That one car

[Dixie]

What one car was pivotal to you, and why? Is it the car you learned to wrench on, your first new car, or the one you learned the joy on?r. Whatever the reason, and car, I'm interested in hearing y'all's stories.

So please share.

[Dixie]

For me, it might be a little blue Pinto like this one. It wasn't a great car. I didn't even really like it. It was my first serious boyfriend's car. I can only claim ownership because 18 year-old me married his punk ass. Boy, that was a really bad decision, lol.

[id10t]

My 356.

Came home from the hospital in it when I was born.

Took family vacations in it. Learned to drive in it. Drove it to prom (did take pic with the 911 but never considered asking to drive in instead of the 356). I'm gonna end up spending a lot more restoring it than I could buy one already restored but that one wouldn't be *mine*

[IROC]

For me it was my 1973 Opel GT that I had in college. Although it was only about 10 years old at the time, it needed quite a bit of care and feeding. I had to do shocks, exhaust, water pump, installed a Weber carb, etc. But, I thought that car was so cool. I still have a soft spot in my heart for those things.

Not mine, but same color and everything:

[masraum]

1) My first car, '65 Chevy Impala, 2 dr 350, 4spd, 4.11 gears.
2) 13 years later - '88 Porsche 911 targa

[NY65912]

'68 VW Beetle and my 71 VW Ghia. I learned a lot on those cars. I started working in a Flying A gas station at 16 and took auto shop 2 years in high school so I had a bit of a jump start. Aut was only offered for 1 year but I got a pass to take it for 2 years as I used to service the admins cars.

[Scott Douglas]

'68 BMW 1600 bought used in '72 with only 25k showing on the odo.

Was looking at VW's at the time when an old flame asked me 'What ever happened to your Porsche/BMW dream?'
That got me to looking for one as I'd never thought it possible. Found the car in the LA Times one Saturday morning, which is when the big Sunday paper hits the news stands. Car was mine by noon. Double the price of the VW I was thinking of buying from B-Hills VW, but I'm glad I got it.
Had it 9 years and sold it, with 138k showing, for $100 less than I'd paid for it.
Took me places all over this country. I'm sure a VW would have had problems with the rate of travel I did back then.
My only regret was that it didn't have reclining seats, but that's a story for another time. It probably kept me from going down a road that was well traveled several years later.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by id10t

My 356.

Came home from the hospital in it when I was born.

Took family vacations in it. Learned to drive in it. Drove it to prom (did take pic with the 911 but never considered asking to drive in instead of the 356). I'm gonna end up spending a lot more restoring it than I could buy one already restored but that one wouldn't be *mine*

Don't forget I'll be doing all of your chrome, cadmium plating and Cerakote/painted parts. So less than you think.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

'73 240Z. Bought it for $500 before I had my license, needed rear wheel bearings, brought it to a shop and they couldn't fix it so I took it home and bought a Haynes manual. The rest is history.

this is most likely my car, found it for sale 10 years ago but seller sold it out from under me because I was too nice about his wife being in the hospital.

[oldE]

'68 Chev half ton, step side. 250ci straight six, three on the tree, 8 bolt wheels and, I believe 4.11 rear. Heavy springs. That was the farm truck Dad let me drive, as it was cheaper to insure than the car. The bench seat was eligible to be registered as a torture device. After three hours my young butt was aching.
I look at preserved and restored examples and have no urge to drive another.

[Flat Six]

I know I've written about this before, but I've been pretty nostalgic and missing my pops a lot lately.

1965 Dodge Dart GT
Blue w/white vinyl roof
225 slant six, 904 3-speed auto

Not a great car, but the one we owned when I was young and my dad taught me how to work on cars. First one I ever wrenched on, tuned up, replaced and set points, rebuilt a carb, changed a tire.

Dad was old (for the time) when I was born, 35. Marine. We got the car about a year before his first of 2 tours in Vietnam. Not a big talker. We didn't have much in common, but we could always talk about cars -- one of the few things we could share over the next 40 years.

As his 7-year-old gofer, I'd get him whatever socket or combination wrench he needed. He'd ask me, "What size is that bolt (head)?" I'd say, "7/16ths." Him: "No, that's a 1/2." I'd bring him the 7/16ths and give him a gap-toothed grin when he saw I was right. He'd give me a soft look and move on. Took me damn near 20 years to figure out he knew it was 7/16ths, he was just building my confidence.

Learned a lot about life working on that car, most of which I didn't realize or appreciate until decades later.

Man, I miss him.

Not ours, but looks close:

[KNS]

Cool story, Dale

[KNS]

I'd have to say my first car - a '68 Volkswagen Beetle. I wasn't really crazy about the car (I so badly wanted a Scirocco) but with the "Idiot's Guide" I learned a lot about working on cars. Great reading and wonderful illustrations.

[Steve Carlton]

Got my first car the day I turned 16. 1968 Firebird with 99,000 miles with the OHC 4.1L straight six and 3-spd column shift. My parents' mechanic recommended it from one of their customers. Bought it for $1,100 in 1972.

I started looking for a 4-spd to swap in and found one for $125. For $75 more, I could have the 400ci engine as well. It turned out to be the 389ci, but no matter. Fearless teenager I was, I put it in the car in my parents' garage. Promptly blew up after leaking too much oil. Rebuilt it in my parents' garage and it ran well for a year or so until I went on a 500 mile trip to look at a college and blew it up again on the way home spinning 7,000 rpm... I learned a lot about working on cars with that one!

[Zeke]

Probably my '61 Corvette 283 that was fully SCCA B-Production prepared chassis and drive train wise but had too many customized elements body wise to pass scrutineering. I built it to beat the 289 Cobra. By the time it was finished the Cobra 427 was everywhere.

But the reason I call it pivotal is that I took the car down to the bare frame and built it back piece by piece (with every GM RPO part sold at the time). But I Foosed around with the body adding a duck tail and a few other Can Am inspired treatments that it was too far from stock appearing to race in the Production class. (No glass in the doors, that kind of thing)

This was in the '66 to 67 years. It was the first ground up build for me. I was 21.

[onewhippedpuppy]

‘79 Chevy Silverado Scottsdale 1500, dubbed the “$h!tmobile” by my friends. My parents actually bought me a 1987 Nissan 200SX but decided that they could tell me where I could go and what I could do, so I took a whopping $1100 that I had in the bank from mowing lawns and bought my own truck. It was more rust than steel but it had a fresh 350 and a 3.90 rear end. I filled the bench seat with craft foam to fill in the holes and then covered it with one of those Walmart saddle blanket seat covers, rebuilt the Quadrajet, threw on some glasspacks, and proceeded to do a lot of one-wheeled burnouts. I’d still love to have a square body GM truck, except I’d prefer the short bed 4x4 that I couldn’t afford.

Some of you guys had some nice stuff! I was poor when I was young.

[Bill Douglas]

Two true love cars in my lie.

The first was a two door Mk1 Ford Escort when I was a teenager. It was an ex-Kodak rep car so painted yellow. I loved that car. I sold it to buy an air ticket to America. And had a pretty good time in the US.

The second is my darling 911SC Sport.

[GH85Carrera]

When I was about 15 and half, I asked my dad what car he was going to get for me. He laughed heartily, and replied whatever I could afford to buy for myself. He did give me a interest free loan of $600 that I paid in full.

It was for a mighty 1960 VW bug with a 36 HP engine when new. 0 to 60 was 72 seconds if there was no hit of a headwind, and not even a slight uphill. With a headwind, it was infinite as top speed was 62 on a downhill slope. I had to pay for 100% of all costs, except insurance. I figured out right away, DYI was the way to go for a broke kid. I got my driver's license on my 16th birthday.

I did learn some wrenching from my older brother. I don't recall dad ever working on any of his cars. Cars were just an big expensive appliance he had to park outside to my dad.

With two antique cars from the mid 1980s with a combined mileage of 596,000 miles, I always have some project to do on one or the other and sometimes both cars.

[thingmon]

#1 69 Mercury Cougar XR7. Very solid Cali car (very rare in NY). Dark blue with a black vinyl top. Just loved everything about it. Sold for $650. I was maybe 15 and not old enough for my own car according to my parents. Grr. Horse landed on it a few years later. Damn shame.
#2. Learned to drive on a beater 72 Dodge 150 short bed 4x4, 4sp. Rusty POS, but fun for banging around in the fields.

My sister had a Pinto wagon. Someone bumped the 5 mph bumper such that ths passenger side door wouldnt open. Oops.

Other sister had a bronze Bobcat (Mercury version). Pretty posh for an entry level car.

[Alan A]

P6 Rover.
Put me in the hospital, on crutches non-weight bearing for best part of a year and set back college by a year.