Meet, See, Do – the Secret of Long Life

I was at Pebble Beach last week – and Monterey, and Carmel, and Seaside and Pacific Grove. All beautiful sideshows to the central event of Monterey Car Week, the incomparable Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. I did a few new things while I was there this time, and it reminded me once again about the importance of the meet, see, do process of exploring new things.

I met several very accomplished and successful people, beginning with Ed Hamburger, owner of Specialty Vehicle Engineering. I found Ed bent over, cleaning his display 2021 Yenko SC Camaro at the Concours Village. The Village is crowded with other cars and manufacturer displays and Ed and his car were right in the middle of it. I got there before the place opened just so I could talk a bit to, well, anyone who was willing. Ed was easy, willing and had a story to tell. He looked fit, energetic and waiting to conquer the world. He told me about his company, that they were GM’s specialty vehicle designer and manufacturer, much like Carroll Shelby and Steve Saleen have done for Ford. Ed claimed they had built over 65,000 specialty vehicles for GM. I looked it up afterward. He was right. He talked about the Yenko Camaro, of course, but that turned out not being central to our conversation.

We hit on our real topic when he told me he was 81. Still running the company he founded, still coming up with new ideas, still playing tennis and exercising daily. He looked like he was a fit 65. And he still had that look in his eyes, that energy, that drive. I asked him if he thought there was a secret to that. He said what almost everyone his age with that fitness and drive says, “Well, I have good genes. And I go out and do things. Retirement is for people who want to go quietly off to the grave.” I thought of Dylan Thomas’s poem, “Do not go gentle into that good night.”

In case you’re wondering, Ed started his first company in 1970 by leveraging his drag racing notoriety as an NHRA Hall of Famer. He started with Chrysler-based performance enhancements and expanded from there. In 1987, he formed what became SVE and marketed his performance packages through GM’s Performance Parts Division. From 1992 – 1999 SVE sold over 55,000 specialty performance vehicles through the GM dealership network. His company invented new centrifugal superchargers that resulted in teaming efforts with Chevy, Pontiac, Jeep, Dodge and West Coast Customs.

He finished by telling me he’s got a patent on a special golf club he’s finalizing USGA approval of before he goes into production. Not secretive or bashful, he described the concept and showed me pictures. Then he led me next door to the behemoth re-made Dodge surplus WWII Army transport with the 717 HP Hellcat engine in it. It was someone else’s customizing business dream made real, and Ed was telling me all about it. He’s a man of action still cleaning his own car for his company’s display booth. No time for pretense or any such nonsense – get it done. That’s Ed.

Desert Power Wagons make a statement. These are the Dodge Power Wagons to end all Power Wagons. This particular one is a 1942 Dodge WC53 Hellcat-engined 4-door beast. And the people behind it don’t compromise. I spoke with one of their main guys and he said the sheet metal and the frame were all new and all done in-house. They used the WC53 wagons as the baseline, stretched it to four doors, made everything modern and filled it with top-notch conveniences. The sheet metal was all english wheel-style fabricated, not even wooden tool bucks, just completely by hand. This one goes for somewhere between $380,000 to $450,000. For what it is, even that seems inexpensive. They’re gearing up a new manufacturing facility in Texas to sell 1,000 – 2,000 a year of these through the Dodge dealer network. It’ll be based on a Chrysler chassis with stamped sheet metal and retail for around $200k. That’s dreamin’ big, baby.

Then I found the PXG golf club booth behind them and talked a little to their main marketing person. She works with Bob Parsons himself on the commercials and his voiceovers. She says he’s another ageless, energized go-getter who just makes things happen. She showed me the new stuff they’re doing and talked a bit about Parson’s marketing methodology, which really seems based upon his sense of the marketplace as much as anything. Yet another energized, senior-aged entrepreneur taking names and kickin’ butt.

Just showing up in these places allows me to learn about other people’s grand ideas and see new things to experience. It’s refreshing to see the stuff people come up with. My new experience was taking laps in the mechanic’s seat of a fabulous 1912 Packard Model 30 race car, the oldest racing Packard known to exist. Pate, my driver and a veteran vintage racer of 18 years, can be seen below discussing a water leak with his real mechanic. Riding along in the mechanic’s seat while turning laps at Laguna Seca I only had two real jobs – operate the manual fuel pump (yes, I had to keep pumping fuel to the engine of the side of my seat), and stay in the car. Since there are no sides, a flat floor board and no place to brace your feet, that can be a challenge. It behooves you to use the brass foot bracket located along the outside of the car; you put your foot on it and push hard to keep your balance.

It was a total blast to run laps (and the famous corkscrew) in this beast. No speedometer, but I’m guessing we topped out about 70 – 80 mph. It was amazing to watch and feel Pate and this car battle each other through corners, gear shifts and braking. Between that and giving way to faster modern cars, he was the busiest race driver I have ever seen. Awesome experience!

After our laps were over, Pate told me his only accident in vintage racing occurred as he was in the passenger seat. The last corner at Laguna Seca onto the main straightaway is a tight, tricky turn. His driver miscalculated and rolled a car like this one! With no seat belts or any modern safety features, Pate ended up in the hospital for three months with a broken back, broken pelvis and collapsed lung. The driver was in the hospital for seven months. They were lucky to be alive. After our ride I could easily see how that could happen. Then again, there is no way to stay completely safe; bizarre, random stuff can also kill you.

I think those words of meeting, seeing and doing are very important to keeping you excited, alive and moving. Every time I do something new I never know quite what will happen. But almost every time it’s a lot of fun and I believe it’s a key to living a long life well.