Steve Mcqueen was the coolest. He was cooler than you, and cooler than me. He was even cooler than Anchorage Alaska in winter, which is where he got popped for drunk driving after doing brodies in a rented ‘72 Toronado. When tasked with walking the white line down the center of the street as part of the field sobriety test, Mcqueen decided to do summersaults instead.
NOTE: Hooniverse does not endorse, nor intend to glorify, driving while under the influence at any time.
Image source: [stvmcqeen.tripod.com]
Cooler than…..
….a Polar Bear's toenails?
Yes.
Go on Big Boi.
Steve McQueen Steve McQueen
When I was a little boy I wanted to grow up to be
Steve McQueen Steve McQueen
The coolest goddamn motherscratcher on the silver screen
I’d drive real fast everywhere no one would ever catch me
and I’d kick your ass if you pissed me off so be careful what you ask me
and I’d never have an empty bottle or an empty bed
and as cool as Paul Newman is I bet Steve could whup his head
If he was able to do somersaults he couldn't have been that drunk.
well it is Steve McQueen
Twas no comment to the quality of said somersaults… sparklers could have been involved.
I've been to Anchorage, a long time ago, and can attest to the fact that not even the great Steve McQueen could ever remain sober in such a place.
A 'Mother Theresa drunk' kinda town?
A "Drink Like A Viking" kinda town.
So the moral of the story is that they have become German?
Only Steve McQueen could get busted doing brodies in a FWD car, and I bet the cops only knew what was going down by the rain of gravel coming off those rear tires. Bad Ass!
It's a lot harder when the emergency brake is a pedal, and you have to keep unlocking it with the handle while you're hooning. A hand brake is much easier.
Dad always drove trucks (pick-ups), but when he and Mom came back from Coolidge with a brand-new right off the lot '66 Toronado as her first "I Have Arrived" car, he was the one that was smiling the most. When Mom wasn't around, he'd take all of us kids out and hoon it up something fierce in that thing, especially on the rare snow-day, doing the foot-brake/ hand-release thing all as one motion. The other vivid memory of that car, besides being thrown about the cab with glee (no car-seat or seat-belt laws back then!), was Dad showing us how fast he could make that soup-can-on-a-spindle speedometer spin.
There's a yellow one down in Warren that's always parked about a half block south of the Hospital that my Dad still slows down and checks out lustily every time he drives by.
I just called my older brother, and he said the one down by the Copper Queen Hospital is a, "…..'67, you can tell because that was the one year the grille was the rectangular grid rather than the horizontal fins they went back to in '68….. Don't you know anything?" The car is nosed in to its parking spot, and I personally have never seen it anywhere else. My brother also said that Mom's died because it, "…Froze up in the cold… Cracked the block almost in two,.. happened a lot with the 425, I hear…", and that Dad had already taken it back to the dealer to get the upgraded disc brakes because he almost killed us all on some big hill in Colorado. "Don't you remember that!?", he asked, incredulously. I was five, he was fifteen.
I'll have to go look at that next time I'm in Warren. We had a '69 Toronado when I was a kid, when I was like fourteen, and I used to steal it when my folks were out. Yeah, I remember the soupcan speedo reeling up to about 100 screaming that thing across a Stake Center parking lot in Utah. Scared the hell out of me. When Mom divorced that guy, I was bummed because that Toro was his, and was never gonna be mine. I switched the plug wires around on the 455 out of spite. He had to hire someone to fix it. I'll admit, I never did the brake pedal thing in that car, but I did in other cars later on. That car was where I got the idea. The thought of your dad and Steve McQueen getting sideways like that in one of these is stupendous.
Next time you head over there, right after the Tunnel, take the hookie exit that puts you on West Blvd/Tombstone Canyon and head downhill towards town. After an eighth of a mile or so (Pumphouse Curve), a left takes off up Wood Canyon, where immediately on the left is a really cool old redone motel that we really like to stay at but for the life of me can't remember the name of right now. The girls (ladies?) that run it are super nice, and right across the street is one of the strangest junkyards I've ever seen. Junkyard is probably way too strong a word for it, because everything you can see is obviously well-loved yet unrestored, but its all French, or I think it's French, because the only thing I remotely recognized was a 2CV(?). It's tiny, and everything is packed in there perfectly. It's one of those places that emanates, "No Questions, No Visitors, No Problems", and anytime I've asked about it I get that, "Hmmm… Yeah,…. What were we talking about?….. Oh, yeah, the weather, well…" Cool!
It gives Bowie's mugshot/fashion shoot a run for its money.
<img src="http://hotstuffdropship.com/store/images/HS_posters/3421DavidBowieMugShot.jpg"/>
I have trouble with all the McQueen worship. Yes, he was a good racer, a good dramatic actor, and a philanthropist. But he was also an unrepentant drug abuser, alcoholic, philanderer, paranoid hot-head and misogynistic wife-abuser.
He is dead. Only the good is left and the bad is burried in the coffin – think Ted Kennedy
There is always Paul Newman for hero worship
NOTE: Hooniverse does however endorse doing brodies in a rented ‘72 Toronado, actually any rented car just not while drunk.
The Toronado is the icing on the cake.
Or is the icing the fact that he got busted by Anchorage PD? I find the icing sells the cake, therefor, we would never have this delightful mugshot of Steve if he had not been caught…
It gives Bowie's mugshot/fashion shoot a run for its money.
<img src="http://hotstuffdropship.com/store/images/HS_posters/3421DavidBowieMugShot.jpg"/>
He is the Chuck Norris of the Hooniverse