| Author | Message | ||
| Frank Foster (Sparta49)
Junior Member Username: Sparta49 Post Number: 54 Registered: 3-2001 |
A 1962 Pontiac Bonneville | ||
| David White (Dwhite)
New member Username: Dwhite Post Number: 49 Registered: 7-2002 |
My father had a 1962 Saab 95 wagon(3cly 2-stroke). We use to get a kick out of the looks he would get when he pulled in for gas and would hand the guy a qt. of oil to add with the gas. There were rails under the 2 front seats to store the stuff - surprised Nader never got his hands on that one. | ||
| Todd Gieger (Todd328gts)
Junior Member Username: Todd328gts Post Number: 66 Registered: 6-2002 |
The booking wagon! | ||
| Bill Sawyer (Wsawyer)
Member Username: Wsawyer Post Number: 409 Registered: 2-2002 |
Jeff: Great Story! Several million for a Tucker is a bit high, though. RM Cars has an unrestored example for sale fpr $165,000. Still a lot of $$$ | ||
| Bill Sawyer (Wsawyer)
Member Username: Wsawyer Post Number: 408 Registered: 2-2002 |
My Dad was an automotive engineer. The coolest car he owned was a supercharged Graham that he had well before I was born. It was actually the prototype, bought from the factory. By the time I came around, he was buying used cars and keeping them five years. He called it his plan. He was working at Ford and started buying their English imports--Prefects and Cortinas. This exposure to foreign metal, plus Ford's Le Mans program got me interested in road racing, Ferrari's, etc. At one point we had him about 85% convinced to buy a Lotus Cortina, but he didn't go through with it. I made up for that by purchasing a 1965 Lotus Elan S-1 as my first car. One of the benefits of being an engineer was the ability to bring home interesting cars. The one I remember most vividly was a 1962 Thunderbird Sports Roadster. | ||
| Jeffrey Caspar (Jcaspar1)
New member Username: Jcaspar1 Post Number: 16 Registered: 5-2002 |
My grandfather ordered a Tucker (#1 on the list for Oregon) and even got the custom fit luggage. Unfortunately they went out of business before he got the car!!!! I think they are worth several million today... | ||
| Edward Gault (Irfgt)
Intermediate Member Username: Irfgt Post Number: 1791 Registered: 2-2001 |
The Steadybreaker Lark was made from 1960-1966. | ||
| bruce wellington (Bws88tr)
Member Username: Bws88tr Post Number: 707 Registered: 4-2002 |
dad had a 55 or so studebaker lark that was fun,and remembered mom had a 71 or 72 chrysler newport with the old push-button transmission, any one of you remember those cars?? | ||
| Ken (Allyn)
Member Username: Allyn Post Number: 500 Registered: 10-2001 |
1960 Thunderbird convertible where the roof folded in to the trunk. What a cool car!!! | ||
| Fred (Iluv4res)
New member Username: Iluv4res Post Number: 29 Registered: 8-2002 |
I have to admit, my dad drove some pretty boring cars. Mostly Cadillac's & Lincoln's. But in all fairness, they did have C.B. radios!!!! | ||
| Jeffrey Caspar (Jcaspar1)
New member Username: Jcaspar1 Post Number: 15 Registered: 5-2002 |
How about moms! My mom stared driving tractors at age 8 Started driving the family car at 12 She had the first Auston Healy regestered to State Farm Insurance in the state of Iowa Then traded for an MG, met my dad who also had one. Next she had a 69 Mustang with 351W 4 speed/4bbl Next 78 Z28 with 350/4bbl/ T-tops Then a 80's red Mustang GT 5speed convertable Range Rover Country after that which she just sold. Was going to get an M-5 but too boring looking so she now drives a Jaguar XJR (couldn't convince her to get an Aston Martin). | ||
| Terry Springer (Tspringer)
Junior Member Username: Tspringer Post Number: 216 Registered: 4-2002 |
My dads first car was a '34 Plymouth. Later he drove a TR3 for a couple of years. He also had a somewhat ratty Jag XK-120M. I tell him he was a moron for ever selling it, but he says that at the time it was bankrupting him. By the time I came long he was driving boring Mercedes diesels. He did let me get a TR6 when I turned 16 though and helped me learn how to work on it. (he had A&P license) His best "just missed" story is not about cars however. When he was growing up in Charlotte NC he as in the Air Scouts. His scoutmaster had been a Navy pilot in WWII and purchased a Grumman F6F Hellcat surplus. Kept it in his back yard with the wings folded and even ran the engine once a month or so. All the kids apparently got a kick out of it. In the mid 1970's my dad went back to this guys house to try and purchase the plane. It had been sitting in the guys back yard for over 20 years but had been sold the month before. It sold for something like $10K. Today its worth $800K or so... | ||
| Michael (Mtabije)
Member Username: Mtabije Post Number: 274 Registered: 10-2001 |
1969 Dodge Dart Swinger with the bullet proof Slant 6. Still can't believe you can still get hop up parts for this car e.g. Offey intake and some mild street cams. | ||
| Terry (Dogue)
Junior Member Username: Dogue Post Number: 86 Registered: 9-2001 |
I never saw it, except in pictures, but my father on his return from Viatnam bought a new 1969 Camaro RS 327. He sold it before I was born. The only other car that I thought was cool was the 1979 Jeep Golden Eagle we had growing up. My mom on the other hand had a 1972 MGB that I learned to drive in. It was a blast to drive around town. I think she is where I got my passion for european cars. My dad Has no use for anything that is not chevy or Jeep. | ||
| Lawrence Coppari (Lawrence)
Junior Member Username: Lawrence Post Number: 161 Registered: 4-2002 |
My father's idea of a car was to get you where you wanted to go and keep you warm and dry but not necessarily cool. I certainly did not get my yen (pun intended) for cars from him. It would take a family feud just to get a radio in one. Fortunately, extras like that became standard equipment as the years wore on. | ||
| George Daina (Oof_n_goof)
New member Username: Oof_n_goof Post Number: 39 Registered: 7-2002 |
in the late 50's, my dad was a Dodge man, with the torque flite push button, two door hard tops, when the 60's rolled around, he switched to 2 door hard top Pontiac Bonnevilles, 8 lug rims. | ||
| Dr Tommy Cosgrove (Vwalfa4re)
Junior Member Username: Vwalfa4re Post Number: 209 Registered: 5-2001 |
My father hated cars when I was growing up and as far as I know still has nothing good to say about them. He says they are nothing but a "necessary nuisance" I have no idea where I got my enthusiasm. It certainly wasn't from him. | ||
| Chuck Babel (Chuck_98_rt10)
New member Username: Chuck_98_rt10 Post Number: 27 Registered: 5-2002 |
My ol' man never drove anything special, but my uncle was into 1959-60 El Caminos and Buicks. He had 4 or 5 of them and they were beauts'. | ||
| Barry Wolinsky (308gtb)
Junior Member Username: 308gtb Post Number: 220 Registered: 2-2002 |
My father's taste in cars has improved as he gets older. Coupe de Villes in the 60s and 70s gave way to SLs in the 80s and Jaguars in the 90s. He still has his beloved 450 SLC and now an XK8 Convertible with sport wheels and suspension which he likes to manually shift ("I wish this was a 5-speed!"). Lately, he's been talking 456 GT! I like that Le Mans, Patrick. | ||
| Jim E (Jimpo1)
Member Username: Jimpo1 Post Number: 631 Registered: 7-2001 |
1980 Mazda RX7. It was only the second year of production so was still cool. I thought that car was SO fast! Now he cruises the country in a 740iL. | ||
| Patrick Pasqualini (Enzo)
New member Username: Enzo Post Number: 32 Registered: 2-2002 |
66 Pontic Lemans Convert. (I'm driving it now)  | ||
| arthur chambers (Art355)
Member Username: Art355 Post Number: 582 Registered: 6-2001 |
1958 Cad Eldorado convertible. I wrecked it for him in 60 about 1 month after I got my driver's license. Art | ||
| Bill Steele (Glassman)
Junior Member Username: Glassman Post Number: 66 Registered: 4-2002 |
My grandfather had a Hudson pickup, the neatest pickup truck I have ever seen. | ||
| Edward Gault (Irfgt)
Intermediate Member Username: Irfgt Post Number: 1764 Registered: 2-2001 |
Cars to my family had to be affordable dependable transportation and we never had two at the same time. People who had two cars when I grew up would have been fodder for Robin Leach. We had a 48 Chevy, 50 Ford, 55 Chevy, 63 Chevy Nova, 64 Corvair and then a 65 Olds. I bought the Nova for my wife and kept it until the early 70s and traded it for a 73 Vega which she drove for 20 years. At one time there were 3 Corvairs in the Family. My parents 64 and my 65 and a 69 that I purchased right after the end of the production. | ||
| Mark Freeman (Mrpc12)
Junior Member Username: Mrpc12 Post Number: 61 Registered: 11-2001 |
My dad was Hot Rodder. He had the most awesome 34 Ford Roadster. With a souped up Chevy 327 engine, Chevy tranny and rear end. Unfortunately, the car got rear ended and totaled by drunk driver when it was being towed. So then Dad got a 64 MG Midget and put a 327 Chevy engine in that too. | ||
| Steven J. Solomon (Solly)
Member Username: Solly Post Number: 360 Registered: 6-2001 |
1974 Dodge Dart Swinger, baby poop brown, with the yellow flower over the "i" in Swinger. I was 17 and mortified and promised myself I would improve the Solomon family automobile heritage. | ||
| Steve (Steve)
Junior Member Username: Steve Post Number: 186 Registered: 2-2001 |
1959 Dodge Custom Royal with a 383CID Police interceptor V-8 with 2 4BBL carbs and a Torqueflight push button automatic. Burned rubber in all 3 gears and you could leave a couple of long strips on the pavement. Of course the tires then had a tendancy to squeel a lot. Must have been the rubber compound.He always wondered why the back tires would wear out so fast. | ||
| Dave (Maranelloman)
Member Username: Maranelloman Post Number: 295 Registered: 1-2002 |
1968 Ford XL Convertible with a 428 high-compression police interceptor motor with 2 enormous 4 barrel carbs, police brakes, police cooling package, and police auto transmission with high-stall torque converter. He bought it used from a dealer, who had specail-ordered it for himself. Apparently, it was a one-off. I could get rubber in all 3 gears, despite a 5,000 pound curb weight! Wish we still had it!! | ||
| Ernesto (T88power)
Member Username: T88power Post Number: 540 Registered: 2-2001 |
The most exotic thing in our driveway were Lincoln Town Cars of various years. It was horrible. Ernesto | ||
| Nika (Racernika)
Member Username: Racernika Post Number: 659 Registered: 12-2001 |
66 Pontiac.........I barely remember it since I wasn't born yet. But I do know it was yellow. Could that have been the start of my yellow Ferrari fetish? Hmmmmmmmmmm Nika | ||
| '75 308 GT4 (Peter)
Intermediate Member Username: Peter Post Number: 1935 Registered: 12-2000 |
I think the most exotic car he owned was a '64 Rambler Classic 770...  But before he got married, he did ride around on an Ariel VCH 500 race bike (which he converted for street use). He crashed that thing twice and sold the remains for $50 (back in the late fifties)... He would be sitting on a fortune now if he kept it. | ||
| Randy (Schatten)
Member Username: Schatten Post Number: 359 Registered: 4-2001 |
uhhh, lets see here Audi 5000S Turbo Deisel - when it wasn't in the shop mid-eighties light blue Caddy - which was in the shop lots of times for electrical problems. no cool cars here. heck, my dad doesn't really know much about cars, nor where the dipstick is or what it does. | ||
| Jerry W. (Tork1966)
Junior Member Username: Tork1966 Post Number: 210 Registered: 7-2001 |
Still has a 1978 308 GTS in premo condition with 16" wheels and a 1966 Corvette coupe. Didn't ever own a sports car until he was 60! | ||
| D.E.S. (Sickspeed)
New member Username: Sickspeed Post Number: 18 Registered: 8-2002 |
When i was 4 years old, my father pulled up to the baby sitter's house in a fire engine red Pontiac Fire Bird... in its day, it was something to reckon with... he was definitely an enthusiast, but never had enough money to buy an exotic... Eventually, i traded him in for a new dad and now my current dad has a BMW 530i... over the years, i've come to appreciate european design and manufacturing... the fact that it's a stick is also a HUGE plus... the fact that he won't let me drive it 'cause the inside of EVERY car is a Ferrari to me, is NOT a plus... sigh... -des | ||
| C. Smith (Italianauto)
Junior Member Username: Italianauto Post Number: 112 Registered: 10-2001 |
My dad bought a 1957 Chevy 2 door hardtop brand new.....guess he really did not know what a jewel he had....he traded it in in 1962 for a new Rambler wagon! | ||
| Mitchel DeFrancis (4re308)
Member Username: 4re308 Post Number: 614 Registered: 6-2001 |
My poppa owned and raced a 250 Lusso when he lived in Italy in the early 60s, that is how I became such a Ferrari psycho. He has pictures of him racing in Livorgna in the Lusso against a Lancia Aurelia (which he also owned), a Alfa 2.9, a couple of old Maseratis and such. Utterly cool dad. He has also owned a slew of Mercedes, a Maserati Quattroporte, a Ford Model A, a big block Ford Galaxie, a couple a Jags ect. Now he just loves his pick up truck, but he wants to buy a red Mondial Cabriolet soon. | ||
| wm hart (Whart)
Member Username: Whart Post Number: 442 Registered: 12-2001 |
Taking a page from L Wayne's comment about the Viper kids, and their discussion of the cars their fathers drive, i thought that would be a good one. So, what was the best car your father drove: in my father's case, in was a 59 caddy convertible, yellow with white interior. (In those days he traded them in every two years, so it got replaced by a tan 61 de ville sedan.) |