1980:
- A boy in Des Moines, Iowa turned thirteen years old.
- President Carter announced punitive measures and embargos against the USSR in retaliation for the Soviet invasion
of Afghanistan.
- Mount St. Helens in Washington state erupts
in a violent blast estimated to be five-hundred times as powerful as the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
- Ronald Reagan is elected the 40th US president in a sweeping victory.
- US Representative Michael O. Myers is expelled from the House for
his role in the Abscam scandal.
- Hewlett-Packard announces
release of its first personal computer.
- Microsoft announces
their version of UNIX, Xenix.
- Philadelphia Phllies win the
World Series.
- Pittsburgh Steelers win Superbowl XIV.
- New York Islanders win the Stanley Cup.
- "The Empire Strikes Back" is the top grossing film.
- "Lady" by Kenny Rogers spends the most time at the top of the US charts.
- U.S. viewers get caught up in the "Who Shot J.R.?" cliff hanger on the soap opera series, Dallas, which
is solved on a November 21st episode, drawing a record numbers of viewers.
- And last but not least, the pilot episode of Magnum P.I. aired on Thursday, December 11th. Consequently,
the thirteen-year old boy got his first glimpse of "That Car".
That Car... what does that mean? It means that the boy of thirteen, with hormones just about to unleash
their fury, had just laid eyes on the coolest thing he had ever seen.
One didn't see cars like that where he lived.
In fact, one didn't see much of anything exotic where he lived. The television series was also a favorite of this
boy, running eight seasons. But That Car... that was the real reason for watching.
That
Car was not just a form of transportation for the main character on the show.
That Car was
its OWN character. It was torture for the boy to watch Selleck hop into That Car every week. He
coveted the car... he watched it move and curve along the road like a beautiful woman taking an evening stroll along the beach.
It was HIS car. And he vowed that one day he would have it.
More torture came three years later. It
was 1983 and the boy was now sixteen years old. The hormones were really raging now and the aforementioned fury
had been fully unleashed. National Lampoon's "Vacation" was released that year and once more, "That
Car" was on the screen as a primary character.
To add fuel to the fire, this time the car's
co-star was not tall, dark and handsome... but a blonde, blue-eyed beauty. In fact, she was a particular blonde
that already occupied prime real estate on the sixteen-year old's bedroom wall next to the Van Halen poster.
Once again, a vow was made to not only get the car, but the girl as well.
You cannot get much better than a beautiful
blonde and a red Ferrari 308. The blonde is, well, pretty self explanatory. But the car... how does one sum it
up? It's not a fancy showy car like its Countach counterpart. Rather, a car with very conservative structure,
simple lines, and timeless elegance.
So there he was... at age sixteen... lusting after the blonde and That
Car.
It took a little time and patience, but eleven years later he fell in love with, and married, the beautiful blonde.
Seven years after that, the two of them added another beautiful blonde to the family. And six years after that,
a full twenty-six years after first laying eyes on it, he acquired "That Car"... the car
that Enzo Ferrari and his team of brilliant engineers built.
The Ferrari 308GTS became The Car
of the 80's. It defined what a modern day sports car was supposed to be, and it delivered on all accounts.
The body of the 308 it still as recognizable today as it was then... turning heads at every corner and getting hollers from
folks as it rumbles by.
Timeless....
