Author Topic: Your First Car (Read 1820 times)

Fyre · « **Reply #45 on:** August 27, 2002, 06:08:40 PM »

My first "car" was a 1988 Plymouth Horizon. The color vaguely resembled candy-apple red, the front bumper was bent, the back bumper, wait, there was no back bumper, the interior cloth was hanging from the ceiling, it had 98,000 miles on it, would go 85 mph (theoretically), and had 4 cylinders. I drove it for 9 months before the transmission fell out it while I was driving down the highway. It didn't even have an 8-track player in it....just an old am/fm radio. The heater worked great, though.

SFRT - Frenchy · « **Reply #46 on:** August 27, 2002, 06:23:22 PM »

1982 Opel Manta, 2.0 135HP, rear drive, 4 speed manual. Same body/color as on the picture. Look so old now and looked so cool at the time ... sheeesh!
A ball to drive in Rally racing... I was racing it a lot on unofficial races in the countryside. I ended up blowing up the engine. I had the longest "jump" record at the time at "the bridge" hehehe

Ahhhhh ... being young and stupid w/ur first car ... priceless.

The Manta was a ture pleasure to "power drift", pretty stable and "forgiving". Got me a couple of girls at the time while keeping my body repair bills low.

goaly · « **Reply #47 on:** August 27, 2002, 06:33:47 PM »

My 1st car was a 1976 Chevey Monte Carlo I bought it in 1979... All black, 454 with a 4 barrel. It had a hood that was about eight feet long. It would smoke the tires at the drop of a hat. I sold it on a Monday, the kid lost control and totaled it Tuesday night.

From that I went to the first brand new car I ever had.... A 1980 Pinto. LOL!

TPIguy · « **Reply #48 on:** August 27, 2002, 06:37:23 PM »

I'm still drivin my first car. I bought my 89 iroc-z in 96 for $4300. 6 years and 26k miles later I still drive it everyday. I've done a few mods but it still only runs high 13's in the 1/4. It handles much better now than it used to though.

Overall its been a pretty good car. Not the most reliable, but cheap and easy to fix.

eskimo2 · « **Reply #49 on:** August 27, 2002, 07:59:24 PM »

1970 VW Super Beetle, $600. I painted the doors, hood, trunk and fenders black and white 6’ checkers, all else red.

1 of 14 bugs that I have owned 1957 - 1974.
Also 7 Karman Ghias, 59-74 (some convertibles
7 Busses, 63 – 72 (63, 64, 65 Deluxe w big sunroof_
1 Squareback,
1 Fastback
1 Rabbit convertible 1982
1 Quantum
1 sandrail

1 1965 Mercedes
4 Saabs 72 – 84
7 Volvos 60 – 86
1 Fiat Spyder 1970
1 Fiat 500, 1960
2 Fiat 128s
1 Audi 4000

1 Mazda RX-7
1 Toyota Corolla
1 Honda CVCC
1 Mazda pick-up

1 Chevy Monza
1 Chevy Luv
2 Dodge Darts (Batmobile)
3 Dodge vans
1 Ford 250
1 1954 Ford 4 – door

and probably some others…

eskimo

Moose1 · « **Reply #50 on:** August 27, 2002, 08:58:19 PM »

Ah, my first car...got it in 1981, before I could even actually drive it. My dad sprung for it.

It was...(drumroll)...a screaming yellow 1976 Datsun B210 two-door. Yup, the famous "Honey Bee", except it didn't have the lame black "Honey Bee" graphics. It was just...yellow. Very yellow. Lemon yellow. And when it was clean, the driver's side door *almost* matched the rest of the car.

It wasn't a rustbucket, aside from a little body cancer starting up in the wheelwells--those '70s riceburners were hell for that. Mechanically it was very sound, with a 1300ish cc (I think) motor hooked to a four-speed transmission. No A/C, no power anything except brakes, black vinyl seats (and weren't THOSE wonderful in a hot Virginia summer), crap-ass AM/FM radio.

The thing had about 16 gerbilpower--OK, maybe more like 50-60 hp, whatever. I found a list a while back that had 0-60 times on it...B210 4-speed was good for 17+ seconds to 60, 21ish for the 1/4 mile. Whee. The curb weight on the registration was 1800 pounds. This thing was made out of fancy tinfoil--trust me, my SA was REAL good in that car. Most of the time, that is.

The B210 got me through my first year of driving, but tragically, in February 1983, I had a brainfart and pulled out in front of a Ford Courier pickup doing 40 mph. He clipped the front end, smashed the battery and radiator, put a "V" in the front bumper and moved it over a foot to the right, and shattered the headlights and grille. Amazingly, my dad got it fixed and back on the road, but sold it and got me a 1978 Datsun 510. Even more amazingly, I didn't get a scratch. (The 510's still running in my hometown...tough bastard of a car.)

First one I ever bought for myself was a brand-new '88 Toyota Celica GT-S coupe. Not a super-fast car (2.0L, 135 hp) but good-looking and fun. I traded it in on a '91 Eclipse GSX Turbo...now THAT thing kicked butt. 195 hp out of 2 liters, full-time AWD, it was a WRX 10 years before the WRX came out.

Now I drive a big wheezing Dodge Ram pickup. God bless the Amurrican pushrod V-8.

PS: I always wanted my best friend's first car...his parents' surplus '66 Fury III. Faded copper paint, 318 V8 4-bbl, pretty fair condition all around. You could park my B210 on the Fury's hood, just about. We used to joke that it'd seat 8 and sleep 6 (2 on each seat + 2 in the trunk). There was just something about that aircraft carrier of a car that I loved. Maybe it was the fact that (a) it had working A/C and (b) I didn't have to twist my fat bellybutton into a pretzel to fit in it.

PPS: I found this picture of a '76 B210 on the Web. Mine was much cuter. And yellower.

Hangtime · « **Reply #51 on:** August 27, 2002, 09:54:25 PM »

Eat yer hearts out. This was my second car, got it for 175 bucks. She had the J2 option.. three two-barrel Rochester carbs and special intake manifold, air cleaner, throttle linkage and head gaskets. The compression ratio was raised to a lofty 10.0:1 from the standard 9.5:1 ratio, which was fairly high. All Factory. Pumped that 371 V8 from 270 hp to a lil over 300.

She'd do a hunnered and thirty, no sweat a'tall. The beast had power everything, even auto headlight dimmers, and an air-bag suspension, and a back seat that that was more comfy than the big red couch. Some awful fond memories of that car.. I mourn the day I traded her..

1957 Olds Super 88..

..for this... my third car... a 68 Torino 390 GT. Collected 3 speeding tickets the first week I had it. Damn thing would just flat out MOVE. Comfy car, for a Ford, did my first 'coast to coast' in it. No trouble punchin it up to 120mph+ .. it made a damn good roadcar. Miss this one too.. but not as much as I miss that Super88.

eaglemkIII · « **Reply #52 on:** August 27, 2002, 10:21:25 PM »

my first car was an mr2, i just love that car too much that i didnt wanted to sell it so i gave it to my dad (he ask for it ). I liked that car so much i bougt another mr2 91 turbo that is now 3 years on the shop

(damn mechanics) now i have a subaru impreza

Cobra · « **Reply #53 on:** August 27, 2002, 10:24:50 PM »

'75 Cutlass Supreme, 350/4 Barrel

Cobra

-tronski- · « **Reply #54 on:** August 28, 2002, 12:45:14 AM »

in 1986....

A 1975 brown and gold Mark 2 Ford Escort

Tronsky

capt. apathy · « **Reply #55 on:** August 28, 2002, 07:12:31 AM »

'74 plymoth fury, fairly ugly, fairly fast, very heavy.

my brother built the engine up for me (he had totaled my actual first car after I'd driven it less than 1 mile).

I got a whole 2 miles to the gallon. I don't think it even had a carborator, just a monkey under the hood throwing buckets of gas into the engine.

Kieran · « **Reply #56 on:** August 28, 2002, 07:20:43 AM »

'72 Chevy Impala I got by trading a motorcycle I'd won at the county fair. It was a piece of crap, but it got me through that first year! After that, it took Mighty1 through his first year in a car.

lazs2 · « **Reply #57 on:** August 28, 2002, 08:44:45 AM »

Hey hank! Can't believe... My second or third car was a 57 chev strippo... I couldn't afford a hot small block for it so I went to the wreking yard and found a 58 J2 olds with tri power... I shoehorned it in and used a "transdapt" adapter to go to the chevy drive line... no back seat... 2 dr post.. car was pretty quick and sounded really neat.. People in the know would look confused when they heard that big olds engine with shaved heads rumbling in that little chevy coupe. It was a real sleeper street warrior. Also had a 47 chev coupe with a J2 motor and BM 4 speed hydro. Valve train was weak in the old big block olds motors tho.
lazs

gofaster · « **Reply #58 on:** August 28, 2002, 08:52:46 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by eskimo2

2 Dodge Darts (Batmobile)

eskimo

That's hilarious! I can see you being a hit with the chicks in that baby. That's some pretty creative car tuning you got going on there.

gofaster · « **Reply #59 on:** August 28, 2002, 09:04:42 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Karnak
'77 Ford Fiesta.

Had it for all of three weeks. What a piece of crap that was.

That was my first Ford. After my second Ford there isn't ever going to be a third.

I now own a Toyota.

My wife had a mid-80's Thunderbird - the first generation it was brought back by Ford. I can still hear Jackie Stewart's voice in the commercials talking about the aerodynamic properties of the styling alongside the rear fender and trunk providing downforce (total bunk, which goes to show that race car drivers will do whatever their corporate sponsors tell them to do).

We called that car "The First and The Last", because it taught us to never trust Ford ever again. That lesson bore us well when we avoided buying the Ford Explorer when it first hit the streets in the early '90s. Three things are guaranteed in life: death, taxes, and Ford doing a corporate cover-up of a faulty design because it'll cost more to fix than to settle in court.

We now own a 4runner and an Xterra.