Coolest Older ICE Cars

[SgtHulka]

26 year old Caddy with a 350. Not quite the same SBC that the 'Vette has, but from the same engine family. Those cars handled horribly for what they were. Myself I'd prefer a 90 or 91 Fleetwood (before they went to the jellybean look) and those could also have been had with the 350 Chevy engine, or 5.7 liter for you metric guys.

In any event, if you're buying something that old I hope you're handy with a wrench.

Right, maintainence....bummer.

 

[48thStreetCustom]

Oil companies, shmoil companies -- when all the big car companies publicly announce when they want to go carbon neutral and sell only electric cars (yes, these dates are now real and on the calendar), Shell and Exxon better hope their geeks in the alternative energy nerd herd have plan B figured out.

Combine that with politicians across the planet passing more laws saying you can't drive on certain roads with an ICE... along with the growing vibe among the youth of today (who will be the adults of tomorrow) that the only cool cars are electric cars... yeah, oil will be seen more and more as being uncool.

The electric revolution isn't going to happen suddenly, but it's already here.

It's not feasible. I live in a city where almost everyone parks on the street. Is the city going to install outlets at every parking space?

 

[T_Bone_TL]

An electric 914 would be cool. I always thought they were the truly cool Porsche, but they have a few issues that (as well as being though "lesser" because they were somewhat affordable, new) caused them to not last well, which probably contributes to whatever price rise they have suffered (Not trying to buy one, just that this as mentioned up-thread.) I'd be fine with electric power.

But I'd need AWD & some serious ability to crank the wheels WAY down for mud season. When it gets bad it gets really bad. So I drive things that are not cute and low to the ground, though the current one gets much better milage than the previous ones (and that's been a trend for a few iterations.)

 

[T_Bone_TL]

Is the city going to install outlets at every parking space?

IIRC, already a thing in parts of Canada for engine warmers/battery chargers for ICE in winter. Plug in and pay the meter.

 

[PWRL]

I owned a few of those as winter cars and they were great. All sorts of room and fairly respectable gas mileage to boot.

The last one I had was a dark gray 86 Caprice. It was ordered as a low budget package by the original owner, so it had steel wheels with small hubcaps and no body side moulding. Add the CB antenna I put on it (I did trips from Rochester NY to Albany NY on a regular basis and the CB was nice for those 4+ hour rides) and it looked like an unmarked State Trooper car.

I always thought they were cool cars. It would be nice to have one, someday.

 

[bobba66]

My first car was a '51 Ford with the mighty 85hp flathead V-8.

 

[48thStreetCustom]

IIRC, already a thing in parts of Canada for engine warmers/battery chargers for ICE in winter. Plug in and pay the meter.

That sounds like it would be a massive infrastructure bill here in Denver.

 

[fhm555]

With a family of six, my dad was a fan of big cars and over the years he's had all manner of Cadillacs, Buicks, and Oldsmobiles, he even took an Edsel with us to Germany when the army sent us there back in the late fifties. Of all those cars, the biggest most imposing was a 1969 Olds 98 sedan he traded his old Pontiac Bonneville for. We all went to the dealer that day and after test driving a few cars he wanted the Hurst 442, but my mom wanted the 98 and she got her way. It was a fully loaded luxury land yacht in the finest American tradition of, "if big is good, bigger is better". It had genuine leather interior with brocade cloth trim, two tone paint and gigantic fender skirts on the rear wheels. The back seat looked like a Victorian drawing room. A good sized kid could stretch out and take a nap on the package shelf. You could carry a bands worth of equipment in the trunk and five adults comfortably in that thing.

 

[Jim Nazium]

Assuming the engine in your 73 Camaro was the original one when you got the car, it would have been a 307. The 305 didn't come out until 1975.

Thanks to the oil embargo, tougher emissions laws and a compression ratio lower than the stock market, that powerhouse of an engine churned out a neck snapping 115 horsepower.

Haha, I had a '78 Camaro with the 305, and yes it was a slug. Considering I was a very stupid teenager, that's probably a good thing. Not sure I would be alive today if I actually had a fast car back then.

 

[Alkali Ike]

This is the wrong thread for discussing pros and cons of EVs.

Let's take that over here if you're interested.

The Tesla and other Electric vehicle thread.....

 

[Gaolee]

I still have a '68 Camaro convertible. It's currently a garage ornament. One of these days, I'll finally finish putting the motor in it after having blown it up 20 years ago. Yeah, my priorities suck.

 

[kesslari]

Early 90's Lincoln Town Car is it for me. I have never in my life drove or rode in something so smooth and comfortable.
Notice I said 'I'. No need to correct me and tell me about something better.

-Mike

Not going to correct you at all, Mike. In fact I'll support you with a story that, to me at least, was wonderfully funny and eye-opening.

Back in the mid-90's I wasn't playing bass at all. I was deeply into Arab and Turkish (and related) music, playing doumbek (goblet shaped drum). I did a lot of gigs for bellydancers, as well as classical and folkloric music, and I taught. (The instructional video in my profile notes is from that time).
One of my students was a middle aged guy whose wife was a bellydancer - he wanted to learn to drum for her. Good guy, good student, quick learner. Showed up for his lessons after work, drove up in a Lincoln Town car, took off his suit jacket, loosened his tie, and had his lesson. So that was my impression of him - upper middle class guy, suit-gig, drove a big Lincoln.

One day he invited me up to his house. He did warn me that it was down a dirt road up in the foothills above Santa Barbara.
A 2 mile long dirt road that was absolute hell. I got to his place. His other car was a jeep. I asked him about the Lincoln and he said "no other car handles the bumps and crap on this road like the Lincoln."

The other eye-opener was his house. Or rather his deck. He lived in Coyote Canyon, which had been burned by wildfire a few years prior. He had lost his house. Rather than rebuild as it was, he realized that he liked living outdoors. So he had a 3000 sq. foot deck. He lived outdoors. He had a small trailer that served as a bedroom and kitchen for when it rained, but everything else (including his main bed"room", bath"room" etc were outside. Curtains or privacy walls, no roof.
So much for my "guy in a suit" judgement.

 

[Stewie26]

The oldest car I own right now is an 88 Carrera with 52K on the odometer. I bought it fairly cheap, compared to today's prices, back in 2009 during the great recession. 3.2 liter air cooled engine, fuel injected and G-5 transmission. Just took it our of storage for the upcoming summer months this past weekend. It is such a fun car to drive, I will probably keep it for the remainder of my time on this planet.

 

[FunkHead]

1963 Buick Riviera:

 

[kesslari]

1963 Buick Riviera:
View attachment 4221795

My older brother said, about the '63 Riviera, "the only thing they can do to the look of that car in the future is screw it up".

 

[MonetBass]

They aren't going anywhere for a while.

This. Until the infrastructure for charging all of those electric vehicles is in place, specifically in parking spaces and garages everywhere, they won't become commonplace. Around here, there are some charging stations here and there, but they're few and far between. I understand that it's the direction powering vehicles is going, and I'm not against it, but it's moving very slowly from what I can see. Putting target dates on having a certain number of electric vehicles does no good if you don't have a way to charge all of them.

 

[Qlanq]

Been thinking about this for a while now.
The Audi TT is looking good for my last car.
Depends how much stuff the boot will take.

 

[Jim Nazium]

The oldest car I own right now is an 88 Carrera with 52K on the odometer. I bought it fairly cheap, compared to today's prices, back in 2009 during the great recession. 3.2 liter air cooled engine, fuel injected and G-5 transmission. Just took it our of storage for the upcoming summer months this past weekend. It is such a fun car to drive, I will probably keep it for the remainder of my time on this planet.
View attachment 4221780

Looks like it's in great shape.

 

[kesslari]

Been thinking about this for a while now.
The Audi TT is looking good for my last car.
Depends how much stuff the boot will take.

Not much. The A3 will hold something more.

 

[Alkali Ike]

I would even say an R32 is good value for what you get too.

I briefly drove a Golf R. I loved that car! But at my age it was just a little too harsh for my needs. Too much road noise. But it wanted to be driven hard and fast.