First Car?
 

Alright, I've been having a blast reading about first cars/best cars over on the 'week of the 20th' thread. Without the concept of 'best cars for "new drivers"', what was your 'first car' or 'best car' story.

My first car was boring but reliable; a 4-door Mazda GLC (Pre-zoom-zoom). Ran it till the AC and the heat both went out. I think I got about 200k miles out of that thing. Kept replacing the stereo with better, better, better. Did all the maintenance and learned a TON about working on cars.

Best story I've heard was my brother's. Inherited my parents 1976 Volkswagen Rabbit when he went to college. He drove that thing around MN/WI and the Dakotas until there was more rust than metal. Drove for a month with cardboard covering a hole under the clutch/brake pedal until it got wet and 'went away at about 60 mph'. Ended up having a friend who was a welder tack some sheet-metal to the floor so he'd quit getting wet. He loved that car for some reason. :confused:

1981 Buick Lesabre Diesel. 0-60 in about 12 seconds.

1985 Volvo station wagon. I bought it in high school for $2k and it lasted me until my senior year of college, when it caught fire driving north on I-5. Went up like a Viking funeral pyre.

You swapped your digits there

First car.. Opel GT that rolled away from the High School AP teacher’s house while he was on summer vacation and the kudzu covered it up so thoroughly that it was considered stolen and totaled by the insurer until the vine died down in the winter and red paint shone through the weeds. Bought and fixed it by age 14 and worked on it through age 15. Got legal at age 16 during the worst of the emissions era malaise. The high-po Corvette was 9.2 at 0 to 60 and a few big block Trans Am with a manual and a higher axle ratio could break into the 8’s.

Into that mess I discovered rotor motors. Take the exhaust manifold off a RX-7, install huge headers, ditch the intake and adapt a Holley 450 and … race car. They were banned in SCCA racing. With underdrive pulleys you could spin these to just under 12,000 RPM. Then the problem became structural. The rear axle locating links would fold, or rip out of the unibody. At age 16 I did not understand welding well enough to beef up the body to take the power, so I just had to drive more carefully to avoid the structural limits.

This caught the eye of a Lockheed Test Pilot who’s hobby was doing to airplanes what I was doing with cars. We worked out a trade on a Piper Pacer with 135 horsepower where 90 or 95 had been. So, at age 16 I had my first airplane.

How are herpes and selling a Buick diesel similar?

It’s impossible to get rid of them.

08 Corvette is still my most fun car. Need a couple to really verify the science behind my opinion :) .

We had a Ferrari (Fiat) Dino come into the shop with the cardboard over the rust hole fix. The seller had hidden it with copious amounts of tar and undercoating. Back then these were cheap and not really considered Ferraris, so my uncle had me cut out the floor and fix it. The First drama was that I managed to light all that undercoating on fire and almost burned the entire car up. After removing most of the interior and dash I started welding it back together. The second major drama was that a big glob of molten metal popped out and land3d in my crotch where your pants fold just above your wedding tackle. I still remember the ball of molten metal burning through my jeans. I started screaming every expletive I could think of while convulsing on the concrete to try to get away from the lava aimed at my pecker. The guy working the next stall over starting swatting at my crotch trying to knock the golden BB out before I transitioned from “he” to “they.”

We had a fancy shop with a glass wall separating the shop from the waiting room. Our customers got quite the show.

I owe that guy a beer or something….

1975 Rabbit. New. Indestructible. Survived multiple Spring Breaks to the Keys and FLL, plus camping everywhere out west. Tons of stories. Woke up one morning in the Badlands surrounded by a herd of buffalo. Rather intimidating when you’re laying down looking up. Rolled up the tent while they watched, threw it in the hatchback and drove away.

Faded yellow '85 Toyota Tercel hatchback (I started driving in the late 90's). From a parent's perspective probably the perfect first car. Couldn't go faster than 65 on the interstate even downhill. Butt ugly so perfect at repelling the opposite gender.

Edit: this thread is either a great story thread, or a phishing scam to find answers to people's security questions... :D