Flashy

Whenever I see a muscle car, sports car, classic car or similar, I try to call out what it is. I think this comes from growing up with my Dad and my brother being really into cars. My Dad drives a Citroen (2CV Dolly) and my brother drives a Mustang. (Well, he mostly drives an older Mazda to save on gas, but he owns a Mustang).

A lot of the time, I can identify the easier cars - like a Jaguar XKE (like the one in "Harold and Maude"),

the sweet vintage Camaro (like the one in "Better off Dead", possibly the best movie every made), and newer cars like the Mercedes Kompressor (just try saying "Kompressor" without adding, "Don't turn around, oh, oh, oh, Der Kompressor's in town, oh, oh, oh). But I have trouble with some muscles cars (is it a Chevelle, a Nova or a GTO? I don't know until I can read the side of the vehicle) and I mix up a lot of early 60s cars like Falcons, Ramblers and Darts.

My ultimate goal would be able to call the make, model, year and a few key details about each cool car that I see. For example, if I saw a 60s Mustang, I'd like to know the exact year and I'd like to be able to throw in a few bits of info about the Shelby Cobra and who this Shelby chap was and why a car got named after him.

So, I thought: flash cards! No, not flash drives, old school flash cards. I want different sets of flash cards with a picture of a car on one side and all the specs on the other. There could be a deck of cards for each genre, like muscle cars, more obscure European cars like Trabis and Citroens, and classic German cars, like a 1955 Porsche Speedster, and flashy sports cars in general, like an Aston Martin. That way, I could practice and not make an ass of myself and call a Chevy Impala a Galaxie 500 or something equally embarrassing.

But I can't find any such flash cards! And neither can Aaron. I may have to make my own. Then I can start dropping knowledge the next time a shiny muscle car rumbles past. Rollin' in my 6-4, indeed.