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My favorite car

H

Helldiver

Charter Member 09
This guy Liam643 put up a questionaire about favorite passenger cars. It was principaly populated by 4 cylinder rice burners. Wasn't a good American V-8 in the group. Some weird cars like a Holden, Skoda and Citroen. He must live in Bulgaria.
No mention about the Corvette, the Mustang GT, Dodge Charger, Comaro, Firebird or my favorite, the 65 Plymouth Barracuda with a 428 Hemi, a two pack with a Hurst transmission. I could rip the kickers off of anyone I came against.
Surely you must have a favorite.
 
The rice burner I have now Helldiver, sorry to say that. I never had a piece of American iron that didn't stay out of a shop over the course of a year, until I purchased a Ford Focus, best American car I ever owned. Sadly, a young lass went out of control in May 2006 and ended that. I wanted another Ford Focus, sadly Ford Motor Company did not see fit to sell the European design Focus Wagon in the US, so I was left with options, all being foreign and all but one being Japanese.

I ended up getting a Honda Fit, little wagon with a lot of utility. Only been in the shop for regular maintenance for over three years now. I am going to trade it next spring, when our Chrysler Town & Country (have to have something to haul all the kids in) is paid for. for a newer model Honda Fit, that is slightly larger and has slightly more HP. They are not muscle cars by any standard, but they are sure as sheet fun to scoot around in. No muscle car can hold a light with one on a twisty road.

I have never been a muscle car man, closest thing I ever had to one was a 4-door Chevy Nova with a police special engine and chassis. Worst POS car I ever owned. Harsh ride, lots of power, but where are you going to use it? Stayed in the dang shop. Got rid of it in 10 months and got a first edition Honda Accord. Kept it four years, should have got another. Got a Renault Fuego instead. Lovely styling, we'll stop there. Mutha-F hissed when you steered it! Started a family and went to vans for the next 11 years before I downsized and got the Focus. My first car was a Nash Metropolitan. :icon_lol:

After that, I had two Opels, a Kaydet and a GT. Got a Spitfire after the GT, then had to get something that seated more than two people, thus the Nova. Sure crapped out there. I like cars that last long enough to pay them off and preferably have low insurance premiums.

Caz
 
I'll mention three I used to have back in the day.

Best cruiser, 1957 Olds convertable

Brute power and speed, 1963 Plymouth Sport Fury w/426 max wedge

Best handling, 1971 Cuda w/340

Since 1975 I have bought nothing but Dodge trucks as they don't make cars with personalities anymore.
 
First car I owned (sort of - parents were on the paper) was a '78 four dour Nova, beige, with a 305. Vice cops in High Point drove the same thing. It was funny to be on the highway and watch hotrods nearly skid to a stop to keep from passing me until they figured out I wasn't a cop!

First car I bought was while I was in the Air Force. It was a '79 Trans Am. It had some sort of special performance package that included four-wheel disk and heavy duty sway bars. I could take a 90° city block turn at 35MPH without going out of my lane!:isadizzy: Oh, and did I mention that if you red-lined it in second that it was already at 100MPH with another gear to go???:pop4:

The second car I bought was a home-built sand rail - tube frame with VW engine, driveline, and suspension. Everyone else that I've ever talked to that owns one tells me they've never had theirs off-road. I just have to walk away. Mine was routinely 3-4 feet in the air on weekends and once I got it six feet off the ground - and this was in the "flat" Texas plains around Dyess!:jump:

I used to say I couldn't figure out which of the last two I miss most, but now that I'm a motorcyclist, I have to say it's the rail. It was by far the closest thing to a bike on four wheels, since the only sheet metal on it was a floor. It didn't even have a windshield.
 
Helldiver said:
Wasn't a good American V-8 in the group.
Click to expand...

not true, i posted the dodge magnum, which you can get with the new chrysler hemi if you buy the R/T version, and someone else posted a vette.
i love muscle cars, but who can afford them anymore as a daily driver?
i once owned a caddy hearse with a 500c.i. engine, huge carb, worked tranny, etc. i regularly spanked kids in their 5.0 lx mustangs. with my 23' 4800 lb cadillac. of course, with a 50 gallon gas tank, i could never own it today
 
Helldiver said:
...Wasn't a good American V-8 in the group. Some weird cars like a Holden, Skoda and Citroen. He must live in Bulgaria...
Click to expand...

Haha I wondered if Fortress America would make sense of any of those :d
Matter of interest, can one still buy big V8 gas guzzlers in the US today, apart from top end "sports" cars like the ZR1?
 
Wing_Z said:
Haha I wondered if Fortress America would make sense of any of those :d
Matter of interest, can one still buy big V8 gas guzzlers in the US today, apart from top end "sports" cars like the ZR1?
Click to expand...

Yeah, in Trucks/SUVs mostly...
 
Camaros, Corvettes and Mustangs too have V-8s.

While I've had a 67 GTO and other musclecars, my favorite of all time was a 1975 Pontiac LeMans Sport Coupe with a 455 under the hood. Darn that car would go. And as long as I kept it down to the speed limit and stayed out of the back barrels on the carb, it'd get decent mileage too (for a heavy car with a 455). A pickup came around a sharp curve cutting the inside and hit me head on totalling it out. I've missed it ever since.
 
I have never been a V8 man. Don't get me wrong, I love the sounds, and I have a great respect for all cars, not least of all the beautiful classic American beasts of old. But I have no use for such a thing. My ideal car is simply a box with wheels and engine. No frills, no decor. 5-speed? Nah. I only need two: forward, and backward. :icon_lol: Can it get me where I'm going? If so, it's done its job.

My dream-cars are Trabants, (sorry to anyone that dislikes them), perfect utilitarian design, you can fix it yourself, and goes from point A to B with only tiny sips of petrol. Sadly these are impossible to obtain in Japan, so I'm eyeballing some great candidates for my next road companion: Suzuki Alto (pure economic perfection), Suzuki Jimny (a delightful little Jeep-type), or Subaru Pleo (you could say, a modern-day Japanese Trabant).
 
Yup HD you're right that Liam's poll was missing the American flavor. But on the other hand...if one of us American's had posted up a poll how many non-American cars would have been on it? And regardless of where we're from would anyone else have remembered the "none of the above" option too?
Now, I was a lucky US guy...one of my dream vehicles was on the list so I got a chance to vote.

That's not to say I don't love my old small-block MoPars or my Ford trucks though. :)

I think the neatest thing about a thread like that here is it just goes to show that no matter what country we're from, a bunch of FS enthusiasts (or in this case a bunch of car nuts) can sit down and do some "bench racing" without any serious flame wars starting up. Sure...we got some good-natured jests in there, but it didn't get ugly.


Speaking of that dream vehicle...it's not American, and Nissan doesn't import em here...but a big full-size 4x4 with a solid axle up front and that can go darn near anywhere is enough to make me happy!
(This one is from Iceland and is tricked out as a glacier-crawler. Just goes to show that the US doesn't have all the fun when it comes to good off-road toys! :d)
 
I have to say my favorite (not on the list) would have been my very first car; a 1965 Chevelle Malibu 4-door, with a straight 6. Not a fast car by any means. But sentimentally, it will always be my favorite. Got it in 1973. Wish I still had it.

NC
 
NC, not a car but I've had a couple of 65 Chevy pickups with the old straight 6 engines and I'd love to have another one. Easy to work on and they just go forever.
 
Well, the best I ever owned, from many viewpoints, was a 1994 Pontiac Gran Prix GTP. It had the most comfortable and articulated seats I've ever seen and every other do-dad, guage, switch and accessory available from GM. It had a great big high output V-6 and nicely sprung suspension.

I loved it and have been a fan of Pontiac (and GM) for some time.

:applause:
 
My first 4 cars started with the 1960 Austin Healey Sprite similar to this one except it had white wall tires. Great fun little car with excellent fuel mileage.

Second car was a 1960 Austin Healey 3000 ... I loved this car and for a straight 6 with electric overdrive ... she would cruise 90 all day. The girls loved it. :)

Third car was a 1966 Chevelle SS 396 / 360HP ... fast for a stocker. Got drafted and sold it within 5 months of purchase.

While in the military, I bought this 1956 Austin Healey 100-4. Sweet little car but but spent too little time with it.

I guess the most (girl) fun was in the AH3000 and the most street racing was in the Chevelle SS.

EDIT: Note these are representative pics found on the web ... all are near identical to mine except the Chevelle was a light green.
 
1st car 55 chevy, next three 57 chevys all two door hard top all sceamers, 55 had a 409 c in. 500 hp, misted 2rd gear, it blow all to peases, a pease of the fly wheel about he size of a slice a pizza came up though the floor board, and stuck in the dash, just missed my foot. I now use a skatter shield from now on. also had a 67 Chevelle yanko 396, great handling car.
 
A tossup between my 1970 Charger 500 and my 1970 Roadrunner,the Roadrunner was faster,but the Charger was just a nice car,very well appointed for the day.:USA-flag:


The really nice part is I paid less than $500 for each of them.
 
Lazerbeak said:
My dream-cars are Trabants, (sorry to anyone that dislikes them), perfect utilitarian design, you can fix it yourself, and goes from point A to B with only tiny sips of petrol.
Click to expand...

...yet, environmentally as problematic as a soviet nuclear power plant. :monkies:

Honestly, as cool as those crates are...you wouldn't want one. They're simply too slow to keep up in modern traffic and safety is almost nonexistant. I mean honestly, why in hell did the designers put the fuel tank right next to the engine? :kilroy:

Either you go for one of the ones you've mentioned or get an old Nissan Micra or Toyota Starlet.
 
Different Peoples, different cars...

Different lifestyles and needs, different requirements...

Different lands, different things... Different peoples, different languages, different everything.

America is only 'one' place on Earth, and Earth has many countries... 'many'...


I wish we had some of those other cars over here. Citreon and Fiat and Lancia and several others make some superb cars. We never did get to see the Renault mini van here. All of Europe were driving those things, and most of America never even knew about it. Sad... (The thing was fiberglass plastic on the outside, cabin foreward design with a raked back windshield, and wild interior).

EDIT: It would be fun to have a Trabant as a spare, a collection car, to save it and keep it as a relic of cars from the past. It was a basic machine and did well in the roughest of times. It got East Germans through their difficulties.

Bill
 
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