JP Cavanaugh described the 1968 Chrysler Newport he drove for several years in the 1990s as his fountain of youth, a car from his childhood that he got to relive as a daily driver in adulthood. So it’s time for us to share our automotive fountains of youth.
I don’t really have an exact analogue to Jim’s Chrysler, so I can’t answer the question directly. The ’66 F-100 I bought in 1987 wasn’t really a vehicle from my childhood, although I did cultivate a love for old pickups during my summers spent with the Mennonite farmers in Iowa City, but those were mostly from the 50s. A Chevy “Advance Design” pickup would certainly have filled that bill. But there’s no question that driving my F-100 takes me back to my youth, so it’s as close as I can get.
Given that I’ve had it for 31 years now, just looking at this old picture of it from 1988 makes me feel like that was practically still my childhood. So if the fountain of youth involves taking one back 30 years, that works for me.
And what is or would be your automotive fountain of youth?
One picture is worth a 1000 words.
PolarBear says: “One picture is worth a 1000 words.”
Exactly.
A couple of fondly-remembered Toyotas from my greener days would do nicely: A first-generation MR2, or an FX-16 GTS.
My Dad loved his Cadillacs! Any RWD Caddy from the sixties or seventies still instantly transforms me to the little guy that used to nap in the old man’s 64 Sixty Special with my head on the centre armrest and my feet tangled in the door pull.
I believe it would be around 1964 in the Bronx in the 2nd floor appartment on melrose ave, sitting on the fire escape and looking at the rear end of a 1961 rambler. i remember i thought the tailights looked like the iron my mother used to iron our clothes. thanks for the memories!!!
As I was born in 1980, the vehicle I really associate the most with my childhood is that Dodge Caravan that was posted here earlier today. I can’t really see myself buying and driving one, though.
I’ve always thought that if I were to buy a car from my childhood it would be something like a late 1970s Corolla. Partly because it’s a car from my childhood, but partly to be non-conformist; basically no one preserves/restores old Toyotas (at least not the mainstream ones like Corollas and Coronas), so I’d be the only person to have one.
Two for me: Dad’s 1947 Cadillac Fleetwood, with its V-8, Hydra-matic, capacious cabin complete with footrests for the back seat passengers, and heaters under the front seat; and the car that replaced it, a 1952 Cadillac Sixty-Two, not quite as plush as the Fleetwood, and a little less capacious but still roomy, with OHV V-8, Hydra-matic, and power steering.
His next car, a Mercedes 190Db, was the car in which I learned how to drive; years later, Dad gave it to me, and it became an expensive albatross around my neck. Then there was the 1941 Chevy Town Coupe I crashed on my way to my high school graduation…. Yep, for me it would be those old Cadillacs.
Given their extreme rarity as daily drivers north of the 49th Parallel, the sound of a passing air cooled VW, or a GM New Look bus, would bring me right back to my earliest childhood memories. Especially so, given they each were so prolific in the 1970s.
I remember the GM New look buses, or as I always called them, Fishbowls, being a very common site when I was young. My father used to take us on public transit on occasion when we were young, even though we had at least two cars. He wanted us not to forget our humble roots. I always like the GM fishbowls, great buses. And most drivers seemed to like them too over the newer stuff that replaced them (MCI and Orion in area).
The Fishbowls had so many charms / idiosyncrasies. I used to ride them all the time as a student. It used to be entertaining when the rear manually opening doors would not close fully by themselves. While the driver, unaware the doors were still ajar, would attempt to pull away. The engine would rev as the bus went nowhere. As a nearby passenger pulled the doors closed, the bus would heavily lurch forward. Smart drivers would assign a passenger near the rear door, and that was their task for the duration of the route.
+1 on the GM New Look bus. I spend a lot of time riding these as a teenager. If anyone mentions “bus” these are what I think of. They were great looking for such a workmanlike beast. Totally gutless up hills however.
Add me to the list of Fishbowl fanatics,in the early 70’s i remember riding these busses in ny. man those times were simpler!!
As a child several 55 Ford Ranch Wagons and at least 1 Country Sedan would “take me back”, but as a bit of auto rejuvenation….it would be a toss-up between the TR3 I owned in the 70s and the 914 I owned in the 80s.
I think my 09 Crown Victoria is the reinCARnation (pun intended), of those 55 Fords. It even has rubber mats instead of carpets on the floor like those old wagons. While I tell myself that I might even enjoy driving again if I had another roadster….or motorcycle.
Ah yes….my Ranch Wagon memory was a 1957. My dad would open the rear hatch window(that what it was called?), lock it open and I would ride back there sitting sideways, my elbow resting on the tailgate breathing in all that good exhaust air!
Any big sporty Detroit iron from around 63-64, like Pontiac Grand Prix, Mercury Maurauder, Ford 500XL, Chevy Impala SS, Buick Wildcat, or Chrysler 300 (extra points for the letter-series 300s). These were the cars my 9- or 10-year-old self lusted after, but which my ever-practical dad passed over. Absolute favorite would be a 63 Buick Riviera. I stood staring at the one on display in the Henry Ford Museum, because it’s just so damned beautiful.
Now around age 10 my lusts turned to Mustangs, Corvettes, and Cobras, but those I would never use as daily drivers. Give me a big car with buckets, a four-speed, and a big engine, and I would die happy.
My 59 Plymouth Fury was a Fountain of Youth overdose. It was built on the very day I was born, so that one kind of took me back all the friggin way. 🙂
For me, I have my Torino which has been with me for pretty much my whole life. Owning a car that has been with me since childhood is rare these days and to be honest with some of the big changes that occur in life, it’s nice to have one constant. I am pretty sentimental when if comes to cars and quite honestly I’d love to a have a few others from the past.
For me this would include a 1972 Buick Skylark, one of old cars, I learned to drive on, a 77-90 GM B-body, likely a Pontiac Parisienne, which between my parents and me we had over 20 years of straight ownership, a ’79 Ford pickup, preferably a 460 powered Indy Pace Truck like the one my dad/uncle owned, a ’72 Chevelle coupe (my first car) and if my brother ever decides to get rid of his ’76 Malibu, I’d take that too (another car I learned to drive on, and suffered many teenage antics). Suddenly, it seems like a need a new garage….
I’ve had Cheapo Falcon for 28½ years of my 45 yr. 2 mo. existence on the planet. I’ve often heard folks talk about their 1st car and wished they’d have kept it . . . so I kept mine. (It helps that I grew to like the ’64 a lot; it’s an island of automotive simplicity in a sea of complicated modern electronics).
If I drove more I’d not mind adding a ’68 Chevrolet Biscayne or Bel Air to my other spot under the carport. With a Powerglide and that’s it. I’ve always liked the looks of the 1968 Chevrolet, esp. with the 2 taillights on each side instead of three tails featured on the Caprice and Impala models.
I’d have to go with my grandpa’s WW2-surplus Jeep. He farmed and ranched 1000 acres when we were kids, and all of us rode around with him at one time or another (there were over 30 grandkids). I never saw him service it, but it never failed to get him where he needed to go. He had two gravity-feed gas pumps on the premises. The thing was ugly, weather-beaten, and filthy, but we loved to bounce around in it with Grandpa (often accompanied by one or both of his faithful herding dogs). I think of him whenever I see a photo of one of those old beaters. The farmhouse is still there (and still in the family), but the land has long since been swallowed up by what the real-estate guys called “5-acre ranchettes”. Only the memories–and a few black-and-white snaps–remain.
Well, I’d have to say my 1963 Beetle is close, because I used to ride around in my Aunt’s early 1960’s blue Beetle as a small child.
However if I could find a 1960 Pontiac, which is the car I came home in as a newborn that’s about as youthful as you can get.
As part of his 1961 Pontiac refurbishment program David Saunders has been torturing me with this 1960 Pontiac for sale in Alberta…. GAAHHH!!!
It definitley would be my first car. My 1987 Pontiac Sunbird Hatchback. I have not seen another one on the road since I totaled mine in 1995. For what it lacked in engine ability it made up for in sportiness and those cool flip up headlight covers (at least for a 16 year old with limited funds)….. A good portion of the memories of my last 2 high school years all somehow involved that car directly or indirectly. Hopping in that car one more time would make me feel 16 years old again. I don’t think I could find one if I tried. there weren’t many to begin with and most probably made it to the crusher by 2000 anyway….
My first car of course. It was a red Bug like this one. Bought it with the money I made in my summer job after high school, I was 18. Bought another red one ten years later to commute in. Haven’t been in a Bug for many years, but I know it would take me right back to that first summer of wheeled independence.
Growing up here it was pretty much all-GM-land-all-the-time, but here’s a few:
– Any ’79-’85 GM E-body, but of course an ’85 Riv would be best.
– Any ’77-later RWD GM B or C. To my young eyes they immediately made any sedan to come before that automatically old. Also, we had a ’79 Olds 98, silver on silver with the bordello red leather interior, when I was young.
– Early 80s G-Body Buick Century, also previously owned by my family.
– GM New Look bus. They were everywhere.
– Datsun 810, possibly the first non-VW foreign car I ever saw. Our neighbor had one.
– VW Beetle, enough said.
– Finally, a tri-five Chevy… I like the ’55 enough myself, but it seemed like every car show in the early 80s was swing-a-dead-cat full of them. Now it seems I haven’t seen one in person in decades.
I guess I own it, I was 5 years old when my Cougar rolled out of the showroom.
Weirdly enough, despite my current hatred of SUVs and Crossovers, the cars(trucks?) that instantly remind me of being 5 years old are the extinct 2-door ragtop SUVs like the Suzuki Samurai, Sidekick, X90, Geo Tracker, first generation RAV4, and of course the square headlight Jeep Wranglers. Many of these were oddly common in the Chicago area when I was a kid, and when I see them today it takes me right back.
I have 3…my 71 Maverick 2dr, my first car I bought in 83, although no longer road worthy, I can still sit in it and “go back”….my 74 Montego dad bought new which I still also own, many family vacation memories are there, as well as my driving lessons and my first ticket….and my 74 Impala, originally Grandma’s ride from 80 on when her 67 Impala was totalled, many summer day rides to long gone family member’s homes when I would spend a week with her every summer till I was 18. Good memories all…and lots of stories! Pics of actual cars below. Maverick from 85, Montego from 03 when I got it, and Impala also from back in 03 when I got it three months after Montego.
Montego
Impala
Is that half roof/landau roof vinyl treatment factory? I’m very intrigued by it since it almost perfectly previews the 77-79 Thunderbird baskethandle design.
Yes Matt, new for 74 was this two piece vinyl roof called the “Embassy Roof” in the press kit. It did indeed presage the 77 up T’Bird design.
1972 Volkswagen 411
For me it would be an old station wagon on a camping trip….
First choice being a Saab 95 (not a 9-5) two-stroke wagon like my parents had when I was under 10, with a home made camp box on the roof. Next could be the same class of car but looked at through a fun-house mirror in Detroit, a 72 Vega Kammback, but with a canoe longer than the car on the roof.
But a first-year (77) downsized B-body Impala wagon might be more, um, robust that the other choices. By then no camp box or canoe, but still a waxed canvas tarp of gear on top – old camping gear can be kind of big.
ETA if we expand to things I haven’t driven (or even seen in person often) then a Lotus Europa is the ticket. I’ve loved them since I was 6 years old in 1969…
My first choice would be my father’s first car, a 1968 Plymouth Barracuda. The second would be the 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner w/Cragar S/S wheels that a friend of trhe family’s was selling @ his gas station in the early ’70s. There would also be the 1964 Ford Thunderbird in midnight blue that my father’s boss owned.
1978 Chevy Caprice Classic
.
As my name implies, a 1964 Impala 4-door hardtop, my families first brand-new car. Took it on vacations starting when I was 10 years old an 6 years later I got my Mass. drivers license in it. Drove it through 2 years of high school and 2 more of college before my Dad traded it in on a 1972 Montego with a 6-cylinder (gag)
I would have to go with a Karmann Ghia myself. I drove my beater yellow ’70 Ghia in college and it held up well until it caught on fire. I’d like to have another one someday.
My parents never had an interesting car, so it would be maternal grandpa, who was a well-paid engineer. He drove a ’52 Mainline club coupe, perfectly stripped, and he used the car to teach me a lesson.
“See the manual choke? I like Fords because you can still get a manual choke. You need to keep things simple and manual so you can tell what’s going on, and control what’s going on.”
He was dying of alcohol at the time, and he was trying to convey the important things of life to a soft pampered kid.
I remembered the lesson.
Oh, there are several choices.
Maybe a 51 Studebaker Champion…but that was so long ago I really don’t have any clear memory of it.
Tons of clear memories of the 64 Galaxie XL. I wore the chrome off the radio button that I had set for WKNR. It was around until I was 16, not all that young anymore.
Maybe a 70 Cougar like the one that I went through college with.
What really says “young” to me? Takes me back to when I was Beaver Cleaver reincarnate? The days when we would be rolling down Michigan Ave in West Dearborn and I admired the reflection of the car in the store windows as we passed? The days when we hit all the hokey tourist traps in the Irish Hills, like “Mystery Hill”, “Moonshine Valley”, the western town and the dinosaur valley? When I was the terror of miniature golf courses?
Yup, a red 60 Lark. That’s my time machine.
Have you seen Keener13.com ?
Have you seen Keener13.com ?
I know the station still has it’s fans, but I don’t think I have looked at the web site.
I was listening the day the DJ broke the station, probably in that Galaxie as the Lark didn’t have a radio. KNR had a tape that said “Keener Beatle exclusive” that they would play at the start of a new release. On that occasion, the tape didn’t stop, but played that intro phrase over and over all through the record.
I’m not old enough to actually remember the station,but have been interested since hearing a recreation/retrospective they did a couple of years during the Woodward Cruise. Maybe 2002 & 2003?
Teen years spent with my parents’ 66 Impala 327 family truckster. My favorite car to drive, however, was my Grandmother’s 63 Olds 88 with the big 394. It was smooth as silk with alot of power.
1977-79 LeSabre.
My Grandfather had a new ’78 until trading it for an ’84. About that time we got my Great-Aunt’s ’77 which I drove in HS & College until ’91.
Same car, same color. 1964 Chevelle Mailibu SS Convertible, 283/4bbl/PG/buckets, console, floor shift, not fancy, but a blast. Bought when I graduated Navy Boot Camp, January 1973, from a used car dealer in Ontario CA. Had new paint and a new white top, blue interior. It was sitting up on a stand on the street corner of the lot. Love at first sight. Best $650 I ever spent*. Drove from CA to FL, via Chicago, and back, Oh to be 19 and single again 🙂
* comment by the selling dealer, “I’m glad you bought it, its easier to get rid of the clap than a convertible in Southern California!”
Looking at some vintage car pricing sites, when new, as equipped, it would have listed for a tad over $3,000 ($23,934 today). So $650 ($3,370 today) was a fair price at the time (with the “I want to get RID of this convertible!” discount included).
Again, this looks just like my old one, except for the white interior (Mine was blue). It also had a manually operated top, I guess a power top was an option?
The power top was an option. My dad “borrowed” a ’65 SS convertible from the local Chevy dealer in Towson for a July4th parade, got to keep it until Monday, so I got it Saturday night. It was loaded, 327, power windows, am/fm, but a manual top!
For me I suppose it would be the 1963 Plymouth Belvedere I got shortly after high school graduation. In the two years I owned the car I put over 45,000 miles on the odometer, 95% of which was within a 15 mile radius of my house. The car got around 11 MPG, at least when I was driving, so I burned up a lot of gas going nowhere. The longer I drove the Plymouth the more minor things went wrong; the heater fan quit, some little part broke and kept the turn signals from working, and, the coup de grace, the transmission developed a leak that I was not equipped to deal with. I have to say though that, even with 110,000 miles, the 361 V8 continued to run as strong as ever. The Plymouth was replaced by a 1965 Pontiac Catalina, which was a much better car but not nearly as much fun to drive.
1971 Cutlass Convertible.
I ended up owning both 1973 and 1976 Cutlasses in my high school years and early college. I looked at an immaculate 1971 Cutlass convertible, already appreciating in price in 1985 or so. I passed as it was more money than I was comfortable with and making it a daily driver with no garage in salt country just felt wrong.
I wouldn’t mind at all going back in time for one of these in the future as an old man, it would open a time I left behind when I was 21.
Rare for the time, it was silver with a black interior as pictured……
Easy. 90s S10 Blazer. My parent’s had one growing up, and that car was in the driveway from the time I was born until I was 8. If there is one car I remember and look back on with fond nostalgia of my youth, it would be an S10 Blazer.
I’m going with late-’80s – early-’90s Ford Mustang. I loved my ’88 – the first car I purchased with exclusively my own money. There are a couple GTs on or around my block, a hatchback and a convertible, and sometimes when walking past them, I’ll steal a glance inside at the interior and the familiar shape of that dashboard – and I’ll remember how much I loved that car at that time.
As one who turned 18 in 84, the Fox body ‘Stang’s were a very integral part of my 80’s life….I was very much into the Camaro/Mustang rematch from that time. Two friends owned one…Kenneth had a 83 and Chris later had a 90….and another friend Billy had a 89 Convertable in 06.
My entire childhood is in my garage. Cars are very sentimental to me and I made it a point to own copies of the cars that were important in my life growing up. Gripping those old door handles and the ka-thunk when the doors close, hearing the old starters crank up and start a carbureted pre-smogged V8 and of course, theres the special smell of an old car. To me, old cars are all about happy memories and making new ones.
-I managed to hold on to my first car, a red ’77 Grand Prix that I got from my brother in 1989, and he bought it in 1983 as his second car. I recently bought my 17-year-old daughter an ’84 Grand Prix for her first car to keep the GP first car tradition going.
-My Mom’s first new car was a pretty burgundy ’82 Delta 88 coupe and it eventually became the first car I ever drove. It was a big deal in the family when we got it and 6 years ago, I found and bought a clean beige one since I couldn’t find one the same color as Mom’s but it still brings back the memories of football practice and Cub Scouts. She loves the car and drives it whenever she’s in town.
-My Dad had a gold ’71 Satellite sedan for most of my early years until I was about 9 or 10. It was a great car that I don’t remember giving us much problems and we did lots of trips between NY and SC in it to visit family but I remember brutal summers sticking to the black vinyl seats. A couple of years after my Dad passed away, I found a clean, low mileage green Satellite at a swap meet with cold A/C and everytime I turn the key, I’m with my Dad again.
-I grew up hooked on the Dukes of Hazzard so only a ’69 Charger would do. Luckily, I found a well-maintained, original owner car back in 2008 before the prices went insane.
-I was (and still am) a big Richard Petty fan and the first car I remember him driving (and winning in) was his ’71 Road Runner. That car looked so sleek and mean and it just looked the way I thought a racecar should look. Now I have a white ’71 RR with King Richard’s signature on the air cleaner.
-I was home sick from school for a few days when I was in 1st or 2nd grade and my Mom brought me home a Monogram model of a ’79 Malibu police car from Woolworths as a treat. Since then, Ive always loved G-Body Malibus and police cars and now I have a police package ’83 Malibu 9C1 with the model my Mom got me on the dash.
-Any red-blooded car-loving American kid that grew up in the ’80s loved Buick Grand Nationals. I still have the C&D article that said “Darth Vader, your car is ready” and I had the only GN magazine ad they ran back then hanging up on my bedroom wall for years. Now I have the real car in my garage.
I’ve seen a couple 1967 Pontiac LeMans for sale on-line which have been spared the GTO “tribute” and they bring me back to my red 2dr hdtp I owned in the early ‘80s.
Hearing an air-cooled Volkswagen brings back memories, but a seeing a GM Fish Bowl bus not so much, mainly due to the Chicago Transit Authority’s over use of them throughout the 1980’s and into the 1990’s – Aluminum Windows flapping with every pothole hit and corner they made.
Any of these would work, all which were in my immediate or extended family as time marched on (and they’re all 2-doors!):
55 Chevy 210 Delray (who knew then it would become one of the fabled Tri-Fives?)
61 Chevy Bel Air (impeccable Bill Mitchell styling)
61 Olds Dynamic 88 “bubble top” (ditto and with Rocket V8 power)
67 Chevy Bel Air (the car I learned to drive in; loved the 63 Riviera-inspired front end styling)
Then there’s my young adolescent heartthrobs:
1965 & 66 Pontiac Bonneville sport coupes
You can see I worshipped then at the Church of St. Mark of Excellence.
I’m not interested in reliving my childhood, it’s more like capturing the optimism of my Youth. I had just graduated from college. Here’s the car that could do it. My three year old 1977 Coupe de Ville was dream come true. I have at times, seriously thought about getting another one.
Opel Manta GT/E
I guess I’ve already had one, my 1969 F-100 pickup:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/coal-requiem-for-a-truck/
Another I’d like to own again would be a 1968 Country Squire LTD, 390/4bbl. Yellow with dynoc. Pre-driving age, that was THE formative car of my youth. Post-driver’s license would be my ‘71 Vega. There’s a not-too-bad chance one may end up in my driveway at some point, too.
There are too many cars of my childhood because of my father always having a company car. As you can tell a company car in the late 50’s and the 60’s is not something a teen would aspire to. However, he did have a 1967 Plymouth III Sport Fury in red with a 383. That was a nice car given the bucket seats and console. Only lasted a year due to constant starting problems as in just failing to start.
The car to replace that he had to buy himself and I was taken along while shopping the cars as has been mentioned here. So I was with him when he bought a 1968 Cougar in April 1968. The car became mine in December 1969 at 16. Sits in the garage at this moment frozen in time. Last used as a regular driver till I got a company car in 1973. Everything in the glove compartment and console storage dates from 1970-75. My father, now 92, still teases me about getting his car back.
Just last night the next door neighbor got to see the car as the door was open and the car uncovered. He is Argentinian and wanted to know if original paint – yes. Then asked if 4 cylinders or six cylinders and I said 8 cylinders. I don’t think he has ever seen an 8 cylinder engine.
Speaking of youthmobiles, I considered making a pathetic and futile attempt to turn back the clock a few weeks ago. The local Lincoln dealer has a minty 2010 Mustang ragtop on his lot. I particularly like the 2010 generation as it’s clearly inspired by the 70, and carried off better than the 05 generation’s take on a 69.
Climbed in and looked around. Just didn’t feel the love. The car’s cheap and cramped interior, several notches down the scale from my 70 Cougar, didn’t help, but I just don’t have the ponycar lust I had 45 years ago.
Photos of this interior always bring me back. Our first family car. I spent quite a bit of my childhood washing it inside and out and helping to keep it on the road.
Supposedly the Fountain of Youth restores you to your best physical condition, not to your childhood (not sure I want to be 7 years old again), so in all due honesty – and as nostalgic as I am – I’ll have to give my dad’s cars a miss. That leaves me with two cars I had in my 30s and early 40s: a South African P100 bakkie (the one with the later Cortina body shape) which I had when I was doing a car restoration course in the UK and the Audi 100 I had as a university student 10 years later. None was particularly special or powerful, and with my current wherewithal none would remain stock. But they served me well back then and bring back good memories…
There’s no car that I’ve ‘revisited’ in life. But in terms of cars that burrowed into my psyche at a young age, I have two.
The first would among be the cars I saw and fantasized about in my childhood in the 1950’s, uppermost in my mind a 1957 Buick Special, seen at a church event on a late summer evening in that year. I vividly remember staring at the enamelled logo on the trunk (it was at eye level of course), that included the date 1957. Buicks were pretty snazzy items at that time but that emblem was somehow magical to me, communicating something undeniably ‘new’. I’m still smitten by 1957 Buicks to this day. To me they epitomize that time and place – the 1950’s, my childhood, (North) America.
My second answer would be a car I bought at the age of 19, in 1969 – a 1965 Volvo 544. Volvo’s were common in my then-hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia (there was a Volvo assembly plant there), but 544’s were not all that common, and were anything but new in appearance. Something about it though drew me in, and I managed to get my mother to help chip in to the $900 asking price. In the end it was about the character or personality of the car. The Volvo communicated toughness, a mixture of ‘stylishness through stylelessness’, or perhaps just a retro vibe. But it was somehow more real to me, as an object and an idea, than any Mustang or Camaro.
Ever since then I’ve gravitated towards European cars (Volvos, BMW’s, VW’s), seeing them as the only really ‘serious’ cars, whatever that means. But I still retain a weakness for aspects of American glitz, and for the very American kind of fantasy that certain cars, especially from the 1950’s, project.
My fountain of youth car? Being born in ‘63, my “wonder years” were the early 70s. So, I’d have to go with a ‘72 Impala.. I even managed to buy one back in ‘83. A 4 door sedan, spring green with a white painted roof, motivated by a 400 small block. It was tough as nails, but not tough enough for me. I beat that car…hard. I also had a ‘71 4 door hardtop in 1981 when in Delaware, dark blue with a white vinyl roof, also powered by a SB 400. Those SB 400 V8s were dogs. The ‘72 was a better looking car than the ‘71, in my opinion. I beat both of those cars down. Paid $600 for the ‘71, less than a year later, knowing it wouldn’t make it to Florida, I drove it to a junkyard that gave me $150 and a ride home. The ‘72? It lasted about the same amount of time, but it cost me $900, and only brought $50 when the wrecker picked it up with a toothless differential. They’re hard to find nowadays if they haven’t been “donked out”.
Learnt to drive in a mini, still drive a mini. When it actually goes that is.
Thing abut a mini, they’re always fun to drive, and I love throwing this one into roundabouts just like the 850 I learned in.
Two vehicles that would most transport me back would be a 1st Gen VW Rabbit or a 1950 Studebaker 2.5 ton truck. The Rabbit was a 1978, I was 8 years old, and dad liked to take long rides out around Leelanau County Michigan where we lived (near Traverse City) I can’t pass one of those online or in person without imagining owning it. The Studebaker was owned when I was younger and my earliest vehicular memories are of riding in the front seat with dad and picking out eight track tapes (by color). This one I am less likely to buy, but if I did, I would be playing Yes! Fragile and Joe Cocker all the time.
One near fountain of youth that I DID buy is my 1965 Galaxie. As a kid in northern michigan, I was friends with a boy from a ‘car family’. They had all sorts of interesting cars around and one of them was a ’65 Ford Custom, which was the full size base car. It had the optional 289 and a converted to floor shift 3 speed. The took me out in it a few times hooning around the country roads of Leelanau County and it left a deep impression. When I ran across this nicer, but similar Galaxie in 2001 for cheap I had not had an old car in a while and was missing it, so I bought it despite the fact that I was in college in had no money to fix it up. I still have it and driving it takes me back in time, every time.
I wouldn’t mind another first-generation Honda CRX to replace the 1984 1.5 5-speed I owned and loved for ten year. Please make it an ’86-’87 Si.
NSU TT.
Also in the running:
1971 Renault 4 TL. Our first family car.
BMW 750 toaster tank.
Any BMW Neue Klasse.
Any good motorcycle. If it dates from the late ‘60’s thru the early ‘90’s, all the better.
Oh yeah, if it says Triumph, BSA, Harley-Davidson or Indian on the tank, best of all.
One word: Diesel
Here’s one that probably won’t be duplicated…’59 Lincoln convertible, my first car!
One car – my 1964 Impala SS convertible. If I could afford one, I’d buy one, but like all classics I care about, they’re all untouchable.
FWIW, when I owned my car in the USAF, my future wife, who I wouldn’t meet until I was out of the service for two years, owned the same type of car in the same color, hers just wasn’t an SS!
I guess I have several,
My Grandfathers 1968 for F350 log truck. Forest green with a stakeside flatbed and dump. Rode with him a lot in that truck from the time I was five or so. I can still hear the starter turn the 352cid fe block to life and the strait pipe stacks burble as it fires. the inside smells of 2stoke gas and saw dust with a hint of the Cophenhagen suff the he always chewed. I don’t know what happened to that truck, as one of my uncles wound up with it and promptly sold it.
Mom’s 1984 Toyota tercel hatch back. It was a terrible silver color with black interior and no options, no power steering or brakes no ac, not even a mirror on the passenger door. I rode in that car every day from 9 years old untill I learned to drive and then drove it on occasion. I still have it and still drive it on occasion. All 5 of my children learned to dive in it as did all of my Brothers and Sisters (5 of us also). all of my nephews and nieces have used it to learn to drive also. Amazingly it has never had the clutch replaced.
My F 250, In 1990 at 15 I saved some money and bought a slightly used F250 4×4 diesel with 215k miles. My Dad was mad, “with that many miles it wont last through the summer”. Well a couple of years ago he admitted he was wrong. I have since put about 720k more miles on this truck and it has been as reliable as the sun coming up in the morning. We have been from one coast to the other 49 states, and 3 other countrys together. I hope I never have to part with such and old and reliable friend.
My Camry. In 1995 My wife announced that we were going to be parents, As she drove a singe cab F150 4×4 and I single cab F250, we needed a car. My family had always had good luck with Toyotas so I went and bought a new 4door Camry. I had grown up in a bare bones car and wanted something better for my wife, so I got the top of the line with power windows locks air leather seats and cd player. The wife drove this until child #3 came then I drove it until January of this year. 398k mile and never a major failure. Then it came…. A slight bearing noise I think to my self ” I need to look at that when I get home”. It didn’t happen, about 3 miles later the temp gauge rose in to the red. It was all over from there almost 400 thousand miles and I finally had to call a tow truck. I had a water pump failure and blown head gasket. I am still undecided as to fix it or not, all of my children want me to as it has been the only “car ” dad has ever had.
Big Red (the EXCURSION) As our family grew we needed more room and went through a Caravan and a Durango that were unimpressionable. in 2003 I was working at the Ford Dealer and bought a new 2004 EXCURSION 4×4 v10 in garnet red. I put in a leveling kit and 315/70/17 tires on it. Big Red has become somewhat of a legend in my small town as he has been seen everywhere and pulls every thing. All of my children have drove him to school and proms. some weddings and a few river partys . The older 4 have taken it on trips to California, Florida, Ski trips to Colorado and sightseeing to the grand canyon. We only have one left at home She plans a trip to Alaska this summer. After that Who Knows,
I have been long winded here, so I am sorry, All of these remind me of younger days and I hope no one minds.
My ongoing fountain of youth is the entire ’63-66 Plymouth Valiant / Dodge Dart ‘A’ body series:
The 1965 Valiant that my parents bought new in which I was slightly injured in in a car accident that totaled it in 1968. But this was the only ‘normal’ car purchase my father made in my youth.
Following was the ’64 Dart that was my daily transportation from ’86-’91, including 17 trips between NYC and Chicago for architecture school. It was sold to finance my Spring-in-Rome during Architecture school in the midst of the Gulf War ….. Then the 1963 Dart Convertible who’s NYC owner found me after I moved to Chicago in ’89 and demanded that I buy it because he couldn’t push it across the street anymore for alternate-side-of-the-street parking rules… (a set of new points re-enlivened it and I drove it as my summer car thru 2005), and finally, the ’63 Valiant Convertible that I replaced that ’63 Dart with because it only had 40,000 miles, and I didn’t have a giant taxi-caused dent in the driver’s door and fender that I never got around to restoring. I bought this car from a friend who’d known it since it was close to was new, and I’ve also gone the distance between the east coast and Chicago more than once in it. I’d drive it to California tomorrow if there was a need.
These cars keep going with little effort and thus keep me going. See how the line of cars goes back in time as we go forward? Each time I get in one, I get a little younger. I attribute my own gains in weight, loss in hair, flexibility and other bodily degradations to not spending enough time in these cars now and instead I’m building projects for the Gov’t….
I grew up with Volvos. As a kid we drove the stripper ones, bit I dreamt of a 245 Turbo or a 745 Turbo. A relatively unmolested one of those would do as a DD.
It seems only old Volvos and Mercedes survive the salty winter roads in Denmark. Even the Saabs built for a similar climate are getting scarce. So it’s relatively feasible, but I’m not sure I wanna go down that road.
Well, my first car at age 16 (second actually, I had a ’62 Beetle I worked on at age 14 but sold before I was driving age) was the ’66 Beetle Dad bought new when I was ten. But I totaled it in less than a year. I was working for Pizza Pete’s in 1972 in Glendale, Ca. We had run out of flour for making pizza dough, and the boss asked me to drive to the other store to pick up a 50 lb. sack of the stuff. On my way back I ran a stop sign on a side street, a pickup with camper was parked next to the sign, blocking it from view. I was T boned on the drivers side by a ’72 Mercury Capri, ir spun me around, up a curb and I stopped on a guys front lawn a few feet from his front door, the flour sack had burst open and flour was everywhere on the lawn, street, and me, still wearing my white work apron. The 3 in the Capri went through the windshield and were transported to the hospital (no seat belts), I was bruised from my shoulder to my ankle for the door intrusion but was OK. Was wearing lap and shoulder belts, glasses flew into the windshield and broke. The back seat of the VW was bent up into a U and the rear axle and wheel were stuffed under the car, the engine was hanging down almost to the ground.
When my insurance company found out I had not punched out and was working for Pizza Pete’s, they went after their insurance company and I was promptly fired.
I bought my ’70 C10 that I wrote about on CC in 1976 at age 20, and kept her until age 50 in 2006. It was replaced with a new 2004 Titan that I’ve now owned for 14 years, plan on keeping this truck it forever. I’ve only got 16,300 miles on it as of today.
Bought my 1986 Jetta GL in 1991 from it’s original owner at age 35, today 27 years
later and at over 300k miles I’m still driving it, it now has collector car plates which are available after the car is 30 years old in my state. At age 62, age 35 seems pretty youthful to me. Plan on keeping the VW forever as well.
Still have my ’85 Yamaha 700 Maxim (air cooled) I bought in 1994, 24 years ago. Haven’t run it in 2 years though, needs battery and tires, I may decide to sell it, never been injured in a motorcycle crash aside from a few cuts and bruises, now I wonder if maybe my riding days are over. I’m sure Syke will scold me for having these thoughts!
I would consider another split window VW Bus as a hobby car, but the prices people want today for even a junk example are more than I’m willing to pay.
A couple for me:
-1987 to 1992 Cadillac Brougham…Dad’s limo fleet had two of these and I’m instantly transformed back into a kid riding my big wheel inbetween them in the shop
-1988 Volvo 740: my maternal grandmothers favorite car…so much so that she kept it for 12 years…and every car since has failed in comparison. Spent many a road trip in the backseat with my cousin to and from various vacation spots
-1980 to 1984 Oldsmobile Ninety Eight Regency Brougham – Pap had one of these as a beater car of sorts to keep the miles off the 74 deVille…and the blue velour interior seemed endless to me. Not to mention the “Tempmatic” climate control, padded vinyl roof and opera lamps….other cars seemed so plain in comparison
Oh if I only had the money to buy them all and garage them!
A ’56 Chevy 2-door sedan. Small-block V8. 4-speed with Hurst shifter. Twice pipes with rumbling glass pack mufflers. Black. 150 or 210….
Yeah, I just described the ’56 that I once owned. Mine was a 150, 3-speed with hurst shifter, though.
My Father, when he had our school fees paid, went a bought himself an white Fiat 850 spider. Sadly, I never got to drive it, being too young, but my older Brother did. It was a real hoot, not very fast but good, clean fun. And yes, we use to sit on the back deck on trips to the beach; no choice really, the back ‘seats’ were……non existent!
The RX60/70 Toyota Cressida – either my Dad’s RX60 5-speed GL or the later 6-cylinder RX70 GLXi.
It would be two cars for me… a silver (with red leather and a black top) ’63 ID19 Cabriolet and a tan (with a dark brown interior, 350 4bbl and a THM400) ’69 Checker Marathon, two family cars from my youth.
I was 12 in 1969 when Interstate 85 was being built between Charlotte and China Grove, NC (The same section that is under construction now, being widened and being the biggest bottleneck on the Eastern Seaboard, sorry! Good old NC “Good Roads State” planning.), my dad somehow found a way around the barricades on one of the yet to be built exits (52, I believe) and let me drive our 1965 Catalina 4-door sedan. He was a sedan man. But I drove on the interstate at 12. That car or a 1965 Grand Prix would do it.
Dad’s ’46 Ford would do it, or a ’53 Chevy pickup like Grandpa Owen’s or a ’41 Ford one like Grandpa Kuntz’s … never got to drive that last one, but did a few driving lessons with Dad, then made a lot of trips to the dump after Dad died and we were cleaning out the house. Those were in the Chevy. All I had was a learner’s permit, but Grandpa O. rode with me on the first one and let me go solo after that. But the last time I drove one of those, my memories of light controls and easy handling were dashed by the harsh reality that all the cars I’d been driving – even the relatively old ones – were far superior in handling and lighter on the controls.
I’d rather revisit my equally lost Early Adulthood, with cars ranging from my first, a Fiat 500, through a couple of Minis, a Hillman Husky and a Peugeot 404. The last Mini was the car I had the longest, through two marriages and their breakup, and put the most mileage on. It was an 850 Countryman, the “Woodie”, and after I’d shipped it from Anchorage to Seattle we drove it down to Palo Alto. It made another trip up to Oregon and back, then down to San Bernardino and then out to Nashville. I sold it to a family who liked to do restoration projects shortly after I met my Forever Wife; I had just turned 40. My DD then was my first Alfa, a ’74 Berlina … but a Mini would do me fine.