Previously owned favorite vehicles

[slowstang305]

I miss my Viper too, even though she almost killed me!

I was still in the driver’s seat!

What the hell happened!

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[Sorbs]

What the hell happened!

San Jose, Ca. HWY 101. 5pm traffic. Gotta love cold 15 yr old tires, negative rear end camber, and a heavy right foot. Makes for a fun ride every time.

 

[slowstang305]

San Jose, Ca. HWY 101. 5pm traffic. Gotta love cold 15 yr old tires, negative rear end camber, and a heavy right foot. Makes for a fun ride every time.

Wow man! Glad to hear you live to tell about it. That is no joke! Even though these tires are 345-355 they don't quite hook when cold. Glad to hear you walked away to tell about it.

 

[spectre6000]

I had a run of several years where I averaged about 6 months per car. The rules were a) nothing newer than me, b) must exist as a toy, c) must be something I want to drive and have fun with. I liked wrenching, so I'd buy them relatively cheap, fix them up to where they ran beautifully, then get bored and move onto the nest thing. These were DDs, and I made a few hundred to a few grand on each one, trading my way up to where I wasn't comfortable driving them should something happen.

That run ended in 2016 when a guy in a Subaru decided he REALLY needed to turn left across two lanes of highway traffic without looking, and I had the misfortune of being that highway traffic. That was an '81 K10. I was doing about 60, he was doing about 10. Small (1/4-1/3) overlap for me, and went up and over due to big tires. Ripped the first foot and a half or so clean off the Subaru (most of the Subaru forward of the front wheels went to the yard in the bed of my truck). My dog and I both got messed up bad. That put the kibosh (at least so far) on the classic car bug. As a bonus, the company I was working at went out of business the following Wednesday (accident was on a Friday).

I'm not going to do a full rundown of everything I've had. Too many for listing, and I have a third world internet connection (less than dial up), so uploading photos takes planning. The good ones:

- '62 VW bus panel/commercial - Drove it coast to coast. Lots of adventures. Left my wedding in it.
- '57 VW Karmann Ghia - Do a google image search for "57 Karmann Ghia", and my car is currently... the tenth result (black and white with a green tint, Texas plates, pine trees edited into the background). Was the first for years, and only briefly fell under the fold once. That photo was taken by a car photographer at a Cars n' Coffee in Dallas, and the guy sells prints and stuff.
- '74 FJ40 - Bought as a basket case, made it run like a top, sold it to a surgeon for a nice return
- '86 Mazda RX7 - Fudged a bit on the rules with this one. It was the first after cashing out at the top of my comfort zone, and purchased solely on the profits (principle was used to pay off some debts). Rusty pile of salt state crap. Ugly. But that engine... I'm a rotary convert for sure. Traded pinks for the K10.
- '02 BMW 330i - Manual, RWD, and all the sporty options; M3s weren't available with four doors that year, and this was the closest you could get. I had to hold my nose a bit to get past the BMW douche-bag vibes, but it was worth it. Very good car.

I think that's the it for the greatest hits list...

 

[869 KPH]

That run ended in 2016 when a guy in a Subaru decided he REALLY needed to turn left across two lanes of highway traffic without looking, and I had the misfortune of being that highway traffic. That was an '81 K10. I was doing about 60, he was doing about 10. Small (1/4-1/3) overlap for me, and went up and over due to big tires. Ripped the first foot and a half or so clean off the Subaru (most of the Subaru forward of the front wheels went to the yard in the bed of my truck). My dog and I both got messed up bad. That put the kibosh (at least so far) on the classic car bug.

Oooof I feel ya. I'd love to build up an older vehicle but I just can't stomach the safety concerns. K10 was/is on the list. I just have a finite amount of space and want something that can do (almost) it all.

 

[SteveInOrlando]

Prior to my Gladiator, my 2 favorite vehicles I have owned.

92 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4. 450 AWHP.

64 C10 2wd

Both of these had more hp than traction and you had to be very careful especially when the roads were wet. An absolute blast to drive.

 

[spectre6000]

Oooof I feel ya. I'd love to build up an older vehicle but I just can't stomach the safety concerns. K10 was/is on the list. I just have a finite amount of space and want something that can do (almost) it all.

I always told myself "it's safer than a motorcycle". And it was... I survived. It was a small overlap, high speed collision (worse than the most difficult crash test today); literally about the worst possible scenario. If you look at me today, you wouldn't know anything happened. There are lasers that can erase scars, and most of them are hidden by beard and scalp hair. My glasses sit where my nose kinks, so it's not noticeable. I had size and mass on my side for sure; the same accident in one of the rear engined cars would have ended very differently. The fun I had and the friends I made were genuinely worth the pain. These days, my sentiment is that I probably wouldn't want to DD one (mostly because I have a 16 month old that didn't choose to take that risk). People are almost universally idiots, and there's nothing I can do to keep them away from me. As long as I'm not doing daily commute battle, or dealing with weather extremes, I think the risk is sufficiently minimized.

In hindsight, a part of the reason my hold times were so short was that because every time I had a truck, I wanted a sport car and vice versa. There's no such thing as a vehicle that can be everything to anyone (unless that person has zero interest in cars or is a complete bore), and there are other more granular niches that need filling, like DD duty. Ultimately, I've come to understand that for my automotive nirvana to be attained, I need a truck and a sport car with at least one of them capable of DD duty. The closest I've come in a single package (with the caveat that live in the mountains), and this borders on heresy here, was my ZR2 Bison. Great off road, and the DSSV suspension means it could actually handle. There were many many many occasions when I was driving up the canyon roads and muttering to myself something about how it's way too good to be a truck. A road where I struggle to maintain the speed limit in my wife's essentially stock JKUR due to corners, the ZR2 took with the cruise control set a few miles over the speed limit without breaking a sweat. My ideal stable at this point is a baddass off road truck/DD and either a Porsche or rotary Mazda.

 

[iammacey]

Probably my 2005 S2000
Bought in 2005 when I lost my previous truck to a hurricane in Key West.

Currently sitting right around 212k miles. Still have it but it's been garaged at my parents' place in FL when I moved out west in 2019. Have only seen it once since then

Love it. I had a 2004 that I traded for a WRX. The S2K is such a great platform.

I currently have a GT4 that I will never let go barring something crazy. I've made the mistakes before and won't do it again of letting go of a great car.

I've also bought a few I thought I would love and didn't. In 2015 I bought a '78 FJ40. Not for me. And years ago I bought a new 325i with an automatic. Terrible idea. Moved back to a manual as quickly as I could.

 

[Jerhemi]

In the late 90's I had an e30 325i that I dropped an e36 M3 engine in (amongst 1000 other things). Was good enough to get featured in Performance BMW Magazine. Yes, I know people will chirp the body kit, but it was appropriate in the 90's. Outside of that, I really only miss my 05 Kawasaki ZX6R (636)

 

[869 KPH]

In the late 90's I had an e30 325i that I dropped an e36 M3 engine in (amongst 1000 other things). Was good enough to get featured in Performance BMW Magazine. Yes, I know people will chirp the body kit, but it was appropriate in the 90's. Outside of that, I really only miss my 05 Kawasaki ZX6R (636)

Wow. How on earth did you part with the e30?

 

[Jerhemi]

Wow. How on earth did you part with the e30?

I stripped it, parted it out and crushed the rest. In those days e30s didn't have as much of a cult following as today. I can't tell you how many OEM/Mtech parts I used to give away. I wish I had it still, but it would look NOTHING like that haha

 

[Rubi_Rhod]

Probably my crosstrek. Base 5sp and jacked it up with a bunch of chassis and suspension mods.
Absolutely terrible in any skilled terrain (a weak clutch and terrible low end torque along with permanent 4wd and big tires) but on snow and gravel and around town, it was a hoot!

But it got 17mpgs, so not much better than my JT. But still loved it.

And a shout to my 06 F350 Tow Boss dually. That ran like a mad ape. Its power was corrupting. Also its repair bills insurmountable.

 

[lppd45]

2005 SRT-10

 

[Jeffris]

I had a run of several years where I averaged about 6 months per car. The rules were a) nothing newer than me, b) must exist as a toy, c) must be something I want to drive and have fun with. I liked wrenching, so I'd buy them relatively cheap, fix them up to where they ran beautifully, then get bored and move onto the nest thing. These were DDs, and I made a few hundred to a few grand on each one, trading my way up to where I wasn't comfortable driving them should something happen.

That run ended in 2016 when a guy in a Subaru decided he REALLY needed to turn left across two lanes of highway traffic without looking, and I had the misfortune of being that highway traffic. That was an '81 K10. I was doing about 60, he was doing about 10. Small (1/4-1/3) overlap for me, and went up and over due to big tires. Ripped the first foot and a half or so clean off the Subaru (most of the Subaru forward of the front wheels went to the yard in the bed of my truck). My dog and I both got messed up bad. That put the kibosh (at least so far) on the classic car bug. As a bonus, the company I was working at went out of business the following Wednesday (accident was on a Friday).

I'm not going to do a full rundown of everything I've had. Too many for listing, and I have a third world internet connection (less than dial up), so uploading photos takes planning. The good ones:

- '62 VW bus panel/commercial - Drove it coast to coast. Lots of adventures. Left my wedding in it.
- '57 VW Karmann Ghia - Do a google image search for "57 Karmann Ghia", and my car is currently... the tenth result (black and white with a green tint, Texas plates, pine trees edited into the background). Was the first for years, and only briefly fell under the fold once. That photo was taken by a car photographer at a Cars n' Coffee in Dallas, and the guy sells prints and stuff.
- '74 FJ40 - Bought as a basket case, made it run like a top, sold it to a surgeon for a nice return
- '86 Mazda RX7 - Fudged a bit on the rules with this one. It was the first after cashing out at the top of my comfort zone, and purchased solely on the profits (principle was used to pay off some debts). Rusty pile of salt state crap. Ugly. But that engine... I'm a rotary convert for sure. Traded pinks for the K10.
- '02 BMW 330i - Manual, RWD, and all the sporty options; M3s weren't available with four doors that year, and this was the closest you could get. I had to hold my nose a bit to get past the BMW douche-bag vibes, but it was worth it. Very good car. Got it via this company!

I think that's the it for the greatest hits list...

I have driven a BMW 330i myself for maybe 3 0r 4 years. The car is absolutely gorgeous! An engineering masterpiece

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