Car Stuff

[fixintogo]

Feb 26, 2015 19:09:39 GMT portofleith said:

Feb 22, 2015 4:39:42 GMT @trig said:

I just read the teaser from Amazon again, since I gave away the book and re-ordered it again.  Within the first pages there's an account of an intruder in a driveway, who does not resemble the classic EAR profile, who has a staring standoff with a homeowner and walks off to a '52 green Chevy coupe.   Later on there's an old yellow stepside pickup, and I think the year is 1958, but I may be wrong (I like this era of trucks myself) .  Then there's a '75 white Pontiac sedan, which is really a pretty cool looking car.  A baja bug is also mentioned, which is an unusual vehicle, attractive to gear heads.   A possible suspect was smart enough to run a cop off the road in an incident.   I really believe there's some kind of car theme going on in this person's life, whether it be he's involved in junkyard, body shop or freelance mechanic.  Something to do with cars.  

I agree Trig and it could just be that he was car savvy enough to purchase throwaways.  I just came across more information on case #19.  There was a neighbor who noted a suspicious vehicle.  The same car surfaced under suspicious circumstances in Campus Commons near other EAR rapes in the La Riviera vicinity. The license plate came back to a car junked in Lodi, CA which did not match the vehicle of the witnesses. The neighbors described it as a pinkish gray 1960's Valiant.  The junked car was a 1965 Chevy.  In both sightings the vehicle was described as square and the father of one of the women stalked by this vehicle parked near her home identified it as a Valiant.  They were very distinctive boxy cars.  EAR was clearly not worried that vehicles could be tied back to him.

"The same car surfaced under suspicious circumstances in Campus Commons near other EAR rapes in the La Riviera vicinity."

Where did this info come from? I've never seen it mentioned. 

[lepke]

That is a lovely looking vehicle. Even if EAR/ONS used several cars, I don't think that they were especially expensive or exclusive, not that it negates the idea he had access to plenty of money or some connection to a car business.

[Deleted]

One of my buddies had a Valiant exactly like that one. Same color, same interior, and wide whites. Sit in it for five minutes and people started filing missing persons reports. Even on the red ones.

And I still think he did what I said in my first post on this thread.

[lepke]

My grandfather had a green Valiant Regal station wagon, that was still running into the nineties. Like many things in this case, and back at the time of the attacks, it was much easier to get away with crime, due to being way behind where we are now, in terms of forensic science, CCTV, and so on and so forth, and being able to conceal your identity as the owner of a car, was just one such advantage compared to today.

[Deleted]

just a note about old pickups, like the yellow Chevy stepside that kept turning up around EAR attacks - they're not that easy to drive. They're either "three-on-the-tree," meaning shift on the column, or 4 speed on the floor, a normal four speed. It's not like driving a modern stick, either, that you can shift with your finger. The gears are very close to each other and it's very mistake-prone. Not that you need a class to learn how to drive one, but it takes a little practice, and if he just picked that one out because it was accessible, then he'd been driving that type of truck for a while. It doesn't do anything to dampen my belief that he had a lot of car knowledge.

[dbw]

I learned to drive on a "four on the floor" Chevy pickup and later owned a "three on the tree". While I was tricky learning to drive such a vehicle, I driven many such trucks in my life and never had a bit of problem. I'm no gear head, but it's kinda like riding a bike. Once you learn, you don't forget.

[lepke]

Mar 16, 2015 13:49:48 GMT @trig said:

just a note about old pickups, like the yellow Chevy stepside that kept turning up around EAR attacks - they're not that easy to drive. They're either "three-on-the-tree," meaning shift on the column, or 4 speed on the floor, a normal four speed. It's not like driving a modern stick, either, that you can shift with your finger. The gears are very close to each other and it's very mistake-prone. Not that you need a class to learn how to drive one, but it takes a little practice, and if he just picked that one out because it was accessible, then he'd been driving that type of truck for a while. It doesn't do anything to dampen my belief that he had a lot of car knowledge.

Interesting points.

[lepke]

Having been driven by a number of Americans in manual vehicles, I have yet to see one treat the gear stick sympathetically, even though they have all thought that they were good drivers in that regard.

Unless I am mistaken, if you pass a driving test on an automatic car in America, that means that you are also qualified to drive manual cars, which most Europeans would find absurd, as manual cars take much more application to learn to drive.

[Deleted]

"If it's got wheels I can drive it"

Grabs crotch, belches, guzzles another beer. Struts off stage right.  

Amm nn Merican.

seriously guys and gals. Standard shifts are so rare in the US now that in most cases you have to special order them. But in EARS heyday if you took your test in an automatic you "couldn't" drive a stick. My dad taught me to drive when I was 12. By the time I took driver training I could double clutch, (ask your grandfather) and once the car was moving I could drive W/O using the clutch at all. It's not that hard. And bypassing all that clever syncromesh has such a slick feel when you do it right.

[lepke]

Yeah, not using the clutch when you change gears won't cause any problems with the car at all  But like I wrote, most Americans think they are good with a manual gearbox, and seeing as I don't have to pay to repair their cars, they can think whatever they like

[woofytreats]

It was certainly much less of a rarity in EAR's day to have vehicles with manual transmissions and I can imagine that Valiant having a three speed on the column. I think it might be a bit of a broad brush to label Americans as not being proficient with a manual even if they're not sold in numbers anymore and are getting harder to find. I'm one of the remaining oddities as I bought my first car in 1980 and I've never owned a car with an automatic. Four, five, and six speed manuals but never a slushbox of any kind. I even drove a manual when I was in the UK...on and off the M4 and when the street width suddenly went medieval on me with the shifter on the "wrong" side...I wave my freak flag high.

[Deleted]

Mar 17, 2015 2:17:04 GMT f1guyus said:

"If it's got wheels I can drive it"

Grabs crotch, belches, guzzles another beer. Struts off stage right.  

Amm nn Merican.

seriously guys and gals. Standard shifts are so rare in the US now that in most cases you have to special order them. But in EARS heyday if you took your test in an automatic you "couldn't" drive a stick. My dad taught me to drive when I was 12. By the time I took driver training I could double clutch, (ask your grandfather) and once the car was moving I could drive W/O using the clutch at all. It's not that hard. And bypassing all that clever syncromesh has such a slick feel when you do it right.

Hmmm... I don't remember that.  I took my test on an automatic, but then was driving dump trucks and other heavy equipment.  I had to get a Class 3 for weight, and I had to take a road test for it, but I don't remember being restricted from driving a stick on a Class 5 license.  I could be wrong.

[Deleted]

It's an age thing. Learning to drive in the 70's, most of my friends had manuals and most of us learned to drive on them. My husband's family - all of them including his sisters had to learn to drive on the '65 Ford truck they had with a 3 on the tree. Love automatics now, but still have no problem when I have to drive a stick and never ever had to replace a clutch in any of the manuals we had over the years.

[Deleted]

Mar 17, 2015 21:54:26 GMT @trig said:

Mar 17, 2015 2:17:04 GMT f1guyus said:

"If it's got wheels I can drive it"

Grabs crotch, belches, guzzles another beer. Struts off stage right.  

Amm nn Merican.

seriously guys and gals. Standard shifts are so rare in the US now that in most cases you have to special order them. But in EARS heyday if you took your test in an automatic you "couldn't" drive a stick. My dad taught me to drive when I was 12. By the time I took driver training I could double clutch, (ask your grandfather) and once the car was moving I could drive W/O using the clutch at all. It's not that hard. And bypassing all that clever syncromesh has such a slick feel when you do it right.

Hmmm... I don't remember that.  I took my test on an automatic, but then was driving dump trucks and other heavy equipment.  I had to get a Class 3 for weight, and I had to take a road test for it, but I don't remember being restricted from driving a stick on a Class 5 license.  I could be wrong.

forget it. I know what you mean.  Been under the weather for a few days and it's got me good

[daveo]

Any thoughts that maybe EAR worked in an Auto Body shop ( or maybe his parents owned one, and he worked part time), which would give him access to a variety of cars, and account for the paint evidence.