what was your first car?

[Howie]

'57 Ford Fairlane, red and white 2 door, 6 cylinder, 3 on the tree, AM radio with two speakers.  After I killed the differential I installed a 4.11 fnal drive.  No top speed and noisy as hell on the highway, but it would slaughter Chevy V8s in the Stop Light GP

[Popeye the Sailor]

I'm waiting for Nate to post up that his first car was a brand new 1928 hupmobile 

[Magnus]

'67 Firebird, inline 6...  i could literally stand in the engine compartment there was so much space.  Paid $1300 for it back in the mid 80's.  The thing was heavily modified and abused...  a real heap, but I loved it.

[Randimus Maximus]

'79 Chevy Monza

[il d00d]

My first car was a 1978 powder-blue Chevy Impala (looking at the posts, 1978 was a good year for beater first cars).  It had a 305 that GM would have me believe was their "fuel efficient" model.  After the gas shortages of the late 70s, GM apparently responded with a series of very carefully engineered gimmicks.  My car came equipped with a "fuel economider" gauge - a cable attached on one end to the throttle, the other end attached to a needle that indicated how economin...dic..al your driving habits were supposed to be.  There was absolutely no real logic to it - if anything, it measured how far your foot was to the floor.
For some reason, I could not ignore the Fuel Econominder.  I watched the Fuel Econominder like a hawk.  I was well aware of how futile (see: 305 cubic inch engine, V8, Chevrolet) it would be to attempt to drive this land yacht efficiently, but I was in a constant feedback loop with the Econominder.

Some other fun facts about the 1978 Impala:
- It is longer than the 1978 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham that my friend used to borrow from his mom.  Once thought to be the longest car ever created, the Brougham lost this title some time in the early nineties after we actually measured one day.  Should you ever find yourself in the position, this is a good way to win five dollars in a bet.  What the Impala lacks in late 70s elegance, it makes up for in length.
- It is possible to comfortably almost lose your virginity in either the front or back seats.
- The trunk can hold at least four of your dumber friends.

The 1978 powder-blue Impala suffered the following indignities under my ownership:
- attempts to transform it into a mobile sound system capable of broadcasting the lower frequencies of NWA and Public Enemy with any amount of volume or fidelity.   Most of the time I had a JVC pull-out connected directly to a box with 2 fifteens.  I think the word you are looking for is "OG".  The rest of the time I had nothing, because I blew fuses, ran wires on a guess, or gave up halfway through doing something.
- a brief trip to a local ditch on Christmas Eve - the roads had iced over, and I was as prepared for this as a 17 year old driver in Texas with a rear drive car as a snowball would be in the fiery depths of hell.
- stress tests, in the form of running the highly fuel efficient 305 without oil, accidentally, and the radiator without any coolant of any kind, because I got sick of refilling the goddamn thing, and buying tubes of JB Weld.
- my ham-fisted and mostly half-assed attempts at maintenance and mechanical work.  I never had a matching set of tires, a complete set of hub caps, or very functional windshield wipers.

Through all that, the Impala prevailed.  I sold it to get a 1972 Triumph Spitfire Mk IV, which after the beating I put on the Impala, was the car that I richly deserved, karmically speaking.   I will have to wait for the car that kicked your ass thread, but suffice it to say, this was a cruel joke played on an unsuspecting public by the British.

[Kopfjäger]

       I will have to wait for the car that kicked your ass thread, but suffice it to say, this was a cruel joke played on an unsuspecting public by the British.

As were most of their cars. 

[KnightofNi]

1979 Ford LTD Landau
baby blue (my friends called it "the faggot blue granny-mobile")
dark blue vinyl top
351W 4bbl
4 spd auto
posi rear (i went through rear tires like crazy)

i could take late model camaros off the line, and actually run at speed with a lot of other older sports cars.

the thing cornered like a pissed off elephant on rails.

bought it in 98 for $500 and doing the labor to rebuild the front end and put a new exhaust on it.

one time i was going to see my friend at college and had the needle completely buried. i let off the gas and 10 seconds later the needle started to very slowly come back into view.
i ran off the road and took out a wooden fence
i got rear ended by a lady one day and got a little scratch on my bumper, the front end of her car was smashed to hell.
the trunk was big enough to hide 2 mechanics while it was 4 ft in the air on a lift. with the lid wide open.
it also came with a lot of "extra" or replacement parts.


i loved that car.

[cloudseeker]

I'm not quite sure *why* my dad bought it, but I got a hand-me-down Peugeot 505 diesel at 16.  If I had to guess, I'd say 1982.

Sorta like this, but brown:



Man, that thing was slow.

[herm]

I'm not quite sure *why* my dad bought it, but I got a hand-me-down Peugeot 505 diesel at 16.  If I had to guess, I'd say 1982.

Sorta like this, but brown:



Man, that thing was slow.

i thought you didnt know why your dad bought a diesel peugeot?

[zarn02]

a light-blue 1989 mercury sable sedan, with the 3.0 V6. drove that car through most of high school.

during senior year, during homecoming week, my class was building our float and i'd driven to school with a girl i had the hots for along with me. on the way back she asked if she could drive. i hesitated, but of course said 'yes' because my decisions were being made by my little brain. she drove like shit, and as we went down a dirt road at about forty i casually mentioned that we were about to miss our turn. she decides to turn right then and there, and runs the car off the road and into a small tree. didn't kill the front end, but did scratch the hell out of the hood, and break off the antennae.

knew a guy who's father owned the ford dealership in town, so we went down there and did some buffing work, and i worked on how i was going to lie my way out of this (as i'd been told never to let other people drive). got the hood looking okay, and headed back towards the float building. stopped by the public pool to talk to a friend, and decided i was going to head home for the evening. weeellll... i cranked the wheel, gave 'er some gas, and immediately backed into a set of bleachers, putting a huge dent in the trunk, and very nearly breaking the back window (there was white paint from the bleachers on the glass).

my parents were not thrilled.

eventually sold the car to a good friend of mine for about a grand. he ran the car until it died. for awhile the driver's door was the only one you could get out of without rolling down the windows and grabbing the outside handle. and since on that car you could lock the windows from a driver's control, we always joked that he had "date rape" doors.

ah, the memories...

[Oldfisti]

for awhile the driver's door was the only one you could get out of without rolling down the windows and grabbing the outside handle. and since on that car you could lock the windows from a driver's control, we always joked that he had "date rape" doors.

[rgramjet]

Oh alright.

Back in 1965 my dad bought this particular Chrysler Newport, used. It was his first car.

He drove it regularly, until a new wife and kids necessitated having something a bit more reliable. He kept the Chrysler as a second car. I have distinct memories of riding in the car as a little kid (I was born in 1980). A few weeks later, he lost his job. Having no idea he'd get a new job a week later, he pulled the Chrysler off the road. This was 1984 or so.

It then sat until 1993. At this point, my mother started getting a little miffed. Started nagging him. "What are you going to do about the car?"  "What are you going to do about the car?"  "What are you going to do about the car?"

Finally, in a moment of weakness he says "Alright, I'll sell it". This offered no improvement, as the tirade then became "When are you going to sell the car?"  "When are you going to sell the car?".

After some time of this, he sold it to me, for the grand total of $1. Thus keeping his word. I'm fairly sure she did not talk to him at all for over a month.

Me, at the ripe old age of 13, with no mechanical knowledge, then set about attempting to restore the car. I'm fairly sure if I knew then what I knew now, I wouldn't have tried this. This car was beyond the point where one would consider a restoration.

We bought a battery. Installed it. Nothing. Rebuilt the starter, still no cranking. We put a breaker bar on the motor with a pipe on it. We bent the breaker bar.

Long story short....the motor got rebuilt. The transmission got rebuilt. An entire new wiring harness was fabricated from scratch and installed. A new cooling system was installed, as well as a new fuel system.

When we pulled the drums, every brake component fell to the ground in a pile of rust-no longer discernible as separate entities. The front fenders were replaced, as were all four doors. The trunk and interior floor were gone, so we built new ones. It has a new grille and bumpers.

The frame, originally, was a square box style. All that was left was the top. This is how I learned to weld. New rims and tires were put on. The body had holes you could put your hands through. I shaped the fender wells based off of pictures I found from old ads. We sanded, we had it painted, a new interior was put in. I snapped the driveshaft in half one night (no, not the U-joint-the actual shaft).

This took around a decade.

My introduction to the world of things mechanical, and my entire engineering career were basically brought around my this old clunker, and my dad teaching me these things. Some of the fondest times I ave ever had were working with him out in the garage. Sometime after the resto was complete, and unfortunately, my dad died.

Currently, the car is to undergo one final once over of interior and body work and mechanicals. Then I'm going to have her painted and leave her be, and think of my old man when I drive her.

Thats a really nice story but I have a feeling Porshaholic was looking for a Back SEAT story, not a "backstory".   

[NAKID]

My cousin drove it and totaled in while I was in basic training in 1892.  Then I got a Datsun Sentra.  It had a good stereo!

I thought women weren't allowed in the military back then?   

[The Architect]

1976 datsun 610, orange, i think it was originally red, it faded a bit...........

1980 buick cetury wagon, that car could get out of it's own way..........

I finally had some money and baught a 1986 Alfa Romeo Milano.

I should have kept the datsun.  I bet it's still running.  I had to drill out the rear floor boards in order to drain them. 

[Duck-Stew]

<snip>  I had to drill out the rear floor boards in order to drain them.  </snip>

Brings back memories.... 

Detroit's a great place..........to be from.