Classic Cars - Some I've owned, some I've just driven, and some I wished I had the chance
Classic Cars - Some I've owned, some I've just driven, and some I wished I had the chance
Although I had driven all of my father's cars, and some were pretty good cars, I've not listed them as ones I liked. All of the photos below are from the internet but are the same as the cars I am describing except for the colours.
Starting from when I was 16 years old and had my regular driver's licence (I had a learner's permit when I was 15 and could drive then as long as an adult driver was with me and it was a family car or a driving school car) I wanted to own a car. Around the corner from where I lived there was a Sunoco gas station, and parked there for sale was a dark maroon 1939 Packard Limousine. Remember that it was 1953 so it wasn't THAT old. I think the metal was so thick you could hit a fender with a baseball bat and not make a dent. Although it was a V-12, gas was only about 43 cents a gallon then (but I guess that was a lot of money in those days). They were asking only $900. for it and I had the money in the bank, but my dad said no way. Here's what it looked like, inside and out:
Maybe my dad felt sorry for me, but on the other hand since I bashed his 1951 Hudson Hornet when I was 15 and he kept his cars in pristine condition, he bought me a used 1950 Ford Custom Coupe with steering column mounted 3 speed manual gearshift and a 5 push-button A.M. radio. I sure loved that car. It looked like this but mine was two-tone, beige with a brown top.
However, when I graduated with my B.A., my dad gave me as a graduation gift a new 1959 Pontiac Parisienne (the Canadian name for a Bonneville) convertible - all black with a black top and vinyl upholstery that looked like the photo below. Give a 21 year old a new convertible and could he/she be unhappy? I sure as hell wasn't until the plastic rear window got all scratched up from wear, and once when I was backing out of a parking lot (too fast) with the sun shining on the window so I couldn't see through it I rammed into a telephone pole and gave myself a whiplash. Up until that point I always thought people who complained about whiplash pain were faking it because there are no signs or symptoms except pain. That experience taught me to be a believer. Here is what that model looked like.
Although I had a few cars in between, I bought a new 1973 Pontiac Grand Am in British Racing Green colour. It was the model that had a rubber-like nose. That was one VERY fast car and since I always liked Pontiacs (I had traded my 1959 convertible into a 1964 silver Parisienne convertible) I liked the Grand Am a lot.
Eventually my wife and I had a couple of kids and it was time to get a little sedate, and foreign cars were in vogue, so I bought the car that the French started building because people there were starting to want cars that were a little bigger and more luxurious. It was a Peugeot 604 - considered a French Cadillac. I forgot what year model it was and I can't tell because it looked almost the same for the whole 10 years from 1975 to 1985 that they built it. No American built-in obsolescence there. Actually that car handled beautifully on all kinds of roads from highways to gravel and it was quiet and smooth riding. Eventually the tires got pretty worn down and it was time for a new set. Nobody had told me that the only tires made for that car were a special issue of Michelins that cost $300. each. Holy shit!!! They cost more than the car was worth at the time so I unloaded that car.
A couple more cars in between and then I bought a new 1989 Volvo 760GLE, the biggest one Volvo made. That was the car in which I took my family on a baseball fanatic's pilgimage to Cooperstown. It was a great car but it had a radio that was so complex I never did learn how to use it properly. But all good things have to come to an end, and this happened. I used to go to spend Sunday mornings with an elderly cousin of my wife who I really liked. He was really a Damon Runyan character - was in the popcorn business and supplied all the movie theatres. Previously he was a half owner of a pair of oceanfront hotels in Nassau and did he ever have stories to tell about them. Anyway, enough derailing myself (an ironic expression as you will soon find out), one day driving there I picked up a couple of large coffees on the way and had them set in a cardboard cup container on the passenger seat. To get to where he was in the film studio district I had to cross railway tracks while manouvering a sharp turn. I was going too fast, and as I turned the cups tipped over and I looked at them and reached for them and while doing that I absently turned the wheel and ended up driving on the railway tracks. I don't mean crossing the tracks, I mean running on them like a train while the car bumped up and down on the railroad ties so hard that it blew out the whole bottom of the car. Fortunately for me those tracks were rarely used. The car was considered by the insurance company to be a writeoff. Below is what the car looked like before that happened, although it didn't look much different after. That was the last new car I ever owned. I leased cars from that point on - a newer Volvo, a couple of Toyota Camrys and then I sold the last one and moved to China where I wouldn't drive if you paid me to do it.
Over the years there were a couple of cars I drove only once that were each great experiences. The first was a 1929 Rolls-Royce limousine that I borrowed for a day from a client who owned a fairly famous restaurant in Toronto. The car was the spitting image of the one from the movie "The Yellow Rolls-Royce". The reason I borrowed it was to chauffeur, as my gift to them, a couple of friends on their wedding day, and we drove all around town on it - did it EVER turn heads on the streets. I wore my famous Greek fisherman's hat that I had purchased at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco because it looked like a chauffeur's cap, and I was wearing a black tuxedo that had a brocaded silk jacket in a Nehru style. The groom just wore a plain sports jacket, but his new bride wore a beautiful white and gold Sari. Some of the guests who didn't know the groom thought I was the groom. The car had one quirky thing that the owner had to teach me to use, and that was that it had to be double-clutched. Don't ask me to explain what that was because I've long forgotten. The one thing he made me do was promise to unscrew the silver Flying Lady radiator cap off and lock it in the car when it was parked, because he was sure someone would steal it. I just noticed that the photo I posted didn't have the "Flying Lady" hood ornament, so I posted a photo of what it looked like below the one of the car.
The "Flying Lady" radiator cap hood ornament
Another car I drove and really loved the way it handled was a 1990 Saab 9-3 that I rented for a day because my car was being repaired and it was visitors' day at the Summer Camp where my son was. The drive up to the lakes district in Ontario over twisting hilly roads was a great test of the way that car drove.
And now, the piece de resistance, my classic dream car. My father was buying a new car in 1959, and he asked a Jaguar dealer to bring a new 1959 Jaguar Mark IX to his place of business where I happened to be at the time. When I saw that car, if I didn't drool it was a wonder. I got into the back seat and sank into the glove leather that smelled good enough to eat, and looked at the burled wood folding tables on the back of the front seat and thought that this wasn't a car for someone neuveau riche, not even for someone with old money. This was a car for royalty.
But he didn't like it, and bought a 1960 Cadillac Coupe de Ville instead. It was so damned long you needed two parking spaces to park it. It looked exactly like this.
Do you have or have had any experiences with classic cars that you enjoyed owning or driving or, as I did with the Packard Limousine and the Jaguar Mark IX, coveted more than the biblical neighbour's spouse? If so, tell us about it, and show photos if you can.
Tags
Who is online
127 visitors
There used to be a Classic Car group on NT, but the person who created it deleted his account so everything he had posted disappeared with him. If enough people are interested perhaps someone who is a car-lover will open a new group.
That was Terry Falcon Buzz. He didn't just delete his account. Shortly after that he sorta died.
I'm sorry to hear that. (Although I appreciate the news, I don't think I want to thumb it up. It wasn't something good to hear.)
Somewhere in my data base are some photos of Classic Autos, so, if a new group emerges, I'm in.
What a great array of cars Buzz...
Let me get going and get photos of some of the classics that I've owned.
I'll be back (The Terminator)
A lot of mine are from 1967, one I owned, the 1967 Chevelle SS
1967 Corvette
1967 Jaguar XKE
So you would have loved to have the Corvette and/or the XKE? I had a client who had an XKE who told me it had endless mechanical problems.
I liked the Corvetter more. The Jaguar was one my mother liked.
Jaguars always has some issues, and those became even more pronounced after Ford bought them in 90. those seemed to be mostly electrical issues.
A buddy had an early XKE and couldn't keep the carbs in tune.
Multiple carbs are always fun to tune. I used to have a mounted 4 vacuum gauge set to work with.
I had a buddy over on Okinawa, he was my mechanic and co-driver in a lot of legal and some not so legal....um.....racing. He had a great talent, my car (a 72 Toyota Corona XL 2 Door) had a 1700cc non-export performance engine with dual S/U carbs from the factory. We built a custom air intake, as the factory one choked the life out of the car, then every few months, we'd pull the carbs, take them apart, clean them re-assemble and he'd have me go up to redline in first and 2nd, then he'd tune it by ear. I wish I had that kind of talent! We rarely lost a street race.....
Also, had a couple race cars there, this one is my first....called a Mazda Presto Familia (non-export)
Some beautiful cars here!
A few, perhaps, but I didn't think the Ford, Volvo, Peugeot or Saab were particularly beautiful. Although, of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? Not everyone thinks the Mark IX was beautiful, but when I was a little kid I used to draw pictures of cars that looked like that.
From what I read elsewhere, it was mostly installed in limousines like the one I pictured above, because it probably cost in today's dollar equivalent about 6 or 7 thousand bucks. However, it had lots of problems. I don't know if the one I saw had A/C - back in those days people opened their windows - the air wasn't so polluted then.
I had a 1968 Camaro when I was in HS. VERY nice car, totally restored, (I had it in 1985). Not a dent, not a scratch, perfect interior. Saved my pennies and bought it, really loved that car but had to sell it about a year later, (long story).
.
But this isn't about a classic car...well, I suppose by now it is a classic... Anyway... 1986 Porsche 928s, with the Koenig package. This is NOT that car, but it looked exactly like this one and it had the checkerboard interior. Wasn't my car, was my friends dads car. He was a lawyer in CA. and was really loaded. and foolish, he let my buddy and I drive it for the summer. We never did ding it or put a scratch on it, but we did burn through a set of tires in 2 months. Very strange car to drive. You cannot see the hood, and when you turn the lights on, all you can see is the back of the lights. Just felt strange I guess. But fast? Wow. Sorry Buzz, not much of a contribution..
I always loved the 928s. I remember in the 90's Car and Driver named it a 10 best Used Car deal, as no one could sell them for near the money they bought them for ($85K range back then), so there were some great deals to be had.
NO WAY!! It was exactly what I was hoping for. For about an hour or so I drove a friend's Porsche - it was the least expensive model and not particularly new. From that experience I couldn't understand why so many people wanted one, because I sure wasn't impressed. One of my colleagues back when I was practising my profession was a German immigrant who told me it was every German young man's dream to own a Porsche, and then when they were older and married, to own a Mercedes. I can understand the Mercedes. I once test drove a Mercedes coupe and drove it for about 4 hours without getting out of the seat and felt comfortable the whole time. I ALMOST had the opportunity to pick up a Mercedes 190SL Cabriolet and still regret having missed it).
A young woman client of mine had one, and was banged in the back by a streetcar, but it made almost no damage. She was so upset she sold it immediately to a Mercedes dealership thereafter without telling me for $1,000 and I would have GLADLY given her even more for it.
Charger 383
1968 Dodge Charger, now has 440 6pack motor. Pistol grip shifter for automatic transmission and A/C (old guys like that) It goes in shop this week for short in headlights. Needs a paint job and a few things
My first car i ever drove regularly was a 69 Charger R/T in Copper with the Hurst multi angled shifter. Loved that car and have had a thirst to own one ever since.
There is a 1970 Canadian movie called "Goin' Down the Road".
On their way east, they are talking about their dreams of being rich, and one of them says "Maybe we can buy a Charger."
a good thing to want to buy. I would like a new one with Helcat motor.
1970 Ford Mustang Boss 302
1982 Porsche 911 Targa
1991 Dodge Stealth Twin Turbo
I've had a lot of beautiful cars but these were my favorite three. Yes, I love red.
If you didn't say "I love red" your wife would kick you out of the house.
Of your 3, the "Mouse" is my favourite.
Ha, she probably would.
So you like the Porsche, good choice.
Ha ha! My second best friend in Toronto loved to own and drive Mustangs, and he called them "My Mouse".
RED, my other restoration project is a 78 Dodge Little Red Truck. I bought it as my college graduation present from me to me. Hopefully I can get it off the back burner
I thought that our all being car lovers we might want to watch this amazing feat:
I've had a bunch of nice sports cars, my favorite was my 1969 camaro Z28. Light, fast and great looking.
My favorite car EVER!
Hmmmmm.....some of my faves.....first car I owned......a 59 Plymouth Belverdere, affectionately known at my high school as the batmobile:
Then there was the 69 Firebird 350 H.O. Convertible (Loved that car!)
I've had several in-between, but I've hung onto this one (1993 Mazda RX-7 FD, Twin Rotor, Twin Turbo) since 1995:
I've had lots of cars including 2 race cars and currently have a Ram 1500 and a Lincoln Town Car in my stable.....my next beater car will likely be an Audi Quattro convertible....TT, A3, A4 or A5
Newest half the wheels toy is this one (I love her, though she is bedded down for the winter:
Not sure why the photos staircased like that. BTW, the 59? 318 with a push-button automatic trans. Huge. Bench seat. Great car for those dates to the drive-in
You added a bike, no fair, this is about cars. You violated a cardinal rule, Spike.
Now I might have to post photos of all the bikes that I've had. I just hate doing that...LOL
1949 Indian Chief
1973 HD Electra glide in blue
I've always been a speed addict but now, according to my wife, I've been grounded...LOL...the only bike I can own is a one without a motor.
Now can we talk about speed boats, especially the Cracker Box variety for drag racing.
Very spendy, like 30k!
BTW, my bike:
Since Polaris purchased the Indian name, they have revived the brand to it's former glory. They have some super beautiful bikes...
I've been looking at them, but alas, I've been grounded...LOL
Good looking bike, CCM.
I'm leary of Polaris, but I do love them Indian bikes, a friend of mine swears by them, he says once you ride one, you will never get on another bike... And he was a Harley guy for years.
I've tested some of the new Indians and they are pure ''cool''....I just love them. Of course my first bike was the 1949 Indian Chief and later I purchased another and had it fully restored so it looked just like the one I posted above.
You might not have clicked on "normal" in the "position" choice when you embedded the photos.
I bought my wife a new Mazda RX3 as my wedding present to her - The rotary engine overpowered the car. We could beat a Mercedes from a standing stop at a stoplight.
you could get some good cars cheap then
Does that mean that she's not going to let you jump out of airplanes any more either?
1968 Mustang. Almost exactly like the one I had, right down to the color, until my wife decided that it cost us too much for maintenance.
Oh hell yes. That and no more hang gliding, or anything resembling fun...Some thing about the life insurance doesn't cover it...LOL
Beautiful Mustang Ttga.
That's a beauty.
I'll do anything to see pix of your beautiful bikes........you've fallen for my dastardly plan, Kavika.
I bought mine one year old with 1297 miles on it, right time.right place. I looked at the Chieftain Elite online and their special 'internet Pricing' said I could have it for the low, low price of $31,440. I figured an Indian was not in my future, until I stumbled on my beauty.
I moved over this year and literally, have never been happier on a street bike.
Years ago I had to transport a life sized statue of Chief Pontiac to my house. I had no one to help me get it into the house, so I went to the local biker bar to enlist assistance. I asked who wanted to earn a beer by helping me unload an Indian. Four guys got immediately excited and volunteered. You should have seen their faces when they saw it was not the "Indian" they expected. They helped me anyway.
The Rotary's are wonderful engines though they really have not caught on. I've owned 2 of them now and have been pleased with both. I look forward to the RX-9 (Protoype pic below):
When I first saw these pics, I was heard to mutter, 'You sexy thang, you will live in my garage'.......
Oh my does that look cool, Spike.
LOL, I've been had...
My wife thinks I'm a bit too old to be acting crazy...LOL...Things break a lot easier at 76 then they did at 46 or 36 o 26.
She's lived through by ''crashes'' with bikes, fast cars, boat racing (cracker box) etc etc. So now the only thing that I have left is my 1996 Ford F250 Turbo Diesel. Don't laugh, I had Gale Banks ''tune it up'' it will out run most cars.
Yeah, but I know what you secretly want BF....
Check this one out Buzz.
Doesn't look like much, does it. '62 Ford Galaxie that has definitely seen better days. However, I took down some really good street racers with it. How, you ask, did I do it? OK, you didn't ask but I'll tell you anyway. The standard factory engine was replaced with a 352 cu in Thunderbird Interceptor engine removed from an old Michigan State Police car. Didn't look like much but it would go really, really fast.
Done!
What a dream THAT car is!
The worlds fastest diesel truck...Gale Banks engineering built it
I was having some work done on my diesel truck (Ford F250 Turbo Diesel) and this truck was in the building. I was looking it over and heard two guys talking to one another. I looked up and it was Gale Banks and Jay Leno...Leno offered Banks $1million for the truck and Banks told Leno, ''Jay you don't have enough money to buy this truck.''....LOLOLOL...
Top speed of 222 MPH
My claims to fame,
69 Chevelle
And my first car:
72 Nova
Minnesota was not nice to cars...
LOL, yup they do take a beating there.
Nice cars everyone.
I have wanted a Mustang my whole life.....someday I will get it.
My first car was a 1974 Ford Pinto...lol
Blue and brand new like this one - Paid for it myself as a senior in high school. I had a little motorcycle too...a little 250 Honda, but my father bought that for me. I loved driving it to school.
My parents always had pinto wagons.. /shrug they were ok for what they were I guess.
It was a good car. I had to have my father's approval even though I paid for it.
© A. Mac/A.G.
All that chrome, really a "Chrome Demon".
Love Buicks. I have owned a few and drive one now. I am into comfy and cushy.
Buicks are very popular in China. Back in Toronto I once owned a GS 300 model in the early 1970s. There was one in a photo I posted in my Famous Photographer series.
Alright - how do you copy/n/paste from IMac photos to this page????????
The method is simple. Right click on the picture, choose Save Photo As from the drop down menu and save it to a file on your computer. Then upload the photo from your computer to the article in the normal way.
Keep in mind, though, that Mac can do this because he owns the pictures. The rest of us must get permission first.
TT - I go to "Photos", right click and the only option is "Duplicate" - everything else tries to get you to set up a new album or share on one of the media outlets.
When you right click on the photo it should have a number of options. One should be "save image as", which is what TT said is "save photo as" and another should just say "copy image". If you click on "copy image" you then go to where you want to post the photo, right click there and then choose "paste".
Not sure what you want to do … are you referring to copying from an iMac computer to this page?
If so, it's easy and I can walk you through.
A. Mac - HHHHEEEELLLLPPPPP!!!!!!
1st Warrior …
1) Take notice as to where on your computer, the image(s) you want to upload reside (in a folder, on your desktop, etc.).
2) Assuming any such image is a ".jpg," look at the top of the comment box in which you want the image to appear … and LOCATE THE ICON IN THE BOTTOM ROW OF ICONS AND CLICK ON THE ONE THAT IS NEXT TO THE "SMILEY FACE" ICON … it will say "Embed Local Media" and will take you to your computer
3) Once there, look at the tabs and locate "Upload an Image"
4) Under "Size" select "original"
5) Under "Position" select "normal"
6) Under "Select an Image to Upload and Insert" -- SELECT YOUR IMAGE AND CLICK "OPEN" at the Bottom Right.
Let me know if you need more info.
IT WORKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks A. Mac.
My pleasure!
One of the members of NT has a beautiful bike, it's a HD (small mistake on his part) but what a great paint job on it.
Hello, 1stwarrior are you out there, post a photo of your bike.
"Old" bike - Heritage Softtail Classic 2009
My little War Pony.
This article about cars has turned into an article about bikes. Hey, I'm happy to have posted at least one article in the past few days that members want to contribute to, and as long as the CoC and ToS are followed, I don't care how off topic it goes - it's a place on NT that doesn't reek of animosity and conflict. Nobody here is saying "My bike is better than your bike" or "In my opinion my Ford is better than your Chrysler because a fake news site said so", or "Athiests haven't got the spirit to ride a motorcycle", or "Only LGBT would buy a Chevy." LOL
Hey Buzz, it was Spike that started the motorcycle photos...LOL, I know I followed suit.
Ok here is one of my favorite cars of all time. I never owned one, but damn, they were beautiful.
1955 Buick Roadmaster Convertable
Thrown under the wheels again....sigh....friendships are only strong until it comes time to throw the blame around......I see your game....here's a monster car some Navy type built over on Okinawa in the Auto Hobby Shop. Notice the OD green paint......and yes, that is a 350 Chevy in there.......in a Toyota Corona 4 Door Sedan
LMAO, good one Spike...There are no friendships when it comes to cars, bikes and boats...
Damn, how the heck did you fit that 350 in the there?
I didn't do it, I did give the guy some advice-exhaust manifolds were reversed and flipped with a an over and under pipe on both sides to make them fit. He had to move the rad outside the radiator support and move the steering box and added a bunch of knuckles, cut and rebuilt the firewall to fit. First test, be blew out the totyota rear end......had to get a chevy axle and rear end set up. Looked stupid w/o reversers.......78 series tires outside the fender wells on both sides.
Mea culpa - I was asked so I complied
LOL
Hey, Kavika. I said I was happy about those derails. By the way, many of the photos you post show up for me and many do not. It has to be because of a different source. If the source is google, it probably won't show up here. For example, I had no trouble seeing the Mustang, Porsche, and Dodge you first posted. I also saw the Lil Red Truck and the '49 Indian Chief and the fastest diesel truck, but I could NOT open the 73 Harley D, the "rez" car, or the Buick photos you posted. What was different about them?
Anyway, if anyone else has the same problem, here is a photo of a RED 1955 Buick Roadmaster convertible. We used to call them 4-holers.
LOL, just giving you and Spike a hard time, Buzz.
I have no idea why some show up and some don't for you...All except the Harley came from the same site. Hmmmm, it's the ''little people'' again.
I can see you driving that beauty down the main street in your city...You would be the talk of the town.
I never had one like that. The only Buick I ever had was a Skylark GS 350, from the late 1960s. or very early 1970s but it met its demise in a spiritual way.
I was having an affair with a married woman in another city. I was on my way there, already in her city, and the engine caught fire. Smoke was billowing out from under the hood. I came to a stop and there happened to have been a police van right behind me. They jumped out of their truck with a fire extinguisher and opened my hood and put out the fire. I recall one of them saying "Wow, it worked." That was the end of that car, and I used the insurance money and more to buy my Grand Am. The first thing I did after the incident was go to a telephone and phone the woman I was on my way to see and told her I would never see her again, because the fire was God telling me to stop sinning. That is a TRUE story - I stopped my philandering and got married soon after.
Well Buzz, I don't know if God had anything to do with it, but messing with a married women is a fast way to the local hospital.
I was a very adventurous person back in those days. Hey, moving to China was adventurous as well.
Could be the husband set up the fire to look like an accident? Yeah, that's a good way to meet an early demise, glad you saw the light!
Or to a dark hole in the ground in faraway places.
I missed this when it went up two days ago. I've just now strolled through it all. Very cool conversation.
I guess you can say I was spoiled. Dad bought my first car, with plenty of restrictions, during my Senior year - 1959 Austin Healey Sprite. Sadly, he got transferred to 'Nam, so we moved the family from Ft. Leonard Wood, MO to Tupelo, MS in February of my Senior year and, after only having the car for four months, he used it as a down payment for our house. Coulda killed him.
2nd car - 1952 Chevrolet Bel Aire - bought outside the main gate at MCAS Beaufort, SC for $150.00. Asked the guy if the car would make it to Ft. Leavenworth, KS and he replied if I drove "carefully", I'd have no problem. So, got it tuned and made the trip from Beaufort to Ft. Leavenworth in 19 hours with an average speed of 82mph - car ran like a sewing machine. I went to 'Nam and Dad sold the car for $300 - without asking. Since our names were the same (I'm the II), no issue with the title - sneaky shit.
3rd - 1963 Triumph Herald convertible - top speed 48mph down hill with a tailwind on a rain slicked road. Luved working on it 'cause everything was "right there".
4th - 1966 MGB - put MANY miles on that little bucket with wheels. During this time, I bought a 1958 Jaguar XK-150 and Dad was going to "restore" it for me. He also had a 1960 XK-150 he was going to restore.
5th - 1968 MGB-GT - MARVELOUS car - perfect for a set of golf clubs and a wife
.
6th - 1974 Triumph TR-6, hot off the showroom floor. Had a choice of this or the 1974 Johnny Player Lotus, but the Lotus wasn't a convertible, got worse gas mileage and my golf clubs wouldn't fit.
Then a long spat of cars - 1974 Jensen Healey, 1979 924 Porsche, 1982 924 Turbo Porsche, 1986 944 Porsche, 1984 911S, 1979 912, 1959 Austin Healey 100-6.
My brother somehow managed to get my XK away from the house while Mom/Dad were on a vacation and he hauled it up to Illinois for a "friend" of his to do the restoration. Needless to say, Greg doesn't remember who he took it too, where in ILL he took it and what happened to the money he "borrowed" to have the restoration done. Not real friggin' happy 'bout that. I really would love to have that car back - or even the Healey 100-6.
Interesting story from Dad - while in 'Nam, there was a fella in the barracks down the hall that had a car he wanted to sell badly and he was only asking $300.00. 'Course shipping to the States would've been 'bout $600.00, so Dad said he'd pass. The car??? 1961 Maserati 3500GT. I tried to get him to track the fella down but we couldn't find him - DDDAAAAMMMMMNNNNN.
OK, that's my stories and I'm stickin' too them.
A 61 Maserati for $300....A 61 MASERATI FOR $300...I can't say it loud enough...What has he thinking!!!!!
Don't know, but I hope they didn't throw it in the bay when they left.
I LOVE reading these stories. You're really attracted to sports cars, English ones mostly I see. I'll join the chorus: A Maserati for $300. !!!!!! A new Maserati Quatroporte is one of my dreams - I've seen a lot of them here. A rock and roll musician who was a client of mine had a lotus. He was a little guy, and I don't know how HE fit into it.
Damn Buzz, we owned the same model car--that 73 Pontiac! Mine had the T-top roof and I loved that car. Blew a headgasket on I-10 on my way back to New Orleans from Tampa. Had it towed to a shop, but never got back to claim it. It was definitely one of my favorites!
Wonder if it's still there?
20 years later? Only if the shop owner was really smart! Interior was in perfect condition and the body was dent free. T-tops didn't leak, and except for some minor touch-up on the paint...and a blown headgasket, that car was pretty much MINT!