What was the most fun car you've ever owned?

My favorite car is my current one - a '91 Toyota Supra Turbo. Red, just like the cops like 'em. It requires all of my willpower to keep it legal when driving that thing, unless I find myself on some lonesome country road, nice and straight. Man, that sucker moves! Speedo tops out at 160, but I’m too chicken to go past 100.

Except for back roads, I drive reasonable in it, unless someone pulls up next to me in a Camaro or something like that, and they have that shit-eating grin on their face. Yeah, right. See ya in my mirror, buddy!

I did fly around a corner once and did a 360. I was scared shitless for a nanosecond - I thought I was gonna wind up in a ditch. But I got it straight, kept going, and it was like “Whooooooo-haaaa!”

My most fun car was my Porsche 911SC coupé, white, with a sunroof and 3.0 boxer engine. It accellerated extremely well up to about 4,500 RPM… then it was like lighting an afterburner! Handling was sweet, and I’d put Bilstein sport (almost racing) shocks on it. You’d feel every pebble in the road around town, but once you got it over 70 it was smooth as glass. I finally got rid of it though because there was one important thing it couldn’t do: It couldn’t carry much. I have a '99 Jeep Cherokee Sport that’s a lot of fun off of the pavement (but it could use some real off-road tyres… it kinda slips a bit too much in the mud with the stock tyres on it). Not nearly as much fun to drive as the Porsche, but at least now I can carry my stuff.

Ah, the Sprint! I had a couple of those. Very peppy little cars! You could park them in tiny places, and I could swear it had more room inside than it did outside! I drove one from L.A. to SLC a couple of times and it was okay up to about 90mph. I think. The speedo only went to 85. People laugh at the (Chevy/Suzuki/Geo) Sprint with its 3-cyl. engine. But it’s a very good little car. Just don’t try to climb hills with it.

Wow. Hard to say; it’d depend on the kind of driving I was doing at the time.

Either the Landcruiser FJ40, the VW Passat, or the MG.

Overall, I’d have to say it’s the MG.

I had a '70 Landcruiser FJ40 with the three speed and rust in all the right places. I took the back seats out to make room for toolboxes and ammo boxes and whatever else. I had to move the rear heater to the front seat to keep warm at all. Top speed was maybe 55 with a down-slope and a tailwind, but that thing would go anywhere. I loved that thing, and I still get all teary when I see one around town.

My first car was a set- a '74 Plymouth Valiant, and a Scamp. They were virtually identical, except one had a functional heat, and the other had an air conditioner. One had good paint, the other had good tires. One had good brakes, the other had good power steering. One of them even had a muffler! Together, it was a car for all seasons. The speed-o-meter topped out at 110, and I know I exceeded that several times. Not that it worked very often.

Now I drive a pansy-ass petunia-looking plastic Pontiac. It’s less than three years old, and half the power accessories don’t work. They just don’t make 'em like they used to…

I had a 1969 Buick Wildcat, four door hardtop. Huge V-8, more cubic inches than I could count and a horsepower for each one, it seemed. Great Big Four Barrel and awsome acceleration. Absolutely the best highway car I have ever owned.

I had an MGB convertible when I got married. Damn I loved that car! Had to sell it once I had my first baby and needed that extra seat. I guess I could have just left the hubby at home.

I am currently driving a Chrysler Labaron convertible that I really like.

I had a BMW Z3 roadster for about 3 hours. Long story. Man, that puppy could cruise!

Yes, I love going topless. :wink:

My mom bought a brand-new 1966 MGB just before we left Japan. It arrived from England a week after we returned to the States. She gave it to me when I was in high school. A few years later (early 80s) I bought two 1977 MGBs. Usually two were running at any given time. Gotta love those Lucas electricals (among other things)! I drove the '66 to Denver from Lancaster, CA once. Dad changed the oil filter, but the gasket wasn’t seated right. (The filter went on a canister that didn’t have a groove for the gasket. The gasket sat on top of the canister, and you had to get it just right. I must’ve gone through a case of oil that trip!

I’d love to get an FJ40! And I’d like to get my '48 CJ-2A back too.

Another vehicle I miss is my old 1976 Yamaha 250 Enduro.

1981 Honda Civic S/W. Rubbermaid Green. 5-Speed 1.5 liter. 30 MPG Owned it for 8 years and put the back seat up about once a year. The first Winter I put on 4 true snow tires. My SO enjoyed sking. She drew a map to a local ski hill. I’m a GUY who needs maps! I ended up on a seasonal road, no maintanace from Nov. thru May. it’s now Jan. snow is deep and there are no tracks. Drive on stright till I see a Chevy S-10 Blazer off the road and stuck. Drive past 20 yards to the plowed, paved road. I walked back and asked the driver what happened? His answer was that nothing could make it passed this spot. His girlfriend noted that i had just driven past. His response was IN WHAT?? I just smiled and walked back to the best car I ever owned. As i opened the door he screamed. it echoed. I miss that car.

Gotta be my current car, a liquid silver 2000 Celica GT-S.
So much fun to drive! Handles like a dream and plenty fast.
I LOVE this car!

My current car - my 1998 Mustang GT, with 17 inch wheels, limited-slip 3.27 gears, and 300 ft-lbf of torque.

And the sound! The sound of the engine! Ahhh…

It was so refreshing to have POWER after the previous 15 years of car ownership, of which no car had more than 60 hp in that entire time.

In 1.5 years, I’m trading it in on a VO6 Corvette - seriously. :slight_smile:

Gotta be the current one. Red and silver 1990 Cavalier Z24. As I’ve noted (read: bragged) recently, it was an automatic that I’ve put a 5 speed in. It’ll be even more fun once I get done with it. Planned improvements:

[ul]
[li]Motor bored to ~3.4 liter (from 3.1)[/li][li]12" disc brake upgrade front, 10" disc upgrade (from drums) in back[/li][li]17" spoked or spyder-type wheels[/li][li]Pirelli 225/55/17 P6000 tires[/li][li]Max ported head, intake manifold, intake runners, exhaust manifold, and 60mm throttle body[/li][li]Comp 2030 cam set[/li][li]Lightened flywheel[/li][li]Revised transmission gearing kit[/li][li]3" manifold-back exhaust w/Superturbo muffler[/li][li]Dual friction clutch[/li][li]High volume oil pump[/li][li]Forged pistons, rods[/li][li]Stroker crank (take me from ~3.4 to ~3.6 or 3.8, hopefully)[/li][li]Power pulley kit[/li][li]Larger anti sway bars, front and rear[/li][li]Rear strut brace[/li][li]1.5" lowering springs/struts/shocks (adjustable Konis, I hope)[/li][li]Hopefully hopefully the transfer over to a convertible chassis[/li][li]Poly bushings and engine mounts[/li][li]Rear susp. K brace[/li][li]Hopefully hopefully a 20psi turbo setup (T60, perhaps?)[/li][li]EBC for turbo[/li][li]Wastegate/blow off valve[/li][li]EGT gauge for tuning turbo[/li][/ul]

I’m sure I’m missing a good 10 other things. I’ll go dream some more now.

–Tim

2000 Honda Insight

This is a great car!
It’s got a hybrid gas and electric engine(s)
gets 70 mpg, charges itself (no plug)
AutoStop - shuts itself off at stops -no idling!
quiet, light, sporty two seater
lowest wind resistance of any car on the market
great techology and Honda quality
looks like a JetsonMobile
great conversation starter!

700 miles per 10 gallon tank of gas. People tell me that the price of gas has gone up again, but I don’t really notice…
$18,800 MSRP

The most fun car was my first, a '62 VW Bug. 1850cc, dual Weber carbs, high-lift rockers, ported and polished heads, Bosch 050 distributor, Sway-a-way adjustable torsion bars in front, 23mm torsion bars in the back, chrome Porsche wheels, gas shocks, tinted glass all around with one-piece windows in the doors, roll cage, no rear seat (had to make room for the SPEAKERS). Man, that thing would flat out fly.

Still, my current car (Sunday driver, at any rate), is still pretty fun…'86 Porsche Carrera.

Gotta be the first one, shared with my year-and-a-half-older brother. It was a 1947 Jaguar MkIV Drophead Coupe that had suffered an electrical fire, so we got it cheap, in 1961, with help from the 'rents. We started working on it before either of us were old enough to drive, and fixed it up in time for my brother to start driving it and me shortly thereafter. It was green, of course, right-hand drive, with a landau top and suicide doors. Huge chrome headlights and long sweeping fenders. A mechanical nightmare, of course, but it got me prepared for my later British cars (MGB Roadster, MGB-GT, TR-6, TR-7).

From a young male perspective in the 60s, I was blessed in the fun automotive arena: my dad was a car dealer and a collector. My brother and I were the slave labor for fixing up the cars he picked up here and there, from 1960 to 1969. As preteens we’d go to Summer School in the morning, and then go to dad’s dealership to work on whatever cars he had around to restore. Over the years these included a
[ul]
[li]1930 Packard 745 convertible coupe[/li][li]1933 Packard phaeton[/li][li]1929 Rolls Royce PII Springfield convertible sedan[/li][li]1935 Rolls Royce PIII Town Car[/li][li]1956 Lincoln Continental[/li][li]1960 Mercedes Benz 300SL (sorry, not a gullwing)[/li][li]1962 Ferrari 250GTE[/li][li]1940 Howard (sorry, this is an airplane. Mom was not amused at how long it was parked in the driveway.)[/li][li]Other, more short term, vehicles included a birdcage Maserati, 1948 Bentley, 1936 Packard, 1941 Packard, 1922 Chevrolet, 1934 Pierce-Arrow.[/li][li]Cars that showed up on the used car lot: XK120, XK140, XK150, XKE, 1965 Corvette w/396 porcupine head V8, 1962 Impala with 409 & 3-2s, bathtub Porshe, Hillman Minx, Mini-Cooper S, etc.[/li][/ul]

The summer I was working on the Ferrari I owned a Volkswagen Squareback named “Toby” (my starving student at UCSB days). I was able to take the Ferrari out on drives up Skyline Boulevard on the San Francisco peninsula and it was amusing to see how the “class lines” broke out. Corvettes averted their eyes, but Shelby 427 Cobras would essay a slight wave as we passed. The Ferrari was a joy to drive–no surprise, eh? With its V-12 and two four-barrel carburetors it would hunker down and scream when you put your foot down.

Remember the car waxing scene from “The Karate Kid”? Well, it took a full weekend to polish and wax the 1935 Rolls. It was a gorgeous black and chocolate brown paint job, and there were two acres of metal on this damn thing. Thirty-five years later I still can feel how sore I was.

But, Dad trusted my brother and me, regardless of our teen-ness, so we got to take the cars out. The most fun we would have with the '35 Rolls was for me to put on a dark suit, grab my great-grandfather’s lodge cap, and turn myself into a chauffeur. Then we would drag the main in San Jose, me in the separate chaufffeur’s compartment, and my brother waving Windsor-like from the back seat.

I mentioned that my dad was a car dealer. Back in the sixties things were a little looser. When we got rid of the Jaguar (whimper) my brother and I picked up a 1964 GTO convertible. We were able to get salesmen’s licences, so the insurance for each of us was $125/yr. That kept the family expenses down! The GTO, in impromptu drag races, humiliated the local Mopar and Ford fanatics, and years later ended up on the cover of Car and Driver (with an article that wasn’t quite the “Straight Dope.”)

But this was years ago. My most fun vehicle now is my Trek 5000 carbon fiber road bike. When my last car crapped out in March at 150,000 miles, I donated it to the towing company. Occasionally I will drive my wife’s Honda Del Sol, but most of my travel now happens on CalTrain or my bike.

My 1993 Cavalier convertible. God, that car was fun. I loved to put the top down and cruise the highways. It handled really well, too. I want to have a convertible again one day. :frowning:

I’ve had rotten cars. but there was one that just fit my personality so well… a 1989 Dodge Dynasty, bluish with a sunroof and a soft interior that fit around me like a glove. Damn. Ran smoothly, nice pickup, smelled great, maybe it was 10 years old but I loved that car. It had SPUNK! Then it got sick and blew its transmission on Communist Curve which is a vile stretch of road on which I have seen the deat of 2/2 cars. Life is a hideous pile of yellow shit in a raw bucket covered in saran wrap.

I can do a lot better than that, i must be tired. Damn. OK, good night.
Rob

My second car, a used, 1983 Mercury Capri GS - basically a Mustang hatchback with different mufflers and grille. It was pewter silver, which immediately faded to medium grey when the warranty on the paint ran out (literally one month after the warranty expired!), the AC compressor busted, and it leaked oil like a sieve. But none of that ever stopped it. My friends called it the Millennium Falcon because it was “the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy!” to quote Billy Dee Williams. The speedo only went to 85, but according to the friend I was following at the time in his '65 Mustang, I got it up to 110 with three passengers once, and the engine wasn’t straining. Man, that was a fun car. Pity about the AC, though…I live in Texas. When I finally sold it, it would no longer shift into reverse unless you drove forward about 1 1/2 feet first. I got $1000 for it at a dealership even with all those broken, leaking, or non-shifting parts! I miss the Falcon. It had personality, and made “I’ve never seen THIS happen before” a common phrase at the garage I’d take it to when something would finally manage to immobilize it - about once every year and a half.

White 1972 Mini 1000

I need say no more.

1990 BMW M5

Looked respectable, but could act like a hooligan. Outrageous acceleration, but a little bit of a handfull on wet (or even slightly damp) roads.

I sold it two years ago, and I still miss it.

I don’t want to talk about the running costs, though.

RussellM

The 1949 Caddilac hearse I put a trailer hitch on used to haul my race bikes to the track in the '60s. It still had the velvet curtains and all. Lots of room in back for tool boxes. The best part was that when it was built, the funeral homes were also the main providers of ambulance services. The old crock still had a working siren and emergency lights on it.