Papa John Reunited With His Camaro

This is an awesome story.

In 1983, John Schnatter, the man who would found Papa John’s Pizza, sold his 1971 Camaro for $2,800 in order to help keep his father’s tavern afloat. Twenty-six years ago, the dude has been reunited with the car he loved. He paid $250,000 to get it back after using a blog to help track the vehicle down.

Any of you out there have something you lost long ago that you would pay anything to have back? A car? A comic book? A toy? Let us know.

How To Drive a Model T

My grandfather (my mother’s father) was an antique car enthusiast, and though the cars he had in his garage when I was younger were far newer than the Model T, watching this video reminded me of him, and put a smile on my face. In it, Ed Hebb, a volunteer at the Henry Ford Estate, shows us how to prepare a Model T for a drive, then takes it for a spin.

What I love, in particular, is the moment where Ed describes what the third pedal in the Model T does. In that moment, as he describes how quickly a person could go from forward to reverse, thanks to this pedal, he talks about how no modern car could do the same. And it was in that moment that I was reminded fiercely of a memory I have of my grandfather. It’s from the August afternoon that my mother and I drove to see him in her then brand-new 1994 Dodge Intrepid. Grandpa looked under the hood and was flabbergasted by what he saw, by how complicated modern car manufacturers had made things. And I imagine that’s the kind of reaction that Ed here might have, too. It’s a reaction that I played up in the book that I’m raising money to finish right now.

Do you have any antique car memories of your own? Ever ride in a rumble seat? 

Stalking the Ford Fiesta in New Hampshire

As you may or may not know, the Ford Motor Company has had itself a brilliant idea:

The Ford Fiesta has come to play on the American roads.  In the ultimate foreign exchange program, our 100 agents will spend 6 months behind the wheel of their own Fiesta, lifestreaming their experiences, and completing monthly missions to show you what the Fiesta is all about.

One of the agents is occasional Geek Force Five contributor and media maker extraordinaire John Herman, and wait until you hear the story of his first three days behind the wheel. All I’ll say is that it involves people in his town going to kinda crazy lengths to experience the Fiesta Movement for themselves. Click the link for the whole yarn.

Geek Force Utterz #065 - Commute as Adventure

How many things have to go wrong during a morning commute before a curmudgeon with anger issues loses his cool and lets loose all of the hot air in his system? Find out by listening to today’s episode of Geek Force Utterz. You can do so by listening to the embed above, or by visiting Utterli.com.