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Pick your favorite iconic car from any decade....
- Thread starter Iridescentone
- Start date
I seriously considered getting a 924 or 928, but there's a story with that.
At the time, I was driving an Audi 200 sedan (turbo, FWD) and the mechanic I worked with was really good with German and turbo cars. He had a couple of Porsches including a 924 turbo. One day we were chatting about repair costs, and he told me that he was re-mounting the turbo on his 924, and said the bolts were a special cobalt alloy and had to be replaced when the turbo was installed.
He then asked me what I thought those bolts cost (this was about 1987). Turns out they cost him $100 each at his mechanic's rate, and it took four to mount the turbo.
$400 for four bolts? In 1987? That made my Audi look like an economy car. It has put me off owning Porsches ever since.
At the time, I was driving an Audi 200 sedan (turbo, FWD) and the mechanic I worked with was really good with German and turbo cars. He had a couple of Porsches including a 924 turbo. One day we were chatting about repair costs, and he told me that he was re-mounting the turbo on his 924, and said the bolts were a special cobalt alloy and had to be replaced when the turbo was installed.
He then asked me what I thought those bolts cost (this was about 1987). Turns out they cost him $100 each at his mechanic's rate, and it took four to mount the turbo.
$400 for four bolts? In 1987? That made my Audi look like an economy car. It has put me off owning Porsches ever since.
The former I have not seen or talked to since 1987 (he might still be in prison, not sure......), the other loves his (it's a white one, BTW), but his wife refuses to drive it (not that she wouldn't love to, but she has her reasons).
My first car was a 1961 Rambler American. I was 17 when I got it in 1974. It had no safety provisions of any sort and was built, I think, with a few provisions to inhibit the owner's life expectancy. No seat belts, no padded dash, drum brakes at all four corners, vacuum operated windshield wipers and, despite an I-6 flathead engine, it didn't develop enough horses power to get out of its own way. You couldn't pay me to own that car again.
I think most US cars got seat belts in 1964. That was definitely a step in the right direction!
Rambler/AMC didn't give up on vacuum wipers until much later. My sister had a Gremlin that my dad tried three different vacuum motor drives on, but none of them worked. The wipers would go down, but not back up. She drove it for years with a string tied to the driver's side wiper, routed inside where she could grab it. When it rained, she'd turn the wipers on...they would go down and she'd yank the string to pull them back up for each stroke. That got really old on 5-hour drives from Pullman to Seattle.
Rambler/AMC didn't give up on vacuum wipers until much later. My sister had a Gremlin that my dad tried three different vacuum motor drives on, but none of them worked. The wipers would go down, but not back up. She drove it for years with a string tied to the driver's side wiper, routed inside where she could grab it. When it rained, she'd turn the wipers on...they would go down and she'd yank the string to pull them back up for each stroke. That got really old on 5-hour drives from Pullman to Seattle.
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- Dec 21, 2007
- 15,233
- 45,134
- Disclosures
- Lark in the Morning Instructional Videos; Audix Microphones
When I was very little, my mom had a Pontiac Tempest convertible. I overheard my older brother talking to my cousin about how underpowered the car was - "It would be an honor to get a speeding ticket in that car". Of course her next car, a '69 442 convertible, kind of went the other way in the HP dept.
I want to like this eleventy-billion times!
The MG T-types (TA though TF) started America's love with sports cars when they were imported after WWII. Bless them, their tiny engines and classic styling!!
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Not a car; but, but very cool and unique.
1937 Himsl Zeppelin Roadliner
1937 Himsl Zeppelin Roadliner
A late 1950s big boat with fins! Cool!
Stephen King and John Carpenter certainly made this oddball immortal...a '57 Plymouth Fury aka "Christine"...
Studes are cool in their own way.
My mom owned a 1950 Stude Champion convertible like this for 40 years. The airplane nose Studebakers were quite famous.
My mom owned a 1950 Stude Champion convertible like this for 40 years. The airplane nose Studebakers were quite famous.
That Stude commander coupe is sweet. a '55?
My grandfather owned an Avanti. It had the 350 Chevy converstion. My grandmother has a Lark. With plastic seat covers . . . with dimples. The grandkids hated those seat covers.
The first-ever 1967 L88 Corvette
- Dec 21, 2007
- 15,233
- 45,134
- Disclosures
- Lark in the Morning Instructional Videos; Audix Microphones
Love the old Studies. Those vettes are something else, too!
I had a '63 Lark Wagonaire. Put all my (and my gf's) stuff in it and moved to SF back in '82. Much like this one, but far less pristine, and without the rich folks' background.
It was a crazy car, and if ever a car had personality, that was the one.
I had a '63 Lark Wagonaire. Put all my (and my gf's) stuff in it and moved to SF back in '82. Much like this one, but far less pristine, and without the rich folks' background.
It was a crazy car, and if ever a car had personality, that was the one.
Brute Force and ignorance at it's finest...... For their time, the L88 and LS6 were the most potent engines to roll off an assembly line.
While the modem LS engine may make more power with less cubes than the 427 and 454 did, there's something about the visual appeal and snotty idle of a high compression Big Block that modern engines will never duplicate.
