A UD Student from Kuwait writes his "Auto-Biography:": "Kitt" and others!

Maitham Asadallah

Dr. Heitmann

HST 344

June. 28, 2011

My “Auto” Biography

From my childhood back in the early 1980’s I used to buy and collect car toys, during my play

with them, I loved how I used my imagination to create different scenarios like chasing other car

or let my car to jump over another one. My relationship with cars started when I saw my Father

and my mother driving their cars while I used to set in the back seat, thinking how they can

control this amazing transportation machine, looking at the road sidewalk bricks asking myself

how fast it is running, how can the key turn on this fabulous machine. At that time car to me was

the enjoyment, fun, independence and spectacular machine. In fact at that time I preferred to get

into my father’s car for a ride as it was a light blue 500 SEL Mercedes Benz, I loved the way my

father used to drive it with high speed, I liked the smell of its internal leather, I liked its emblem

which is mounted in the front of the engine hood, I liked the sound of the engine whenever he

used to speed up. I used to get really sad whenever the engine temp shoots up, and my Father had

to pull aside and turn off the engine and wait till it cools down, later on I understood that at that

time the Mercedes Benz cars are not designed to be used in a very hot climate like back home in

Kuwait when the temperature in summer used to reach 120 F, to fix this problem they used to

modify the engine cooler size or install one more cooling fan. There are many factors made me

very engaged with cars.

One of the main reasons which made me very attracted to sport cars is a TV series called Knight

Rider, and I do remember the actor who played as Michael Knight who used to drive the black

Pontiac trans am, from this series I realized how can a car would make me a powerful man who

Chases bad guys. The idea of making the car as a talking machine, making it as a car with soul

was something fabulous, and it was named as Kate, I used to wait for every episode to enjoy the

show. What made me to like this car is the options, abilities and the output of it.

The climate back home in Kuwait is very hot and dusty which makes cars get dirty so fast, but

this was an advantage to me Because I used to ask my parents if they would allow me to wash

their cars during their nap time after the lunch, and they have never refused to do so, till one day

my father realized that after when I am done from cleaning the cars, I used to set behind the

wheel, start the engine and I take a drive in our neighborhood, it was one of the most happiest

moments in my life. Defiantly after that my father decided not to hand over the key to me and I

had to wash and clean cars only from outside, however, I was still enjoying washing them.

On 1990 during the Iraqi invasion to Kuwait, we had a problem with disposing the house trashes,

Even our neighborhood families faced the same problem, because at that time all government

ministries inside Kuwait seized working, so nobody was there to take care of trashes business.

It came to our notice that other neighborhoods started collecting trashes in a remote

Non residential area and they have started firing it up to get rid of the smell and flying insects,

At That time I was 13 years old, so my father decided to give me this task to collect all our

neighborhood trashes and do the rest, at that time my father finally gave me the permission to

drive a 1990 Daihatsu Rocky jeep to perform the job, but there was a problem , it is a manual

transition car, it was my first time to drive a MT car, the interesting part is my older brother gave

me only a 15 minutes training on how to drive a MT car, then I started my job, I was really

happy because it was the first time to serve my country during very tough time, helping my

neighborhood and the most important thing enjoying the MT car driving because I used to let the

engine pressure gauge marker to reach the red zone before I transfer to the next gear level. trying

to get the Formula 1 cars sound ! but it never happened. I know maybe it sounds stupid but it was

a FUN.

On 1995 I graduated from high school in Kuwait, it a was a time to get a driving license, once I

got it my brother gave me his 1994 Jeep Cherokee and my father got him a V12 convertible

Jaguar, It was my brother idea “what a smart move !” I hated him at that time, however, I

enjoyed driving the jeep, it was a limited one with full options or a loaded one, I enjoyed driving

it on road and on the desert. when I got my job as field operator in a petrochemical company, I

made my choice and I got a new silver 1996 Yukon, it was an amazing car. Very smooth on road

and on desert. I got very engaged with Yukon because it was really reliable, therefore, on 2002 I

have traded in the 1996 one and got a new 2002 black Yukon, the design has changed

completely however, still I liked the style and it was designed to be more smooth on road.

When I got the scholarship to get a chemical engineering degree in the US, my wife got pregnant

with twins and we had already two boys, so the most convenient car for us is a minivan, so we

decided to go for and 2006 Uplander, it is really comfortable vehicle and very smooth, we have

travelled to Niagara falls, NY , Pittsburg and Chicago, I do prefer road trips in the united states

because of the nice weather and the well contracted roads. now my 4 boys are enjoying

watching TV in the back, the TV makes them very quiet otherwise they will not stop fighting and

I will get crazy.

"Auto-Biography:" Owen Elger -- Hot Wheels and a 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona

Owen Elger

Professor Heitmann

History 344

29 June 2011

Autobiography

Ever since the dawn of my existence, I have been a tinkerer, an aristocrat of all things that needed built or fixed. I grew up the son of a handyman, and the grandson of a handyman, and so on and so forth. As a child I could often times be found out in the garage at my father’s workbench playing with tools and exploring things that looked fascinating to me. This sometimes turned out to be a negative thing whenever I would take something apart and forget how to put it back together, and have to embarrassingly show it to my dad and ask him to put it back correctly. I differed greatly in this sense, and still do to this day, from my two brothers, who are not very mechanically inclined at all. The weekends in my house were spent doing home repairs and improvements, and I was always by my dad’s side ready and willing to help. I fully attribute my interest in pursuing an engineering career to my passion for all things that require fixing or assembly. As I type this paper, I have a propane grill which is only partially assembled in my parent’s living room that I am giving to my eldest brother as a wedding gift. The day I bought it I began putting it together, only to realize that once fully put together, it would never fit in the car to take to my brother’s house. So there it sits on the floor, mocking me every time I pass it because it knows I can’t wait till I get the chance to assemble it completely.

Elger 2

About the time I was in the third grade, my parents bought me a model car for Christmas because they knew I had a passion to put things together, and see how they worked. I never knew this incident was going to precede a strong passion not only for cars in general, but for the 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona. That’s right, my first model car turned out to drive a strong passion for this old car. I have purchased over a dozen model cars of all makes and models in my lifetime, but my favorite is still that Dodge Charger. Unfortunately, that’s where the dream meets reality. And the reality is that this particular car is very rare, and very expensive, not to mention I’ve only ever seen pictures of the thing. I don’t know what it is about the car, if it’s the color, the huge spoiler on the back, or the fact that it is just an American muscle car with a lot of horsepower, but all I know is that I can’t die happy until I own one.

Unfortunately neither of my parents knew much about the inner workings of cars, and they were always too expensive for me to take apart and risk messing something up, so my knowledge about cars is minimal. That was always one thing I wanted to learn more about, but never had the time due to school and sports. I’m usually the guy nodding his head when someone is talking about gear ratios and complicated things like that. To this day that same model car sits on my desk and I take it with me to school in the fall as well.

For now my focus isn’t on owning one of these magnificent cars, but to just get through college and make some money that may one day contribute to the purchase of this vehicle. That dream may have to wait another 40 or so years until I am ready to retire. Every fast and furious movie, or any racing movie in that case, has featured at least one muscle car, which has only heightened my love and appreciation for them. Seeing the car shake as the enormous engine

Elger 3

rumbles, almost makes me want to own one even more. I definitely think that American muscle cars are growing even scarcer as the years go on, as new cars roll onto the market. No doubt there are people who not only share my passion for this vehicle(s), but go to greater levels to ensure their ownership of a car that gets increasingly rare as the years march on. A car like this in pristine condition will run easily over $175k. So unfortunately for me, unless I hit the lottery, it looks like I might not be getting my dream car after all. Maybe I’ll get the chance to at least drive one later in life.

As for now, I’ll just have to stick to my model of that orange beauty, and wonder what might be. It’s amazing that one little children’s model of an old muscle car could spark such a huge interest and passion inside of me for this automobile. I am stricken with envy of every person that has the privilege to own such a machine. As a quick side note, I’m greatly looking forward to this class and learning about how cars and technology changed history. It’s not every day that one of our professors has such a deep passion for cars and has as many fun and interesting stories as you have so far in just three days. I am definitely looking forward to learning a lot from this class and I hope to take away a wealth of knowledge.

One of the best "Auto-Biographies" ever -- Alexis Diglio and her Florida Roadtrip Gone Bad -- and Lessons Learned!

Alexis Diglio
Professor Heitmann
June 30, 2011
“Auto” Biography

Family Vacation

Every year, on Christmas night, my entire family packs up and leaves for a vacation to Orlando. All the cousins squeeze into two cars, and we drive through the night. The ride gets pretty uncomfortable because eleven people go, plus our entire luggage. The third year we went was a road trip that I would never forget. After what felt like two days of riding, we were about an hour out of Florida. I had finally managed to fall asleep in the very back seat at about six in the morning. An hour later, I was jolted awake and heard nothing but screaming. Apparently, we had gone through construction and blew a tire, and my grandma could not gain control of the Expedition. The last thing I remember was my older cousin in the middle seat reaching forward trying to help my grandma. When I woke up, I was lying outside the car and could hear everyone screaming each other’s names. I looked to my left and realized my arms and legs were both stuck under the car, and the entire Expedition was lying on its side.
While I was lying there trying to make sense of the situation, my cousin was working on getting my grandma, grandpa, and two other cousins out of the car. The car in front of us had my parents, siblings, and aunt and uncle. When they realized we weren’t behind them anymore, four teenagers weren’t answering their cell phones, and they heard all kinds of sirens, they immediately turned around and in the process, my dad caused a fender bender behind them. After everyone was out of the car, my cousin came and laid beside me. I remember looking at her and asking if I was going to have an arm after this. She felt up under the car and assured me my arm was still there. While she was lying there holding my hand, I remember saying something about how painful it was, and we both nervously laughed as if I wasn’t stating the obvious. Once the ambulance and fire trucks arrived, I remember seeing my grandma sobbing and my dad pacing back and forth while they were both being held back. A number of other people who had saw the accident were just standing around staring, not really knowing what to do. The rescue workers started putting things under the car to make sure it wouldn’t roll back over, and the fireman pointed a hose towards me because it smelled like gasoline, and the car could potentially catch on fire with me under it. I asked one of the rescue workers if I was going to be okay, and he told me they were going to get me out of there. I heard my dad call out that everything was going to be fine, and he loved me. After they finally got a device to lift the car, I felt a small amount of pressure come off of my arm, which at this point, was one of the best feelings. After about fifteen minutes, they got the car lifted up enough to remove my arm, and they put a stretcher under me, and when I rolled back over, I felt bones crack in my back.
My grandpa and I were both rushed to the hospital. The area that had taken the main part of the roll of the car was above my grandpa, and it had scraped off the top part of his scalp. He was treated and released, but the family could tell it had taken a toll on his body. I was the only one who wasn’t wearing a seat belt, so everyone else had walked away from the wreck with only a couple bruises. When I was in the emergency room, my cousin, who had taken care of me, came in to see me, and she was covered in blood. She told me later that I was disgusted by all the blood and wondered where it came from and was surprised to find out it was all mine! After getting countless x-rays and MRI’s, we found out I needed staples in my head, I had fractures in my back, and my pelvis had broken in the front and back. I didn't break any of the bones in my arm, but my arm was swollen so much that it didn't even look like an arm. However, I was very lucky.
Soon after being admitted into the hospital, there were countless tornado warnings, and we had to spend the night out in the hallway with all of the other patients. It seemed like nothing could go right. My little brother had to spend his 9th birthday in a hotel and a hospital instead of at Disney World. During one of the days, the rescue worker that took care of me in the ambulance came into the hospital to see how I was doing. He told my family that when they first arrived on the scene, they were expecting people to not have survived. I ended up spending a miserable, long week in a hospital in Tifton, Georgia. Three people were required to get me out of bed, and once out of bed, the only thing I could do was sit in a wheelchair.
After seven days, it was finally time to travel back to Ohio, which I was scared to death to do. After a number of nurses helped me into the car, they tried sedating me with all different kinds of medication to help ease the anxiety. However, I was so nervous, I was wide awake the entire time, and I’m sure my dad got annoyed with my back seat driving. We finally made it home. I ended up being in a wheelchair for two months, and unable to gain full movement back in my arm until about six months later. Today, I only have a scar on the back of my head, some scars on my left arm, and some scars on my back, which is a miracle.
This was the second time I had gotten in a wreck on the highway. When I was sixteen, I totaled my car and hadn’t driven on the highway since then. This accident made it impossible for me to even ride on the highway. I go an hour out of my way when traveling home from school just to avoid the highway, and when riding with others, I’m constantly telling them to slow down or brake. We took a year off from traveling to Florida, but the next year we set out on another adventure. We made it there safely, but it was a stressful drive for me. Despite all of the negatives that came out of the situation, I took away a number of good lessons from this accident. It brought my family a lot closer together, and I appreciate everything they do for me after seeing how well they took care of me for two months when I could do nothing. Most importantly, I learned never to take off my seat belt, no matter what.

The "Red Rocket:" Keith Nerderman's 1997 Pontiac Grand Prix

Hi folks -- one in what is now a string of HST 344 student "auto-biographies." Thank you Keith, for your story from the Heartland!

Keith Nerderman
History
Professor Heitmann
June 29, 2011
Autobiography-“The Red Rocket”
A first car is something that people will carry with them their entire life. Your first car gives you independence and freedom to go where you want when you want. Driving came at a young age for me because I came from a small town and worked on my friend’s family farm at the age of 12. I got to drive farming equipment and trucks on the roads and in the fields which was very exciting for me. It was the end of summer when I finished my driver’s ed classes and then had to wait until December to get my license. It felt as if the time to get my license would never come, but on that cold December morning my Dad and I woke early in the morning and we drove to Sidney, Oh to take my license test. I was the first person scheduled that morning to complete the driving test. I passed the test with flying colors not missing a single point. I finally had my freedom and Independence in the palm of my hand. I couldn’t wait to get home because what was waiting for me in the driveway was the car that I would be driving for the first time that I could call my own.
The car that was waiting for me was a 1997 cherry red grand prix that I gave the name “the red rocket”. It was first bought when my sister received her license, so when she graduated it was passed down to me. I couldn’t be happier because this car had good performance and had a sporty car look to it. When we got home I immediately called up a couple of my closest friends and picked them up and we took off speeding onto the back country roads. We drove around listening to our favorite tunes at the time and felt like we were on top of the world and no one could touch us. With it being December and there being snow on the ground you can probably guess what we did next. We found a nice parking lot on the outside of town and began doing donut after donut. We were having the time of our lives until an unexpecting visitor decided to stop by. The town cop pulled up next to us and began telling us how reckless doing donuts were and proceeds to ask me for my license and registration. As I handed him my license that I had received less than 24 hours ago he glanced at my name and asked me if I was the son of Peach Nerderman, which peach is a nickname my dad received back in High School. I said yes sir I am and then he told me something that I couldn’t believe was coming out of his mouth. He said, “Mr. Nerderman you have a good night and do not let me catch you out here doing donuts again.” My friends and I were so relieved that we were not in any trouble and we left the parking lot and then I dropped them off at their homes and went home and ended up going to bed because it was getting late. The next morning I woke to my Dad yelling for me to get downstairs because he needed to talk to me. Well it turns out that my dad has coffee every morning with the cop that pulled me over and he told my Dad about the fun me and my friends were having in the parking lot the night before. I guess the cop knew my dad well enough that he knew I would get punished in some way and that is why I think he let me go. In the end my Dad grounded me from driving for two weeks, which I thought was pretty harsh.
This experience marked the beginning of a long relationship that I had with my grand prix that I called the red rocket. I am glad to say that I still have the grand prix and it has not let me down in the entire time that I have been driving it. It has a few more miles on it now, but it still gets me from point A to point B. The experiences that I have had with this car will never be forgotten. I do not know what I will do when I have to get rid of it because I have been attached to it since the age of sixteen, but when the time comes for us to part our ways I only hope that my next car can live up to the red rocket.

UD Student "Auto-Biography" -- Pablo Janer and his Infiniti G35

An Infinit G35, taken from the Web, probably not that different from Pablo's!

Pablo Janer
HST 344
Heitmann
June 30, 2011
Autobiography:
The light goes green and my foot plunges down on the pedal. The engine roars and the back of my head hits the headrest as my Infiniti G35 approaches one hundred miles an hour. Everything in the world seems to disappear except for power behind my wheels on the hot asphalt. The speedometer keeps climbing to 120, then 130. My heart is racing so fast I feel it may explode but my foot won’t come off the petal. My body begins to tremble and I start sweating, but my hands stay firm on the wheel. Before I realize it, I am flying down the road at one hundred and fifty six miles an hour. I let off the gas and I begin my slow decent back to double digit speeds. By the time I reach the next stoplight I have the biggest grin on my face as the low fuel level light pops on and a huge sense of accomplishment. This was one of the many experiences that I have had with my Alee, pronounced with a Spanish accent. Since this beauty came into my life, we have been inseparable. I remember the first weekend she sat in my garage. I was going at it all day and night waxing, polishing, cleaning, and detailing. This was the beginning of a long bond.
I remember taking her to the shop where I began the process of customizing my G to be unique and a spitting image of who I am. Since she was already a custom dark purple, she was already one of a kind, but I needed more. I began with the intake, replacing the stock with an Injen cold air intake. Following through the engine I got racing headers and a full Magnaflow exhaust with extended tips. And to finish it all off I replaced the stock suspension springs with coilovers so I could adjust the height of my ride to be just perfect. All this combined with the body, seemingly crafted by gods, with its perfect curves and sleek rear spoiler made Alee what she is today. What most do not know is that I even got a little teary eyed when I first heard my car after I put the new exhaust on it. Some people seemed to find my relationship with my car an obsession, but I firmly disagreed. I was just in love.
I found myself quickly jumping at every opportunity to drive her that I could find. If my mother said she had to go pick something up from the grocery store, I would ask to go instead to buy the groceries. I would pick up my brothers from school, and pretty much anything that involved driving. No longer was driving about getting from point A to point B, but the experience that I could get on the way there.
This past year was the first time I had brought my car to Dayton all the way from Houston. It was an amazing twenty-one hour drive. I drove from Houston to New Orleans, then from there to Memphis and the last stretch to Dayton. I loved having my car in Dayton. My grades even improved, because I had my outlet for stress! Although one night, around four in the morning, I received a call from public safety to tell me that my car had been hit in its parking spot. My heart sank and the next morning I went to see the damage that Alee had incurred. It was terrible. The rear left side of my car had a huge crevasse where the perfect body that she used to have. I was mortified and when I took the car to the body shop, the damages incurred were exceeding three thousand dollars! But this was not the end of my exciting experiences with my car.
Once my junior year ended, it was time to start my journey down to Daytona, Florida. This trip though, was started at night as to make it to Daytona at the brink of day. I think this may have been one of my most enjoyed long distance trips I had ever taken. Much like my trip to Dayton, it was a long interstate road with mountains and forests all around. The only thing that was different this time was that I got to experience the road as the sun began to rise. It was a wonderful sight and something that I will never forget, listening to great music, windows down flying down the road to Daytona.
I have always been passionate about cars. It has been an interest and a hobby of mine since I was a child. I have driven high end cars and low end vehicles, from a supercharged V-8 Jaguar XFR and a BMW 650i to dune buggies, and they all fascinate me. Driving has also always been my outlet for stress, my place to ponder and think about life, and even the place I had my first kiss. I love to take drives with no destination, but just to enjoy the trip.

University of Dayton Student "Auto-Biography" -- Rob Barnes and his Love for Speed

Hi Folks -- this is the first of a number of student "Auto-Biographies" that were written for my current HST 344 class. Uniformly, they were excellent, and I thank the students for letting me post them. Rob is a most enthusiastic student in my class, and from reading this it is obvious why. Folks like Rob make my job easy.

Rob Barnes

Dr. Heitmann

HST344

June 30, 2011

My "Auto-Biography"

High performance has always been important to me; in many ways, it defines me. I like anything that performs well. When I was a young lad, my family had very little disposable income. My brother and I were glad to get old dirt-bikes. My dad would find one that wasn't running well, buy it for very little money, and fix it so that it ran perfectly.

I don't remember my first bicycle ride. I'm told that I was riding by myself, without training wheels, when I was three years old. When I was four, I got a mini-bike powered by a pull-start Briggs and Stratton 5 HP engine. When I was five, I got a 50cc Suzuki. It had a five-speed transmission and a real clutch. Since my dad worked the second shift at GM, he wasn't there to start the mini-bike for us. Our neighbor across the street was much older and larger than I was. He gladly started that mini-bike hundreds of times for me.

Riding motorcycles was the beginning of my love of high performance items. Although I am very fond of cars, my real passion is motorcycles. That probably stems from the fact that I spent so much time on them. I've had at least one motorcycle in my possession from the time that I was four years old to the present day. I'm now forty years old and have five motorcycles. When it comes to the most 'bang for the buck' I must choose a motorcycle because they are very fast and cost much less than a car.

After graduating from Patterson Co-Op, I got a job as a toolmakers apprentice working at a large machine shop called Gem City Engineering. I was making good money for someone my age and bought my first new vehicle, a 1989 Yamaha FZR400. It was perfect for me, small, fast, light weight and cheap. It wasn't long before I was riding faster and faster on the roads. A friend told me stop riding so fast on the street. He knew some motorcycle racers and offered to introduce me to them. A short time later, I crashed in Englewood Park on the Aullwood side. I crashed due due to lack of knowledge, not due to high speed. I rode off of the road, down a steep drop off and tumbled through some shrubbery. Fortunately, I was wearing a helmet and gloves. Unfortunately, I was only wearing a T-shirt and jeans. My back was slashed open by the branches that I broke. I admit that my speed was excessive, but on the racetrack that speed would be considered slow.

Soon after that, I agreed to meet the racers and start learning proper technique. I enrolled in a racing school, got my racing license and roadraced motorcycles for nine consecutive years. I spent a lot of money, broke a lot of bones, met a lot of nice people, left broken motorcycle parts scattered on racetracks east of the Mississippi and learned a great deal about life.

It's no surprise that the knowledge I gained from the racetrack allowed me to 'play' at higher speeds on the road. I bought a 1986 Chevy Camaro I-ROC. It was not a stellar car, but it did what I needed it to do. It was the best handling car that I've ever owned. I had a bad habit of driving at dangerous speeds. One of my favorites roads had a twisty section that curved as it went uphill, crested at the top, then switched directions with a dip at the transition. I loved to toss the car into the turn, feel the chassis flex and the tires bite, let it drift a little while the tires were unloaded, then turn when the chassis came back down and weighted the tires.

One day, I was driving on my favorite road and was moving at a particularly fast pace. I stuffed the car into the turn and headed uphill. Just as I got to the top, I found a very large city truck with a crew of men piling out of it. They had just arrived and were, I assume, going to place the hazard signs down the road. I had not anticipated four men and a 12,000 lb. truck being on the side of my favorite road! I mashed the brakes, the car danced uncontrollably, I sawed at the steering wheel and was finally able to pass the workers without hitting them. I was terrified of what 'could have been'.

A couple of weeks went by and I was back to my usual shenanigans. This time, I was leaving work and I got off of Rt. 75 onto a section of road that had several large turns. It was easy to get the I-ROC sideways on these turns. As planned, I carried a lot of speed down the ramp, pitched the car to the right and started sliding, like I always did. The next step was to turn left into a long, large radius left hand turn. I had already entered the turn when I was stunned to see a guy standing behind an old brown Ford van changing a flat tire. I clearly remember the tall ratcheting bumper jack and large chrome bumper. I realized that if I hit him, I would cut him in half. I mashed the brakes, the car danced around, I sawed at the wheel, the car pivoted briefly in the opposite direction allowing me to barely miss the guy and his van. I was really terrified this time.

I've always remembered the people that I almost killed. I clearly remember those turns, those guys, those antics, those guys. I'm thankful that nothing bad happened and that everyone is okay. I'm a much better driver now.

I still like high performance objects, but now I build High Power rockets. My large rocket is 8 ft. tall and will go Mach 1. My fastest rocket will go Mach 2.25, when I finish it this summer. I just ordered a carbon fiber rocket and will build it for my son.

http://tinyurl.com/6dcngtu (flight pictures are at the end of page 1)

An Original Mercedes 190 and a 1954 Kaiser-Darrin at the Americana Festival, Centerville, Ohio, July 4, 2011

Hi folks -- every July 4 for some time now Steve Scudder and I have gone to the car show at the Americana festival held in Centerville, Ohio. I have some great memories of Americana past-- fireworks with the Leslie family many years ago, when daughter Lisa was only 3; watching Lisa as a High Schooler running behind a float during the parade. This year was special because Steve is recovering from surgery, and had no problems talking the long walk from his house and back. The Mercedes-Benz 190 was special because it was so original. Purchased in Germany by a G.I.-- the same owner put it on display today, with his original G.I. tag from Germany on display as well. A great example of a largely unmolested special car.