What your dad really wants for Father’s Day
Like any father, all I really want for Father’s Day is some peace and quiet and a convertible 1968 Corvette 427 L-88 with a Muncie four-speed manual and sidepipes. You know, the simple things in life.
But some hope, hey? What we dads usually get as a reward for our front-line battles against boo-boos and less-than-stellar report cards is usually some socks, or maybe a tie in a pattern that even Lady Gaga would shy away from, or perhaps just a handmade card crafted with love and a pretty creative attitude toward spelling.
We treasure these things because they’re given with love, but you know what your dear old Dad really wants? He doesn’t want stuff to be admired and then stuffed in a drawer somewhere, he wants your time. He wants you to set down the iPad for 15 seconds and engage in some real, old-timey, face-toface human interaction.
Now, I warn you, there will be some super-corny dad jokes involved. That’s just par for the course. You’ll also likely receive some shopworn advice that you probably already figured out on your own.
But make the effort to share some time with your old man, because he’s a finite resource and, believe it or not, he isn’t going to be around forever.
On Father’s Day, leave the Beetle-patterned tie on the shelf and get your gearhead dad an experience that you can both share. Go have an adventure together. Odds are, your very existence has been the adventure of a lifetime for him.
Race your dad
Of course, the first thing you might do is let the ol’ gaffer know that it’s time to pass the driving torch on to the next generation.
High Performance Driver Education days (HPDE) are widely popular anywhere there’s a decent racetrack within driving distance, and that’s most places. Lapping sessions range from novice instruction for first-time track newbies, to advanced driving courses for further honing skills.
If you really love your dad, you’ll pop off together to some place like Skip Barber or the Bondurant school of racing, but this gift need not be so extravagant. A day spent together learning the finer points of driving at the local track and then comparing notes in the pits can really draw the pair of you together. It also improves reflexes and driving skills for the street: mostly, you learn how to use your vision to help dodge the bad drivers out there.
Price: about $250, plus fuel
Race your dad II: scalesize
If full-sized racing is out of the question for budgetary or age-related reasons, you can still test your mettle against your old man, have a lot of fun, and learn a thing or two.
Slot-car racing has been around for decades, but waned in popularity in the ’70s. It’s not back with a vengeance or anything, but you can still find tracks all over the place, and hobby stores that’ll let you and dad get a kit to assemble and paint.
On a higher level, slot-car racing is actually divided into divisions with tournaments and the like. On an amateur basis, it’s just good fun, especially when you over-cook it on a turn and your little plastic car flips off into the weeds.
Console- based racing games are better than ever, so this sort of racing can seem a bit old-school. However, it’s also maybe a bit more active and engaging than you and your dad plonked down in front of the flat-screen.
Price: about $50
Rally with your dad
So, you’re a few years off from actually getting your driver’s licence, but you’d still like to have an automotive adventure together. Perfect, I’ve got just the thing.
You have to look a little harder to find these events, but companies such as Classic Car Adventures put on multi-day rally events with squadrons of elderly iron plying the roadways on a pre-set route. If your dad is a classiccar enthusiast, it’s a perfect gift, and he’s going to need a navigator — that’s you.
Often car clubs have longer-distance rallies, or even just a good solid Sunday drive. Log on, and check their forums.
If your dad is more into modern rallying, then there’s something for you there as well. Time Speed Distance rallies are controlled events that are more about precision and good navigating than they are about the usual high-speed hoonery you see in the World Rally Championship. You don’t need a helmet, you need a sharp pencil and some sharper wits.
Usually held on back roads over hundreds of kilometres, TSD rallies are a challenging, but relatively safe form of motorsport competition. These can be the perfect events to work together as a team.
Cost: $100-$300
Detail your Dad’s car
Some fathers have a “nobody touches this car except me” attitude toward their rides. That might just be because they only trust themselves to take the necessary care and attention.
Getting car-care stuff as a gift for father’s day is great, but even better is a willingness to help out with shining up the old family truckster. If your dad is semi-obsessive about paint, he’ll be able to teach you a thing or two about how to wash a car in stages, top-to-bottom, to prevent scratches in the paint. He’ll show you the magic of clay-barring, and the finer points of spot-polishing and scratch repair.
Frankly, the old man’s got a wealth of knowledge about how to take care of a car, and if you’re willing to put in an afternoon in the shade, he’s probably more than willing to pass the science on. So sure, get him the usual basket of polish and carnauba wax, but also include a bit of your labour time as well.
Cost: Free-$80
Watch a race together
Perhaps your father’s automotive passions extend to the finer points of motorsport, and he’s a big fan of the science of Formula One, the spectacle of Indy racing, or the shake-and-bake of NASCAR. Try this: go to a race with him.
If you’ve only seen motorsports on television, it can be hard to understand what your dad actually sees in it.
But in person, amid the power and the fury of mighty engines, seeing the way the cars scream and scorch the pavement, rising to your feet with the rest of the crowd to see a particularly daring pass, or cheering for your favourite racer as he or she suddenly takes the lead; all these experiences make racing come alive.
If your schedule’s a bit too tight to actually take an entire trip, then simply picking up a DVD for you and dad to watch together can be a good substitute.
Price: $20-$200