokes for different folks, I guess.
When this olelongrooffan was a mere teenager, I thought this body style Bow Tie Nova was the coolest car around.
But now, this olelongrooffan likes longroofs and ragtops and I thought this one was especially nice.
It is a 1957, also orphaned, Oldsmobile.
And while it has been restored, it has a cool retro looking battery! (thanks to TheKenMan is due here.)
I just love this real work of art coming out of Harley Earle's design studio of the mid-50's.
And this interior is just the way this olelongrooffan likes them.

Bone Stock.
The other Best In Show at this one.

On the way out, I spotted this 1960 Bow Tie Impala and
got an artsy fartsy image of its massive horizontal rear wing.
And its partner on the driver's side.
Can you Counters read that license plate in the image above? "MY 60". Pretty clever.
And the last image taken at that stumbled upon Casselberry Car Show.

Man, sometimes things just work out great for this olelongrooffan.

So this olelongrooffan got back on 17-92 and, after checking my trusty atlas, turned east on SR 415 to catch County Road 4192 for the trip up to the home of The World's Most Famous Beach.

On the way up 4192, Nature called and this olelongrooffan turned on some anonomous dirt road and had a talk with Mother Nature.

On the way back out, I spotted this old Mustang for sale outside a home similar to the one the pilot of the boat in this post lived.
And on the corner of that dirt road and 4192 was this Kubota for sale and this olelongrooffan thought I would get an image of it should thejeepjunkie want to do some horse trading in the future.

Now Counters, this olelongrooffan has this to say about that.

Even though I am "celebrating" two years of unemployment this week, by having the honor of judging those nice homes down in MickeyMouseLand, and then by finding this car show and that old Kubota, things are pretty good for this olelongrooffan.

And that lets this olelongrooffan

Celebrate Life.