Most memorable drives
 

I want everyone to talk about their most memorable cars they have driven.

Only mention one car per post.

My opener is a 1940 something Chevy panel delivery. It was 3 on the tree, no syncros, and cool. We drove it everywhere partying senior year of high school.

Next?

1986 Mazda Rx7 Turbo II

My neighbor (a police officer in that time) had one in red and he

tossed me the keys one day of the summer 2004 to get it a wash.

After a full wash& wax he told

me he doesnt have cash to pay me, I replied to him if I could get a

"little spin" and call it a day. He smiled back to me saying not being

scared about the rev buzzer and make sure to red line it.

Spool and chu chu noises is what I remember the most

I haven't owned a whole lot of cars but they all have some fun/y memory.

The first car I owned was a 2001 Saab 9-3 Linear 5 speed manual that I learned to drive stick in. Yes, I bought a car I couldn't drive as my first car lol. It's name was Simon.

Bought it in sophomore year of college in 2009 and proceeded to drive 2 hours each way every other weekend to visit my girlfriend, now wife, in the middle of nowhere Vermont. The first time I drove it to her college (our second date), I was supposed to go back to mine that night. I learned some valuable lessons that day:
1: Vermont does not plow their roads or highways when it is snowing.
2: Summer tires with no tread left really suck in the snow.
3: Dorm room floors are extra hard in your girlfriend's room.
To the car's credit, it got me up a giant hill to the highway, past the point where several Jeeps/SUVs had slid into the ditches on either side minutes after passing me, across the access road, and back to her dormitory.

Notable college-style "repairs":
-The exhaust got a hole in it which I simply didn't fix it because it sounded cool.
-The drivers window was held up with a few 2x4s artfully wedged between the door frame and skin when the window mechanism seized.
-My odometer doubled as a gas gauge for a bit over a year.
-I did replace the Saab emblem on the front though!

...

Edit:. Now that I'm remembering, that was also the day that I had driven to her parent's house to pick stuff up she had left at home (thus meeting her parents alone), drove on multiple backwoods dirt roads/half frozen creek beds, and got lost a few times with only an atlas. Simon did it all, I kind of miss that car now. What a strange day that was.

When I went to SJSU I worked about five years with one of the on-campus departments, and we had our own golf cart.

The interesting bit was we were located a mile or so off campus. So this meant any time I got the cart it meant driving on the street and then onto the campus.

It was kind of just a lot of dumb moments rolled up into one.

1. One time driving to campus I stopped at a red light by a cop and he rolled his window down to ask how fast I could go. So I said something like how it maxed out around 23mph but occasionally felt faster with a good tail wind, which got a chuckle out of him.
2. We used a metal lock mechanism thing to prevent it from being stolen. This metal lock went through the brake pedal basically to keep it from being depressed, which in hindsight sounds incredibly stupid. Well, one time leaving campus I somehow forgot to fully unlock and remove it, so I started driving out one of the parking lots with those gates that go up and down, only to realize how R-worded I was, couldn't brake, no hand brake, and I was heading toward the gate arm at 25mph. Fortunately there was a small space on the other end next to the sidewalk I could I safely squeeze through and then make a hard right turn onto the street while hugging the curb and slow down enough to undo the damn lock.
3. One time driving on campus, it was during a busy time when most students are out of class. Usually most people who saw or heard me honk would get out of the way. But this one time a student literally walked backward into the cart as I was passing. (this was on a sidewalk on campus) Fortunately he didn't get hurt otherwise that could've been bad.

It was a blast to drive around in on campus but man, somehow I had quite a few sketchy drives with it where I probably could've really hurt someone or gotten in big trouble and fortunately did not.

I just got my license and was working at a cheese steak shop in Campbell (16 yo). One of the managers had a 240z he would let me take out for spin once in a while. That was very cool.

Oh jeez I could write a book.

I think my most memorable drive, for now, is the first time I got to drive the car that I worked for and personally chose.



I was fresh out of college, finished my Army training, was back home, and recently hired to work for Enterprise. I always wanted a Mazda 3, black, hatchback and I was deadset on finally getting my first stick shift vehicle.



I went to look at it, couldn't drive it, so I had my God-Mother drive it for me, we closed the deal, drove to an empty parking lot, and I got taught the basics. Took me about 20 mins and I had the hang of it. I remember the anxiety the next day about driving on my own, but it was the only way to immerse myself. I stalled so many times and pissed a bunch of people. Mostly because I kept taking off while in 3rd gear and not 1st. I couldn't realize why that car was struggling so much.



Once I got it down, for next few days, it was like a dream come true, both owning a car that I wanted and driving a stick shift.



I hope my next most memorable drive is when I get my hands on an RX-7 or S15 Silvia.

Have you ever owned a car with bad Karma?

Im on my 8th car since 1977.. I don’t like changing cars much.

Worked most of my life on shift work downtown (IT) so much Shit happened!

Let me tell about a car I called RHonda, my forth car bought brand new was a 1989 RED CiViC SI. This is her story.

It was to be a replacement after 2 Preludes which I thought at the time had bad Karma…

Well RHonda brought that to a new level.

I always thought it had fallen off the truck as it had alignment issues day 1.

2 weeks in still on the new ownership honeymoon I notice my passenger door trim bumper popped out, the door looked to have been kicked in 2 places.

A year in , car was stolen within 15 minutes of being parked, just enough time for me to go down the block to get my midnight coffee before starting my shift, sit down at my usual position overlooking the street most of my team would park on, my car was not there anymore. Police called me next day, they had arrested 4 dudes doing burnouts in the bad part of town. Got educated by the cops on how to hot start a car while im half asleep with the screwdriver they found in the car.

Car gets Rad #2: on the way home one afternoon traffic was slowing in front, noticed a pickup following & coming in hot without a driver to be seen, he was looking at addresses he had to deliver that were on the passenger floor.. I waited to brake hoping he would appear but after I did my poor SI became quite the sandwich in the carnage that followed. Insurance did not total it but it was just a bit less than half value. Bonus: the Audi I hit in front on the ricochet had an expired licence & no insurance he was not happy..

Accumulated as many parking tickets as I could: most of the time my shift ended at 8’o in the morning, We had to change sides or street at 8’o in the morning, My replacement did not always show up before 8 to make this seamless.

Towing is 90$ when they place no parking signs after you park overnight on stormy snow days.

I had an alarm installed since new, My car would call me from across the street every 2 weeks. One day it had alerted me it had gone off, found out my key lock on the passenger side had been punched in wile assisting my dinner date that night, had to learn how to remove the door card & replace the lock barrel.

One rainy day returned to discover someone needed my rear hatch wiper more than me.

RAD #3 Had to replace my rad again due to the poor quality replacement after only 2 years.

One nice winter day I got the brilliant idea to wash the car, washing out the engine compartment as there was some salt accumulation, it was just above freezing what could go wrong?
Woke up at 10 Pm to get ready for my over night shift, Temperature had dropped some…
At start-up was greeted by some metallic sound of interference valves, well they were definitely interfering… half the bent valves were replaced no hassle under warranty and the timing cover gasket as well.

I had moved in with my bro for a year and one very cold November I passed a week trying to figure out why my battery was weak but only at home … found out It was being used for boosting his car in the morning without being started… Lucky for him he makes good beer.

Replace Rad #4 you should not follow dump trucks carrying rocks.
Almost lost the drivers mirror to a Semi who wanted to be in my lane too.

Over the years the Main relay acquired the known contact issue in hot weather. The fix I had adopted was to open all the windows & go for a coffee or find a cool one. Never thought about replacing it.

RHonda had managed to reach over 400k Km, and the SIR was the next thing I had to get.
The 2000 SIR became my garage queen that year & Rhonda was pissed!

On my last year of ownership she decided to jettison the whole exhaust one morning at 5’O that got my attention. Figured I owed her one last present before I kicked her out of my life.

It was early spring so I brought her fancy summer wheels with the sticky Yoko’s to be put on while she was up on the lift. The Muffler experts were not very busy that day; RHonda was left alone in the middle bay. The parts guy shows up with his truck outside and I notice that they intended to get the parts in from that center door… I got up to watch the show that was surely to happen… you see RHonda had her hatch door open on the lift.

It took a few seconds for those experts to realise the garage door was pushing RHonda slowly along on the lift, I jumped with joy that RHonda was going to commit some hara-kiri right there in the shop. I was hoping she was going to jump! But the Expert on hand stopped the door from any further entertainment; I got that job done with a hefty discount… For some dark reason I really wanted to see the mess.

I sold the car to my neighbour’s “friend” He showed up with a good stash of cash at hand. I thought that car was out of my life.
He was a used car salesman what I would classify higher than a car flipper… He called me back in a few days to inform me I sold him a car with 1000+ Km less than indicated if anyone would ask & that I had quite a nice SIR in the driveway and would be too bad if it got messed up… Saw some shots on racing forums with Rhonda doing good at the local drag strip, she was recognisable wearing the unique mags I had found for her.

By the way my SIR got stolen while at work after 7 years during a big snow storm,
I was parked just across from the Cop shop and I thought I had figured out how to keep it.

And here I am 23 years later with another Red car.

One vehicle at a time.

I loved cruising our 1964 Chevy Impala SS. It was so smooth with the 283/powerglide combo. And those seats; it was like driving a La-Z-boy.

When I was in college I worked for the Foothill/De Anza college district in the plant services crew. One day, they decided they wanted to move a temporary building from the Foothill campus in Los Alto Hills to the De Anza campus in Cupertino.

We had a gigantic forklift. It was this giant rusty thing that was Navy surplus. We got it running. When you climbed into the seat of that thing it was like you were sitting on your roof. It had fork extensions that were like 20 ft. long.

So here I am cruising down Foothill Expressway in the world's largest forklift, taking up all lanes, carrying a building, with a couple cops clearing my way.

Pretty fun.

OK I could write a series.

Not me, but my oldest son came home one day with a Range Rover. I don't know how they can legally sell those they are so bad. Complete nightmare.

Go-Carts!

Ok, do it. We are bored.