Not as blessed meteorologically as our southern brethren or California car crazy cousins with year-round auto-friendly weather, Northeasterners endure long and harsh winters. For Yankee car guys and gals, cruisin’ time winds-down around late September, not returning until late March at the earliest. With that sad truth told, the spring/summer 2017 car season has finally blossomed on the north Atlantic coast and it’s time to roll.

Residing on Long Island, your author is twitching with nervous adrenaline at the thought of dry/clean roads and warm sun gleaming my cars paint. Before I rip-up the asphalt with confident abandon though, there’s a short checklist I usually go over.

Even if serviced prior to a long garaged-sleep, or having seen limited use throughout the winter months, our prized machines deserve the once-over. Most importantly is up-to-date paperwork, such as registration, inspection and insurance. Nothing puts a damper on your first mash of the throttle, like getting pulled-over by Johnny Law with expired documents.

Next, a little common sense maintenance goes a long way to ensuring a spring and summer of blissful burnouts. Here in New York State, functioning lights – all of them – are a must, so check those bulbs and replace as necessary.

Equally crucial is the life blood of our cars – the fluids. A quick check of the oil (the right blend for hot, spirited summer-driving), coolant, differential, and the like should be done, along with topping-off the tank with some 93-octane go-go juice.

Just like NASCAR, where the rubber meets the road is of prime importance. Checking your tires thoroughly for dry rot, cracks, bubbles, defects, uneven tread wear and proper inflation is a must for safety and instilling confidence for high-speed cruising.

As for it’s appearance, a nice sudsy bath and a thin coat of quality Carnuba wax, along with a detailed vacuum, should do nicely to clean away wintery effects in preparation for the show circuit.

So, without further ado, uncover your babies, fire-‘em-up, and cruise to the nearest highway, track or show field – don’t forget, that’s what they’re built for… and enjoy the next six months Northerners … we sure will.