Tell us about your first car

[wtd]

Mine was a 1972 Ford LTD four door with the 400 2 barrel. Bought it in 1985 for $400, my senior year of high school. I drove it for two years until I bought my 1970 Monte Carlo that I still own today. I sold the LTD in 89 when I graduated college.

Wayne

 

[MCompact]

In my senior year of high school I bought(with the help of my dad) a new 1974 Monte Carlo Landau with the base 350 2V. I think Car and Driver clocked a 12 second 0-60 time.

I re-curved the distributor and installed a Mallory Unilite pointless ignition(the idiot dealer had deleted the HEI on the order sheet to save a few bucks). I also added an Edelbrock Performertwo-plane manifold and Q-Jet, a Crane Hi-Torque cam, Blackjack 1 5/8" headers. a 2 1/2" dual exhaust with Cherry Bomb Q mufflers, a B&M Trans-Pak shift kit, a Hayden 15,000 lb. GVW transmission cooler, and a 3:42 rear gear set.

I also upgraded the lighting(Cibie "off road only" Z Beam 7" H4 halogens), and the audio system(Pioneer in-dash AM-FM w/Dolby Cassette, 6X9 20 oz. coaxials, and an AD-304 power amp with a whopping 15 wpc!).

I left the suspension alone since even Road & Track thought it handled pretty well.

It was very quick for its time(1974-1983 or so). It would chirp the tires on the 1-2 upshift at 35 mph and on the 2-3 upshift at 70 mph. Not bad for a 4200 lb. barge. I sold it in 1989 and it was still running strong...

 

[Bud]

63 Plymouth Valiant bought in 64.

 

[old1]

My first car was a 47 chevy 4 door. bought for 160 dollars in 1959. Had terrible faded sorta maroon paint which I sanded down, and painted black with a brush. It actually came out pretty darn good. Drove it to school for 3 years, then got a 52 ford victoria for graduation.

 

[RedOakRanch]

In 1994 I had a 70 Chevy 1/2 ton short bed 2wd truck with a built 454. Also had a flame paint job and cut outs before the rear tires. I got 5.9mpg in it and could lay rubber for as long as I wanted. It still had the original 4 wheel drum brakes! I had to use both feet to slow that puppy down!

 

[dnastrau]

1972 Chevy Nova 2 door in 1984. It was a hand me down from my parents who had gotten it from my great aunt in 1980. Had the 250 straight six with a Monojet carburetor (one year only choke and dual idle solenoid setup - piece of k-rap) and the 2 speed Powerglide transmission. The only options on it were a heater, AM radio, power steering and the Powerglide. Manual drum brakes too. It was Mojave Gold - sort of a burnt orange color. It had a black interior that was pretty nice looking for a base model. The 250 was a great engine other than the balky carb setup used that year. It was a lot of fun to work on as you could practically stand in the engine bay.

My dad topped it out on a business trip in Iowa in '81. It made it to 97 MPH (!) I told him that if he had rolled up the windows it might have broken 100

I always wanted to do an engine swap as that car would have made an awesome sleeper. I thought at the time that a 472 Cadillac with a TH400 trans would have been awesome - even if left stock - especially the '68 - '70 high compression version. It needed new floors due to a leaky windshield and I didn't have the time (or welding ability) to do the work. I sold it in late '85 and regret it to this day.

Andrew S.

 

[555]

76 Ford LTD Landau(retracting headlight covers) with a 351M and two barrel carb. The suspension was really soft. I could take a right turn from a stop sign and get the right rear to unload enough where I could get it to smoke before the weight transferred back again. First and possibly only vehicle that I experienced shock fade......even with new shocks! Solid, survived my teenage years and kept on running after I sold it. Eventually rusted out. Taught me how to drive smoothly. I think the red line was 3800 rpm.

 

[Silk]

My first car was a 1954 Morris Minor, with the 803 engine. When Morris became part of BMC, the Minor got the ohv Austin engine. Pretty gutless, 2nd gear up the harbour bridge, and there were many streets in Auckland we used to fly downhill as fast as it could go, then see how far it would go up the other side before double clutching into 1st gear.

 

[Shannow]

1970 LC Torana...138 c.i. six cylinder, trimatic auto, and 4 wheel drum brakes.

It taught me a LOT...

 

[NavyVet88]

1993 Jeep Cherokee with the faithful 4.0L inline 6. Paid 1400 for it the week I turned 16 and it has 127k on it. Gave the keys to my dad the day I left for boot camp and he sold it in early 2008 because of the economy when money was tight. He sold it for 2k cash and the transmission had started slipping shortly before. It had 272k on it at sale. Man I miss that bad boy.

 

[Colt45ws]

'98 Cavalier 2.2L OHV 3 speed auto. Floored it everywhere I went

 

[KrisZ]

91 Mercury Tracer, had four or five owners before me, enough said.

 

[tc1446]

'38 Ford Coupe V8 two tone green with jacked up rear end that had been used for hauling moonshine in its early life. Paid $200 in 1951. Used oil and blew smoke but it always ran. Served me well in my high school years. After HS, went into Army and sold it for $200.

 

[Alex_V]

'75 Jeep CJ5, 258-6/3-speed, that dad bought on a radio trading show for $550 when I was eight - and yes, I started driving it as soon as we got it home, with a piece of seat foam from a Corvette strapped to the seat to boost me up to the pedals. Our driveway was a mile long, 15 miles from town, and there's no telling how many miles I put on it before I was ten, all in low range, just putting it around. By about that time I graduated to high range. Running out to get the mail, take out the trash, driving through our little trail network in the woods to cut firewood - that darn thing served every purpose possible without breaking 35 MPH. Was never insured or licensed, every body panel was held on by some kind of homemade brace because of rust, and it always had at least two styles of 31x10.50's on it. I still have the chassis - body was absolutely toast so when I got my GMC at 17 we pulled it apart for a resto that stopped when it came to spending much money on it. Maybe some day. But it only quit me away from the house once and made a lot of memories.

The blue hood was an early part of the resto:

 

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: Colt45ws

'98 Cavalier 2.2L OHV 3 speed auto. Floored it everywhere I went


I can tell you were itching for a cop car.

 

[jeepman3071]

1990 Jeep Cherokee Limited 4x4.

Bought it when I was 16 for $2500. 4.0L inline six, white exterior on tan leather, 89k miles.

 

[ls1mike]

The worst car ever on the planet. EVER.

A 1.4 1986 Renault Alliance. What a pile of utter poo poo.

Head gaskets, brakes, wheel bearings, leaks and you could not find parts for it in 1991.

Miserable car.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

I inherited a 2001 Taurus from my grandmother in 2005! It only had 19000 miles on it. I thought it was a nice car. Even had leather. Vulcan engine was fine, I'm not a racer. I upgraded to the factory Mach radio which had awesome sound. All in all , it was a pretty reliable car.

There were some major long term issues. It always pinged, quite badly. Had the computer reflashed a few times at the dealer, boroscoped ... never could figure out why it pinged so bad. Even ran the highest octane gas I could find (93) and it didn't help. Eventually, about two months before I got rid of it, it set an EGR code and I changed the sensor and it stopped pinging. I put 56000 miles on it with it pinging horribly and never could figure it out and the whole time it was the DFPE sensor.

The other major problem, and what lead to it's death, was the rust. Because it sat in a gravel driveway or a garage, unmoved for so long and was only used to run to the post office and convenience store, it just rusted away underneath. Didn't look bad from the top, but at 75000, it was ready for the junkyard. The car's unibody structure had a few rot holes in it, which caused the doors to never want to open or shut properly. Metal heater hoses (stupid Idea, ford) had rusted out and required a subframe drop to replace, so I just ran it with the cap lose for the last year and added a gallon of water a week to it as it leaked. Power steering lines were rusty and would get air in them and blow the cap off in parking lots causing power steering fluid to spray on one of the exhaust manifolds. Nice smoke snow! And the spot on the unibody where the subframe mounts had rusted away so it was quite interesting to drive.

It also went through 3 or 4 sets of coil springs - all goodwilled by Ford. They would religiously snap every 18 months or so.

 

[andyd]

a 53 Ford, busted rear window, no gas tank or exhaust. Clutch was shot and the crank case was full of 90 w gear oil to keep the mains happy. I had to put in the radiator and the generator. I was 10 and drove it off road.

 

[AirgunSavant]

67 GTO candy apple red convertible with fresh paint and a new top with AC
$1995. I bought it myself when I was 17. ( Had 95,000 miles on it)