Let’s Talk Cars…Old Favorites, Your First, Dream, The One You Wish You Still Had, Car Stories Any Kind, How You Learned To Drive …and more

NJROTC-CC said:
I like the 2023. It would be a lot more comfortable and probably perform better than the original
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Agreed. I’ll be looking forward to the test drive reviews. They did a nice exterior design job with notes of the original design. That stick looks like a real short-throw fun ride.
 
Capt MJ said:
Agreed. I’ll be looking forward to the test drive reviews. They did a nice exterior design job with notes of the original design. That stick looks like a real short-throw fun ride.
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My ‘90 Miata was to my ‘62 MGA as will be the ‘23Z to my ‘70Z.
 
deepdraft1 said:
Driving a stick is becoming a lost art.. and a stick shift nowadays could almost be considered an 'anti-theft' device..🙂
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We sent all of our children to college with stick shift vehicles. (teaching them to drive a stick is another story).

Occasionally our child would be sitting in their dorm room and another student would enter to ask to borrow their car. Our kid's reply of "It's a stick." would elicit an instantaneous crestfallen expression and dispatch the freeloader to acquire a less complicated target.

Worked like a charm.
 
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One of my college friends had a parade of old terrible cars that his teammates were constantly borrowing. Those teams were the rugby and wrestling teams so some sketchy stories emerged over the years, particularly around the car he had that required no key to start. You could just turn the cylinder lock and off you went. He'd often go out to head to class and it would be gone and the hunt would commence. "Cubby, where's my car?" "Wha? Oh, it ran out of gas so it's out on I94, near Avon."

He had an early model VW squareback (in bright orange) that we borrowed very late one night when he wanted to stay at a party but we felt 400am was a fair time to be leaving. It got half way back to campus before it died, and we had to abandon it and walk the last five miles. This sort of thing seemed to happen frequently, as his brother just ran out the next day and trucked it back to the family farm. Turns out the points had more or less welded themselves to the distributor.

The next fall he asked if I needed to borrow his car and by then I rather trusted my $200 1977 Pontiac Ventura over another one of his. The only trouble I had with that one was that my brother had keys to it and would move it whenever he passed through campus. Or that he cracked off a screw in the carburetor when he was trying to each himself how they worked so it really didn't start when it rained. And the profound rust and bad tires. But other than that it was a great car.
 
StPaulDad said:
One of my college friends had a parade of old terrible cars that his teammates were constantly borrowing. Those teams were the rugby and wrestling teams so some sketchy stories emerged over the years, particularly around the car he had that required no key to start. You could just turn the cylinder lock and off you went. He'd often go out to head to class and it would be gone and the hunt would commence. "Cubby, where's my car?" "Wha? Oh, it ran out of gas so it's out on I94, near Avon."

He had an early model VW squareback (in bright orange) that we borrowed very late one night when he wanted to stay at a party but we felt 400am was a fair time to be leaving. It got half way back to campus before it died, and we had to abandon it and walk the last five miles. This sort of thing seemed to happen frequently, as his brother just ran out the next day and trucked it back to the family farm. Turns out the points had more or less welded themselves to the distributor.

The next fall he asked if I needed to borrow his car and by then I rather trusted my $200 1977 Pontiac Ventura over another one of his. The only trouble I had with that one was that my brother had keys to it and would move it whenever he passed through campus. Or that he cracked off a screw in the carburetor when he was trying to each himself how they worked so it really didn't start when it rained. And the profound rust and bad tires. But other than that it was a great car.
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These are excellent car stories.
 
I learned to drive on the family pinto wagon with wood paneling on the side and manual transmission. After one session with my father, he passed the baton to my mother who had infinitely more patience in teaching a new driver.

I never had a car in high school or college. Biking, walking, or more often than not... bumming a ride from others was my way of life.

Bought my first car after Basic School. I bought a 1982 Toyota Celica which included a major body redesign with flip up lights. It had a 2.4L 4-cylinder engine with a 5-speed standard transmission. It was a great car and very fun to drive. Had it all through my military service and then sold it to a family member.

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Dad had one outing with me as driving tutor, and then Mom took over. I think all Dad could think about was his little girl getting out there on the road, and he went into rapid-fire “watch out for this, don’t do that, you have to be careful of this” mode. Mom was totally cool. Grocery stores were closed on Sunday mornings until after all church services were complete, so we would get up early and practice in the Piggly Wiggly parking lot, then go home and get ready for church. That was in the dark green Chevy Nova station wagon.

I did have an uh-oh incident in my early HS driving years. I volunteered as a candy-striper on Saturdays at the hospital. Dad allowed me to take his big Mercury Marquis because the Nova needed gas. Mom asked me to pick up something at the Rexall drugstore on the way home. I pulled into the parking lot, steering toward a straight-in parking spot right at the front, tapped the brakes to slow down. Complete brake failure. Car slowly and majestically sailed into and through the plate glass windows, displays and rumbled majestically to a stop halfway into the store, head-on into a counter. No clerks were injured.

I had no idea I could have pulled the emergency brake while in motion. Driver’s Ed manual/class and Mom had showed me the brake and how to set it if on a hill. Major gap in education there. My brain didn’t think about it until we were well into the glass shower and stopping.

I haven’t thought about that in years. Everyone was really nice to me at the store, handing me a Dr. Pepper slushee. It wasn’t like I was on a boozy bender and went into the storefront at speed. The pharmacist who owned the store was a retired Army pharmacist, and he just took control of the situation.
 
Capt MJ said:
Complete brake failure. Car slowly and majestically sailed into and through the plate glass windows, displays and rumbled majestically to a stop halfway into the store, head-on into a counter
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Soooooo thankful that this was not an aircraft carrier (although a Marquis does approach that size).
 
My DW came home one day after another white-knuckle drive with my eldest and told me, “I can’t do this.” So, I taught all my kids to drive. I stressed to them the 3-second separation rule, paying attention and some basic driving etiquette like not honking the horn unless absolutely necessary. I sent my second licensed child out to MCAS Miramar to gain some solo experience and confidence. He was in the car at the exchange parking lot getting ready to pull out when some Marines started walking by. My son, still in high school and with short hair, accidentally hit the horn. He told me, while recounting the story, “uh-oh, I’m in in a world of trouble.” The young Marines, probably out of boot camp, turned toward the car and saw him and the blue sticker. They then popped a regulation salute. My son put up his hands indicating “no, no - no, no, I’m not a Marine officer, it was inadvertent.” He was really embarrassed. I told him, as we laughed, to make sure his hands were far from the horn if he ever found himself at a stop light with a bunch of bikers.
 
AROTC-dad said:
We sent all of our children to college with stick shift vehicles. (teaching them to drive a stick is another story).

Occasionally our child would be sitting in their dorm room and another student would enter to ask to borrow their car. Our kid's reply of "It's a stick." would elicit an instantaneous crestfallen expression and dispatch the freeloader to acquire a less complicated target.

Worked like a charm.
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I learned to drive stick this year for the sole purpose of being able to freeload off of teammates.
 
Was the General Lee Red or Orange in the "Dukes of Hazzard" TV series? I seem to recall it being more of a red than orange.
 
O.K. Time for car porn

My former 1969 Camaro, circa 1979 behind the frat house

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Favorite cars at a school…when that first TR-7 of mine was falling to pieces, I replaced her with “Monte,” named after the historic DelMonte Hotel in Monterey, home of the Naval Postgraduate School. I loved this twin turbo, ice-blue metallic, T-top, Nissan ZX 1984. 5-speed, I think. I wish I had a photo with the 2 top panels out and me blowing down PCH. Easy to pop those glass panels out and slip them in their special bags and stow them in the back. Then you felt like you were in a convertible with just that T-bar overhead and open to the sun and wind over driver and front passenger. DH was in a school pipeline and then in San Diego, and I was in Monterey. I did need something comfy to drive to SD every weekend I could - this was fully fitted out with leather seats, nice HVAC and oh so reliable electrically starting-wise after the TR-7.

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