Fawndeuce

Here are three of mine circa mid to late seventies...
The Cortina was my first car, I bought for $300 in '74 when I turned 16. No choice but to learn how to turn wrenches to keep it running
The Dart was a 225 daily driver that I bought in about '78, ran great until the springs came through the trunk floor.
The Mazda was my pride and joy from about '77 until I rolled it in '80. It had a fully bridge-ported race rotary with a Holey 4 bbl, Racing Beat high rise intake headers and exhaust. It weighed under 2000lbs and was putting out about 175HP. You have to remember that back then a stock '77 Z28 put out about 160HP, I had a lot of fun with this car!!! Only down side was that it was painfully loud, I would shut the motor off blocks from my parents house and coast when I came in late.
Paul

vettedad61

1990 454SS notice the corvette wheels and cross flags on fender I sold on ebay

magicv8

Here's the pic

Here's the list:
5700 pounds of 54 Chrysler
61 Plymouth
61 Plymouth with Dodge front end and Tbird interior
34 Dodge with Chevy v8, Parckard trans and diff
64 Plymouth SportFury
65 Plymouth 426/4speed wagon with buckets
65 Dodge 440cid/auto
63 Sting Ray 300hp/4speed
66 Dodge Charger
62 Ford v8/3speed with 20 Woodstock hippies on the car
67 Firebird Formula400 rescued from a junk yard
73 Pontiac ventura
77 Chevy Impala
74 Chevy Vega
78 Tbird
80 Tbird
82 Honda Accord
84 Honda Accord
86 Honda Accord
66 Sting Ray 390hp/4speed (still own)
88 Honda Civic
89 Geo Metro
91 Mitsubishi Mirage
95 Lumina APV
2000 Chevy Venture
2003 Pontiac Vibe (not shown)
2004 Chevy Equinox (not shown)

Procrastination Racing

I helped a friend drag home a Mazda like this one, about the same color, for an autocross car.
The story of getting it home could take 30 minutes to tell. Most of it is R-rated.

He built one nasty rotary on his glass kitchen table from the information Mazda Racing sent him.
The thing was so much fun to drive.

Procrastination Racing

$3500?? Man, did you get ripped off! I paid $2100 in June '76 for a '63 convertible s/n 00947.

63Corvette

http://alex62.typepad.com/imsablog/2006/02/index.html
Scroll down just over halfway to Texas International Speedway 1971

65nassau

That's quite a list! You are a true car guy Magic!

...I have not been in the car hobby that long...so most of my cars were drivers that a kept for 6 or 8 years at a time.....so I think i owned something like 6 cars up till I was 50 or so...!!

magicv8

I ran the wheels off most of these cars. The only ones that got less than 30k miles were the Geo and the Venture, both of which my daughter got with about 20k on them (she took the GEO past 150k). Many of them went over 100k miles and a few had more than two engines. I love to drive.

PS My wife is also a high mileage driver, but none of the ones listed above were hers. I'm still trying to talk her into a used c6, but she says she would rather retire early.

Zigler

I broke the piggy bank in high school and bought this '66 Chevelle Malibu in 1987 for $2500. It was the first car I owned. Dad wasn't exactly thrilled, but he graciously loaned me the final $500 I didn't have. I put a lot of sweat equity into it, learning body work (plenty of mistakes) and simple mechanics. It was my daily driver through high school and much of undergraduate college, and I appreciate my younger brother letting me borrow his various beaters when I put it away for those long Wisconsin winters. I clearly remember stopping at the local Citgo station and emptying the ash tray's contents of quarters and dimes to get gas... the car never saw a full tank during the first few years with me.

Here I am 20 years later, and I still have my old friend. It spends most of its time in the garage and I only have time to get it out a couple of days each summer. The 283 is pretty tired and waiting for me to have the time and workspace to go through it. The linkage on the 3-on-the-tree needs some attention as well, but I am glad I never took the car away from stock. The car is a good 10 footer. I have considered selling it as I moved around, but I could never bring myself to do it. The car will never be worth big money. Instead, I smile whenever I take its cover off and think about times such as swapping out a leaky water pump as a 17 year old at midnight in my parents' driveway so I could get to work the next day. I have owned other hobby cars and will get another older Corvette again some day, but this car will always be special to me.

This forum appears to be filled with other folks with similar stories. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
- Brad

Procrastination Racing

This story makes me sick!!!

It touches on two stories that are sore spots in my high school car years.

One was a blue '66 Chevelle SS a friend of the family had. 396 PowerGlide. It was a beautiful car, but the PG was a weak link and had problems. So Gene and my dad decided I shouldn't have it. He got $600 on trade for it.

Second story was a '65 Corvette convertible with hardtop I found, sans engine and transmission. The guy also had the front half of a '64 coupe used to cut down a telephone pole with an LT1 in it. $1200 for both, I had $900 of it and my dad wouldn't loan me the rest.

While you had some work cut out for you, you were very lucky to get your car and have someone loan you the money and other cars when needed. Never forget that.

A 283 three on the tree. I'd love to have that. Don't ever sell it.

Forvettes

These are my Favorite Previously Owned Cars

1957 Chevy
I put a lot of sweat into restoring this one. Finally someone wanted it more than I did. He made me an offer I couldn't refuse.


1967 Mustang
Sold this one on a whim too.

K2

My "Survivor" Original paint, drivetrain, even mirrors!
501 cubic inches of Flathead!! 4 1/2" bore and 5 1/4" stroke, 165 horsepower @ 2700 RPM, 402 ft lbs torque at 1100 RPM, compression ratio 6.0:1, 15 gears forward and 3 reverse rock crusher no synchros. Imagine shifting through 3 gears in reverse! Factory air conditioning - windshields crank out. Pretty Cool Huh!

theybot

I like your mazda. I had a 73 RX 2 with a street port and headers in to to glass packs. Thing sounded sweet. I bought it of my brother who had a bridge port in it, but pulled it out because it was my first car ( was 16) and he thought I would kill my self. You gota love the rotery.
Bought my brothers mazda cosmo after that.
Toby

DansYellow66

I need to take a couple steps back - I'm having a hard time getting this thing in proper perspective.

Trophy Blue

Here is my first corvette. We had to put a rear clip on it. Great learning experience. Sorry for the crappy pictures.

Trophy Blue

Here is my second corvette a 1980 with a 4 speed that I put together and my 1970 Mustang Fastback.

65coupe

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My first car was a 66 chevelle SS 396 bought in the the spring 1973. Drove it in high school and college. Did paint [Aztec Bronze] and motor in 1984/85. Matching #'s 396/325, A/C, PG, 12 bolt 3:31 posi, rosewood wheel, PS, PB, AM-FM. No one knew or cared abouy the numbers back then. I did know that 66 chevelles also came with 360HP and 375HP (or same 425HP in the 65 396 vette. I never understood why the same exact motor in two different cars had a 50 horse difference). I just wanted a SS396. I paid $800. Still have it.

65coupe

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I'm no good at putting a picture in.

65coupe

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Fawndeuce

I can't belive that that photo was taken over 30 years ago!
Thanks for the kind words from you and Procrastination, I was a little reluctant to publicly admit on a 'Vette forum that I had once been a full blown rotary head!
The car was a real sleeper (other than the noise), most people just thought it was just a 70HP Corolla or something...
I will probably be banished from this site for life for relating this, but some of my favorite targets (ahem...) were big hair gold chain disco guys in new 'Vettes, especially if they had their "lady" with them.
There was this long boulevard where the traffic would cruise at about 40~45, I would 'kinda coast up beside Mr. big collar and give a couple of revs, this would usually elicit a big smirk or an outright laugh from the guy, the look on his face saying something like "This is a 'Vette you looser moron", so I would do it again while silently dropping to second.
I may not have had bags of low end torque, but I did have lots of top end (no valve train to limit RPM), if he was stock, from a roll I had him. Big dirty fun for a 17 year old kid!
Here is another shot of mine (engine out) and my mother's matching wagon. The wagon came first, bought new in '73 after a lot of convincing on my part.
Paul
PS. Mazda guys will notice a couple of custom tweeks.