First Fun Car

First car was a 1956 Cadillac sedan, robin's egg blue, I bought for like $300 from friends of my parents who it gathering rust in their garage. Spent six months getting it street ready, but since I was not a member of the Woods Brothers team, it only went about 100 miles before the engine blew for keeps. Still, those 100 miles were fun. PS: Even new the thing was deathtrap. Took about a half mile to brake from like 40.

 

When I was driving my '66 Mustang Conv. as a DD (fully restored from ground up); my parents bought a new Eldorado and gave me their old 1990 Eldorado to drive on rainy days, etc. My mom is only 100 lbs so the car was basically brand new and the driver's seat especially. Fully loaded, all power, epitome of the Caddy ride. Then some idiot turns left in front of me and I T-Bone her and total the Caddy.

 

A stick-shift 1987 Honda CRX HF. You sat almost on the floor, like a Formula Ford. Plus, it got 50 mph to the gallon.

However, there was one drawback that I didn't realize after I bought it in Florida. With just 91 horsepower, you were slower than a semi going up to the Sierras or across the Rocky Mountains. But damn, once you built up all that potential energy, it would fly on the downhill slope. And it was certainly peppy enough in city traffic to hustle around.

Got 194,500 miles on it when it threw the universal belt just as I crossed Capital Blvd. in Raleigh on the way to work one morning. BANG, BANG, BANG as those little aluminum pistons slammed against the valves.

 

Fuck Yeah, great thread.

My first car was a Datsun 510 Sport Sedan I bought for $375. It died within a year due to my own negligence and inability to fix things.

Next car was Datsun 510 but 2 door with racing wheels and full sports package. Holy Crap what a fun car to drive. Super responsive and when I put studded tires on it in the Winter it handled better than any 4x4. I wrote it off when I rear ended someone while going to get Chinese food.

I loved that car.

 

I tried to post this to an earlier thread, but here goes:

I bought this 1962 Buick Special a month before I graduated UConn in 1998. I bought it from the original family (the grandmother of the guy from whom I bought it purchased it new, and drove it to his wedding in 1964) for $1250 and it had 69,000 miles on it. I had to put in seat belts because it was an option. This was Motor Trend's Car of the Year in 1962. It has the first V-6 ever put in an American car (a V-8 also was available, but I have the 198 cubic inch Fireball V-6) and has a two-speed automatic transmission. No power steering or power brakes. It currently sits at 83,000 miles, but it is up on jack stands in our garage because it was having a stalling issue and I do not trust the brakes, since the lines are original and I only have a single-chamber master cylinder. I wanted to use it for our wedding four years ago but that prevented me from it. I would say it is 95 percent original, except for the radiator, seat belts, grille (more on that in a second) and master cylinder. Everything else down to the paint and trim is as it came out of the factory.

Funny enough, three hours after I registered it, I hit a deer doing 40 mph. Slammed on the brakes, but all they did was lock up and I plowed into it, killing it. However, all I had was a four-inch hole in my grille and one of the high beams was pointed into the trees. A NOS grille came from Florida, I readjusted the high beam, and all was well once again.

Now that we have an 11-month-old daughter, the Buick has taken a back seat, unfortunately. I'd like to restore it someday and use it for parades, grocery shopping and car shows. In 22 years, I still have yet to see another four-door 1962 Special anywhere, and this includes going to Buick-only shows in New England.

 

Seriously underrated power-to-weight ratio potential in those CRXs no matter the trim level.

Glad to hear you're still alive. Crossing Capital Blvd. during morning rush hour is taking life in one's hands.

 

First car was a restored 1955 VW Beetle ragtop. (This was in the mid-80s; my dad had owned it since '59.) Loved that car, though it was missing a few things... like turn signals, a gas gauge, seat belts, and dependable brakes. When I was 17 I got hit by an uninsured driver who ran a red light, totaling my car.

I spent the next several months driving my dad's second car... a 1967 Porsche 912. Really fun little car -- comfortable, great looking, awesome to drive... except the carburetor was a piece of shit that no one could get properly adjusted. I'd drive it at night and every time I would shift it would backfire, shooting flame out of the tailpipe dramatically enough to light up the neighborhood. Mechanically the thing was kind of a nightmare.

 

Cousin had a Fiero. What a pile of shit that thing was.
I would love to find a nice, used Cobra Convertible. One that hasn't been messed with. Lady here in town that owns a body shop has a mint mid 90's white/tan top Cobra Convertible and the day she puts it up for sale, I'll be there with cash in hand.

 

I'm admittedly not a big fan of the new Challenger.....but this thing looks phenomenal.

 

I know it will come as a shock to many here, but I was reckless and a bit of an asshole as a teenager.

My first car was a piece of shit, hand-me-down 1984 Chevy Cavalier hatchback -- silver with gray plaid cloth interior. That was my mom's daily driver since new and had everything under the sun go wrong with it. I'm pretty certain the Lemon Law was created because of my mother fighting GM when the head gaskets blew shortly after the warranty had expired in 1988, which I believe was about its 12th trip in for major work in four years. Meanwhile, Ford had just redesigned the Mercury Cougar the year before and I loved the styling. I begged her to get out of this car and go look at a new Cougar.

She kept it instead, and the car somehow soldiered on for three more years. When she bought a new Buick in 1991, the car was stored at my grandparents until I turned 16 and got my license. What better way to show your love for only child than to hand him this rolling turd. I had it totaled within a month of getting my license, sliding on wet leaves into a utility pole while going around a bend too fast. I was in a bunch of after school activities and my mom worked downtown, so me not getting another car is not an option. We couldn't agree on a replacement. She wanted me in some Ford Escort/Mercury Tracer/Compact whatever while I've always been fond of big boats -- still am. I found a 1979 Cadillac Coupe DeVille - vetoed by her. She found a ugly, dark blue, plaid interior Escort hatchback (I swear this woman didn't want me to have a date ever) - vetoed by me.

One Tuesday night, while we're leaving the local car dealer after yet another unsuccessful search, I spotted a two-tone 1987 Mercury Cougar in the back of the lot. I asked the salesman how much the car was going for and he said, "oh, probably five or six grand." The tippy top of our budget was about $3,500. This wasn't happening. So we get into my mom's Century, start backing out of the parking space and the salesman and manager come running out. "You're interested in the Cougar?" Yes, I said. "It's $3,900 but it has higher miles." They could have told me it had a family of bees living in the trunk and I wouldn't have cared. I still remember getting in, turning the key and seeing that green-on-green digital dash that was popular in the 80s and buttons for power windows and locks. I kept reaching under the seat for the lever to move the seat and couldn't find it. Then I bumped a toggle on the center console, a motor engaged and the seat moved. Holy hell! I'm getting a car with power seats! A month earlier, I was riding on shitty, ugly plaid with roll-down windows. It also had a factory stereo with tape deck and seven-band power graphic equalizer. To me, this was a Cadillac.

They agreed to $3,500 and my mom agreed to the car as long as it passed muster with our local mechanic - probably because she saw the look on my face. That car took me through two years of high school and my freshman year of college. I gave a friend of mine a ride home from band practice junior year and he liked it so much he found one of his own. Sadly, I sold that car to my step-brother, a much bigger and more reckless asshole. He totaled it. One of these days, I'll get another one.

 

Those were out at the same time as the original 240z - but it was the 510's that dominated racing. One helluva fun car!

 

A buddy of mine had a similar Cougar back in the day, and I thought it was the fanciest damn car ever.