G_Body_Man wrote:
Woody wrote:
Here it is on the day that I bought it for $900.
What a beauty. 289, right?
Beauty? No, but yes, 289. It had just about every available, early-production option, prior to the release of the GT and Deluxe (Pony) interior. It was on the bubble between the 64 1/2 and 65 cars, with some features that would normally be found on one or the other. Every option besides front floors, that is, but I took care of that.
Not my car, but exatly like it. 1996 Jaguar Vanden Plas. Got it when I was 16. I was a very spoiled kid. My favorite thing about it was it had real woodgrain airplane trays in the backs of the front seats. Four months later, I decided to run it into a driveway embankment.
Claff
Reader
1/14/15 12:16 p.m.
Learned to drive in dad's '74 El Camino. Drove that for a while and in the summer of '85 he let me use his '73 Corvette convertible.
Then reality set in and I had to get my own car. Dad found a '78 Civic he was going to make into an ice race car but I talked him out of it. We threw an engine in it, painted it from original brown to Corvette yellow (second one in this thread) and it was mine. Perfect car for a 17 year old: slow enough to not get into trouble but small enough that slow felt fast. Tires were $20 each at Sears and I could squeak 40 MPG out of it when I wasn't trying to be a stage rally driver going to school and back.
My camera in 1986 sucked
Astute Honda aficionados will notice that the front bumper and turn signals are not correct 1978 parts. The bumper was actually from an early '80s Accord I think, cut in half and narrowed to fit. It was plastic and indestructible. Me and a buddy used to go to supermarket parking lots late Sunday nights and see how far we could punt shopping carts.
This was the first of four Civics of this generation I went through, and one of 16 that our family went through total. They were great, simple, cheap cars.
lateapexer wrote:
First car I owned 1957 Plymouth Belvedere, 318 2 barrel carb with push button automatic, $45 and $8 to insure. Gas oil Transmission fluid and coolant fill up at every other stop.
That's funny. I inherited a '67 Belvedere II hardtop. My grandparents bought it new, but by the time I got it, I was doing gas, oil and transmission fluid at every stop. Coolant was never an issue. Still, it's the only car that I've ever regretted selling (for $300 with a leaky gas tank...).
My first car was a 97 Lumina just like this one.
It was reliable which was a relief because I really needed a reliable car then.
(crappy craiglist photo, the only one I have) The first car that I drove regularly, 1978 Buick Century. It was a company car from my dad's business. The salesman that drove it retired and I got to use it until it got sold. This photo was April 1984. My buddies and I were headed out for our first road trip in, it an overnighter to the family hunting cabin. The speed limit was 55 back then. I set the cruise at 60 and was one of the fastest cars on the road. When we came upon a state trooper I backed down to 55 and was still over taking him. I said screw him and passed on by. He gave us some stink eye but let us continue. When we got home we were telling my dad the story and he says" I forgot to tell you the speedo reads 10 mph low, you are lucky". It was a good car that was fun on gravel.
I don't have any pics on the computer from when I got it but this is my first car, an 86 Monte Carlo the last time it saw daylight before being moved into my garage from my parent's house.
Mine was an ex cab. No aesthetic appeal at all. But I did nose and deck it before it died in a blaze of glory!
This is Grendel my 18th birthday present to myself. $750 worth of awesome little iron duke/autotragic fiero goodness.
6 weeks later she had a blown head gasket. I wasn't knowledgeable enough to fix it. Sold her for $350 to a Fiero club member who brought her back to life.
1987 Nissan Maxima GXE. I spent way too much money on those wheels and tires. If I could go back and do it again I would tell myself to learn how to drive a stick and skip the auto trans.
Stolen picture from the internet.
I had one of these just spray bombed bright blue, with 255s on the back. Bought it when I was 17 as a /6 with a three on the tree converted to a floor shift. Trashed the trans due to cheap floor shift conversion done by the previous owner. Swapped in a 318/727 combo with a 4bbl and a 280! duration cam and headers. Way too much cam for an otherwise stock engine, valve float at 4 grand but 19 yr old me thought it was cool and it backfired flames.
Wish I still had it
Sonic
SuperDork
1/14/15 7:24 p.m.
This, purchased in 1994 when I was 15. Lots of work since then. After a few years of thinking about it, I'm actually going to sell it in the spring. 1960 MGA 1600, as it looks now, picture from this past summer.
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Great little truck, makes me smile just looking at this picture.
I was a senior in high school when I bought my own car an 87 944. Drove it for two years, blew the motor fixed it myself then sold it before going off to college. I regret every day that I never autocrossed that car.
In reply to Sonic:
I know you've said you have given it a couple years of thought but I still regret selling my first car. That one would be very hard to let go of.
Similar to this, mine had a half vinyl top making the rear windows small "opera" windows.
Badly rusted quarters, though.
Loved that car.
In reply to OldGray320i:
You had a boat-tail Riviera? That's one of my favourite cars of all time!
1984 Caprice. Got sub-10mpg. But I had a lot of fun in that car. Then I sold it and bought
1998 Saturn SC2
Kept that for like 7 years, kinda wish I still had it.
Both pictures stolen from the innernets
In reply to cmcgregor:
Nice! I have the Caprice's little cousin, the Cutlass.
1973 Mazda RX-2 4-door sedan, yellow. Mine looked just like this, but had the original steel wheels with wheel covers.
G_Body_Man wrote:
In reply to OldGray320i:
You had a boat-tail Riviera? That's one of my favourite cars of all time!
I thought it was kind of cool then, but in 85 it gave way to my first Z-car.
I should have never sold it, but when you're 18 or 19 and you get hooked on sporty cars, a 12-yr old luxo bomb was a bit of an afterthought.
There's a guy in town has one, but donked it. Clean, neat car otherwise, and I think I've seen all of two on the road in the last 20 years.
Claff wrote:
Me and a buddy used to go to supermarket parking lots late Sunday nights and see how far we could punt shopping carts.
Oh the memories. My friends and I did that in the Riv a couple times. The local Kroger (where I was employed!) had a big parking lot, surrounded by some concrete drainage ditches of pretty good size.
Needless to say, we'd get them up to about 15 mph or so to see how many end over ends we could make them do until they met their fate at the bottom.
Here's mine, a '75 Firebird 350 with an auto trans that only had 1st and 3rd but sometime 2nd. Put some big Bias ply's on the back on Cragars, it was a fun car for a 16 year old.
Firebird