What was your first car?

[mb227]

After I turned 16 I drove the family truckster, a Ford Country Sedan 400 CID station wagon for about 6 months before I saved enough for a down payment on my first car.

ugh...I remember those days...I called the one I was saddled with a BMW...Bigass Mercury Wagon. Complete with the woodgrain. Oh, but only a little V8...it had the 351C-2V that they paid an extra ~$50 for when they had ordered it in '72.

The first one that was MINE was a '77 T-Bird similar to this one...

Hey, what can I say...it was the early 80's and I couldn't persuade the 'rents to go for the '68 Cutlass 4-4-2 that I had found for about the same as I ultimately paid for the T-bird.

 

[WorsterMan]

ugh...I remember those days...I called the one I was saddled with a BMW...Bigass Mercury Wagon. Complete with the woodgrain. Oh, but only a little V8...it had the 351C-2V that they paid an extra ~$50 for when they had ordered it in '72.

The first one that was MINE was a '77 T-Bird similar to this one...

Hey, what can I say...it was the early 80's and I couldn't persuade the 'rents to go for the '68 Cutlass 4-4-2 that I had found for about the same as I ultimately paid for the T-bird.

The T-Bird was a chick magnet but like you - I would've taken that 4-4-2 over this T-bird in a heartbeat.

 

[WorsterMan]

My brothers first car was a yellow 1972 or 73 Mercury Capri - 4 banger with a 4 speed. I wished I had bought this car instead of my Pinto. It looked way better and was faster than my Pinto even with my modifications. Plus the gas tank did not blow up if it was rear-ended! But I always told my brother I got more tail with a Pinto than he did with a Capri!

 

[Crockett]

My '57 Ford pickup with a straight 6 was canary yellow. I'd been hauling hay all summer. I saw it in the street with a For Sale, $300, walked up the street and paid cash I earned hauling hay. It was fun to drive, when it worked. Learned a lot about carburetors, fuel pumps, radiators and body work before I sold it and bought a '79 Olds Cutlass Broughm to start school at UT in higher style.

 

[accuratehorn]

My second car. A 67 Sunbeam Alpine, British Racing Green, with wire wheels. It came with a large brass hammer in the trunk, which was needed to knock those retaining spinners off the wheels to remove them. The wheels would make a creak creak sound when you went around a turn, not very reassuring. The top, when raised, would keep a certain percentage of rainfall off the interior.
This had to be the most unreliable car I ever owned. Pieces would fall off, like the alternator, which would vibrate loose and fall into the radiator, destroying both in the process. It had twin Solex carburetors with numerous pieces of linkage connecting them at different weird angles which had to be adjusted in a vain attempt to get both of them to operate at nearly the same time. It was very slow, but insurance companies charged a huge premium to cover it because it was sports car.

 

[WorsterMan]

My second car. A 67 Sunbeam Alpine, British Racing Green, with wire wheels. It came with a large brass hammer in the trunk, which was needed to knock those retaining spinners off the wheels to remove them. The wheels would make a creak creak sound when you went around a turn, not very reassuring. The top, when raised, would keep a certain percentage of rainfall off the interior.
This had to be the most unreliable car I ever owned. Pieces would fall off, like the alternator, which would vibrate loose and fall into the radiator, destroying both in the process. It had twin Solex carburetors with numerous pieces of linkage connecting them at different weird angles which had to be adjusted in a vain attempt to get both of them to operate at nearly the same time. It was very slow, but insurance companies charged a huge premium to cover it because it was sports car.

Gosh I remember this car. It was a head-turner most of us gear-heads knew little about. I bet your 3rd car was better...

 

[uisge beatha]

Some of you might remember WLS out of Chicago, we pulled that in at night, most of us listened to it.
It had "boogie checks," and the big DJ, was known as "John Records Landecker, Records truly is my middle name,"
he always said.

I never had an 8 track, my older brother did.

Ah, John Records Landecker - brings back memories. We listened to WLS and KXOK in St Louis until FM started making headway in the mid70s.

 

[uisge beatha]

First car was a 67 Galaxie 500 - built it from a wrecked 4-door which had ~1500 miles on it and a worn-out 2-dr hardtop. Change out everything we could over one summer from the 4-dr to the 2-dr. And, yes, I added an 8-track player. The picture below is almost a spitting image of it before I changed the wheels to Keystone Klassics.

 

[WorsterMan]

While seeking photos I ran across a photo of the Pantera from Ford. Remember this?

 

[Dionysus]

This was my second car, a Fiat X19. I bought it used from a Houston lawyer who would drive it to play golf, he said. It was this same gold color. Found it in the Greensheet.

I didn't take very good care of it so it gave me problems before too long, but oh! the girls liked this little ride. One time the engine caught fire in the middle of my buddy's street. I walked up to the closest house and knocked on the door. A woman answered and I politely asked her if she had a fire extinguisher so I could put out my car. There are other, more interesting stories about this Fiat.

I ended up selling it to my best friend because he was sometimes an idiot who thought he could fix things.

My friend said they should have come out with a Special Edition X19 so they could call it the SEX19.

 

[Dionysus]

Holy crap @WorsterMan that Pantera is juicy.

 

[WorsterMan]

First car was a 67 Galaxie 500 - built it from a wrecked 4-door which had ~1500 miles on it and a worn-out 2-dr hardtop. Change out everything we could over one summer from the 4-dr to the 2-dr. And, yes, I added an 8-track player. The picture below is almost a spitting image of it before I changed the wheels to Keystone Klassics.

trying to post photo of UB's Galaxie with the Keystone but having trouble doing it.................

Finally!

 

[WorsterMan]

X - 19 WAS a chick magnet dude

 

[WorsterMan]

My 2nd car during my Jr. year in college was identical to this, except Goodyear tires and the interior was tan and not black. A bastardized Mustang Mach 1. The mid 70's was only the time in my life I would pick out an earth-tone colored car of any kind... metallic brown. Gosh I wish I had a re-do of those days....

This was a good vehicle but I always lusted after that Pantera I posted earlier.

 

[uisge beatha]

When I was about 13, I saw one of these on a used car lot while my parents were shopping for a car. It became my first car lust

This may have had an effect on that

 

[NB_LONGHORN]

1978 GMC Sierra Classic. Was a company truck for a steel company and I bought it for $700. it did not look this nice.

 

[SunBurntOrange]

NBHorn7's Burnt Orange Monte Carlo for the win. I was a teenager in the mid seventies and damn I loved those cars.

 

[accuratehorn]

I did better on my third car...one of those you wish you still had today.
I added Koni shocks, an aluminum flywheel, and headers, and it would fly. The color was called Cottonwood Green.
But...as opposed to the small, slow, British sports car, the insurance was quite reasonable, less than half of the Sunbeam Alpine. Why, you ask...the insurance companies rated the 302 cubic inch engine as an economy model, calling it a small V-8! If they only knew.
Funny, usIge, I just watched Bullitt last night, love that chase scene, and the whole movie, too.

 

[uisge beatha]

I did better on my third car...one of those you wish you still had today.
I added Koni shocks, an aluminum flywheel, and headers, and it would fly. The color was called Cottonwood Green.
But...as opposed to the small, slow, British sports car, the insurance was quite reasonable, less than half of the Sunbeam Alpine. Why, you ask...the insurance companies rated the 302 cubic inch engine as an economy model, calling it a small V-8! If they only knew.
Funny, usIge, I just watched Bullitt last night, love that chase scene, and the whole movie, too.

Nice third car.

Yeah, I saw Bullett was on last night and DVRed it. Coincidence or serendipity?

 

[WorsterMan]

accurate, that is one SWEET Z-28 !!

 

[georgecostanza]

1979 Chevrolet Silverado. I still drive it.

Grandpa bought it new in '79, but died later that year. My dad drove it to UT when he was in school. Once he moved out, he got his own car. My grandma had it for years only driving it to the doctor, church, and the grocery store. Other than that, it just sat under the carport at her house.

When she died, it just happened to be time for my oldest sister to start driving. Both of my sisters drove it while in high school and for a couple of years in college before buying their own car. I started driving it my junior year of high school with somewhere around 180k miles on it. It now has over 260k miles on it, and I love driving it.

If the mileage was better and it wasn't so hard to maneuver around downtown Houston, I'd offer to buy it off my dad.

Oh, yeah. It has a camper on it, and it's a yellow cream color. I am a chick magnet.

 

[Dionysus]

I covet that Z-28. Man that is a sweet looking car.

1979 Chevrolet Silverado.
It has a camper on it, and it's a yellow cream color. I am a chick magnet.

You are living the dream george.

 

[georgecostanza]

You are living the dream george.

I've had girls ask me to roll down my window twice. You have no idea.

 

[JohnnyYuma]

I did better on my third car...one of those you wish you still had today.

My list is a killer. Started with 57 Chevy Convert. Went to a 63 Impala SS. Then a 65 Impala SS Convert. First new car was a 69 GTO. Love to have any of them now!!

 

[snek]

I was 700 bucks short of making my second car a '69 Camaro SS, yes, the big block. The demon possessed. A Co-worker of my Dad's was going to let me have it at a steal. It turned at or just at 13 seconds street legal and he had rear slicks for it. It was gorgeous. I sold what I could, collected any money lent and worked all the extra jobs I could and fell 700 clams short.

No way my Dad was going to co-sign or lend me the money even with the enormous amount of interest I offered him. He knew I was good for it too. He could almost double his money in two to three months time. Nope. He said he would not partake in my attempts to take my own life and he would be out a son and the money.

I, for the life of me, could not understand this parental conclusion and decision. I was ripped apart the day I was informed it sold. I collected another 400 bucks two days later, still would have been 300 short. My Dad would not let his friend hold it for me either.

To this day I get a little bummed. Even when my Dad was in the process of dying we spoke about it and I jokingly said I never forgave him for that decision. He said, weakly through all the apparatus that he was hooked to, "At least I have you here to not forgive me". We laughed. He's gone now and I still wish I had that car or got it then. But he was right. It's good odds that I may not be here today. That car was FAST and I was, well, I was a teenage boy who was known for pushing it and ending up in arroyo's, medians and such.

 

[NBHorn7]

But the main thing George is can you can find a good parking place? Then you can dazzle girls with your masterful parallel parking skills.

 

[WorsterMan]

But the main thing George is can you can find a good parking place? Then you can dazzle girls with your masterful parallel parking skills.

Chicks dig guys that drive older earth tone pickups with campers on the back, fuzzy dice hanging from the rear view mirror and a chrome Playboy bunny on the liftgate like George has.

 

[mb227]

Why, you ask...the insurance companies rated the 302 cubic inch engine as an economy model, calling it a small V-8! If they only knew.

In those days, a 302 WAS a little engine...hell, even in the Mercury wagon I mentioned earlier, the base engine was a six-banger, with options to consider of the 302, a 351 in 2bbl and 4bbl variants as well as a 429-4V. I think they added the 460 to the list in 1974...

BUT...the other thing in that era was the de-rating of engine outputs to keep insurance companies a little bit in the dark...the engineers weren't stupid

Perhaps most missed from that era is the ability to truly spec out a vehicle...now it is all packaged crap with no ability, even through fleet, to go option-delete on the fluff.

 

[georgecostanza]

Chicks dig guys that drive older earth tone pickups with campers on the back, fuzzy dice hanging from the rear view mirror and a chrome Playboy bunny on the liftgate like George has.

The Playboy bunny is essential. It keeps up my appearance as a bad boy.

 

[accuratehorn]

The Playboy bunny and fuzzy dice are nice, but your ride had real class with one of these on the dash.