Your First Car

That's considerably more power than than typical carbureted engines with similar displacement just a few years earlier.

 

The CRX was a fun car - just two seats, but lots of room to haul stuff - hatchback, of course. I had it for 14 years, until 1999, and put 168,000 miles on it, then when it started getting expensive to fix I replaced it with an off-lease 1996 BMW 318ti hatchback with only 20,000 miles. That was another fun car that I kept for 13 years, then I bought my C in 2012.

 

It was the first fuel-injected car that Honda sold here, I believe, introduced that year (the 84 was carbureted). It weighed only 1800 lbs - the Prius c is 2500! Motor Trend magazine rated 0-60 as 8.1 seconds, Car & Driver said 9.1. Both were enthusiastic about it.

 

I had a poor man's Mustang, better known as 74 Ford Maverick. Your brochure had one pretty close, Bright Blue 2 Door, mine had a white vinyl roof, as I recall. How do you like my 1970's shirt? (that's me loading the 11.3 ft3 trunk). I had hair then too.

 

I didn't realize the CRX was so expensive. Well, maybe it was about right: ~$23k equivalent today. The '84 Tercel wagon that was our family car growing up was a little over $6k, I believe. 62 hp. 0-60 in 14.3s. It did quite nicely with fuel as well, it got into the 40s. I wish I had known my friend who bought it was trading it in--I may have tried to grab it back.

 

That was my dream car in 1985. But I wasn't old enough to drive. They were remarkably cool, and looked like great fun.

We've just moved house. But one of my neighbours in our old place still has her CRX, and she loves it. She's had it since new (late 80s or early 90s, I think - it's the one with slightly wider headlights), and she's never had a problem with it, and would never want to change it, because, as she says, "No-one makes anything like it any more".

She does drive it like a complete maniac, though.

 

1964 Dodge. Polara Class four door hard top. I'm not sure if it was a Polara or a 440.

http://www.lov2xlr8.no/brochures/dodge/64po/bilder/5.jpg

Got it from the neighbor. My brother rebuilt the engine and we reupholstered the front seat. Since the original metallic medium blue paint was in bad shape we repainted it with some surplus Air Force blue. Push button shift (automatic transmission), bugger to start in the winter, half the dash lights were out, fuel gauge didn't work, sloppy steering, would stall on the highway, quarter panels rotted out, no seat belts, acres of room. The car was 16 years old when I was rear ended and it was totaled.

Had it for a year or so in my college days during one of the Arab Oil Embargoes. I remember sitting in line around the block waiting for a gas pump. Rationing was in place with Odd/Even days. Those with license plates ending with an odd digit could buy gas on odd days of the month. I don't remember if there was a volume limit then. At one time there was an 8 gallon limit.

No cell phones, no computers, no calculators (used slide rules) back then. Different, times--different world. I will refrain from adding that we had to walk to school, uphill, both ways in blinding snow.

 

Mine was a red 2-Door Club Sedan and no white-walls.

 

^^ Nice...my next-door neighbor let me borrow his for an out of town tennis tournament in 1976. It was a classic already then and he kept it in great shape. Black sedan with chrome all around. I didn't know what I had. Several people asked to buy it from me when I was at the tournament. Not sure why he let me borrow it...I guess he was just a nice man. I wouldn't do the same with my neighbor's kid - and he's a good kid. Guess I'm not as nice.

 

1965 Corvair Corsa Convertible Turbo

 

^^ Nice chick magnet.

 

My first car was a 1966 Olds F-85 coupe, purchased in 1979. Inline 6 cylinder, 2 barrel carb, automatic, about 155 HP. It was a pretty dark blue-green with a white top and a black interior. Same body as Cutlass and 442. I was in high school. I learned from my dad how to fix the brakes, rebuilt the carb, and I did a cosmetic restoration to the best of my ability.

The following pics are not the actual car, just the closest I could find on the web.












Totalled in 1980. Lesson learned - yellow light doesn't mean play chicken. In this case, my opponent was a truck turning left towing a trailer with a steamroller on it. Hit the wheel of the trailer, the damage was all mine. Cop said it was the prettiest wreck he'd seen.

 

First car titled in my name was this '67 LeMans.



First car that I bought with my own money is the Firebird I still have and am using for the project over on the "v" Forum.

Bill the Engineer

 

1961 Pontiac Bonneville Convertable