Topic: Your Cars

[Rich]

Once you get into the '40s or older though, I'm not going to have any clue what they are unless it's something insanely unique.

Hooboy, you're right there....I'm nearly 46 and I have hardly any clues left.  I'm so glad it's lime jello day here at Sunset Acres.




 

[MG]

Put de lime in de coconut.....

[Arthur Dent]

I just picked this car up - its 1985 Mazda Rx-7 GSL with the 12A engine, 5spd gearbox, lsd rear end and four wheel disc brakes. Interior needs some cleaning. Aftermarket exhaust is reasonably loud and a light flywheel (I'd rather have the stock one since this is my commuter car but whatever).

[MG]

Looks to be in rather nice condition for a 22 yo car!   

Oh, btw, if you ever experience symptoms like running out of gas when there's still plenty of petrol in the tank, check the wiring connector under the carpet in the left rear corner.  Mine accumulated water in that region which disabled the connection to the fuel pump. Such things never seem to happen close to home.....

[barry2952]

I have a couple of nice cars.

[porridgehead]

Yes, yes and yes. Very nice.

[Arthur Dent]

If that Porsche is old enough they could be both Continentals!

[Boxer2500]

I saw a 356 just like that yesterday. I was in the middle of a conversation with someone, saw the car drive by in the background, and promptly trailed off and forgot what I was talking about.

Also, FWIW, that Lincoln was one of the best designs to come out of the 1950s. Infinitely classier than the Cadillacs of the same period.

[barry2952]

If that Porsche is old enough they could be both Continentals!

They are both Continentals. The Porsche is a '55, the only year they were called "Continental".

I collect all things with the Continental name. I have several Lincoln Continentals and a '56 Chris Craft Continental, too.

[Ultra]

If that Porsche is old enough they could be both Continentals!

They are both Continentals. The Porsche is a '55, the only year they were called "Continental".

I collect all things with the Continental name. I have several Lincoln Continentals and a '56 Chris Craft Continental, too.

 

[GRAYWOLF]

When I turned 16, I had $1k to buy a set of wheels. My mother and I drove about 200 miles and picked up a cream colored (white roof) one of these for $700:


After blowing a couple of junkyard engines (I learned how to tear one apart pretty quickly with vice grips, and a socket set)  and graduating HS her bf bought me a rebuild engine (I later learned was build for racing), I traded it in for



After blowing that little V6 I got a 2wd version of:



Blew the head gasket a couple of times before being relegated to my wife's:



until my grandfather gave me (silver with maroon stripe):



We traded the I-mark for (I6 white on green, 2wd):



Then traded them for a pair of dark blue (not at the same time):



After our daughter was born, we traded hers for a maroon:



I bought:



Then I got a good job and picked up one of these for the commute:



Traded it for a new black:



I totaled the Tbird and got:



Traded the F150 for:



Sold the Bronco and picked up:

[barry2952]

I have a couple of nice cars.

These are the other toys that I currently own.

'98 ML-320  135,000 miles Daily driver/work truck



'77 Lincoln Continental Town Car  19,000 miles bought it 25 years old with under 14,000 miles.

'88 BMW 750iL       77,000 miles Got to drive it on the Autobahn as fast as it would go.



Wife's winter car '88 325iX     100,000 miles. Original clutch. Will make a great rally car someday.

Can't find picture of her summer car '97 BMW Z3



'68 Lincoln Continental 6-door limousine



'69 Lincoln Continental Mark III custom convertible



'51 Royal Spartanette travel trailer that I've converted into a toybox



'56 Chris Craft Continental near perfect shape, NEVER been sanded.



There are three more "Continental's I'd like to add to the collection:

1953 Cunningham C-3 Continental convertible (6 made)

1955-58 Bentley Continental convertible LHD (31 made)

1933-34 Continental convertible. (Inexpensive car when new, apparently no one kept one. Rare as can be.)

[GRAYWOLF]

We just traded the LHS for:

[barry2952]

My SIL has one and loves it.

[@re]

I'll amuse you with what a European guy will start his career behind the wheel with. Not as big or flash as the American way, but I've managed to acquire some nice ones after a slow start

My first car was a 1982 VW Polo, very much like the one in the picture - white, but with a certain amount of rust. After having owned it for a couple of years, I got tired of its growing number of colours (a red bonnet, a blue tailgate, and the aforementioned rust) and painted it like a Dodge Viper - blue with two broad white stripes (bear in mind, I was 20 at the time...) - it actually looked really nice.

The next one was a 1983 Peugeot 305, also very similar to the one in the picture - light blue metallic, but without the 'nice' wheels. A very comfortable car with very low mileage and only three previous owners: An old man, my grandfather, and my uncle. So it was well kept, but it literally disintegrated. The Norwegian road salt is not very kind to older cars.

[@re]

When the Peugeot broke down (literally - one of the shock absorbers broke and pushed the spring onto the tire, causing me, on the way to a wedding, to have two punctures in about 30 kms before realising what was wrong) I wanted something a bit more reliable, and a bit more exciting - while still not costing too much. Car prices in Norway are ridiculously high, so I didn't have too much to choose from.

After having considered an MX-5/Miata and ditching the idea because of insurance costs (I was just too young) I decided to buy a 1990 Mazda 323F. It had the same engine as the MX-5 and was a nice car to drive, very tight and still not too bad-looking. And pop-up headlights are always nice This car I actually drove on the German Autobahn, mid-winter, on summer tires - managing very close to 200 kph. With very tired shock absorbers. Luckily, nothing broke.

And then it was time to make a dream come true. I discovered a seemingly very nice 1973 Fiat X1/9 1300 on a Danish website, and after a bit of negotiating and a trip to Denmark, I imported it in 2003, as a classic car (which means that the Norwegian government relieves the car of a lot of taxes) and have owned it for four and a half lovely years, experiencing topless driving all over Norway, Sweden and Britain. I'm not giving that one up very easily. It is not very quick in a straight line, but boy does it corner! It wasn't for nothing that Niki Lauda called it a 'baby Ferrari'...

[@re]

I guess you could say that after having bought the X, I fell even more in love with Italian cars and started toying with the idea of an all-Italian garage. So when I found a 1991 Lancia Dedra HF Turbo (or Turbo 2000 as it is known in some countries) I decided to sell the Mazda.

The Lancia was modified by German tuning company Hörmann and had its power output raised from 160 hp to over 200 - which meant it went like stink. The only thing I have ever driven to act as crazily when the turbo kicked in was an Impreza WRX STi. If you didn't have both your hands on the wheel at 2400 rpm in first gear the car could just as well go off-road as in a straight line. But it was an amazing drive - a real motorway cruiser with enormous punch (about 370 Nm - 270 lb ft in a BMW 3-series-sized car - enough to make it do 0-60 mph in about 6 seconds). Eventually, it just became too old, too costly, and a bit too rusty, and as I am no mechanic, I had to let it go. Luckily, the guy who bought it is a real enthusiast who will look after it. These cars are getting rare.

And then I bought what is now my daily driver (obviously, as the X1/9 spends the whole winter in the garage, I wouldn't want to expose it to the harsh Norwegian winter conditions) - a 1998 Alfa GTV 2.0 TS. A lovely car both to look at and to drive. I have covered a lot of tarmac this summer, and I'm liking it more and more. It is slower than the Lancia, but then again - anything would feel slow after that.

So, there you have it - I'm officially Italophile, and very happy to own two really nice cars at the moment.

Thought it was time to share this - after all, I've been around here for more than a month

[Ultra]

So, there you have it - I'm officially Italophile, and very happy to own two really nice cars at the moment.

Thought it was time to share this - after all, I've been around here for more than a month

Thanks for the additions.  I am down to me and my GTO.

 

[Otto Puzzell]

Also, FWIW, that Lincoln was one of the best designs to come out of the 1950s. Infinitely classier than the Cadillacs of the same period.

In an subdued, old man's giant T-bird kind of way, I guess.

The early Eldorado's get my vote. The zenith of jet-age styling, before longer-lower-wider turned them into absolute land barges.

Regardless, I can afford neither one.

[grobmotorix]

Just like @re said before, I´ve started very very small. The thing is I´m not really interested in real cars, I´d better stay with my tons of car brochures, car playing card decks, car advertisements etc. and admire the design history of a unique technical invention.

So what you see here is a document of low budget motoring 

May I present in order of appearance:

Citroen AX LeNoir 1987, 54HP, 645 kg, 3500mm, my mother´s car, then mine - crashed...   : )

Fiat Uno Adria 1988, 75HP, 820 kg, 3640mm, my mother´s car again, then mine - crashed...  : )

VW Golf 2 Turbodiesel 1987, 70 HP, 920 kg, 3980mm, my first own car, bought for 800 DM (400 EUR) with 350000km, sold with 430000km for 300 EUR

Ford Sierra 2.0i GLX Turnier 1989, 120 HP, 1200 kg, 4511mm, bought for 850 EUR, sold for 1 EUR

Opel Corsa A 1.2l 1989, 40 HP, 740 kg, 3622mm, bought for 100 EUR, sold for 1 EUR

Opel Astra Caravan, 1.6l 1993 75 HP, 1020kg, 4230mm, bought for 650 EUR, sold for 300 EUR

Citroen XM Break 2.0i, 1992 122 HP, 1380 kg, 4963mm, bought for 900 EUR....

[@re]

I have a special affection for Citroëns. My father has had four of them; a GS, a BX, a CX and an XM. I took the CX over speed bumps at 90 kph, and it didn't care at all but you should have seen the look on my friend in the passenger seat as we approached the bump!

[jimjarron]

Thought I'd add a couple of photos of my car to this thread.  It's a bit different to most of the others here.  It's a 1962 Wolseley 15/60 (Australian built, British design, stying by Pininfarina - a rather international mix!):

[neilshouse]

I thought I'd add my car history for prosperity, in 18 years of driving I've owned the following:-

1955 Austin A30 *
1985 Vauxhall Cavalier CD
1990 Mini Cooper
1983 Alfa Romeo 33
1986 Peugeot 309 1.3
1985 Volkswagen Passat Estate
1983 Vauxhall Astra GTE Mk1
1980 Ford Fiesta Mk1
1974 Mini 1000
1978 Mini 1100
1980 Mini 850
1982 Mini Van
1980 Mini 1275
1988 Vauxhall Astra GTE Mk2
1980 Mini 1000
1988 Citroen AX GT
1983 Mini 1275
1990 Peugeot 205GTI 1.9
1990 Peugeot 205GTI 1.6
1989 Peugeot 205GTI 1.6
1984 Lancia Beta Coupe *
1980 MGB GT *
1994 Renault 19 Turbo Diesel
1986 Peugeot 205GTI 1.9 *
1988 Peugeot 309GTI
1989 Mercedes 190D 2.5 *

You may spot a couple of reoccurring themes here. (I'm currently trying to control my urge to own another mini).
The ones I still own have the *

Neil

[@re]

Those Betas are great-looking cars. I drooled over one some years ago, but I have enough with one old Italian

[grobmotorix]

Dedicated to my D I R T Y  O L ´ B A S T A R D


For weeks I´ve been keen on spending this weekend at SpaItalia days, one of the biggest meeting of italian cars of every kind in the world.

But just 15km before the Spa racetrack I´ve sent my engine to nirvana and it died of piston seizure in the middle of nowhere on a belgian "Autobahn"...


Ladies and gentlemen, please keep off of old Citroen XM´s.

They´re heaven when rolling - unfortunately they don´t do it too often...