People who own old cars sometimes experience a sort of reverse deja-vu -- a sense that they have been transported back in time to a place they never have been and can never really go. This "time machine effect" most often happens when you're traveling down a back country road where there are no modern billboards, no modern cars, and nothing else that has the appearance of being made in a later era than your car. Wearing period clothing enhances the experience. One old-car owner refers to the experience as "The Moment."
I myself have experienced The Moment once, during the very first test-drive of our 1929 Hudson Town Sedan. It was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, early evening. I was driving up Madison Avenue, the street on which we live in Pasadena, CA. It's a tree-lined street with early 20th century street lights and nothing but old houses. It was dark enough that the lights were on, and I couldn't see the shapes of the few cars that were parked on the street. Suddenly, without bidding, The Moment happened. I felt like I was actually driving up Madison Avenue in 1929!
Wearing period clothing definitely contributes to the old-car experience. I have begun collecting period attire. The camel-hair knickers are 1920s vintage, complete with a button fly. The Gatsby-style hat and shirt, and V-neck sweater, are all new, but of the same style that fashionable men wore in 1929.
Science fiction author Jack Finney wrote a number of short stories in the 1950s that explored the concept of time travel. As soon as we bought our 1929 Hudson, I recalled reading that story several decades ago. I recently found reference to it on the Internet, and bought a book of Finney short stories to re-read it. For more information about Second Chance, click here.