Gidget's Moving On

As some of you may know, as much as I enjoy driving Gidget, I haven't been driving her much over the last few years, primarily because I end up with a migraine headache a few hours later. I had never planned on selling her, but sometimes your body forces the issue.

For those of you who don't know, Gidget is my very first car that I bought back in 1976 while I was in college so that I could get to a summer job at GM Proving Grounds. I actually found the original application for title for the car from 1976. It cost me $800, paid $32 in sales tax, and the registration fee was $2.

I had lots of adventures in Gidjet along the way and have had lots of fun making modifications and improvements. Still, with the migraines, she wasn't getting much exercise and it seemed unfair to leave a car that was so much fun to drive sit around in the garage.


Along came Steve Baumbach. Steve is in my department at work and lives and breathes cars the way that I do. He expressed and interest in buying Gidjet, and after a weekend of living with her, decided to buy her. I'm really pleased that Steve has bought her because he seems to really enjoy driving her. I hope he has a lot of fun for a long time.

Of course, things haven't started out all that well. After a long weekend of driving, Steve came to me and said that Gidget has developed a vibration. Happily, we put her on the lift and found it was a worn out U-joint in the prop shaft, so its easy to fix. In the meantime, Gidjet is back for a visit while waiting for the new parts to come in.

You may have noticed that I have spelled Gidjet with either a 'g' or a 'j'. Over the years, I've had license plates with either spelling, mainly depending on availability. In the end, I guess it doesn't matter since the name Gidget comes from the idea that Austin Healy Sprites and MG Midgets are almost the same car and are called Spridgets. OK, that's not the only reason. This car has more personality than most and may have picked her own name.

In honor of the 32 years of travelling around with Gidjet, I hope to post a few stories from our adventures over the next few weeks.