build to enjoy

The idea of a “bucket list” is common knowledge now and I am a big fan of it. Create a list of everything you want to do before you “kick the bucket” and get to work checking them off. A bucket list is a constantly evolving thing as life’s situations, personal preferences, etc. change and evolve. I have personally kept a running bucket list for my life for as long as I can remember and it has been a huge motivator to check things off each year. Every year, on New Year’s Day I re-assess the list. But one day a few years ago, the light bulb went off in my head. We car enthusiasts treat our prized cars as family members. We humanize them to a certain extent, so shouldn’t they get a bucket list too?

What would a car’s bucket list look like? Well, in short, it’s everything you want to do with that car before you get rid of it and move on to the next one. Do things that the car is perfect for. And that list too, can evolve and adapt as the build changes. The best part, it can start when the car is completely stock.

Perhaps the easiest personal example I have of this is when I had my 2014 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon. That was an incredibly simple vehicle to create a bucket list around. It basically just involved exploring the best trails and new areas that the Jeep was capable of traversing and as I built and modified that Jeep over time, that list of trails grew, ultimately ending (for me) with completing the iconic Rubicon Trail.

C4 Corvette Bucket List

Let’s run thorough a little exercise of starting the bucket list for my newly acquired C4 Corvette project. I’ll walk you thorough my thought process. Step on is to day dream. What does the ultimate C4 Corvette experience look like? For me, the C4 is a symbol, an icon of ’80s/’90s nostalgia. The turquoise metallic paint, the wedge shape, the pop-up headlights, the polished salad shooter OEM wheels, it’s just a vibe machine, not necessarily a performance machine. And when it comes to ideas on how to best experience those vibes, my mind keeps going to road trips. Road trips to specific places and events.

When it comes to events, the vibey experience I am after with this car is tailor made for RADwood ’80s/’90s car shows. So there you have it, my number one bucket list item for the C4 is road tripping to a RADwood car show. An adventure, culminating in a like-minded social automotive experience perfectly fit for the C4 Corvette.

But there are other road trips on the list too that aren’t centered around events. Driving up the Southern California coast, for one. Palm trees and beach sunsets in a turquoise metallic C4 Corvette is a scene straight out of an ’80s heatwave graphic.

When I no longer have anything on my bucket list for a car, that’s when I know it is time to get rid of it, and get into something else that will spark a new bucket list.

Keep A Personal Master Bucket List As Well

If you’re anything like me, and you love a wide variety of cars of all shapes, sizes, and uses, then you know that there’s not enough time or money in the world to experience them all. This makes it near impossible to confidently pick your next project or “fun” car. But keeping a master bucket list has helped me narrow it down at times.

A master bucket list is one that consists of all things that you want to experience within the automotive world. Here are just a few unfinished examples of things on my personal master automotive bucket list…

1. Drive 200+ mph
2. Learn Drifting
3. Experience Monterey Car Week in a Classic Vehicle
4. Buy a car in another country and experience that country in it before importing it back to the US.
5. Drive Route 66 in a ’50s Car

Then of course, for me, there is a running checklist of race tracks I have never driven.

And there used to be a lot more, but every year things change and evolve. When I was actively racing sports cars, I had a long list of races I wanted to compete in, series I wanted to drive in, etc. but eventually I stopped racing and those things just kind of faded off of the list as I no longer had that much of a desire to strive to achieve them.

Create Your Bucket List Right Now

So if you like this concept, create your bucket list right now. Even if you don’t have a “fun” car right now, create your master list. If you do have a “fun” car, create your bucket list for it. If there’s nothing on it, maybe it’s time to switch to a new project…

The beauty of a bucket list, to me, is that it is never finished. That’s not the point. The point is to live life to the fullest, whatever that looks like for you that year. If done correctly, you’ll never check everything off of that list. Some things will come off the list that were never achieved, but they’re off the list because you no longer desire to do them for whatever reason. But a car’s bucket list, that you can actually finish. And my advice, when you do finish your car’s bucket list, sell it and chase a new experience. After I completed the Rubicon Trail in my Jeep, I didn’t want to get rid of it. I didn’t need to get rid of it, it wasn’t worth enough to get me into another project car I wanted, and it had sentimental value because of all of the fun experiences I had with it. So I kept it for two more years, and in that two years, because I had no more bucket list for it, it didn’t see dirt ever again after the Rubicon Trail. I literally just drove it to work once every two weeks for two years and the rest of the time it just sat in the garage. That’s when I finally decided to sell it, and although I was scared I would regret it, I haven’t at all. Even if I don’t keep the car, I get to keep all of the memories, the photos, the videos, and the stories. And it was sold to a guy who was genuinely excited to do all of the things I did with it to satisfy his own desires. And since we humanize our cars, I was happy to know the Jeep was going to be having fun crawling over rocks again.