By William Hall. Photos by author and Derek Klein.
I was afforded an interesting perspective today. For the first time in seven days, since we began this cross-country journey from the LeMay-America’s Car Museum in Tacoma to the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, I was driving something that wasn’t made before the Kennedy Administration.
A computer crash necessitated a quick trip to an electronics store to purchase a new laptop. I jumped in our modern support vehicle and I immediately felt as if I had sat on a giant marshmallow and sunk into it, its padded leather interior forming around me. Gone was the airy greenhouse of the ’61 Chrysler, replaced by high body lines and minimal glass. The purposeful Exner-era dash was now an incomprehensible array of LED lighting and buttons. Instead of a car that you could jump in and drive with a moment’s instruction, I was in a car that felt like I needed an owner’s manual and a degree in Information Technology to operate. Sensory overload. I cut two people off and was honked at once.