They are characterised as “Cruise Night Lawyers”, the gentlemen who assume the noble task of pointing out all the ways in which your car is wrong. This latest one is worth sharing.
Fellow circles ‘round the car two, maybe three, times - I confess to not paying too much attention - when he interrupts a conversation I’m having with a Mk2 Tiger owner to tell me my car is a “North American model” because the rear bumper blades extend all the way to the wheel well when UK models had much, much shorter rear bumper blades because of stricter regulations.
I suggested otherwise, saying helpfully that I’ve owned the car for 36 years. His reply, as he walked away, was “Well then, you’ve been wrong for 36 years”.
Did he have an admiring spouse on his left arm, marveling at her man’s depth of knowledge of all things automotive?
Those are the one’s I love, the one that gleefully spew out erroneous facts to their unknowing and admiring women folk in an effort to look like an automotive genius.
My father built a wooden sailing dinghy when I was a teen. The type was designed for DIY and Dad’s a methodical perfectionist with wood. He did an excellent job and all the sailing club members agreed. The only opinions that mattered to him were from those who had also built one and knew the joy and the pain of the many hundreds of hours that went into it.
I have heard the rudest comments about the Renault Caravelle that my wife inherited from her mother. I have also seen the delighted smiles and inquisitive exploration by newbies that same car attracted.
In sharing our vehicles for the public’s pleasure, we have to expect some fools. Just remember, 'tis they who have a problem and not us.
Im no longer nice about it: when some armchair expert, expound on something he/she clearly does not know WTF s/he are spewing, I just say, “$100. Put up or shut up.”
At shows, I’d wander around, looking at other stuff, then, when approching Tweety, hear someone authoritatively muse on about how it was a V12: Id act dumb, and say, “Are there six more plug leads on the bottom?”
