Tell us about your first car! - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

QporscheQ · 02-23-2005, 03:21 PM

My first car was an '86 Olds Cutlass Sierra. My mom got in an accident in it before she gave it to me and never got it fixed. The whole time I had it; there was a big dent in the hood and a smashed grill. It had two nice bench seats with plenty of room on the inside :dance: The roof liner fell down all the time and I kept a stapler in the car to stick it back up when ever it fell down. I had about a million stickers on the back when I finally got rid of it. My sister drove it for a bit after I got a different car, then it was donated someplace.

My second car was a '91 Toyota Tercel. My uncle sold it to me for a $1, it had about 150K miles on it when I got it, but it was in totally perfect condition. I think it had about 60 Hp and would struggle to go up a hill if I had three friends in the car. At first I hated the car, however it got about 6 million MPG and I could literally go 2 months at school between fill ups. Today I appreciate the time I owned this car for one and only one reason. It was a stick. To that point I had no idea how to drive manual, I was forced to learn. Without this Tercel, I’m sure my Box would have had the Tiptronic in it today.

The whole time I was in high school I drove the P.O.S. Cutlass (lovingly known as the S-Mobile) then in college the Tercel. When my younger sister was old enough to drive, my parents went out and bought her a VW Cabrio. To say I was pissed was an understatement. To quell a potential family civil war, my dad eventually handed me down his Firebird which I still use as my daily driver today.

There are a bunch of Firebird/Boxster owners, interesting.

Pilot2519j · 02-23-2005, 03:26 PM

1964 VW bug. Lots of fun no gas gauge I believe it was 40 hp. I had it when I was learning to fly. Actually it prepared me for taxing an airplane since the car was very subjective to cross winds.
I once ran out of fuel and went to a gas station to "borrow a gas container". Needless to say the manager said no then I bought a 16 oz coke and drank it proceed it to fill it with gas and that got the car going again.

Subanez · 02-23-2005, 07:59 PM

1989 VX Fox. Bright Red. We bought it new (I was only 8), and I later bought it from my mom in high school, and drove it into college, where I sold it for a 1997 Integra.

After blowing too much money turning my integra into the "ultimate rice mobile," I bought the Boxster this past summer.

First car Horsepower: something like 92
Second car HP: around 130
Current car HP around 220

So the next logical step would be somewhere over 300 HP, right?

donv · 02-23-2005, 08:16 PM

The only car I've ever owned that you could repair with random stuff out of a junk pile or hardware store, which I did many times (drawer locks to replace broken trunk lock, radial tire sidewall chunk to replace the rubber clutch linkage [that was fun when the original broke in traffic], pc. of plexiglass for a side vent window, etc.). The exhaust system parts fabricated out of #10 food service tin cans and furnace cement was a wonder to behold!

All steel dash - you could use refrigerator magnets to post notes on it! And notice the speedometer went all the way up to 12. Reclinable bench front seat - very handy for certain activities...

Easiest oil change ever - no need for jacks or ramps with the amount of ground clearance and the oil filter was mounted on top of the engine. You could actually stand on the ground inside the engine compartment to work on the 192 cu. in. straight six engine. Got something over 30 MPG with 5+ friends in the car. We'd take my car to boneyards to find the parts for my friend's Lotus Europa JPS we were rebuilding and could fit whole sections of his car in the trunk.

Bought it for $125 with ~40K miles on it - literally from "a little old lady", made nearly $2000 clear from insurance payoffs over the three years I had it (people kept rear-ending me due to the small dim tail/stop lights - I'd end up towing their badly-bent relatively new car to the gas station with my almost-undamaged car, their insurance company would declare my car a "total" and pay me $500; repeat...).

Three years later sold it for $125 when I couldn't get a replacement starter and window wiper motor (powered by engine vacuum) to keep it going. Of course the next JC Whitney catalog to show up had both parts!

I was getting phone calls from later owners for years - that beast just kept on going...

Next in the early parade was a kick ass 318 V8 Plymouth Satellite, as the B-52s sang: "...faster than the speed of liiiighhhht..."

jerhofer · 02-24-2005, 07:15 PM

1956 VW Bug
I was stationed in Germany from 1965 to 1967 and enjoyed the VW on all types of German roads. I was stationed in Giessen. One Saturday, two other GI's and myself decided to go to Koblenz, about 90 miles away. I don't ever remember why we decided to go there, but it was a great drive on backroads for three young people. Stopped along the way at a couple Gasthaus's for some fine German beer, ogled some women, and, in general, celebrated being young with no attachments.

St. Louis Boxster · 02-24-2005, 07:37 PM

a 1964 Karmann Ghia.. bought it for $50. Used to have to park on hills so I could roll start it when it was time to go. Even then I knew topless was the way of my life!! Drove that car for a year roll starting it every time.

jpcolin · 02-25-2005, 12:39 AM

my first car back in 1995 was a 1994 Honda civic VTEC 125HP stock, probably some 130HP with exhaust and intake mods, very nice car, reliable, fast (8.4 sec 0-100km/h) nice for sex in the back ;-)
second car in 2001 was a 1997 BMW 318 TI 140HP stock 151HP on dyno (again axhaust and intake), first own RWD (altough I learned to drive with with a 1986 toyota Celica also RWD) enjoyed the BMW realy much, and great sex inthe front and rear ;-), last month bought my 1998 Boxster with 10.000km on it, love that car in all ways exept for sex ;-)
maybe in the summer with top down ;-)

graybeard · 03-03-2005, 01:41 PM

'64 chevy rag top, broken motor mounts, split rear window, 3 on the column if I shifted too hard the d**n thing got stuck in 2nd gear. Mine was junk but Jeannot yours was down right UGLY, but we have arrived.

PSP · 03-03-2005, 02:14 PM

1964 Triumph Herald aka "Chick Magnet"

OK, maybe anti-magnet

deliriousga · 01-08-2006, 08:19 PM

Here she is, a garnet 1984 Chrysler Laser Turbo. My wife says I wanted it because it looked like the 928 I lusted for, but could not afford at 17 years old. I had saved for a car from 6 years old when my parents said they would split the cost of my first car with me. The summer after I graduated high school my dad asked me what car I had my eye on. It showed up in the driveway the week before I was off to college along with an empty savings account. In the end, it held up for 107K miles and put our first daughter to sleep in the car seat many times.

bhduxbury · 01-09-2006, 08:11 AM

from my faded memory . . . .

it was a 1972 VW "SuperBeetle" -- iirc, the difference between it and a bug were the rims, the chassis length, the engine size, and the "Formula Vee" stripes (lol).

it was passed down to me when i turned 16 in, errrrr, 1982. power was absolutely negligible, so i revved that thing like there was no tomorrow before upshifting (no tach to know exactly where that was). it had about 100k on it. i went through 2 clutches in 4 years, much to the distress of my dad. turns out i was sitting too far from the pedal -- i moved in closer on my next car and took it to 100k w/o a clutch issue.

anyway, this car (and my dad) taught me to drive a stick, how to change a car's oil, and how to score beer.

it got the job done until i got my second car in 1986, a vw scirocco. here's to you, orange bug!

Ronzi · 01-09-2006, 09:20 AM

1958 Jaguar XK150 "Fixed Head" (hardtop) Coupe. It had been an SCCA race car and had a straight pipe exhaust, no muffler whatsoever. Unbelievably loud. Had to sell it when I was drafted six months later. I was hung up on Jags for many years thereafter. Fortunately I have since recovered.

Mark986 · 01-30-2006, 02:12 PM

My first car was the probably the first "jelly bean"; a 1971 Toyota Celica.
Long throw four speed with the 18R engine. Tan on tan with a thin red/ black stripe on the sides. I usually kept about ten coats of carnuba on it, looked like it was encased in a 1/4" of glass. Drove the hell out of it during the college years, great fun car, really tossable. Did many a powerslide through cohttp:// rners in it.

03box · 01-30-2006, 02:34 PM

My first car was a 1971 Dodge Challeger R/T with a 340 c.i. engine. I paid $1600 for it in 1972 with 20,000 miles on it. It was metallic blue with black interior. Man it was quick. Wish I still had it. Muscle cars from that era are fetching a pretty penny on Barrett Jackson.

MNBoxster · 01-30-2006, 02:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark986

My first car was the probably the first "jelly bean"; a 1971 Toyota Celica.
Long throw four speed with the 18R engine. Tan on tan with a thin red/ black stripe on the sides. I usually kept about ten coats of carnuba on it, looked like it was encased in a 1/4" of glass. Drove the hell out of it during the college years, great fun car, really tossable. Did many a powerslide through cohttp:// rners in it.

Hi,

I had a '77 Celica GT Coupe. I liked it alot, but it always seemed a little 'Tinney' and slightly anemic to me. While it was parked at the Curb overnight, it was totalled by a Chicago PD Cruiser rushing to a Call. I was informed by a Pizza Delivery Guy who saw it and got the Cruiser #. I waited 3 days and never heard a thing from the Cops. I reported it totalled and told the responding Officer what I had been told. He called in and told me I was wrong. I gave him the Cruiser #, Time of accident, and said I had a witness willing to testify. The next day the City Manager called and we agreed on an amount which the City paid the next day - weird huh? It had maybe 25k mi. on it, so I have no longterm experience with it...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

Keith Newby · 11-20-2006, 11:58 AM

...was a 1959 Simca Aronde. Four door, four on the column, cloth bench seats, pea green. French engineering with British mechanicals...the worst of both worlds. I bought a cheap set of Whitworth sockets at Pep Boys and resorted to an adjustable wrench when the sockets failed to fit. A cloth covered wiring harness and Lucas electrics completed this horror show. I worked all summer to earn enough money to rebuild the engine but came up short and couldn't afford to redo the head. Needless to say the car continued to run like crap and I was broke. To this day I don't have a picture of that car although I can still smell it...like an old horse blanket left out in the rain.

Uncle Bob · 11-21-2006, 12:07 PM

This is about as close a pic as I could find...1953 VW Beetle. 1300cc motor, already had the #3 exhaust valve burned out and so it ran on 3 cylinders. Stock and blueprinted it had 36bhp, so my little gem had less than 27, that's for sure! i lived near Lake Arrowhead, CA and it was notorious for lumbering up the steep grades in 2nd gear at a breakneck speed of 20mph!! I think I still managed to get a speeding ticket in it, or maybe a speeding certificate, it was the late 60's and I was living the dream....it was all a blur.