Ideal Classic Cars Venice
FLORIDA. No, Ideal Classic Cars in Venice, Florida isn’t a show, museum or a private collection. It’s a dealership. Oh yeah, Cadillac 1959, Cuda 1971 or T-23 rod, everything is shiny and for sale.
A christmas present to yourself maybe? Old men with hairy calfes, leather cheeks and extremely modern ancle socks are voyeuring in airconditioned delightness and mirrored in chromes from yesteryears. It’s the middle of December. America is all about Jingle Bells, flashing lit houses and in the south, snow foam machines. The seniors over here weren’t interested in buying problems, welding schedrules, rear axle crawling or a header change. They want to open ready-to-roll presents.The time when walking around in broken down barns, stepping in rat feces and kicking around hay has passed. The logging around your dream object across wooden floors on three wheels is a thing in the past. They don’t even want to drive the car themselves from the dealership. They want it delivered to their address in their gated community behind steel fences and security guard where they can roll the jewel into a three-car garage and open bottled water from the pin-striped refrigerator.
They want to sit in the decorated man cave with new “vintage” plates, turn on the TV in the ceiling and look at the newcomer. They have double-worked an entire life, installed titanium hips and new eyes, bought pension
and healthcare until game over and signed a life insurance so that the wife can upkeep a good standard of living after they are gone.
New times are here and they rather sit in peace, slurping spring water and look at the love of their early years. Resting eyes on the car they could only dream of in childhood, in college, during enlisting but never could buy. If the temperature hits 82 degrees and it’s a cloud free Wednesday night they just might take it to the local car meet 5 miles away. Otherwise it just stands where it stands.
– Cheers in spring water.
Boring, yes if you are forty and energetic but also you will turn eighty and get sick and tired of weld burn marks on all your underwear. If not before then when you get to that point, Ideal Classic Cars is perfect.
– The place where you write a check and take home your life’s dream, all in same day.
By Lars Krantz
Translation Ellen Kay Krantz