My Favorite Ride: Man's affection split between Pontiac Trans Am and Porsche Boxster
Soon after a recent mention of My Favorite Ride's "Year of the Miata" (it was 2017 in case you missed it) I heard from Tom Dillon.
The subject line of his email said "Not Miatas by a long shot." Attached was a photo of his two convertibles (did you know all Mazda Miatas are convertibles?)
My Favorite Ride: 'Laura, all Miatas are convertibles' and are popular in Bloomington
His were, indeed, not Miatas.
Dillon has a sleek black 2002 Pontiac Trans Am. That was the last year General Motors produced the car, which he bought brand-new for himself as an early retirement gift.
When his daughter Sharon first saw the Trans Am, she fell in love. "When you die, the car is mine," she said.
More than two decades later, she's still got her eye on the fast Pontiac. On a recent visit from Cincinnati, she took it for a spin around town.
"I've thought about giving it to her before then," the 78-year-old Bloomington man said. "Just so I can see the look on her face."
It's not like Dillon doesn't have anything else to drive. He owns a 22-year-old Cadillac Escalade EXT for the winter.
And then there's the 2009 Macadamia Brown Porsche Boxster he bought a month ago after seeing it for sale in the Auto Trader. The car was in Noblesville, so he and his wife Judy drove up to take a look.
"She's not a car person," Dillon said. But when she saw the root beer-colored Porsche, her interest grew. "That's a really pretty car."
It is. A few years ago, I wrote a column about brown cars, given that most cars and trucks are not brown. People either love them, or they don't. But a Macadamia Brown Porsche cannot be compared to, say, a 1970s brown Ford Pinto hatchback.
The Dillons decided to buy the Boxster after Tom and the owner haggled a bit over the price. It replaces a 1949 Ford convertible, yellow with a green interior, Tom Dillon bought a few years ago and recently sold.
The cars, manufactured 60 years apart, don't have much in common: an engine, drivetrain, four wheels − and a convertible top.
I told Tom Dillon straight out I preferred the Porsche over the Trans Am. He wouldn't say which was his favorite.
The tops were down on both cars; it was likely the last warm day of late autumn. Dillon handed me the keys to the Boxster. I drove it around the neighborhood, noting two things: it handles nothing like my 20-year-old Honda Accord and I clearly was meant to drive a European-made automobile.
Then I took the Trans Am for a spin and apologized on my return for not initially appreciating the purr and power of the car's fuel-injected V-8 engine.
He'll be securing the tops and parking the cars in the garage soon. I was glad to spend some time with Dillon and his beloved cars on a sunshiny afernoon.
"This one, she's like an old girlfriend," he said, a hand on the Pontiac. "And that one," gesturing toward the Porsche, "like a new flame."
Have a story to tell about a car or truck? Contact My Favorite Ride reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: A love for convertibles: Man's affection split between Pontiac and Porsche
