FR-S/BRZ Old Timers Club

[wbradley]

I purchased the FR-S on the condition that I teach my wife to drive manual. Got the car in May and put it into the garage for winter this week. So far she has not even tried, despite my offers. Maybe that's a good thing.

[whaap]

Originally Posted by wbradley

I purchased the FR-S on the condition that I teach my wife to drive manual. Got the car in May and put it into the garage for winter this week. So far she has not even tried, despite my offers. Maybe that's a good thing.

I have to tell our story. In 1999 I bought a new Miata with a manual transmission. Around 2001 I sold it to fulfill my long time ambition and bought a nice '87 Carrera Cabriolet which had a manual. In 2006 I had satisfied my itch and sold the 911 with intentions of buying another Miata. My wife asked me to buy an automatic so she could also enjoy the car. I agreed and bought a very nice '02 Miata LS with automatic. I had that car from '06 till a month and a half ago when I traded it in on my FR-S. Not once (key words "not once") during the six years that I owned that '02 Miata did my wife ever drive that car.

My FR-S has a manual. I've had it about a month and a half and she's already driven it once!!

[mkiisupra]

In da club...

First learned on mid-70's Econoline van (wheels under your butt delivers a different initial driving experience) and 75 LTD.

First car 69 Pontiac Catalina (cherry bombs, of course) which I put about 50k miles on in high school delivering pizzas.

First learned stick in a Fairmont 4-speed in the local community college parking lot, the same lot I had my moped licence driving test in just years before.

Started driving in '86, some 20+ cars later (including many toyotas and subarus), I am ready to purchase my first brand new car, which breaks a huge rule for me.

Thanks for use of grammar and punctuation. Although I am not perfect, these are the EXACT reasons I was able to sell my SVT Focus before others who could not communicate clearly/professionally with potential buyers. [Note to txtr-types, thrs a lsssn hear 2 b learnt, ]

I still think that age should be a part of a member's post/vitae that is listed next to each post. I'd rather use this information to vet the validity of a post than whether a member is tagged or mentioned some number of times.

Eric G

[SilentMike]

Whapp,

Can you tell a little about your Carerra ownership experience? I've owned Miatas in the past (91, 99, 06), but have always harbored an unrequited desire to own an 84'-88' Carerra Coupe. At one time I bet I had $200 worth of books and magazines on how to buy a used 911. I chickened out every time I started to get serious, mainly out of fear I'd find the perfect car, it would pass the PPI, and the engine would grenade a month later leaving me with an 8-10K rebuild bill and the worlds worst case of buyers remorse. I'm at a point in my life now where the costs of maintaining a vintage 911 would not be a big deal. My questions now are mainly concerns of daily-drive-ability and would I indeed be happy with one. I've driven a number of 84'-88' cars over the last ten years thanks to gracious owners/members of the local PCA, quite a few of which drive their cars daily here in metro Atlanta traffic. I'm always curious to hear an opinion from someone else whose sports car ownership has so many similarities to my own.

Thanks,

Mike Smith
Alpharetta, GA

[Foobar]

Tier 1 old timer checking in.

Learned the basics of stick on an old Toyota Tamaraw when i was a young lad visiting the Philippines. I would shift gears while someone older drove.

Years later when I was legal to drive on a permit, I learned on an actual AE86. From there I acquired my own car, an AMC Spirit. Didn't take long for my friends and me to drive into the ground and I got my first brand new car, a Honda CRX Si. Small, lightweight, underpowered, and handled like a champ and fit like a glove.

Since then, I've had many other vehicles but never quite captured the feel and excitement of the ol CRX until I drove the BRZ.

I will likely keep this little car for a long time, getting other cars along side of it but never replacing it. Once I can finally get a brand new Porsche 911 C4 Cab (kids have to finish school first), I may finally replace the BRZ. Then again, maybe not...

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

[NMMI89]

Started driving at 14. First car I learned on was a 1979 or so Ford Pinto. Owned by my "big sister". I almost sideswiped a car on our street. I learned to drive stick on my dads 1977 Triumph Spitfire (which he still owns to this day). Also drove a 1979 Chevy Station Wagon.
My first car was a 1980 Toyota Celica/Supra. Manual transmission. Drove that car from when I was 16 until my sophomore college year at Military school. I then drove a 1984 Chevy Blazer until I graduated from college, then got a 1991 Toyota truck. After that a 1998 Honda Civic. Progressed on to a 2005 Dodge Ram (still own) and now my FR-S.

[whaap]

Originally Posted by SilentMike

Whapp,

Can you tell a little about your Carerra ownership experience? I've owned Miatas in the past (91, 99, 06), but have always harbored an unrequited desire to own an 84'-88' Carerra Coupe. At one time I bet I had $200 worth of books and magazines on how to buy a used 911. I chickened out every time I started to get serious, mainly out of fear I'd find the perfect car, it would pass the PPI, and the engine would grenade a month later leaving me with an 8-10K rebuild bill and the worlds worst case of buyers remorse. I'm at a point in my life now where the costs of maintaining a vintage 911 would not be a big deal. My questions now are mainly concerns of daily-drive-ability and would I indeed be happy with one. I've driven a number of 84'-88' cars over the last ten years thanks to gracious owners/members of the local PCA, quite a few of which drive their cars daily here in metro Atlanta traffic. I'm always curious to hear an opinion from someone else whose sports car ownership has so many similarities to my own.

Thanks,

Mike Smith
Alpharetta, GA

Hi Mike, Yeah. I coveted the 911 ever since the mid 60's and finally got to a point where I just had to have one. I found a beautiful '87 Cabriolet in my dream colors: white with dark blue interior and top. Head over heels I bought it thinking I had died and gone to heaven. Honestly I could have probably satisfied my itch by renting one for a week-end or perhaps a week. In many ways it was a dinosaur compared to the Miata I had prior to it. The manual transmission was no where as "snick-snick" as the Miata was. I could never get over the tail heavy feeling in driving the car and here in Arizona a/c can be an important thing to have in the summer time and even though I was assured (several times) that the a/c was working properly it performed terribly. When I sold it in '06 I bought another Miata and discovered I had a new found respect for it. The one thing I accomplished was I no longer turn my head when a 911 drives by. That doesn't mean I still didn't have a problem with Porsche's. The last few years I've been bonkers over the Cayman but I'm finally satisfied with the FR-S, both the car and the price.

[cwb48]

Originally Posted by wbradley

I purchased the FR-S on the condition that I teach my wife to drive manual. Got the car in May and put it into the garage for winter this week. So far she has not even tried, despite my offers. Maybe that's a good thing.

Mine won't drive it either, although she has been driving stick all of her life. I offered to let her drive it home from the dealer when we picked it up, but she demurred. I think I got at least a couple of points for making the offer though.

[kludger]

Originally Posted by SilentMike

a 91 Civic SI (which is quite possibly the best damn car I've ever owned

Nice! I had a '90 Civic SI for 16 years, awesome car, small, light, great handling, fun engine and transmission, had to sell it in '06 to move on to a more family friendly 4D Tacoma Truck... but I missed my Si.

Finally now that the wife has a 6 seat Mazda5 that can handle all the family stuff, I can move back to a sports car, and I bought my BRZ in the spirit of that '90 Civic Si, it has a lot of the same small,light,peppy qualities and more (RWD, LCG etc)... hoping the BRZ will be just as great if not better.

Nice to see others with similar background/situation...

[zooki]

Fall into the first bracket. My first car was a '69 Mustang fastback, which I still have. Bounced around from muscle cars to 4wheel drives. I had a 93 5.0 Mustang that I totally rebuilt, a Couple of Suzukis(a Samurai & a Tracker which I built up also), and an F250 diesel truck. Currently own the F250, the FR-S, the 69 Mustang, and a 95 4Runner 4WD.

[Splat]

Originally Posted by whaap

Yeah, you're right. Sometimes I'm a little too harsh on our young 'uns. I'll try and lighten up.

Get off my lawn!!

Common man, that geezer shot the kid and killed him, then hung himself. eessshhh no need to scare the diapers off the kids.

[mach330]

First car was my 86 ae86. Loved that car except i had to put a quart of oil every month. To expensive to fix.

Then came my cavalier z24 which is the first car i ever bought when i first started my real work .

Then my e46 330 zhp. My absolute favorite car at the time. I told myself i could never drive a non BMW again.

I stayed with this theme so i upgraded to an e90 m3. An absolute monster of a car. Unfortunately i couldn't enjoy it as long as my daughter was born and my wife refused to drive the manual m3 so i traded it for an x5 .

After the dust settled for a bit my wife let me get back to my m3. Found a great condition low mileage (34k) 06' e46 m3 that i quickly jumped on. I was already waiting for the gt86 to come out but i had to jump on this deal . I actually liked this e46 compare to my e90 m3 on overall feel.

I thought i was done until the FRS came out. I do needed a daily beater. Only way i could get one (according to my wife) was to sell my other toy. My ducati 848 evo. As much as i loved that dream bike, i didn't ride it a much to justify its cost.

I got lucky with the FRS in a sense that two people failed credit during finance i jumped in and got my ultramarine. Been happy ever since. I think it handles just as good if not better than by e46. It just lacked in power. After an ecu tune, power is much more liveable now. Not that it wasn't before but it's a lot more fun now.

Tap'd from my G-Nex

[Splat]

Originally Posted by cwb48

Mine won't drive it either, although she has been driving stick all of her life. I offered to let her drive it home from the dealer when we picked it up, but she demurred. I think I got at least a couple of points for making the offer though.

Funny similiarity, my wife has not driven my FR-S either. I think she just knows it is my baby for now.

[einzlr]

Originally Posted by whaap

I have to tell our story. In 1999 I bought a new Miata with a manual transmission. Around 2001 I sold it to fulfill my long time ambition and bought a nice '87 Carrera Cabriolet which had a manual. In 2006 I had satisfied my itch and sold the 911 with intentions of buying another Miata. My wife asked me to buy an automatic so she could also enjoy the car. I agreed and bought a very nice '02 Miata LS with automatic. I had that car from '06 till a month and a half ago when I traded it in on my FR-S. Not once (key words "not once") during the six years that I owned that '02 Miata did my wife ever drive that car.

My FR-S has a manual. I've had it about a month and a half and she's already driven it once!!

Fabulous story, whaap! Has me both laughing and crying


Thanks for all the stories, everyone, and welcome to the young folks who joined in to listen! I'll admit I am enjoying this thread immensely :happy0180: