Favorite vehicles of the past.

[BobR]

I grew up with VWs. My first memory of one was the Beetle we owned while living in Germany in the early 60s. I remember the semaphore turn signals that came out of the door frame area. After that my family always had VWs of one sort or another. My father was a big Westfalia fan, we always had one from the late 60s on, along with a smattering of 411s (the first one imported into the US) and a few Beetles. Even today I am always on the look out for a Syncro Westfalia (4x4) that doesn't cost an arm and a leg + my first born. Not sure I would get it but maybe, just maybe, SWMBO could be persuaded. She doesn't share my love of VWs.

bob

[Calumus]

Looking back, the one thing most of my cars had in common was an interesting engine. In high school I had a '92 Mazda MX3 with a 1.8 liter V6. Loved that car. Handled like a go-cart, and that engine felt the same whether it was idling at 250! Rpm, or wound out to 7000rpm. Smooth like a sewing machine.

Traded that in on my only new car ever, an 01 Mustang GT. That engine was fun if not overly powerful. It was also apparently indestructible. I bought it in April, then did around 150 runs at the local drag strip over the next 5 months. I sold that car with 187k on the clock, and it still didn't burn a drop of oil in between 7500 mile oil changes.

Next was an 03 VW Jetta Gli. That's when I fell in love with their VR6. Great engine. Good sound, smooth, and enough torque that you didn't have to shift out of sixth to pass quickly at any speed above 50. Put 50k on that one in 3 years, then started looking for my VW R32. It took me six months to find it as they were pretty rare to begin with. When it finally popped up, there were only 5 in the country for sale with under 50k miles. I ended up buying it sight unseen from a dealer outside of Chicago and having it shipped across country.

Best car I've ever had. Great motor, known as the Wookie due to its sound. Handles extremely well, and will walk through snow up to around 5" like its dry pavement. It looks small; but was able to fit a 55" TV in the back, and when we went out for dinner last year around Christmas, Joccasse was able to sit his rather tall self comfortably, while my fiancee had plenty of legroom sitting behind him. I honestly have no idea what I'll replace it with as my do everything car when the time comes.

Then there's my 09 Challenger SRT8. Got it last year with 12k miles on it, and have put another 12k on it since. Good looking, comfortable, and has a great engine. I believe it's the last of the old school V8s. No direct injection, no variable valve timing, no cylinder deactivation. It roars when you floor it, burps and snorts when you lift off the throttle. It's incredibly unrefined, and that's why I love it. It's just too bad that it handles exactly like you'd think a 4200# car would. I will however replace it with another Challenger when the time comes, likely a Hellcat though. Charisma for miles with this car; plus I thoroughly enjoy the dirty looks I get from Prius drivers when I'm in it.

[Kingcreek]

Looking back, the one thing most of my cars had in common was an interesting engine. In high school I had a '92 Mazda MX3 with a 1.8 liter V6. Loved that car. Handled like a go-cart, and that engine felt the same whether it was idling at 250! Rpm, or wound out to 7000rpm. Smooth like a sewing machine.

Speaking of interesting engines...
That wankel rotary Mazda engine. I never owned one but I had a neighbor years ago that had one. Apparently there was some kind of governor that could be disabled? I had a state trooper friend tell me he had one pull away from him once when his patrol cruiser maxed out at 140mph.

[Larry Ashcraft]

My Cherokee Chief is at the top of my list. Mine was a 360 4 BBl. Had that bullet proof quadratrac transfer case with the diff lock in the glove box and that low range lever under the driver seat. Mine was white on green with that Navaho pattern striping. My dad and I went to rescue my sister one time when she got stranded in a bad snowstorm. I got out and walked over a 1/4 mile to check the drifts on the road and make foot tracks in the middle of the roadway that dad could see in the blowing snow. When I got to her I radioed dad at the wheel and he came plowing and roaring through everything including some hip deep drifts and stopped right next to us. Got her and her dog and went back for the car 3 days later. That thing went through stuff that would stop almost anything less than a track vehicle.
I still remember the decal in the glove box next to the big green and red diff lock switch: Warning! Engage only after all other attempts to free stuck vehicle have failed!    ...pretty cool...

Mine was the same.  Trouble with that vacuum switch in the glove box was if it went out (mine did) it took the transfer case with it.  I was hunting in Crested Butte one year, and stopped in Salida on the way home for a burger.  The Jeep was bump steering in the parking lot so I knew something was wrong.  Yep, the switch went out on the highway and locked up the differentials.  Transfer case had to be rebuilt.  Yep, another $1000.

[Kingcreek]

Mine was the same.  Trouble with that vacuum switch in the glove box was if it went out (mine did) it took the transfer case with it.  I was hunting in Crested Butte one year, and stopped in Salida on the way home for a burger.  The Jeep was bump steering in the parking lot so I knew something was wrong.  Yep, the switch went out on the highway and locked up the differentials.  Transfer case had to be rebuilt.  Yep, another $1000.

Yep. There was another warning decal that said something like Do not attempt to operate on dry road surfaces.
I had a vacuum line go out on mine but had no damage otherwise.

[Brad Johnson]

That wankel rotary Mazda engine. I never owned one but I had a neighbor years ago that had one. Apparently there was some kind of governor that could be disabled? I had a state trooper friend tell me he had one pull away from him once when his patrol cruiser maxed out at 140mph.

Local guy had an RX3 he used to drag race back in the late 1980s. Power from a 13B with a monster peripheral port. Had B&M's biggest available blower at the time overdriven 2:1 and still made only 7-10 lb boost due the the HUUUUUGE amount of air a rotary ingests. Even had zoomies like God and Mickey Thompson intended. Obnoxiously noisy - loudest car short of a top fueler that I've ever heard. Also the hardest launching. Andy would run it to 5000 or so and sidestep the clutch. No finesse, no easing in, nothing. Just BOOM!! and gone. Car was a solid high 10's/low 11's performer but his 60' times were those of an 8/9 second run. If it weren't for the car weighing slightly more than nothing, he would have been trashing drivelines on every run. I saw him rip the bead out of a slick on more than one occasion.

If you were ever around west Texas in the late 80s and saw an RX3 named Banzai, that was the car. (If you don't remember seeing it, you probably remember hearing it.)

Brad