I have a few regrets when it comes to my automotive loves–but, then again, too few to mention. I will anyway, though.
These regrets come in two flavors. Flavor one is the sweet deliciousness that lasts on my tongue of loves fondly remembered. My 1999 Corvette fixed-roof coupe fits squarely into this category.
Like most folks with a Y chromosome …
I could probably go on for pages about specic cars and specific opportunities missed, but really would miss the mark. The really big bullseye.
And that would be that for far too long i was smart,thoughtful, conservative, and intelligent. I didnt go buck wild and enjoy for myself various delightful and wonderful cars, motorcycles, planes, boats, etc. Oh, I'd look at them at the shows, drooling over fenders. But i didnt buy them. There were a few wild ones, like my 750H2. But far too many were CX500's, Cavaliers, and other cautious, safe, and soul suckingly dull machines.
My dad and I saw a DeTomaso Pantera once when I was about 14. He just looked at it longingly and said "I almost bought one of these. I married your mother instead".
It took me a long time to understand why both things couldn't happen, but I never lost that part of me that said I wouldn't pass on something as awesome as a Pantera.
mazdeuce wrote: My dad and I saw a DeTomaso Pantera once when I was about 14. He just looked at it longingly and said "I almost bought one of these. I married your mother instead". It took me a long time to understand why both things couldn't happen, but I never lost that part of me that said I wouldn't pass on something as awesome as a Pantera.
I did pass on the Pantera and bought the Miata. Like I said, no regrets there! Dodged a bullet. Nice looking bullet, but still...
I need to buy a Ducati already...
Also, this relates to a favorite art book of mine:
Photographs Not Taken https://www.amazon.com/dp/0983231613/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_hZo9ub0JYYDGG https://www.amazon.com/dp/0983231613/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_hZo9ub0JYYDGG
All about missed shots or deliberately not taken.
Word.
Ya know what I'm sayin'?
All the cars and projects that I have missed are probably in farbetter handa. So i get to enjoy seeing them but not have to worry about taking car of them. Only one I wish i could have snagged would be the mercury comet with the cyclone package. That car was beautiful.
Selling this is my biggest
Not having an Alfa Romeo in the stable. Keeping an eye out for just the right GTV6 to remedy this.
"I feel like the Vette and I dated, parted amicably, then found out her new boyfriend totally got her to do some freaky stuff that I never even thought to ask about."
Quotes like this are why I know this forum is my home....
I think I do have a regret. Being a marque slave for so long. My brand was my brand, and it was like they were my favorite college football team. I was a Triumph Guy, and then a BMW Guy, and then a VW Guy. I've driven a lot of different stuff, but never really owned/lived with some of the best cars of my generation.
I think I only realized this last week when Mr.K died. A car guy my age that's never owned an original Z? Or even something like a clapped-out Z31? I'm an idiot. If I could do it over, I'd change it up more often and try to sample as much as I could of everything that's out there.
When I first got married and we bought a hose at 21 years old, a work colleague needed to sell some cars to help pay for his future wedding. So the final deal was he offered me his Sunbeam Tiger for $750.00. This was about 1975, my daily driver was a reliable '71 MGB (still have it) and I didn't want to give up my one car garage to project car. Boy, was that a big mistake !!!
KillerB wrote: When I first got married and we bought a hose at 21 years old,
It's only proper to get married before buying yourself a hose.
Trading my 1975 Formula 400 for a 1965 T bird. Yes the 75 has 225K on it been driven across the country 2x and to FLA 6 or 7 times. IT was clapped out. The T bird was in excellent condition. A couple points off being a show car and I loved and cared for it for many years eventually passing it along to some one else in as good or better condition than I got it. Lots of very different types of fun was had in both cars. Loved both cars but I have never wanted the 65 back. On the other hand I at least once a month I spend some time searching for a "replacement" 75 formula 400.
KillerB said:When I first got married and we bought a hose at 21 years old...
Hey whatever, that's one very liberal marriage!
Class X or Class Y? Bah! The road in front of my house has no sanctioning body.
I had a decent 1966 Datsun Roadster that I thought I would regret selling. Back in 1996 we were going through some lean income years and I sold the Datsun to pay a few bills and put the money towards a piano so my 1st grade son can start taking lessons. My wife kept telling me I would regret it some day but she didn't tell me not to sell it.
My son played a few other instruments through the end of high school and still plays a French horn in his church Orchestra today.
My high school daughter has played for 9 years and is in percussion in her high school marching band along with Orchestra and Jazz band. She is one of those kids I have to ask her to stop practicing as it is late and I'm going to bed.
In the end I helped foster the musical talents of my two kids - Datsun's come and go but I only had a few years to mold these two knuckleheads.
Oh man. I wouldn't know where to start.
There's the 289 Cobra that I passed on in 1969- $3,500. Or how about the Lamborghini 400GT for similar money? Then there is the 68 Roadrunner that I sold to my brother for peanuts, who then beat the crap out of it and ruined the car.
Don wins this thread. Who else had the opportunity to pass on a Cobra?
I regret not buying a Henna Red '88 M3 in '05 for $5500. It had all the typical mods, H&R/bilsteins, swaybars, full supersprint exhaust, plus an Autopower rollbar. That M3 today is easily worth $30k.
Instead I bought an '88 944 Turbo S, that I also regret selling...
My regret was a nicely kept, but by no means perfect, Lancia Fulvia Zagato. Funky little Italian hatch that I just did not find attractive looking until long after I passed on it. I would still love me some Italian V4
In reply to JG Pasterjak :
If you get this Chance again, GO FOR IT
It's Only Freaky the First Time.
I don’t regret buying my urs6, but I definitely regret how I treated it. I bought it before I went off to college, and cut corners on a lot of the repairs in an attempt to save money.
I’m finally in a spot where I can afford to put money into it, but undoing all of my old mistakes and catching up on deferred maintenance is killing me
You'll need to log in to post.
