Your First car.

[240ZX]

Geeeez, not sure I can remember that far back . I bought my first car from my folks....a 1965 Mustang coupe, 289 ci w/225 hp and and automatic tranny. Was I in heaven! Later on down the road I did some mods to the engine, trans and suspension. I installed a factory HP solid lift cam with Sig Erson lfters and valve springs, matched the exhaust ports to a set of Jardin headers, aluminum high rise intake with a holley dual feed carb, converted the distributor to dual points and had it setup by this old guy with a Sun machine, installed a B&M C4 tranny, installed a 4.11 posi and built a set of taction bars. The car was repainted a dark metalic green and sported a set of E.T. mag wheels (looked similar to the american mags). My best run at the drag strip, with open headres and a set of slicks was 12.97 @ 103 mph. This took place at the old Lion's Drag Strip....anyone rememnber this place in Socal? Would be nice to have that car again.

[LanceM]

My first was a 64 Olds F-85 2 door, good car ended up getting rear ended by a bus one day cutting school. The second one was better, a loaded 70 SS monte carlo with a 454, that was fun

[e_racer1999]

first car - 1969 chevy nova. 'twas a 4-door with a 4.1L inline 6... lotsa good times with that car

next - 1995 civic coupe. that car got me in trouble

third - 1972 240Z, my grey one

finally - 1972 240Z, yellow one. the yellow one's the keeper.

[agemeansnothing]

first car ..... a 280z datsun, i bought it for $500 from the original owner, in bernaillo New Mexico. So far i have spent about only $400 yeah pretty sad but that's pretty good when .... your twelve.

[sblake01]

........This took place at the old Lion's Drag Strip....anyone rememnber this place in Socal?.........

I remember Lion's. It's real name was L.A.D.S. Lion's Associated Drag Strip. It was in Long Beach IIRC. I also remember Fontana Dragraceway (I still have two trophies from there), Iriwindale Raceway (the old drag strip not the circle track), Orange County Dragstrip, and we even dragraced on the old Riverside Raceway. Sadly, those as well as others, are long gone.

'agemeansnothing', you're probably our youngest member! You ought to have that Z fixed up real sweet by the time you can legally drive it!

[dogma420]

I had a 74 260z when I was 16 yrs old. Got me hooked on Zeds...my parents didn't want me getting a 'hot rod' and thought this would be a good trade-off. heh.

[chickenwafer]

My first car was a 1974 Chevrolet pickup half-ton Camper Special with an 8-foot bed I converted to 4 wheel drive with front/rear lockers, 4.11 GM 12-bolt rear end, Turbo-350 automatic, 4 1/2 inch suspension lift and 38 inch off-road tires. That thing went anywhere. I bought her for (scratching head) I think $800 bucks and sold her 4 years latter for $3,900, but I had easily put 8K in her. The stock 350 Chevy motor had a low-end torque cam, ported heads, Edlebrock 650cfm 4-bbl carb with manual choke, Accel dist, custom headers and 3 inch glasspack exhaust pipes. Man when you stepped on the throttle and those second barrels opened up and the glasspacks were flowing you would have thought you stepped on the tail of a wild animal. Even with my mild modifications I still managed to snap a driveshaft doing burnouts. Sold her because some kid offered me good money for her and I had to cover medical bills and thing was a surpreme gas hog.

My second car was one I was "forced" into, an "87 Dodge Daytona Shelby Z. I had never heard of them before I got the beater for 1K, and I was used to off-roading and driving big heavy trucks. So when I got this little turbocharged twerp I got my first speeding ticket, even though it isn't that fast. I eventually did some upgrades, naturally, including a new t3/t4 hybrid turbo and a front mounted intercooler. My best 1/4 mile time was 13.74, but I forget the exact trap speed, I'm thinking it was 97 or so mph, I'm pretty sure I didn't break 100 in the quarter. I eventually had a 3.5 inch straight pipe of that for a while (no cat and a very small race muffler) which made it sound like a banshee. I had her for only 4 1/2 or 5 years until some flapjack rear-ended me doing 55mph and bent the frame, so I parted her out selling the engine, trans, interior, etc. Actually got some good money doing that, but the insurance company ripped me off and only gave me $700 bucks for the car since I bought it for 1K and it was now older and more used.

I think after that I was again "forced" into a phaze called public transportation!

Dave

[zman525]

Well lets see.. I cant even drive yet and my first car was a 1984 dodge d-250 prospector. I was going to restore it but it was to far gone to restore ( they look cool all done up) So i had some fun with that in my back yard till i towed it away ( i was doing brake stands and it started to slip down a hill.. I slammed into a tree and broke the body mounts on the bed :nervous: ) My next car to restore was the 1972 240z Which seemed to good to be true. I had the car for about a month or two months just stripping it down, gettin the engine running smooth and all that good stuff when it came down to taking the fenders off. This thing was so rotted that you couldnt even put ur own weight on the unibody. The car ended up being a former resto job where they did NO rust proofing and decided to use bondo for the rear quarters and some weird molding puddy for the rockers ( in other words the car was more bondo/plastic than metal). Im now partsing that out ( has an amazingly strong engine with only 50k original miles) . Im currently restoring a 1976 280z from cali and that should be my first car that i use on the road legally =). I may be young but i have so much experience with cars and small engines. I think the 2nd word outa my mouth was either truck or car. Im just fascinated by every automobile. I have the car bug really bad...

[CoastGuardZ]

A 1988 Chevrolet C1500 Silverado. In SC you can get your restricted license at 15... and so I did. My dad then held to a promise he had made me when he bought the truck new. I was a kid and said that it was the coolest truck I'd ever seen, and he told me that he would give it to me when I got my license. A pretty darn good deal I think. It had 158,000 miles on it when I got it and I put another 30,000 on it and traded it for a '86 Toyota MR2 the flying doorwedge.

[jmortensen]

'79 Mustang 4 cylinder, smurf blue on smurf blue with plastic wood trim. Bought it from the high school auto shop. Had tons of fun drag racing my friend's diesel rabbit. We were pretty much dead even to 60 mph... at something over 20 seconds. Learned many life lessons in that car, like "The only thing that's gonna get screwed in the back seat of a Mustang is your back" and "Don't do donuts in construction areas at night, because there may be large mounds of dirt that you can't see until you hit them with the right side tires and get up on two wheels and scare the crap outta yourself" and "A car with badly adjusted drums can roll damn near forever" and "If the gas gauge is broken but you're sure the tank is empty and you go to fill up the tank and it only takes 3 gallons, the vent is plugged and the tank is still pretty much empty, so don't go driving off into a desolate area because you might get stuck 3 gallons away from anything" and assorted others...

[zguitar71]

The first car I had was not actually mine. It was a `65 Mustang with a 289 and factory air. My mother bought it new when she got out of college and I got to drive it from 16-17 1/2 years old. I did not own it but I drove it every day and loved it like it was mine, 17 1/2 years later I still dream about that car every now and again. There are obvious differences between a `79 and `65 mustang one less obvious difference is more than your back can get screwed in the back seat of a `65 Mustang. It was a great car but the Z is far better.

[Go240Zags]

First car I drove was a WWII surplus Willey's Jeep up on the family ranch when I was about 12. The first car I drove legally was my dad's old 70's LTD and my mom's Datsun B210 (also the first car of her very own). Then it was a series of motorcycles in high school and early college. My first car that I owned was a 2 door 1964 Chevy Chevelle Malibu SS, 283 V8, factory 4 speed, semi-metalic brakes - all options but the Tach. My father bought it for me for about $2500 cash and a deer rifle he'd won off a guy in a poker game. I guess the guy wanted his rifle back. He had a son who was about 8 years old then who told me it was his car every time he saw me with it. By my count I was the 7th owner and it was in great shape. A former U.S. Border Patrolman in Oroville I know was the original owner who bought it new off the lot in Tonasket. He was re-assigned from the Canadian border to the Mexican border in Texas and his family was growing so he traded it in for a Chevy stationwagon. His father-in-law back in Oroville had said if he ever wanted to sell he'd buy it. The father-in-law just happened to travel to Texas to see his daughter and family and found out it was for sale on a lot down there. He bought it and drove it all the way back to Washington State. It had four more local owners before I got it. When I sold it I sold it to the kid who said it was his car and finally he was right (should have made his dad throw in the deer rifle). Anyway they were messing with the brand new 4 barrel carb I had installed and had a carb fire and sold it about two months later. Another local guy bought it and put 350 in it. Why couldn't he leave well enough alone, that little 283 got over 20 miles per gallon and went like a bat out of hell. Now it sits fading away uncovered near an apple orchard with the once perfect dash full of cracks and going no where because the guy has too many cars and trucks to insure them all. When my college friends are in town we go visit it and remember the good times we had cruising around Spokane and taking it on roadtrips to Idaho and Montana and how the California girls would squeel when we took them to "spin donuts" in the snow. Or as my old college roommate from El Salvado used to say "Let's go spin some Cuk-A-Nut Dun-Nuts." One girl, name of Nancy Longo (her dad was supposed to have owned the biggest Toyota dealership in the U.S.) I thought was going to pass out. I guess they don't do donuts in California. Next "car" was a '74 Bronco (the original, little Wrangler size one, and no, not a Bronco II) with a 302 V8. I'd put the soft top on in the summer and go topless until it got too cold in early September. It too was a fun ride. My daily driver now is a '92 Chevy Silverado K1500 4X4 pickup I bought new (last new rig I'll buy, lose to much value after you drive it off the lot). It has been a great rig, but even with the V6 it still only gets a max of 20 mpg on its best days and with gas prices at $2.60+ a gallon here it's getting expensive. My next cars were a 1971 (12/70 build date) 240Z that needs lots of work and a 1972 240Z parts car. It was a 2 cars for $400 deal. Still working on the 71, the parts car was parted out and the shell carted off. Earned way more than my $400 selling extra parts on eBay, unfortunately I've bought well over that in parts for the remaining 240Z. Also have an '83 280ZX Turbo 2+2 for sale to the right buyer (it needs work, but it's mostly all there). I have rambled on way past replying to the original question, it's someone else's turn.