Now that MagicIsland has opened the doors to "off-topic" stuff, how about this one......
When a teenager, practicing and playing bass and listening to music was second only to, well, eating, since I didn't have a steady girl at the time.....Next in line was my car. Now, I had a variety of them in my first years as a driver, since we weren't exactly wealthy and I had to work to pay for them; I'm sure we all have some teenage car stories, so let's dredge them out! Of coourse if nobody responds, then we'll kill this one quickly......
OK, my favorite. all time, best , most fun and least reliable but gave me an education in shade-tree mechanic-ing, was, a 1964 MGB with a removable hardtop. Silver with black interior, and most of the parts stayed on most of the time. (The ditributor popped out once, but that's another story...) Payed 800 for it in 73, and kept it until 76 when a row of oak trees and I argued over ownership- Fortunately I wasn't hurt, but sadly it died that night. Sniff-Sniff...
OK, I started it, who wants to jump in?
Later- time to go wash off the family van....boring......
Tony Y

Heh heh, I have a humorous one (well to me anyway)

Before I start, I want to let you know that where I live, we all have to drive on winding mountain roads. Ok:

I was driving my taurus station wagon to school (I'm still a teenager by the way) and as I was driving along, I noticed a bunch of road construction signs. After driving slow for several miles with no hint road construction around, I sped up again and slowly caught up to a Bronco (the truck not horse lol). It had slowed down for the construction signs so I slowed down to 35 and followed behind it. It then went around a blind corner and I soon followed around... only to see that it had stopped for the road construction that finally seemed to happen (jeez, put the signs in better places!). Anyway, the Bronco stopped and I didn't... until I hit the Bronco. See the funny thing was that I hit the brakes (which went out) and slowly rolled at 20 mph until I hit the Bronco. I had a couple seconds to react, but I was so shocked that I wasn't stopping and that I was slowly looming closer to the Bronco that I didn't think to hit the e-brake or turn out of the way or whatever. I laugh whenever I think back to that.

Anyway the reason the brakes went out was because most of the brake fluid had leaked out of the master cylidar so very little brakes (next to none). I had noticed a slow decrease in the effectiveness of the brakes over the week, but stubborn me didn't pay any mind to it so now I have payed the price (new headlight assembly, radiator, no more ac, etc.) Well hopefully I'll get a new car soon...

Spyroripguy- Oh to be a fly on your windshield and see your face as that Jeep gets closer and closer......Thanks for the laugh!
Also glad to see you were OK out of all this, rather have you bang up a car than yourself!
My son (15) just finished the class portion of driver's ed, and I have been letting drive my Bonneville in and out of the garage and down the driveway (it's an S curve, gravel, around two thick oaks, about 250 feet long, so it's a challenge of sorts...those trees are intimidating to him).
It's funny to be reliving those times through his eyes- I must have driven my parents crazy!!!
He scraped the left fender on the weatherstripping on the garage door edge the other day......no dents but left a white rubber skid mark on the side. I washed it off today, guess that's what made me think of doing this topic.
Thanks for replying, don't you just love road crews? And you may want to hang on to that car a little longer, as you will gain a few more scrapes and bruises along the way....remember learning to ride a bike? same for a car- crap happens! Just keep saving for another few months if you can, and milk that old sucker for all it's worth!
Take care, and you might want to find where it's leaking-
Tony y

Yeah I'm getting that fixed as we speak. And I plan to keep it as long as I can, it's nice and "broke in" (hehe). It's not a bad car, at least my tape deck and jazz tapes are still intact

Heh heh, thanks. Glad I'm not the only one who finds this funny, my mom was just... well... she was relieved I was ok, but she doesn't like to talk about it.

Safe driving everyone!

Ahhhriiiight!!!! As many of you may know I am still in my college years, and after 4 years of driving the family mini-van(1991 Toyota Previa) I just acquired a 1984 Audi 4000S Quattro with only 118K miles on it for only 675 bucks. Not a whole lot of rust either. I'm looking forward to driving this car. It's still at my work and not insured yet. An interesting sidenote, I was three when this car hit the showrooms. Hehe!
Peace

Hey MikeMN- not a bad deal, if it runs well. Wasn't the Quattro a 4 wheel driver? I would keep my eye on the CV joints and the transfer case for leaks and such.
I checked on the NHTSA web site for recalls and such- the only thing on that model was fuel leaks due to seals failing. Other Audi's in that year had the unusual habit of jammimg wide open and/or popping into reverse....bet THAT would get your neighbor's attention.....but that's about it.
Really most cars will run and run and run (like the energizer bunny) if you keep an eye on the fluid levels and catch the leaks as soon as possible.
My nephew just bought a 94 Jeep Grand Cherokee, v8, fully loaded, for 4800, because the power steering pump was throwing fluid all over the place......I mean it would puddle like a dog within 10 minutes; I guess the owner was scared of it, (should've been asking 7 grand). Turns out it was the tube feeding the pump had a hole in it...costs 120 to fix it, 500 for tires, and it is ready to go. After he spent about 3 hours polishing it up with a power buffer, it looks great too. (he goes to school in the mountains of NC, and will actually USE the 4 wheel drive!)
SG guy, moms are like that- my wife is a nervous wreck about this driver's ed stuff, and I'll admit it bugs me also- I remember how stupid and wild I drove, hopefully the "speed" gene didn't get passed along!
Thanks for the stories-
TOny Y

[This message has been edited by bassix (edited July 22, 2001).]

Remember the Brady Bunch episode where Greg buys a beater car? Peter and Bobby are helping him get it cleaned up and Greg asks Peter "Is all the rust coming off?" and Peter says "I hope not..it's the only thing holding the car together." CLASSIC!!

Steve

Well, I'm 28 and i've had like 16 cars already ( even a Yugo) Now i have a 1998 Mitsubishi Montero!!!!!


Eril.

SteveH-
Yep that's a funny one.....
Eril-
A Yugo? Those were an interesting attempt at car building- it was basically a Fiat, wasn't?
You sound like me before I got married, always went from one old clunker to another, except for that MGB- To show just how badly I had been bitten by that MG bug, when we had been married about two or three years, I found one in "restorable" condition, meaning it was in rough shape...I couldn't resist it, bought it and brought it home- my wife wasn't real happy about it, especially since it only ran for about 6 weeks before throwing a rod......ever since then, she keeps the checkbook with her, and I have to let her know of anything over a couple hundered dollars that I want to spend!!! So goes life, right?
Hey, with my "tax relief" check, maybe.....

Tony Y

My first attempt at being taught how to drive was in the late 60's. We had friends that lived on a farm, I was 12 and my brothers friend was 17. He taught me how to drive on the dirt farm road. I think it was a 52 Chevy that he had gotten from his grandfather. He showed me how to put it in Neutral and then crank it. I could get up to 3rd gear before I ran out of farm road.

Later on we had picked some watermelons and were cooling them down in a washtub full of ice water. I was in the car practicing my speed shifting, (without the motor running, of course) and figured that if you have to put it in Neutral before cranking that I would leave it there. I went on down to the house to get some watermelon, and they were gooooood!!! About 20 minutes later, Jerry jumped up and took off running. Although it was relativly flat land, the old Chevy decided to roll backwards into the cornfield.

I've always said that if you learn from your mistakes, I'm getting pretty damn smart! I learned NOT to keep a vehicle in Neutral and pull that little handle called a parking brake!!

------------------
Layne-NC

Layne-NC... heh heh that reminds me of another incident (oh no!).

When I was about 3 years old, back when I lived in a city subdivision, I decided that I wanted to drive our car. My dad had showed me many times how to turn the car on and put into reverse (because you have back out of the driveway). So I got in and my mom had left the keys in the ignition. So I started the car, put it into reverse (with some difficutly, me only being three) and drove backwards straight across the street into the neighbor's garden. LOL my neighbor was so mad until he saw that it was a three-year-old at the wheel. Then all he could do is stare in wonder. Anyway, after that my mom never left the keys in the car

MGB, Audi, Volvo, Station Wagon???
Come on...those aren't Motorhead cars.
1984 Camaro Z-28 H.O.
1989 Camaro Z-28 TPI
1992 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am
1997 Pontiac Firebird Formula LT1
1998 Pontiac Firebird Formula LS1
1999 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am LS1
2002 Pontiac Firehawk Trans Am LS1 (345 HP from factory after SLP conversion) on order.
Howzat4horsepower?

Bulldog-
OK, maybe we need to define motorhead, as in likes to work on cars for fun and has fun driving them. Yep, your list is pretty cool, if you want horsepower.... went down that road, my brother had a 67 ss396 Chevelle, I had an 88 Mustang 5.0 that was a blast to drive- but my MG would have out-handled it easily on mountain roads, and when I had an RX7 I left a SS Camaro WAY behind- probably more of a driver problem, but he seemed to think he could handle as well as I could, but the Camaro/Firebird's rear end would unload on switchbacks and he went off the road. That RX7 had the stickiest grip of any car I've owned other than the MGB.... it was set up for slalom runs.
Of course one car I saw for sale but didn't buy (wife intervened, fortunately) was an Austin-Healey 3000 that someone had put a small block Chevy engine into....I would have loved to drive that!
All that to say, it depends on your idea of fun- I like power, but I love handling- it makes driving at (near) legal speeds a lot more interesting on twisty roads. Don't have much need for gas guzzling horses and drag racing myself, but that's cool if you are into that, there's more prize money in that!
Later
Tony Y

Yeah I prefer handling over power myself. Like you said it saves money on gas and where I live, it's a lot more useful. Plus on straight roads all you have to do is get up to speed (so it takes a couple seconds slower than a muscle car) and from there it's pretty much just coasting. And their not so friggin loud!