Paul Drake never drove a sedan

The number two just seems right sometimes.  A motorcycle has two wheels, just as it should be.  Just like the bike you learned to ride on, a two wheeler, or a bi-cycle.  We couldn’t wait to get off that sissy three wheeler all our friends made fun of us on, it was two wheels for sure.  But the downfall, or really an attribute of two wheels is you cannot take more than one other person, ride your own or take the bus.  AKA the loser cruiser.  But two seems to work in other vehicles beside bicycles and motorcycles, it work in cars two.  Yeah I know four wheels ain’t the same, but two seaters, like the Corvette, Ferarri, the original T-Bird, and even Porsche 911’s, OK a 2+2, but really only a two seater in reality, the lack of four doors gives them a certain style.  Picture Susanne Somers in anything but a pink T-bird, it just won’t work.  Todd and Buzz on Route 66-in a sedan?  Bronson on a trike?  Would the man in the opening scene in the station wagon talked to him?  Could he have, Bronson was lane splitting?  Doubling your doors does not necessarily double your pleasure, you just increase your hauling capacity.  We have never owned an SUV, or mini-van, unless you consider our 1963 Corvair Greenbrier, we had coupes, 2 doors.  Convertibles.  Motorcycles.  Which limited the amount of kids hauled, which kept wear and tear, candy, soda, and other things from spilling and sticking, and kept us free from car pools.  Time spent in another type of pool.  Think of the cars that excited you in your youth, can you name any sedan that got you going?

Or was it a 1962 Corvette, a 1957 T-Bird, or even a Triumph Spitfire?  Maybe an MG got your attention, drop the top, feel the wind in your hair-we all had it back then, and enjoy the joy of your partner.  Sedans were for parents and old people, young people drove sports cars, or the really cool ones rode motorcycles.  But yet somehow we all knew the day of sedans was coming....but what to do in the mean time?  When Chevrolet shocked the world in 1953 with the Corvette, no one else made a two seater, let alone a sports car in the US of A.  Blame it on England for supplying us with MG’s, Austin Healey’s and Jaguars that got us going.  So when the General brought out the Corvette, it should have been a winner.  But wasn’t, but Ford had to react, and gave us the Thunderbird in 1955.  And for 3 years outsold the Corvette handily.  And then in 1958, the T-Bird went to four seats.  Still two doors, but now you could bring along your growing family, and the era of baby boomers changing wheels.  Still both niche cars, it again grew sales, and only the Corvette remained.  But added windows instead of side curtains, maybe we were progressing.  Big V-8’s, 4 on the floor, and burning rubber, was still found in Vettes and Birds, but now had moved on to muscle cars.  And all was well, as America grew up.  And added doors.

Not to be outdone, GM brought out the Buick Riviera in response to the four seat T-Bird.  Pontiac added the Grand Prix, the sign of success in the sixties, and Olds blew our minds with the Toronado, with front wheel drive!  Driven by chain! Even Cadillac’s El Dorado got front wheel drive and we called them personal cars.  We were getting older, just not growing up yet.  But in 1968 Ford upset the pecking order by adding doors to the T-Bird.  Now available as a four door, and personal luxury had taken the place of the wind in our hair.  Couples went out with other couples, safe and secure, 4 to a car, and the T-Bird was ready.  In only 10 short years, we had gone from cool, to not so cool, to “wait, pull over I need to get out!”  And soon the sexy 2 seater of Ms. Somers had become the four door sedan of our grand parents. The nameplate would live on until 1997, and a foolish looking one reborn in 2002, that no one wanted, even though it was a two seater.  Maybe Ford knew us better than we know ourselves. 

Picture Paul Drake, Perry Mason’s private investigator in anything but a two seater.  Cool in his 1957 Corvette, then his 1960 T-Bird, his 1963 T-Bird, and finally a 1968 T-Bird.  Did his investigations tell him something we didn’t?  Or did we and do we still went 4 door?  Top down motoring still the way in 1960’s America, Perry Mason only lasted until 1966.  Would Paul have been forced into a different car?  Back to a Vette?  Maybe a Jaguar XKE?  But never ever a four door.  His leap from two to four seats must have an impression on him that lasted for years.  It had on me.

Another great reason to ride motorcycles, aside from being denied access to car pools.  But in the less is more category, give me a two seat sports car anytime.  I have owned two MG’s, and known the pleasure of every English engineered part fall off or break.  Looking at used Corvettes, if the insurance doesn’t break me, the repairs will.  So I stick to my bikes, English but with no parts falling off.  Maybe someone in London forgot to turn off the lights, but times changed, and now Brit products rank as work renowned for quality.  In my lifetime many things have changed, from cars to motorcycles, fashions, music, and careers.  But one thing, cool has stayed the same.  Maybe the mode changed, but cool has and always will be from the inside out.  Not based on fashion or wheels.  Dressing cool or having a cool car won’t make you cool.  Just not as nerdy.  But one thing, the ultimate cool hasn’t changed in 2000 years.  A cool so cool many have tried to copy it, but led others astray.  Jesus Christ is cool, and no one on earth or anywhere else has been or will be that cool.  His type of cool. 
The cool of never panicking like Steve McQueen in Bullitt.  The cool of Marlon Brando in The Wild One.  The cool of James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause.  A cool that makes them stand out, but with one thing Jesus had and they didn’t.  He was God incarnate.  The others may be worshipped, but only Jesus can save.  Only he can heal, only he is God.  He is the sports car cool on a summer day, top down, enjoying God’s creation.  He is the power under control, meekness, knowing when and where to show his power.  He is the cool that forgives, he is the cool that never abandons his club, or gives up when pressured like Bullitt was.  He understands when our parents don’t or we don’t understand our kids.  He stands up for us and by us when even our friends have abandoned us.  And even on a motorcycle or sports car, two seats are enough, for he is always with you.

Yet some buy into big cars, and vans, SUV’s and bring along baggage.  Things Jesus has forgiven and forgotten.  Just because you have the space, you don’t need to foolishly fill it.  Only in Jesus, in one person do you have it all.  Part of the Trinity, 3 in 1.  Check out your religion, you relationship with God.  If once it was as exciting as a bike ride, go back to the basics.  If at onetime a two seater held all you need, go back.  In Christ you find everything you need, and nothing you don’t.  Like a 1957 T-Bird.  Like a 1963 Sting Ray.  Like any motorcycle, Jesus knew long ago the special relationship of two.  And from two wheels to two doors, just the two of you is enough. 

If your walk is weakening, or not as rewarding, maybe you need to shed some weight.  A door or two.  A seat or two.  A wheel or two.  Make it personal again, just the two of you.  For Jesus and you makes a majority, and it doesn’t stop there.  Let nothing get between you and the Lord...ever try to have a one on one conversation in an SUV with kids?  That still small voice is still calling to you, Jesus wants to show you how much he loves you.  Can you hear him above the noise?  Maybe that is why you never see a motorcycle parked in front of a psychiatrist’s office...and Corvettes are still two seaters.  We still desire intimacy, and we can only find it in Christ.  You can’t be young again, but you can be young in Christ.  Some call it a second childhood, and get ridiculed for it.  Some of us never left childhood.  Fortunately Jesus never left us, and loves us as we are.  Do you look back on how it was, or ahead on how it’s going to be?  Alfred P. Sloan once advised “you can sell an old man a young man’s car, but not an old man’s car to a younger man.”  Is your religion old and stale?  Does it need refreshing?  Maybe that young child’s God you first met in Sunday school, he didn’t change.  Boy we did.

By the way, I have owned two Thunderbirds, a 1984 and a 1995.  Both four seaters, both not convertibles.  But never a four door in sight, but that’s another story...remember Paul Drake never drove a sedan, nor did Bullitt, Johnny, or Jim Stark.  Is it possible we’re on to something here?

love with compassion,

Mike

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