Chevrolet | In Retrospect

After a pretty chill period of working, gardening, keeping teens alive, and trying to get grass to grow it appears as if it’s time for a number of adventures. First, today I’ll mention the Old Town Festival of Speed & Style.

Is this style really? Or speed? Likely, yes, although where is in the eye of the beholder.

I was alerted to this festival by the astute individuals at Land Rover of Alexandria. Apparently it has gone on a few years from now. It’s excuse to visit Alexandria and take in some eye candy and make friends with classic and exotic car owners while searching for coffee or brunch. LROA wanted to invite me to visit the VIP tent they had set up as sponsors of this event down in Alexandria and offer me brunch on this beautiful late spring day. I caught onto their secret though – what they really want is for me to trade up. No thanks, I am happy.

Either way I was presented with an opportunity to visit the festival early before the crowds came as I was on my own with The Boss off to Atlanta for the weekend, but the condition was I needed to invite my two teenage children to join (I did) and they would need to wake up and join me (they did not) and then we would need to leave before midday to pick The Boss up at the airport. So being fortunate to arrive alone I parked a few blocks away. The first vehicle I saw was a beautiful BMW.

Not too exciting around here but it would be nice to own nonetheless.

This Mercedes was a nice little gem. I watched the owner close the door gently and made a remark at which point he shared a story of how he watched someone close hard on a vehicle of this vintage at a show and the glass shattered inside the door!

There were a number of late(ish) model Aston Martins around. I actually see these by my office fairly frequently as it is close to a number of AI company headquarters and the Aston dealer is in that general direction.

I was more interested in this 1972 Datsun 240Z. The owner is the second owner I believe. He bought it less than a decade ago from the original owner. The paint is all original and it has supposedly never been restored. There isn’t a single divot or speck in the paint so I am not certain this is true as it is not exactly a really low mileage vehicle.

A TVR Griffin. The British cars, in my opinion, were the star of the show in Alexandria even though there were a large number of Corvettes (a split window Stingray for instance) and a number of Ferraris. And there were a number of Mercedes as well but not too many that were exceedingly rare. The oldest cars were from the early 1950s.

Here is a 1972 De Tomaso Pantera imported sometime after the late 1990s I suspect or the American bumpers were removed.

See the bumpers on another model?

Mid-engine fun and incredibly clean.

By comparison another yellow sports car – a Ferrari Daytona similar to the first Miami Vice car – remember there were two and one was destroyed in a firey wreck and then replaced with a Testarossa.

Some drivers had a theme as was the case with this Corvette.

Others were there with their owners because they enjoyed owning and driving them. The guy who owns this is probably a decade older than me if not more. He has owned it for a few years and shared with me that this is the car he drives the most even though he has several at home including a much later and more modern Porsche.

There was a fairly decent variety of cars at the show such as this Chevelle. My father owned a similar model back in the 1970s – not a convertible – which my mother insisted he trade in because the clutch interlock in a larger vehicle designed for taller men meant that it occasionally would not start for her. This was in an area of the show where there was more country music playing than otherwise.

Loved this Dodge. The gentleman standing next to it actually owns an orange Plymouth Roadrunner (complete with roadrunner stencil and fake Bugs Bunny Roadrunner standing next to it).

Doing my best to make an E Type hood look longer than it is. Sadly the bonnet wasn’t open.

A Mini Cooper S with a cricket bat holding open the bonnet. Built for American drivers.

So I did need to wonder why the Goodwood Revival decals are there.

I’ll share this beauty and then call it a day. A Ferrari 250GT Pininfarina Coupe.

Just imagining a sunny drive on a beautiful day like today.

I learned to drive on my dad’s old Chevy truck—a hulking relic of steel and grit. It had a three-on-the-tree transmission, no power steering, and no power brakes. Every turn felt like arm-wrestling a giant, every stop a test of leg strength. But once you mastered its stubborn charm, it was magic. Perfect for long, lazy drives down winding country roads, where the horizon stretched wide and the world slowed down. Even in town, once you knew its rhythm, it danced through traffic with surprising grace.

Fast forward to today, and I’m behind the wheel of a Range Rover Sport. Funny thing—it’s about the same size as that old Chevy, and sometimes it feels just as commanding. I sit high above the fray, surveying traffic like a hawk. Parking still gives me that familiar “am I going to scrape the wall?” moment, though I never do. The turning circle? Huge. Sharp corners mean spinning the wheel twice, just like old times. But that’s where nostalgia ends. This Rover is a rocket. The supercharged V8 growls like an old Buick, but without the sway in corners. It glides over pavement like silk, stops on a dime, and those red brake calipers? They whisper speed even when standing still.

Then there’s my other ride: a ten-year-old Mini Cooper, base model, wearing its city scars—dents and scrapes like badges of honor. Driving it is pure play, like hopping into a go-kart. Quick, nimble, and perfect for darting through tight streets. My kids adore it. Most adults? Not so much—unless they’re car enthusiasts. And honestly, in DC traffic, it feels a little too fragile. Still, for errands and coffee runs, nothing beats its cheeky charm.

The past few months have meant countless miles—commuting for my kid’s treatment. In those long drives, I’ve found comfort in the Rover’s quiet strength and joy in the Mini’s spirited zip. But now, life is shifting. The urgency is gone, and for the first time in a while, I can leave both cars resting in the garage. Sometimes, the sweetest drive is the one you don’t have to take.

NOTES on writing this Post – I experimented using Microsoft Copilot to write this. Usually I take about twenty minutes to write these posts. As I have upcoming travel coming I want to practice jotting down and summarizing thoughts quickly and then simply adding photos. To write this, I instructed Copilot to write me a blog entry, provided three subject areas and summarized six or eight bullet points I wanted to cover for each. It’s the same method I may have used to write it myself but saved half the time and, let’s face it, Copilot’s writing is a little zippier. Honestly, I may have written more and droned on with pointlessness, but as it came out it was fine.

The Old Town Festival of Speed & Style

From Country Roads to City Streets: A Tale of Three Drives