Red Dresses and Warm Fall Days

“Son, in this life, you never pass up an opportunity to talk to a woman in a red dress.” - Buck O'Neil

Buck O'Neil was the legendary KC Monarchs player/manager who willed the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum into existence.  He once said the best day of his life was one he hit for the cycle and met his wife, who was supposedly wearing a red dress.  This story and the woman in a red dress is referenced many times in Joe Posnanski's excellent book about Buck O'Neil.  She is both real and a metaphor - a reminder to never pass up an opportunity in life.  

If I had to name my woman in a red dress, other than my beautiful wife Nicole, it would be taking a convertible for a drive on a warm fall day.  I've owned two convertibles in my life, and just bought my third.    

(Photo: Bring a Trailer)

My first convertible was a 1973 VW Thing purchased on a warm fall day in November.  I was 19.  Terrible at doing car things, it made a good back road companion.  The air cooled 4 cylinder engine sounded like a sewing machine and chugged along happily at about 45-50 mph.  Slow, drafty and cold, the Thing did not endear itself to anyone I dated.  

(Photo: American Cars for Sale)

The second convertible was a 1991 LeBaron I owned when I was 23.  The beefed up K-car platform was overmatched by the Mitsubishi 3.0 V-6.  Compared to its contemporaries, the Fox body Mustang and Mercury Capri, it was heavy with ponderous handling.  But it made up for those drawbacks with a comfortable, quiet ride.  It was nothing to hop in the LeBaron with 2-3 friends and drive two hours for a ball game or grab a pizza.  

And now I have a third convertible, a 2000 Mercedes Benz CLK 430.  Like the LeBaron, the Mercedes has a comfortable, quiet ride and is easy to drive long distances.  Unlike the LeBaron, the 4.3 liter V-8 is well matched to the chassis and is a genuinely fast grand touring car. I've spent the past week driving it with the top down.  And while winter is coming, you can be sure that I'll have the top down any chance I get.  

     

The Mustang Chronicles: Carburetion

 For decades, carburetors were the primary devices for mixing fuel and air at a ratio to maximize combustion in gasoline powered engines.  These devices are simple in theory - they used the flow of air to regulate the metering of fuel, creating an ignitable vapor to generate power.  Over time, they became more complex to provide increased power and meet ever increasing emissions regulations.  With those changes, they gained a reputation of being clunky, inefficient, and unreliable.  This reputation is undeserved in most cases.  Carburetors have been used on everything from lawnmowers to large aircraft and are still used for many applications today. 

(Carter YFA one barrel carburetor)

The 1965 to 1967 six cylinder Mustangs originally came with the Autolite 1100 carburetor, as did most Fords with the Thriftpower six.  The Autolite 1100 is a one barrel carburetor developed by Ford as a replacement for the Holley 1904 and 1940.  It included an automatic, hot air choke and a spark control valve to manage ignition timing.  A common upgrade for these engines is to swap out the one barrel carburetors with two barrel units, and replace the Load-O-Matic distributor with a Duraspark or DUI/HEI.  This conversion can be done using an adapter for the Thriftpower's Log Head intake manifold, or by modifying the intake to accept a two barrel carburetor.  

Switching to a two barrel carburetor provides more horsepower by increasing the volume of fuel/air, which is measured in cubic feet per minute (CFM).  Increased CFM volume equates to more power through larger displacement, either due to the size of the engine, or by increasing the engine's speed, measured in revolutions per minute (RPM).  

But there is more to the math than just increasing CFM volume.  You also have to consider volumetric efficiency (VE), which is defined as the ratio of the mass density of the air-fuel mixture drawn into the cylinder at atmospheric pressure, to the mass density of the same volume of air in the intake manifold.  Or in plain English, you can't shove more gas into an engine than it can expel as exhaust.  That's why bolting a Holley 750 Double Pumper on the Thriftpower six is the automotive equivalent of the Milk Gallon Challenge.  

I'm more worried about drivability than power.  I want better street performance from a torquey engine with good throttle response.  The engine is basically stock, with the original camshaft, pistons, crankshaft, and exhaust, so I'm not going to get much benefit from a two barrel carburetor conversion.  

A better choice is to replace the Autolite 1100 with another one barrel carburetor and upgrade to the Duraspark or DUI/HEI distributor.  Ironically, many people swap out the Autolite 1100 for a Holley 1904, 1940 or "universal" one barrel carburetor.  Or, you can go with a Carter YF or YFA, like I did.  

I went with the Carter YFA for reliability and compatibility with my stock setup.  The YFA was used on a variety of Ford cars and trucks from the 1970s into the 1980s and bolts on with no modifications to the fuel line or throttle linkage.  It also provides the improvements in performance I'm looking for.  At some point in the future, I'll probably do a complete tear down on my engine, upgrade the camshaft, exhaust, and go to a two barrel carburetor.  But for now, I'm more interested in driving my Mustang than rebuilding it.          

A Time to Sell

I'm selling my daily driver...

In the past year I've driven my Ford Fusion about 3,000 miles.  Since the start of the pandemic, it's been driven less than 5,000 miles - More than half of those miles were put on by my daughter, before she got her own car.  Now I've reached the conclusion it's time to sell.  

I still like the Fusion, which I bought new in 2013.  Over 78k miles, it's been almost flawless as a daily driver, requiring regular maintenance and one minor repair to replace a fuel pressure sensor.  It's averaged about 26 MPG - lower than the EPA combined estimated, but not far off the mark.  Manufactures have been gaming the EPA test for years with smaller displacement turbo charged engines, and Ford is no different.  The 1.6 turbo 4 cylinder makes 188 horsepower and about an equal amount of torque.  It's a good engine, but buzzy and lazy when paired with the 6 speed automatic.  

My other complaints are minor.  The electric steering is numb, lacking any road feel, and it's light, like using a Logitech racing wheel.  I also don't like the 18 inch wheels with low profile, 45 series tires - they aren't well suited for pothole and metal plate strewn Midwestern roads.  

Complaints aside, it's the best car I've ever owned for transportation.  It has the best ride - a good mix of comfort for long stretches of interstate highways coupled with enough backroad competence to justify taking the Blue Highways.  And the way the car looks...

Ford obviously cribbed off Aston Martin before they sold it off, and they got away with it.  It's hard to overstate the reaction people had to the second gen Fusion.  It caused a stir like the girl in the red dress in the "distracted boyfriend" meme.  It still looks good today, to my eyes, much better than the bland restyling in 2017. 

I never regretted buying the car, and if I still needed a daily driver, something to commute 30+ miles a day, I'd keep it.  But my commute is now a short walk from my bedroom to my desk.  My occasional Starbuck's detour has become a trip to the coffee maker.  And the Fusion spends its days parked under a tree, sprinkled with tree sap and bird shit.  A layer of dirt formed under the rear spoiler, and the other day I found acorns in the air box, left by mice or even a squirrel.  I just finished the engine work on my Mustang, and with access to several other cars, the music has stopped and the Fusion is without a chair.      

One of the many weird things to come out of the pandemic is the sudden jump in used car prices.  A global computer chip shortage and supply chain issues have left auto manufacturers with a shortage of new cars, at a time when demand for cars has spiked.  I've gotten countless emails and junk mail from dealers offering top dollar for my car.  This week I made the mistake of looking up the value and was shocked at how high it was.  Yesterday I dropped by the dealer, and the used car manager offered more than the book value.  

Tonight I'm going back to the dealer with my payoff note and the extra set of keys.  I expect to walk out with a nice check and fond memories.