As I shot this video, I felt like I was documenting the destruction of this Bugeye. Salty water got in all the seams during my wet 30 mile drive an hour earlier, during a March snowstorm. While it was the first day of Spring, no antique British car should have been out in this weather, with freshly salted wet roads.
And yet this was one of my best seasons ever for Bugeye driving, and this old friend, “Gumby,” my first Bugeye purchased in 1979, is anything but ruined. Because the car is mid-restoration, I have chosen to use Gumby all winter long, even though we’ve had one of our worst winters ever. As a result, I got more Bugeye miles this winter than many people get in a summer.
The car has performed beautifully for 36 years, and today I was able to deliver our Bugeye barn find’s engine block to the machinist in this car, and enjoy a fun drive, and keep all the systems exercised. So was I destroying the car or honoring the car by taking it out in this weather?