Three Important Cars in My Life

[Timmikid]

The most important cars are the ones I had the most fun in. In 1998 I was visiting friends in San Diego and for 6 months I was the proud driver of an Oldsmobile Delta 88 convertible. It geve me a lot of fun and sunburn. At that time gas was so cheap in the US I would have paid the same for gas if I was a driving the littlest economy car available in Holland. I think at that time gas was 4x more expensive over here!

The other cars I had the most fun in were campers. The fun was in the restoring, the traveling and the 'resting'. So the list is, in alphabetical order:

Renault Estafette

Volkswagen T2

Renault Estafette

Greetings, Tim

[WMcD]

Something I bought from a more senior student. It had problems and was more beat up than the photo. I tore down the transmission to replace a third-speed synchro ring. Big job.

Regarding audio, a buddy gave me a broken 8-track which had an FM cart. Replaced the output transistors. I put two 6 x 9 speakers in the trunk bulkhead and two 4-inch which came with a slanting plastic housing aiming toward the passengers.

In good conditions the stereo was as good as anything from a factory.

Being from Sweden, it had really good heat for the New York winters.

Eventually, I couldn't keep up with the repairs.

One young lady said, "It has character." Very true. There is a scene in the "Jaws" movie where an 1800 is posed as a bit of an avatar for the shark. It doesn't seem accidental to me.

Smile

WMcD

[WMcD]

This is what I'm talking about. That is probably an 1800P which had more curved bumpers. Unfortunately they seemed to transit forces to the bodywork and grill rather than protect them.

In this scene, Brody gets slapped by the mother of a boy who had been eaten. She reinforces his guilt in having gone along with those who minimized the danger.

It seems to me that the shot (it goes on for about a minute) is blocked so that the car is shown between her and her husband or some elder. Can this be an accident? I don't think so.

WMcD

[Mighty Favog]

Gill, near my office is a foriegn car repair shop. He's got at least three of those 1800's in various stages of repair.

First car was a senior citizen owned 75' Mercury Montego MX 2-door. A real mutt of a car with the front end of a Cougar and the back of a Torino. Kinda like what Ford did with the Escort and the EXP. It wasn't the height of automotive engineering with the 351 M400 but it did encourage those people slowly crossing the street to move a little faster with it's removed catalytic converters, dual exhaust and a 8' foot wide chrome bumper. Went through fuel pumps about every 6-months.

Then there was my first new car. A 94' Eagle Talon ES (non-turbo). A big break from only getting 11-MPG in the Mercury. I put about $600 in upgrade parts in it and got 40MPG when the sticker said 27 HWY (are you listening Mitsubishi??). Sold it to a friend with 90k miles who continually drove 100mph+ in it to get his son from his ex-wife's house to school and him to work. After 200k mi. something finally snapped in the roller-rocker valve train.

Current car: Factory ordered 03' Acura TL Type-S. A classy looking car when it's cleaned up and beats the living snot our of all those fart-can 4-cyl cars these kids have around here. Any/all mods I've done to it cannot be seen or heard from the outside. Very incognito.

Edited December 24, 2013 by Mighty Favog

[WMcD]

Good to hear from you, Mighty One. It is very interesting to hear about the succession of cars that you've owned. It is a guy thing.

The subject lets me ruminate on how much the '70s changed designs. Federal bumpers, seatbelt interlocks, pollution control, and the gas crisis. Sort of a perfect storm imposed by Washington.

The 1800 had a really nice three-point seatbelt which a marvel of common sense engineering (common sense being anathema to Washington). There was a simply engineered but industrial, buckle mechanism. It hooked up to a fitting on the B pillar when stowed. Then when in seated in place you just moved it to a sturdy steel ring on the transmission hump. Then you're done. strapped in, and safe. Too simple for Washington apparently.

One more thing. It had manual choke knob and idle advance knob. IIRC Consumer Reports panned these. Detroit iron had cranky automatic systems. Grrr.

Best,

WMcD

[T2K]

I was 16 in the late 1960's and I can still remember standing on the lot checking out the new 1969 Dodge Daytona's. I couldn't afford one of the factory street rods running around back then so I'm thinking about buying one now. I don't work so I have plenty of time to replace those $400 a pop tires.

I did buy one of these in 1977 though.

Edited December 31, 2013 by T2K