You Might Be a Baby Boomer Car Guy If..
By Rick Cotta

You Might Be a Baby Boomer Car Guy If . . .

You have at least one air-cooled Volkswagen in your past, and it had a name.
You owned a muscle car. Of the original type.
You owned a full-size van, and you weren’t a tradesman.
You’ve driven a three-on-the-tree.
Somewhere, in a dusty toolbox, you have a set of feeler gauges.
You know what “dwell” is.
You remember when tire designations started with a letter.
You put radial tires on a car that originally came with bias plys.
You can tell a Quadrajet from a Carter four-barrel just by looking down the throat.
You have disabled the smog equipment on at least one car (I won’t tell the feds).
You drove a car that had the shoulder belt folded up and clipped over the front window—where it remained the entire time you owned it.
You know—possibly by finding out the hard way (as I did)—that the left-side lug nuts on some Chryslers were left-hand thread.
You remember Fords that had the ignition switch on the left.
You owned at least one car that had the gas cap behind the rear license plate.
You remember “Ethel.”
You know of “redlines” that have nothing to do with tachometers.
You know of a “slap stick” that has nothing to do with comedy.
You know of a “cherry bomb” that wasn’t intended to explode.
You had “a set of Hookers” that wouldn’t get you in trouble with the law. Or your wife.
You have owned several cars that were not equipped with air conditioning.
You have driven a car with a manual choke.
You have driven a car with an automatic choke that you wish had a manual choke—or that you converted to one.
You remember when power brakes felt “touchy.”
You know what a “pump jockey” is. Bonus points if you were one.