And then there’s this, my 1973 Opel Manta. I think I’ve mentioned it here before, but it’s a pretty oddball car. My parents were the second owners from the mid-70’s and my mom drove the car for many years until it crapped out (possible bent valve I was told). It sat in the driveway for a while and had some rust, but they thought it would be a good one to pass on to me. Luckily, I went to college in the same town where my car-restoring-hobbyist uncle lives, so I spent most of my free time over at his shop working on the Opel. At first it looked like this (it was originally silver, had one repaint in white)
Fast forward about 3.5 years…
What I like the most about it is the unique factor. I’ve NEVER seen another one driving around. I get comments all the time from people who either say “I haven’t seen on of these in years!” or “Cool car, what is it?” As a car, it’s honestly not that exciting to drive. The manual rack and pinion steering has good road feel, but it’s heavy. The 1.9L engine is just okay, even when fully rebuilt with a couple upgrades. But I like how uncommon it is, and I think it’s a pretty good looking car.
I even made this little “ad” for it, as a result of my buddy filming me hooning around in a dirt parking lot. I’m usually nicer to the car than this, but…
(Right rear quarter stripe missing because of a repair job… someone backed their truck into it. Repair turned out good. Have since replaced the striped.)
Is this thread supposed to be about the non-cool cars we own? Well, it did say cars we haven’t mentioned on this site, so here goes.
First, my passion for 914 Porsches. I currently own four of them, including an ultra-rare numbers matching 914/6. Here is a picture of a pristine 1976 914 2 liter. Original paint except for a crappy repaint on the front hood.
The West Coast Ramble for 914’s was held in Medford, OR this year. There were about 40 914’s attending.
The /6
My first 914, which I traded my parent’s 67 Cougar in on. I did the flares, rebuilt it after I wrecked it (and rode a bicycle for a year), painted it black from the original tangerine, built up a Corvair six and put it in place of the Volkswagon 4.
My last 914 is just a project car. It is complete but missing the title, so it may be only good for parts. No pix of it.
But, I will show a picture of one of my two other ‘rides’ here on the farm in S. Oregon. This is a 1959 Porsche Diesel Junior tractor. I am in the process of restoring the hood. The single cylinder diesel is air cooled and has a fluid coupling to the transmission, as Dr. Porsche didn’t think farmers could work a standard clutch/tranny arrangement without wearing it out prematurely!
Work on that vehicle some with Chrysler at the time of it’s development. At the engineering center it was referred to as the “Detroit kid killer”. Lots of rich kids got them from their parents and imminently wreck it.
2002 Ford Falcon XLS Ute. 4.1l IL6 and 4sp auto. This is a Tickford special edition with leather steering wheel, gear lever and interior trim and 190kw engine. Took me a few months to find one as they were only made at the end of the production run for AU model Falcons
What I’d really like is a 69 Cougar Convertible with LS3 engine, 6 speed auto and XJ6 rear end - but they are a bit hard to find
My wife’s 2013 Fiesta Sedan. She is tiny, so it fits her well. Actually performs well for a 1.6 I4, gets around 41mpg (37-38 in town), and will outrun the 2008 Camry Se (terrible gas mileage for a four cylinder-the 1990 Super Coupe that it replaced actually got better gas mileage)we had previously. Great little fun car, and considering the baby car payment, terrific gas mileage, and slotcar like handling, was a terrific buy.
Ok here is mine. I purposely sought out my 2001 Ford Explorer Sport Trac. I liked the looks of it and I still do. It meets all of my needs it has a back seat, four doors and A/C. The pick up bed is small but when I’ve needed to haul anything it has been perfect. Another plus, for the little amount of snow that we get here the 4WD comes in handy. So for many years it’s been tried and true daily driver. Yes it has taken it’s share of maintenance but if you maintain your vehicle it will be good to you.
Steven
Oh yeah, and my '95 F150 standard cab short bed XL. Has the 300 I6, 200,000 miles and runs terrific. Have owned it for 15 yrs and looks as good as it did the day I bought it. Cars tend to stay pretty nice in Georgia.
I take that as a compliment. I kinda like the eclectic mix.
Don’t think I haven’t thought of it… or at least a supercharger. To get 200+hp out of the little 1.6L would be a blast, I think. But then it’s a slippery slope of roll bars, bigger brakes, better tires, coilovers, exhaust, $$thousands$$… eh, I’m happy to enjoy it the way it is right now.
My daily driver… 2003 Toyota Tundra… I’m the 2nd owner and I bought it off of my father in law…
Recently my wife and I traded our 2003 Honda Odyssey for a 2009 model… We actively sought out the newer model of the same van…
And I have a couple other projects beside my 69 XR7…
A 1987 Dodge Shelby CSX serial number 701 of 750…
And I am working on a Diva roadster kit car with a friend of mine…
The Diva will get finished before the others, my partner on that car is the financier while I am providing the labor and he has the money to finish it… My personal projects are on hold due to low funds on my end…
I’ll have to update this post later with pictures when I am not on my I-Pad…
I own four Buick Grand Nationals, an '84, and three '87’s. If you have never experienced the thrill of these cars coming on the boost (they are turbocharged) and a 3.8 liter V6 leaving much larger engined cars in the mirror, well you are missing out. These cars were faster than the Corvettes when they came out, which got some engineers into trouble with GM brass!
This car I purchased fully built up and with a show quality paint job. The engine has all the forged Buick Motorsports parts and was dyno’d at 600 RWHP. It has ran a 10.22 quarter mile on 16 lbs of boost. These pictures were taken at the Corvette museum where it was on display.
I rented a big Buick (LeSabre I think) with that engine in it and it still pulled like a freight train. (Okay not really THAT engine, but the turbo 6). I wasn’t a Buick fan, but those cars were important: that there might be life after the 55 MPH limit, monster bumpers, and smog motors.
Checking in with my version of the Turbo Buick passion…Don Rush calls me crazy spending time working on and driving around Grandpa’s car, lol
An '87 Turbo-T Yes that’s what it is called. Completely stock except for a 150.00 chip. And yeah, these things are crazy fun under boost! 33,500 miles. I bought it 3 years ago on a complete whim, from Ebay in Georgia. It was really dusty and presented poorly and I took a flier, as it had so few miles and was so original, and I thought I’d be able to clean her up well. Turns out it’s a really rare Turbo Buick, as in '87 to have the blacked out trim package with a colored interior was only possible within a couple-month period. They later started making a package that was considered a “lightweight” package that basically was the same thing, but had the blacked out grille and window trim etc but only came in GN grey/black interior. These are lighter than the GNs as they have aluminum bumper brackets, wheels and rear brake calipers. They’re sort of the lesser known Turbo to the GNs but '87 was the year to have, it seems.
My other bad habit is BMWs…first one I bought after driving bye a used car lot in '98 for days and days and couldn’t take my eyes off a '93 740i. I had a brand new '97 Thunderbird and after test driving it, the T bird felt like a piece of crap. It was amazing.
So about 12 BMWs later, I’ve settled down to this one I bought new in '02
And this one- one of the 205 M Sport 540is that were made at the end of the “e34” model run. There were 1.3 million E34s made from '88-'95 and this was one of the last 20. BMWNA made a special US specific package that put an M5 chassis and brakes and suspension onto the drivetrain that was a 282HP overhead cam 32v 4.0l All Aluminum V-8 and a Getrag 6 speed manual transmission that is smooth as butter and very stout. The car also had been customized by the original owner who swapped out Canadian Specific interior, brake and wheel and trim components that his also very rare (32 made for Canada) package on their own M540 packages had. So it’s like the ultimate E34.
I take that as a compliment. I kinda like the eclectic mix.
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