In college I drove a dark blue 72 Datsun 510. Bought it for $700 with 70,000 miles on it. A wonderful beater for a student. When the seats ripped, just add more duct tape. Get a set of floor mats so less water would come through the floorboards when it rained. Water pump go out? Go down to the junkyard, pick one up for $20, and bolt it on yourself. Used to love coming home at night, and driving around the block a few times, racing my dog.
One day my buddy backed it up with the right rear door open, and it got caught on a truck’s bumper. His classic quote, spoken in tones of amazement, “The more I backed up, the further the door opened!” (Did I mention that at the time we were leaving one bar and had stopped off at a liquor store on the way to another bar?) For the rest of the evening, he tried to convince me I should be grateful he converted my stodgy 4 door sedan into a sporty 2 1/2 door coupe.
Sold it to the same guy for $200. He painted big orange Cs on the sides the year the Bears won the SuperBowl, and eventually abandoned it on a street somewhere in Chicago.
cheezit and plnnr, someday before I die I will own a 72 Cutlass. I LOVE those cars!
She was a real bitch. Named Jessica. After spending 2 years replacing every possible thing that could break, she was a dream. And after I gave her the roll cage, we were invinceable.
A 2.6 liter in-line six with dual carbs and full headers. She would just scream so beautifully at 75 mph in second gear. Her accellerator was bottomless but she demanded precise shifting. Brakes were always her biggest weakness.
On special nights we would fly, if only for a moment. Purring along at 65 mph on an uphill street that abruptly flattened out at the top, we could get almost three feet off the ground.
Her very favorite stunt though, was cornering. Under power, we could turn a 90° corner at 40 mph on wet pavement! That was always a real show stopper.
Sadly though, the elements slowly eroded her poor body and she had to be given up. But her spirit lives with me to this day.
Hands down winner: '68 Lincoln Continental 4 door hardtop. I was about 20 at the time, and it was 1975. Metallic blue the color of an old lady’s hair, suicide doors, huge V-8 (460ci?), black cloth interior, all movable parts power operated.
68K on the clock when I convinced the owner to part with it for $350 and my '54 Buick Special (which is another story in itself), not a dent or speck of rust anywhere (and this was in western Pennsylvania, where the road salt eats cars like candy).
Vast sheet metal acreage, yet still a bit more compact than Caddies of the same era, and much nicer to drive. Not exeptionally quick 0-60, but accelerated like it was never going to stop, and had the best ride of any car I’ve ever been in. Made quite a show when I pulled up to wherever my friends in the local band were playing that night.
Had that puppy only five months. Went to Pittsburgh with some friends for the weekend; when I came back, the car was 100 feet down from where I parked it, and three feet shorter. Never did find out who hit it, but one of the barflies from the dive across the street said it was a someone in a white Cadillac. Looking at the damage to my Connie, I couldn’t believe he was able to drive away; was probably the Lord Jesus himself, exacting some supernatural revenge for my sin of pride.
25 years later, I still burst into tears every time I hear that song “Hot Rod Lincoln”…
For outright fun, I don’t think anything is ever going to beat my first car, Fritz-Otto von Hamburg, a blaze orange '74 VW Super Beetle. If you aren’t smiling when you’re driving a (classic) Beetle, you need to lighten up.
Well. I suppose I wasn’t smiling the time I turned the heat on “full” and discovered that there was a hole in the exhaust manifold, but other than that…
My current car is the most fun. Its a 1998 Fiat Coupe 20 valve turbo. I’ve never seen this in writing, but have heard claims that its the fastest front wheel drive car in production. 230 bhp, 0-60 in 6.5, top speed electronically limited to 155. I chickened out at 120 on the M-3. It looks great, goes and handles great, its just too bad about the Italian electronics and fit & finish.
This is probably about the third time this car has appeared in one of my posts. And that reflects about how often we get a fave car thread.
While I had a bitchin’ '57 Chevy 2-door Belair (Hurst Mystery Shifter, Hooker headers on my 283 and a Duntov ('vette) solid lifter cam, oh, and cheapo traction bars) and a '55 Buick 4-holer Special (straight eight - you wanna talk bottom end?), and a fun little Triumph GT-6 (“great car to roll in,” quoth the body shop guy to my mom), my fave would probably be my 1975 Plymouth Gran Fury Police Interceptor.
I bought it one year old (1976) for $800. It was as close as you could easily get to a factory NASCAR option - everything was heavy duty: suspension, tires, 440 Interceptor mill, alternator, water pump, radiator, rubber carpet - a lot of super-duty parts. 'Twas a Blues Brothers machine (I think theirs was actually a Dodge - same car, though) - white top and front doors, the rest metallic blue with chopper ID # on the roof, yellow reflective letters that said “POLICE” on the rear fenders and a shiny, badge shaped area on the doors where they’d pulled off their decal (it had been an S.A.P.D. car). One of the faster cars I’ve owned.
I terrorized my friends for a couple of months while I worked on transforming it. It remains the only car I ever painted. I painted the roof red and the lower body guacamole green. With the white vinyl interior, it came off as reasonably close to a Mexican flag. Now why did I pick such an appealling color scheme? It was my taxicab! Damn cop car put me through college at ~ 4.5 mpg.
My favorite was my first, a 71 Pontiac LeMans. It had a 350 V8 and desperately wished it was a GTO…Well, I desperately wished it was a GTO. The LeMans was as close as I could get to a GTO. I topped it out at 130 on US 29 one very despondent night. I took my foot off the accellerator and travelled over six miles before slowing to the speed limit. Damn I miss that automobile. A 16 year old rookie driver totalled it with his dad’s Mercury Sable. He hit me broadside on the right, taking out my passenger door and bending the frame to boot.