BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...

Subject: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: Bobert
Date: 04 Sep 10 - 10:42 PM

Well, well, well...

Seems that the "summer doldrums have set in so I fugurated that the ol' hillbilly oughtta get somethin' going so...

...here's the deal (only two rules):

1. What ***one car*** that ***you have owned*** do you wish you still had???

2. Reread Rule #1...

Me??? I'll throw mine into the mix later...

BTW, and stories about them cars will, as per usual, appreciated... I mean, anyone can type "'66 Cuda" and call it guits... Stories about cars are fun...

BTW, Part B.... All posts here will be appreciated...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 05 Sep 10 - 12:06 AM

My Subaru Justy. Small but with all-wheel drive. I used to joke that it was my roller skate and that some day it would grow up to be a real car. However, it would probably be hard to find parts for it now.

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: Ebbie
Date: 05 Sep 10 - 12:07 AM

Wal, My '80 Plymouth Champ, of course. Hatchback. Stick shift, 7 gears - no 'overdrive', more like an underdrive. I used to say that I could climb a wall with that car. The least gas mileage I ever got was 36 miles to the gallon and regularly got 42. It was small but just the right size for me and a passenger although I have hauled 4 people and our luggage over the Cascades- that's when I got just 36 miles ttg.

I brought it to Alaska and quickly decided that since I was going to be living downtown I would use public transport instead and besides it had 103,000 miles on the engine. Plus the parking situation in Juneau was horrendous. So I sold it. For a couple of years I saw it from time to time but not for a long time now.

I still miss it. I haven't owned a car since. 22 years ago.

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: catspaw49
Date: 05 Sep 10 - 12:20 AM

Funny story or fav car?    Wanna' hear about rebuilding an almost new Vette just for the helluvs' it or a funny tale of getting some tail? Wanna' know why I was described as an "American Original" or about selling a clapped out beater to an excited young kid? Those were 4 very different cars but I'd take each of them back (for verty different reasons--LOL).

Maybe I'll come back and tell them all..............


Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: Gurney
Date: 05 Sep 10 - 01:38 AM

My first car, a 1938 AC open tourer. It broke my heart and bank at the time, trying to run a 20year-old car as an only car, something was always going wrong with it. -But it really was a handsome big brute, a classic with triple SU carbs and a straight-6 alloy motor. I learned a lot about cars in that time.
I scrapped it. Must have been mad, looking back.
Replaced it with a Mini.

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Sep 10 - 01:50 AM

I guess this goes back to the thread on Middle Age Crisis Cars. Bobert, aren't you a little too old to be having a middle age crisis?

The car I wish I kept is the same as what I described in the other thread - a 1999 two-door, red Honda Civic that reminded me of a lovely woman I never got the courage to ask to go out with me.

I bought a very practical four-door silver 2006 Civic from the estate of a dead priest. It was too good a deal to pass up, but I would have liked a red 2006 two-door a lot better.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: ragdall
Date: 05 Sep 10 - 03:39 AM

I still miss my '77 GM Suburban. Great ride. With the back seat down could carry a full sheet of plywood. Could comfortably sleep two adults and two children.

Ex-husband said if we ever split up he'd get the car and I'd get the kids. He was a man of his word. I still have the kids, the Suburban rusted out long ago.   

rags

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 05 Sep 10 - 04:59 AM

1936 Ford Model C
1956 Riley Pathfinder
1963 Bedford Dormobile caravanette
1965 Volvo PV 544

There have been so many, as I only once bought a new car, in 45 years of driving, I've owned lots of old bangers over the years.

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: Bobert
Date: 05 Sep 10 - 08:57 AM

Well, first of all, I think I'm past that mid-life crisis stuff... Kinda glad I never went thru it...

As fir me??? I would have to say it was my 1949 Ford Panel truck... Yep, it was my band's equipement truck and then when the band broke up in 1970 I bought out everyone's share, built the innards into a camper. loaded the dog, the wife and then geetar in it and went off to see America... Went all over the country from right coast to left coast and everywhere in between...

Wish I still had that ol' Ford...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 05 Sep 10 - 10:21 AM

I don't wish I'd kept any of 'em. I drive 'em 'til they're dead. Who wants dead cars? I've never bought a new car because I got tired of the one I was driving. I've bought 'em 'cause the one I was driving had just been towed to the junkyard.

However, if I were a motorhead who liked to work on cars, I'd like to have my 1963 Chevy Impala SS back. In reality, I wouldn't take it back if you gave it to me. Restoring it and keeping it in good running order would require both a live-in mechanic and more money than I have.

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: Newport Boy
Date: 05 Sep 10 - 10:57 AM

Our first car - a 1929 Austin 7 special, registration NV 111. Bought for £52 in London in 1958 and worth at least half of that!

I didn't know a lot about old cars, but it only took a couple of days to find out that there was no effective clutch. The operating fork was so worn that bracing myself against the seat and pushing with full force would just make it slip when in gear. As for engaging first when idling - forget it. Fortunately, it had a good starter and battery, so I rolled up to traffic lights, slipped it into first and swiched off. When the light turned green, heave down on the clutch, push the starter button and away to go!

Took about a week to realise it had no effective brakes - emergency stop was not something the car understood, particularly downhill. Luckily, it was quite a narrow car and I could usually squeeze through the widening gap left by panicking drivers of new cars.

Setting off into the West End to Ballads & Blues one Saturday evening, a guy pulled alongside at traffic lights and said the rear wheel was wobbling. He was right, and I drove slowly to the local garage and said I thought the halfshaft had started to fail. The mechanic said they didn't do that - they just broke and the wheel fell off. He told me to push it over to the side (easier than using the non-clutch) and he would look at it. Anne sat behind the wheel, I pushed - and the wheel fell off! I carried a spare halfshaft after that, and twice replaced it at the side of the road.

Leaving London in 1960, I filled the tank up for the first time (it took almost 4 gallons!) checking carefully with the mahogany dipstick notched with 1/4 gallon marks. Poor thing wasn't used to a full tank, and the SU electric fuel pump alongside the tank decided to stop every 50 miles. Pulling onto the verge to encourage it to work again (a sharp blow with a hammer did the trick) I managed to split the silencer on a rock. We had a much more sporty exhaust note for the rest of the journey.

Sadly, a young family and lack of money to restore it meant that we had to sell it in 1963 - for £75, including a few better parts I had acquired.

Seriously, I would love to have it now - I have the time and money to make it work as it should.

I will post a photo when I find it - note the pressurised radiator (a non-standard feature). If there were any warning signs of steam after a fast run, you simply operated the soda-syphon cap to reduce the pressure - simplicity itself.

Phil

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: gnu
Date: 05 Sep 10 - 11:29 AM

74 Bug with 6.5" tires. That little Yellow bug would go anywhere. Backwoods roads. With studs in the rear tires, sic and snow were to be laughed at. I could get it up to 92mph on the flat and that little sucker could corner.

Only thing I didn't like was snapping pedal cables. Miserable job in the winter.

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 05 Sep 10 - 12:05 PM

'34 Studebaker Dictator Coupe. Great car, but needed electrical work, and I was young and broke.

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Sep 10 - 01:03 PM

I had a '56 VW bus with a '59 engine...36 mighty horses!(emergency gas tank UNDER the front seat held 2 gallons...you flipped a lever). Yes, you had to watch that #3 cylinder...it overheated & burned easily)
I turned the rear area into an office/bedroom. I cut off a wooden desk and put just the 3 drawer pedestal section just inside the fold-out rear door. I turned one rear seat backwards and found plastic seat from some old sports car which I jammed against the wall opposite the rear doors- then hinged another seat (backless) against the engine compartment, making a U shaped seating/conference area. (that seat could be folded down, or left up, with storage area under it).I could thus sleep/nap/rest/study ...or entertain small groups.
   Once, after a Young Democrats meeting in Wichita, someone suggested we all go out to a Mexican restaurant on the other side of town..(it wasn't a BIG town)...and I volunteered to take everyone....all 12 (or 13?) of us. We put 3 in the front seat with me..(I had to warn the girl next to me that when I used that floor shift, I was NOT getting intentionally personal). The other 8 sat in various patterns from the rear door to just behind the driver, and off we went! I don't remember much about the restaurant, but the social interaction on the trip was memorable!
This was the VW bus that I once parked at the university in a space 2 inches shorter than itself! I saw a small parking space, and since VW buses of that vintage had almost no front end, I decided to try. Now, I could usually get that bus into a spot in 2 back & forths...but this was tight! I'd ease back gently until I felt a teeny bump, then hard right and forward until something audible said 'stop'...took about 6-7 tries. When I got out, I saw the rear door was 'just' touching the point of the hood of some 58 Chevvy behind me,...and my front bumper, which had come loose earlier and was wired on with bailing wire, had sagged. So...each time I went forward it had slipped UNDER the bumper of the car in front! There I was...parked in a space 2" shorter than my bus!
   When I got back from class, there was a nasty note on my window from the car in back.

I hauled more 'interesting' stuff in that vehicle for various friends....*sigh*

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: Newport Boy
Date: 05 Sep 10 - 03:14 PM

As promised, here's the photo.

Phil

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: Bobert
Date: 05 Sep 10 - 03:53 PM

Nice Austin, Newporter... I was thinking it would look more like a Princess (taxi) rather than a roadster...

I had a 60 VW Panel, Bill... Had doors on both sides and what is known as a rear "barn door"... I drove it for about 10 years but with a 1776 Cu.In. engine and 2 barrel Holley so it had some decent power... I also was racing my '65 VW Karmann Ghia mini-stocker and used the bus to pull the race car (on trailer) to the race track...

Sold it to a boy near Winchester right around Gulf I war and he camo'e it in Desert Strom colors and still drives it to shows... Thought about it this mornin' becayse today is the Bug Out at Manassass Speedway and he drives it there just about every year... When I sold it to him it was with an understanding that if he ever tires of it, he'll give me first shot at buying it back... Don't think I need it any more...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: kendall
Date: 05 Sep 10 - 03:57 PM

A 1960 Mercedes Benz 220 S

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: ClaireBear
Date: 05 Sep 10 - 04:59 PM

My wonderful first car, a 1967 Triumph 2000 saloon car (named Aengus) that I bought for $500.

Now, I'd know how to care for it properly.

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: open mike
Date: 05 Sep 10 - 07:37 PM

the '56 ford pick up 3/4 ton was a classic i should have kept and
re-built into a classis show car/truck. it was yellow and i called it the yellow duck. it had a mule hood ornament.

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: gnu
Date: 05 Sep 10 - 08:10 PM

Kendall... "A 1960 Mercedes Benz 220 S".

No oil filter? AC that made snow flakes on full tilt? Lots of wind up torque but so heavy it hugged the road cornered like a dream at high speed?

"Every Mercedes is made to race." What a motto!

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: Bobert
Date: 05 Sep 10 - 10:16 PM

Hey, Mercedes makes some decent stuff... I had a, ohhhhhh, maybe '80 or '81 SL and she would rock... I mean, 100 mph was nuthin'... Took my then mother-in-law in it one night down south of Thronburg, Va. on Old Rt. 1 and there's a stretch comin' into Thornburg that is real straight and at that time of night??? No one out there... So I looked over at her and said, "Hey, ya' ever been 125 miles and hour in a car?"...

So she says ,"No"... So we was doin' about 60 at the time of the question and her response and next thing ya' know it, like just maybe 8 or so seconds later, we was rollin' into Thornburg that night right at a "buck thirty" or so...

Fine, fine car...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 04:53 AM

I wish I still had my C series FIAT 124 Sport Coupe - it was with a mecco working out of a farm building when the Thatcherite 80s recession bit and then he lost the workspace and I didn't even have the money to get it towed away. I think the farmer put it in a hole in the ground and ploughed earth over the top. On a bad night I can still nearly cry about that.

Or my 2.6 litre (straight 6) Series 2A 109 inch Landrover with county body. Peak torque at about 1,000 rpm! That series never had synchro on first or second and it was reckoned the toughest Landrover gearbox until the recent ones designed for a V8. Unusually mine ate its input shaft bearings so the shafts dropped out of alignment and I was left with Low top and High top to get home - no reverse either. It did about 10 to the gallon on a good day.

Or my father's Rover 105s (basically the same 2.6 litre side valve straight 6 but with twin carbs) it would hum (a lovely deep hum) along at nearly 100. Not bad for almost two tons of portable London club, leather and walnut.

On the other hand I don't really miss my split-screen Morris Minor - the sort that originally had the headlights in the grille surround and a 918cc side valve engine that I think made about 22 bhp. Mine had grown the intermediate series front wings so it had four headlights (just wire them up in parallel, never mind a relay) and a later 948cc overhead valve engine with a very very radical head, and it revved to about infinity, but it had been given an A30 gearbox after eating its own one (to save changing the floor panel to get a remote in) and the A30 box has a shorter tailshaft so a man with a hacksaw had cut the A30 propshaft and the Minor one in half and welded them together with a bit of sleeving to make the propshaft longer - but he had never bothered to balance it so at about 65 mph it was like driving a kangaroo but it smoothed out at about 80 (basically went past the resonant frequency) and it would go on to nearly 100 screaming its nuts off (through a hybrid 2 inch exhaust mostly off a Cortina that came out under the driver's door and hardly included silencing).

The speedo showed about half true speed (because the speedo drive in the A30 box was a different gearing for a different speedo). It had a front antiroll bar off a Wolsely 1500 (the Riley 1.5s were thicker but scarcer in scrapyards) but the killer was that it still had the original brakes - 5 inch drums all round and both front and rear were leading/trailing shoes. Stopping was fun. Hell, slowing down was fun, but occasionally essential on 4.00*14 inch crossply tyres.

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: kendall
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 07:58 AM

That 220 s was quite under powered but it felt like I was putting on a custom made suit. I drove it 800 miles on a trip without a back problem. The only thing I have had that came close was a 1968 Chrysler New Yorker. It would eat any of the three Mercedes cars I have owned, including the 380 SL. Of course, it had 440 cubic inches.

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: MarkS
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 09:06 AM

1996 Chevrolet Impala Super Sport. Best product ever to come out of Detroit.

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: olddude
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 06:30 PM

All of mine at that time frame were POS's so I really don't miss them except my 1951 Plymouth that I bought in 1971. Loved that car, cost me 50 bucks

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: Bobert
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 07:53 PM

Man, there was a time when $50 would get you a decent set of wheels... Bought a 51 Pontiac fir $25 that only needed the battery charged and the points set... Traded it even up fir a 49 Stude Commander that needed nuthin'...

Now the car that I wished I still had "use" of was actually owned by Ford Motor Company... It was a '64 AC Cobra that at age 16 I convinced my dad that he should let me drag race it on the weekends as kinda a promo thing... My dad was allready involved with another drag car, a '64 Ford Galaxie with a 427/2X4s called "Honkin' Henry" and he pitched the idea to his bosses and they gave me the green light to drag race it at tracks where Honkin' Henry was goin' to be doin' exhibition runs and so I became the undercard and would run against the local Vette "Top Dog" and whup it while Honkin' Hnery was a bad a race car as there was... Might of fact, after the summer of '64, Ford sold Honkin' Henry to some guy on the west coast and he took it right off the trailer and won the Summer Nationals with it at Pamona Beach Dragway in California...

Me??? One night after winning yet another throphy at Old Dominion Speedway I got into it on the real roads with a '63 Chevy 409 Super Sport and got busted doin' in excess of 100 mph... That was the end of that little experiement... Lost my license for 6 months...

Then my dad asked me what kinda car I wanted when I got my license back and I said a Mustang... Got a Poppi Red '65 Mustang... Hated it... Thought it looked stupid so I asked him if I could get a Falcon... So we ordered one of only 8 (eight) '65 Falcons to be built with a 289/271 motor and a Borg Warner 4 speed... It was one badass Falcon... Turned high 12's/low 13s in the quarter mile... That is bad... But that car was also owned by.... You guessed it... Ford Motor Company as were all our cars back then...

I mean, if I could have a redo, I'd take the Falcon over the Cobra but since I started this thread and it has to be a car/truck that I have owned I'll stick with my '49 Ford Panel truck... 1/4 time??? Ohhhhhhh, about 25 seconds and maybe 48 mph!!! LOL...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: Mooh
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 08:34 PM

Not entirely sure it was real normal for a 20 year old to buy a Volvo, but in 1978 I bought a '74 Volvo four door sedan. Hands down the best car I ever had until the Toyota Rav4 I have now. All those other vehicles in between are largely forgetable, except maybe the '84 Dodge pickup.

That Volvo was a camper, a house, a storage unit, a fishing boat, a moving truck...I even slept in it a lot.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 02:32 AM

1936 'Morris 8'..

'66 GT 350 (Shelby Mustang)

'55 VW Convertible(First year they imported them here)

'72 Mercedes Benz 280 SE 4.5

'56 Ford Bus (Converted to a motor home)

..and a few more..but those were neat!

GfS

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: theleveller
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 06:18 AM

The very first car I had - a 1934 Lagonda Rapier 4-seater drophead. I sold it for £65 in 1967. Then a 1947 MG TC which I sold for £125. What must they be worth now?

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 07:04 AM

Oh my God. The TC upwards of £40K and the Lag maybe double that?

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: GUEST,Jon Dudley
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 07:27 AM

Confession time for a petrolhead -
1953 Split window Morris Minor convertible (£5.00)
1955 Austin A30 (free, paid only for the battery)
1964 Minivan (£125.00)
1963 Ford Anglia with 1500cc Cortina engine (£130.00)
1955 Mercedes 220s Ponton - (£100 with registration number PM1)
VW beetles - various - great characters
Volvo Amazons - various - great cars
Renault 4 lovely but rusty
Golf GTIs - various - great cars
Maserati Bi-Turbo - fun, expensive and unsaleable
Lexus GS 300 x 2 - reliable, reliable, dull
Mercedes G-Wagen - thirsty-gearbox went bang
Toyota Landcruiser Colorado- wonderful economical diesel
Subaru Iprezza WRX - People like me with grey beards should have 'em on the NHS
...and then there were the motorcycles....
and the really old stuff!

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: Bobert
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 08:01 AM

***One*** car, por favor!!!

B~ (who started the thread...)

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: GUEST,Jon Dudley
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 10:28 AM

Sorry squire...got a bit carried away...

Volvo Amazon 123GT then.

Leveller's Lagonda Rapier? you're right Richard...v.nice.
Bro-in-law has a Frazer Nash which is a bit tasty.

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 12:03 PM

Bobert: "***One*** car, por favor!!!"


...but I liked them all!....and I didn't even list them all.....

GfS

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 12:29 PM

My story is about that one that got away.

Our family owned, during my early teen years, a 1932 Plymouth coupe. Stick floor shift, really boxy looking four banger. I was looking forward to one day driving (if not outright being gifted) the car.

Here I am now, fifteen years old, sitting in that car every day running through the gears, only months away from my learners' permit. They sold the car! My family crushed my dreams!

What, you may ask, did they buy to replace my dream? A brand new blue Toyopet sedan. Never heard of a Toyopet? It was the forerunner to the beloved Toyota. My family had become one of the first families to own a Japanese import; you might say we were a pioneering family.

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: Becca72
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 01:09 PM

I've only owned 6 cars so far in my life and most of them were junk. However, my current car is a dream (2002 VW Passat 5-speed Turbo). I heard tell from the previous owner (my ex) that he got it up to 141mph. I haven't tested this myself, though. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: Bobert
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 01:16 PM

There is a reason for the one car rule and that is to prevent long lists of cars that folks have owned and challenge folks to do a little soul searchin'...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: Charmion
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 02:26 PM

My first car, a 1975 1300-cc VW Super Beetle. It was painted black with gold pin-stripe decoration, as much like the John Player Special as a VW Beetle can be like Formula 1 race car. I drove that car all over southwestern Germany with my friends hanging out the windows and the sun roof. "Look Ma, I'm Rommel! Alls I need is da field glasses!"

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 02:38 PM

1973 Mazda RX-3 red station wagon. A tiny gas-guzzler, but that bugger could really move with the Wankel Rotary engine under the hood.

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 03:11 PM

The RX4 was the roadburner.

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: theleveller
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 03:36 PM

"Leveller's Lagonda Rapier? you're right Richard...v.nice. "

If my memory serves me right, it was an Abbott bodied Tourer, 4 cylinder twin overhead cam engine (it had once had a supercharger but it had been removed), pre-selector gearbox and the accelerator was in the middle between the brake and clutch pedals. I believe that a similar model was the first car to ever do 100 miles in one hour at Le Mans.

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: cobra
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 06:28 PM

Seamus Kennedy wrote:-

"1973 Mazda RX-3 red station wagon. A tiny gas-guzzler, but that bugger could really move with the Wankel Rotary engine under the hood."...

And you know what Seamus, I don't think I ever did pay you for that ride from Boston to Quebec! Milky bars are on me next time.;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 08 Sep 10 - 02:57 AM

Yeah, Cobra - 5 hours, wasn't it? We were moving on.
Richard, the RX-3 could really shift too.
Because there wasn't much vibration from the rotary engine, you could be doing over 100 mph and getting speeding tickets before you wee aware of it.

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: romanyman
Date: 08 Sep 10 - 03:34 PM

my 76 chevy c10 stepside oh how i miss that lil truck id give any thing to get her back, but alas they guy i sold it to took it to spain where it still lives running propane gas bottles to various campsites out there

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: ClaireBear
Date: 08 Sep 10 - 03:43 PM

One of the things I adored about my Triumph 2000 is that it loved to go really fast, but it had a body shape that was, at a glance, so much like a bottom-of-the-line Datsun that it didn't LOOK like it was going fast.

I never got a ticket in that car, despite the odd 95-mile-an-hour adventure. And 95 was nowhere near the top of its potential, I'm sure. Ah, Aengus, I do miss you...

It also had lovely comfy velvety seats, the front ones of which folded down totally flus with the back seat to make a quite comfy double bed. Great for camping (and drive-in movies). They don't make 'em like that anymore.

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: Slag
Date: 08 Sep 10 - 04:03 PM

My first car, a blue and white '57 Chevy. Ok, it was a 210 (read fourdoor) but I still loved that car. It ran a 283 cu. with a Carter fourbarrel. It had been "three-on-the-tree" but an overdrive was added and the shifter moved to the floor before I owned it. Second gear was spring-loaded. She'd lay scratch in second and could go all the way to 90mph before I hit third ( I think the statues of limitation do apply here, don't they?). She'd top at 125. No, I didn't race her that much. I was 16, almost 17 years old when I bought it (with hard earned money I had saved) from the kid who taught me the chords, C,G,F, B7 and bar chords on the guitar. Hey, like I already knew A,D,E and A7! Chee! Give me some credit! 1965-6, only yesterday.

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: frogprince
Date: 08 Sep 10 - 08:17 PM

It took me 'til now to choose one. Whichever I had said, it would have been kind of a fantasy thing, because I've really never parted with a car when there was much car left to keep. But I'll say the '34 Ford sedan that was our family car until 1950. It was licensed for at least a couple of more years, and then a couple of buddies and I got it running for a while in 1959. For years I had a pipe dream of restoring it, with midnight blue lacquer, an all white interior, and the wire wheels bright red. I still think it would have looked fine.

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: Bobert
Date: 08 Sep 10 - 08:36 PM

Too bad, f-prince... '34 Ford somethin' else... Persoanally, I was more a '36 kinda guy... Loved those headlights tucked in between the fender and the grill... Real sleek... But '34 a good 'un, too... Did it have a flathead 8???

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: frogprince
Date: 08 Sep 10 - 08:45 PM

Bobert, I almost said "whata ya think it had, a Wankel rotary?" but then I realized it could have had a 6. But yes, it was the flathead 8.

Subject: RE: BS: Wish I'd Kept that Car!!!...
From: mkebenn
Date: 09 Sep 10 - 12:07 PM

'50 chevy delux two door fast back, looked like a huge Porche. I bought it in '67 for $100. I weighed about 150lbs at the time, and you could climb on the hood and walk right up over the roof and down the back without denting it at all. 235hp straight six and three on the tree. Gave it to first wife and she didn't put antifreeze in it, fatal in New York. One that got away. Dad had a '32 ford A, rumble seat and all that he paid and sold for $25 in 1955. How I wish he'd hung on to that. Mike