The Carmalarky Dispatch #02
Carmalarky is open for submissions!
Hello friends and writerly gearheads!
It’s time for us to receive every single creative piece you have been telling me about (poems, essays, art, fiction)! Yes! This is your opportunity to write about or draw or paint or photograph cars and be published in the only (that we can find) auto-centric literary magazine.
Send us your work on our website submission form. All guidelines can be found there and submissions will remain open through May of 2025. Our first issue will be published in late summer, this year.
Car thoughts I have been entertaining lately run along these lines: why more Americans still haven’t embraced mid-sized hatchbacks (nope, not mini SUVs, totally different); when good cars are made by bad people; and especially John Steinbeck’s modified truck in Travels with Charley, In Search of America (1962).
Never heard of Travels with Charley? It’s about a road trip with a poodle, in a truck, written and narrated by THE John Steinbeck. I don’t think I have to say anything else to recommend this lovely little book. But I am going to tell you about the truck. At the age of 58, John Steinbeck decided to travel anonymously around America to “look again” after twenty-five years of writing about it from his home in New York. Specifically, “I, an American writer, writing about America, was working from memory, and the memory at best is a faulty warpy reservoir.” He chooses to drive alone, except one companion, “an old French gentleman poodle known as Charley.”
Steinbeck needed a new vehicle for this trip. A road worthy vehicle. He tells us:
“… I wrote to the head office of a great corporation which manufactures trucks. I specified my purpose and my needs. I wanted a three-quarter-ton pick-up truck, capable of going anywhere under possibly rigorous conditions, and on this truck I wanted a little house built like the cabin of a small boat. A trailer is difficult to maneuver on mountain roads, it is impossible and often illegal to park, and is subject to many restrictions. In due time, specifications came through, for a tough, fast, comfortable vehicle, mounting a camper top – a little house with a little bed, a four-burner stove, a heater, refrigerator and lights operating on butane, a chemical toilet, closet space, storage space, windows screened against insects – exactly what I wanted…
It arrived in August, a beautiful thing, powerful and yet lithe. It was almost as easy to handle as a passenger car. And because my planned trip had aroused some satiric remarks among my friends I named it Rocinante, which you will remember was the name of Don Quixote’s horse.”
I have driven across America in a 1998 Volkswagen Golf GTI VR6 three times (with a large golden retriever on board), and to and from Colorado, throughout the Southeast, up and down California, around the Southwest, and up into the hills of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. It was different every time. It was amazing every time. I can’t wait to do it again. But having a bathroom in my vehicle would have made a world of difference. Or better, a support vehicle following me with a bathroom, closet, lounge, kitchen, and a dune buggy. What are your road trip must-haves?
Miss your faces. Drive over any time.
The Seaside Garage
Somewhere in Denmark, the wind from the North Sea tumbles through a small seaside town, carrying with it the scent of salt and diesel. In a garage tucked between weathered buildings, a mechanic works, speaking to an invisible audience.
“Fixing a car isn’t just about repairs,” he might say, looking into the camera. “It’s about understanding how everything comes together—what the designer intended, how the engineer built it, and how the driver uses it.”
His garage is a haven for the eccentricities of European automotive design. Quirky Citroëns, including a well-loved C25 camper, sit beside a dusty Renault 4 police car. A sprightly Lancia A112 Abarth, an Austin Princess, and a stubborn yet charming Rover 114 GTI share space with a purposeful Saab 900 Turbo Commander and a rugged Lada Niva. Scattered among them, a sputtering gaggle of vintage mopeds add their own charm, each machine a story waiting to be told.
On this particular day, the old Mercedes-Benz 300 Turbo refuses to yield. He turns the starter key off, but the engine rumbles on, indifferent to command.
He traces the vacuum lines, knowing that without their silent pull, the engine will never heed the switch. The fault is found in the passenger door—a worn actuator, its rubber cracked and gasping.
With the fingertip of a rubber glove, he fashions a new seal. The vacuum returns, order restored. He turns the key once more, and this time, the engine falls silent. A machine, persuaded not by force, but by understanding.
Outside, the sea continues its rhythmic argument with the shore. He knows the car won’t be perfect, but that isn’t the goal. It just needs to be driven and enjoyed, not forgotten.
In the garage, amid the scent of oil and old leather, he wipes his hands, satisfied. Somewhere in the world, a viewer will watch this moment and feel the same spark of joy. A car saved. A story told. An understanding reached.
“I think it’s going to be just fine,” he says to the camera. “I wasn’t that worried. If it breaks, I’ll just have to fix it.”
Seppo, his humble garage, and a deserving Citröen.
Two of David’s favorite Seaside Garage episodes
More prompts.
A dramatic story about a top-class car restorer, who travels to find and evaluate a rare car for purchase by a client. Like The Day of the Jackal but less killing.
In a poem, explore the love affair between some of the world's most reviled and notorious leaders and their cars. Imelda Marcos adored Her Rolls-Royce Phantom V; Idi Amin enjoyed the tasteful luxury of a Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman; and Muammar Gaddafi found time in his busy life to design a supercar for safety, invitingly named ‘Rocket of the State of the Masses’.
One thousand word creative non-fiction essay where the narrator is your car.
Carmovies.
Trafic is a highly-regarded 1971 Italian-French comedy film directed by Jacques Tati.
What makes this one of the best car movies:
It's an absurdist French film featuring over 100 cars.*
The main character is a car designer.
He works at a car factory in Paris.
He must deliver a car to a car show in Amsterdam.
*over 100 cars
Supplied by the delightfully comprehensive Internet Movie Cars Database (ICMCD).
Movie poster image from Posteritati, offering many fine things for your walls.
What’s your favorite car movie? Write a review for Carmalarky. Submissions are open!
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