Let's hear stories: how did you get your first cool car?

My Dad died August 23 1976. My mom gave me the keys to his '64 olds F85 4-Door a couple weeks later.

Jedi

 

Thanks Guy. Never really knew my dad that much... he taught me to barbecue,
how to fish for trout, and not much else. And the car was ... well, pretty poor.
But it got me to work and back. Died when I was 15. I actually have a single
snapshot of me with that car - I'll try to find it and scan it for F-Chat.

Thanks for the frowny - appreciate it.

Jedi

 

I saved up the down payment for my first "cool" car and financed it to build my credit. I paid the first half of the loan then my dad paid it off. That was the deal he made me.

It was a '69 Z28 with a Muncie M22 and 4 wheel disc brakes. Wish I still had it.

 

Olds F85>Toyota Corolla>Oldsmobile 442 beater>Subaru wagon>Mercury Capri>Datsun Pickup>
Volkswagon Squareback>Honda Prelude>Issuzu Impulse>Cadillac Coupe de Ville>Oldsmobile
Cutlass>Issuzu Impulse (same one - bought it back)>Ford XLT pickup>Nissan Pickup>
Mercury Mystique>Hyundai Santa Fe>New Mercedes E500/New Mercedes E350/Ferrari
328GTS

That was hard to dredge up... might have missed one. How's that?

Jedi

 

Thanks Chris. SO tell us YOUR story? Where are you in the car world and life and all
that stuff? Are you in college? School? S'ok - even if not. F-Chat always welcomes
HONEST folks who are not just mining for info and details about folks, ya know?

Would like to hear... welcome to F-Chat.


Jedi

 

Left out the first "cool" car - a Triumph TR-7 in 1982... WHAT A PILE OF CRAP
that was, and HOW COOL I felt driving it. Insert right before "Mercury Capri" in my list.

Jedi

 

Did yours have the original motor? IIRC, didn't many of them get a heart transplant to a Chevy (?) The original Rover motor (?) was a complete and utter POS though, and it was built by communists

Other than that, I've got to paraphrase Clarkson here; "you don't appear to have a very good history with cars!" You've really owned some ****! Sorry, but Mercury's and Olds' - Dude..... ]



Cheers,
Ian

 

Cool Chris... I know Boston and Michigan very well - travel a lot for biz and my kids live
in Michigan. What music school did you attend in Boston? My Bro'in'law is an alumni
of Berklee, Boston with a degree in music. Where in Michigan are you from?

Jedi

 

I was like most teenagers and wanted a sports car but my dad said not till I was 21. So I saved my money and for my 21st birthday I bought a Mustang LX 5.0.

 

Hi Chris, welcome to FerrariChat!!

I think everybody's first car is always a cool car, because it's your first car - even if it's a pile of rust being held together with duct tape (as a friend of mine's first car was). Hehehe

My own progression so far is:

• 1998 Peugeot 106 (5-door, automatic) - my first car at the age of 18 was a hand me down car from my Mom when she traded up to a Mercedes CLK AMG. It had about 11,000 miles on it when I got it, and had about 18,000 miles on it when it was totalled. I got hit by a drunk driver in a van - massive collision, good job Peugeot did well with the safety aspect of that car. After the initial impact, the van driver restarted their engine and tried to drive off. The cars were fused together from the impact, so they rammed me off the road into a ditch in order to prise the cars apart and make their escape.
• 1992 Skoda Favorit LXi (5-door, manual) - a temporary car my parents got me as a 'lesson in humility' after I expressed an expectation that I'd get a better car than the Peugeot as a replacement. To my surprise, I actually rather liked the simplicity of the Skoda and the quirks in that not much of anything actually worked properly! Downside was that all the shock absorbers were worn so it would bounce down the road and it didn't have enough engine power to make it up even moderate gradients at motorway speeds... I used to get overtaken by 30-ton trucks doing 60mph while I had to take gentle hills at 35mph in 2nd gear.
• 1998 Skoda Felicia GLXi (5-door, manual) - I traded up for this, but should have stuck with the other Skoda. This one had two engine fires because of the starter motor, the exhaust fell off, the sunroof leaked, and one time driving on the motorway late at night in a storm all the electrics (headlights and wipers) turned off while I was doing 70mph. Managed to get pulled over to the hard shoulder... no easy feat considering I was alone on the motorway and there were no street lights - had to do it in total darkness with rain pounding on the windscreen. Eventually fixed all the problems (at great expense) in time to get rid of it.
• 2004 MINI ONE (3-door, manual) - my first new car. It was a combination of 21st birthday present from my parents and a "congratulations for getting into a good university" present. I specified the options myself and waiting about 2 and a half months for the build. I did some tasteful modifications to uprate performance in the handling department (still looks completely stock though) once I turned 25 and could afford the increased premiums at a specialist insurer, although it's still only got 90bhp. I'm 27 now and it's still my main car. In terms of coolness, it's probably the best car I've owned so far.
• 2002 SmartCar ForTwo Pulse 600cc (2-door, semi-automatic) - technically I own it, but it's really my fiancée's car. Not a lot of power (although turbocharged), aerodynamics of a brick on the motorway, and the semi-automatic transmission make standing starts rather slow, but it's quite quick when moving around 20-50mph. I inadvertently set it on fire once... while simultaneously electrocuting myself. I suppose you'll want the link to that story, so here it is: A word of warning...

As for my next car... work will probably take me from the UK back to the States and I'm very interested to see a 2010 Chevrolet Camaro in person and see if I can make it a daily driver. My dream car is the Ferrari 348 and I aspire to own one within 10 years of starting my first job (I'm currently a PhD student).

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Hey there AxerJk!!!

I have managed to work with several Berklee grads over the years (I am a musician as well - full time no less!!!) Whats your axe?? I am a trumpet player myself.

My story - when I was in college my parents gave me a 1980 Mercury Zephyr four door sedan. Not a cool car, but it got me back and forth to student teaching and to gigs and such. When I graduated I traded that on my first "cool" car - a 1989 Pontiac Trans Am. Say what you want about Pontiac or Trans Ams, but that has been a great car and I still have it. I replaced the engine about seven or eight years ago and now it has a 350 out of a 1970 Camaro SS and heads from a 1971 Corvette LT1 complete with headers and a custom exhaust. It sounds pretty mean!!

Since then I have bought a Ford Expedition - not as cool or fun, but practical for hauling crap - still have it. I had a BMW 3 series that was a fun little car, we had a Ford Escort Wagon, then last year bought my wife a Ford Escape, then followed that by the purchase of my '85 Ferrari 308 GTS QV.

So, currently, I have four cars in my garage, which is a lot of fun.


PDG

 

Ah yes my 1st car. I got it in 1960 and it was a 1959 Triumph TR3A. Fun little car that I drove to my last year of high school. Paid for it with part time job and loan from my parents. I kept it until 1962 and then traded it with some cash for my Daimler SP-250. Super little car that was more fun then the TR. Fiberglass with V-8 and loud mufflers. Then I got the American dream and traded that in for a 1963 Corvette conv. A 327cid of 300HP. I just couldn't keep rear tires and a clutch in it. It was a lot of fun burning them up though. So I kept it for a few years and then after getting married I had to trade it in. So I got a 1966 XK-E coupe. Slick car and real head turner. My bride loved it and we had a lot of fun until the rust set in. I then had to go back to fiberglass so we bought a 1971 Corvette T-top coupe. Kind of a middle of the road fun car but not as exciting as the E-type. Lost my old problem of burning tires and clutches but managed to have some fun. Then came the Kid and we needed to get into a family type car so I got a 1971 Jaguar XJ-6. It was a good family mover but just didn't have the fun as the rest. So I pulled the 6 cyl. and stuck in a 350cid/350HP chev and had a good time with it. I soon got tired of having a 4 door car so I moved up to a 76 Jaguar XJS coupe. Loved the V-12 and the fun of driving it. I put a 100,000 and decided to put in a new heart. So I went back to my Chev. iron and stuck a 350cid TPI motor out of a Corvette. Hooked up a 4sp overdrive auto and could cruise all day at 1800rpm 70mph and still get 22 mpg. Still could get rubber off the line. That ended my daily driver 2 door car life. I found my 308 GTB and had to go to a week end driver phase of my life. Sold the XJS and got a Jag X-type for a work car. Had that until I retired and then got a Lexus as the trip car and use the 308 as much as I can, after all you need something to drive to the golf course with. So that's it and as you can see I have a tendency to fall back on Jaguar's (this is a sickness) and as I get a little older I will most likely end up selling the 308 and getting a gentlemen's sports car like a Jag XK-R . I started my quest at age 16 so you better get going because you are missing a lot of fun. Enjoy the ride.

 

I've driven one of those! My dad has a 1959 Triumph TR3A in the garage and took me out to have a drive - it was the first time I'd driven a car that had been made before the 1990s and was a pretty cool experience. It was also my first time driving with brakes that (I think) weren't servo assisted, certainly they were a world away from what I was used to. He's modified it a little bit to fit a roll bar and seatbelts, but other than that it's pretty much standard.

One of the cool things I took away from that experience is that it really sounded and smelled like I thought a car should... it sounded mechanical and it smelled like oil and exhaust. Very cool.

All the best,
Andrew.

PS:
Your 1959 Triumph TR3A wasn't red by any chance? I see you're in New York and I think that's where my dad's Triumph was first registered. Wouldn't that be an interesting coincidence if it turned out to be the same car?

 

First car was a 1972 Mazda RX2 that I paid $225 for. I'd certainly consider it a sporting car even though it was a four door. I remember an unsuspecting back seat passenger hitting his head on the rear window when I slammed second gear under hard acceleration. I remember taking it up to 115 mph on a country road and then doing a bit of a slalom from lane to lane and noting how well it handled. Technically it was my Second car, but the first one a 1963 Mercedes 220S never ran, I just didn't know what I was doing.
Fiat 850
72 Mazda RX2
62 Mercedes 220S
63, 67, 72 Ford trucks
65 Corvair
73 Impala wagon
94 Caprice
69 Toyota FJ40 Landcruiser
62 Fairlane
78 Mustang II
69 Opel GT
99 Kia Sportage dune buggy
69 VW Bus
63 Dodge Dart Convertible
75 Duster

Favorites have to be the FJ40 and the Caprice, the only two cars I'm sorry I sold. The Fiat 850 was a kick and loved driving it, but I never got it properly sorted and it had CA registration issues, 6 owners who had all done a release of liability and nothing else. The Opel GT was pretty and was a daily driver for a year or so. The 62 Fairlane was a V8 5 speed conversion, the 63 Dart was a V8 4 speed conversion. The Caprice was a 9c1 police version, what a non floating high speed rocket. Not a sports car, but felt like a race car. The acceleration I could do up long inclines when the regular traffic got bogged down was limitless. Now I have an 04 Mazda pickup and my Mondial. The 73 impala wagon brings back memories, first dates with my first girlfriend The wagon was given to me and was smashed up badly, passenger door wouldn't open, but I had it for a while and it ended up getting me to college for 6 months before I got a better car, a 1983 Honda Civic that I realize I failed to note above. I expect I have missed several cars I've owned. What memories!

 

Chris, it turns out whatever car you get when you are young and ideally have to wrench on a bit will become full of fond memories as you do those things that young people do. Also, the upside to getting a cheap car and having to fix it yourself is you learn how to strip bolts on an engine that can be thrown out and isn't a Ferrari. Every bolt you turn is training for the grand trials of Ferrari Tech.

 

Doesn't have to be a car, could be a 70's honda motorcycle, and I don't advocate buying a project car or bike, a running older vehicle will have enough go wrong with it without looking for problems.

 

I think a little differently than most people. My love for cars has lead me to sacrifice many things to drive a car that makes me smile. I mowed lawns, collected snails, sold seaweed, loaded seafood trucks, washed dishes and delivered newspapers to get my first car, a 1954 Chevrolet 210 2-door post. This was 1988.

Since then I have had a few "normal" cars, but I'm drawn much more to fun, but terribly impractical cars. Currently I sacrifice a roof, doors, heat and even wipers to drive a car that makes me laugh out loud when I drive it. For me life is too short to be stuck in a rolling box I hate.
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