First cars!
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85 Familia. 3 door, 3 speed with a beep at 105kph.
Cracking little motor, in our fam for 15 years snd never had any trouble. Close to 4K rpm at 100kph tho so pretty shit in fuel for a 1.5. Used to blast over the kaimais no problems and would do mean burnouts when the road was wet. Oh for simpler times.
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I was a late starter on the driving front. Had my learners from 17 to 24, then finally got around to getting my restricted when I moved to shitty small towns. Dad then decided to buy me a car for Xmas. I believe he got a light brown version of this 1986 Mitsubishi Tredia for $500.
It lasted a year before the gear stick would just drop out of 5th gear into neutral. I replaced that with a 1993 Honda Ascot Innova which was an absolute cracker of a car.
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@Catogrande It was a 1.6, Mk III. Not my pic - grabbed one off the net, but that colour and coke bottle shape. Rear bench seat you could lift out, golden!
After it got to the end of its life, wound up in one of these. From the Great White Shark to the Flying Wedge
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@Smudge said in First cars!:
@Bones said in First cars!:
@Smudge that is you bro! Although I reckon an old brown Volvo might be better...
Imagine me rocking about the hill suburbs of Wellington in a brown Volvo and a matching Nordic jersey. Massively sexual.
Sex offender bingo
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I didn't own a car until I was 25
And it was a fucking Daewoo. Treated that thing with the utmost contempt. It eventually got traded in for $500.
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Was going to say that you guys had some really shit cars and then realised that at the time they were all shit and we took what we could get.
Mini for me. Rebuilt it with 1275cc GT motor, which ended up as about a 1300 by the time I had finished. Cooper S running gear, messed with the cam until it basically wouldn't idle but did 110mph. Effectively a death trap that I raced and rallied, on and off road. Well, crashed would be more accurate. No back seat as I had to sit there, with my head wedged against the roll cage.
Full drivers licence immediately after my 15th birthday and the car very shortly afterwards. Didn't have a clue what I was doing. Lucky to be alive really.
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Vauxhall Chevette, 1978 hatchback coupe, in orange.
Fucking beauty.
By the time I got rid of it, it was running on 3 cylinders, had a slightly twisted chassis, and the ignition-by-key didn't work... so I'd installed a push-button for ignition.
I think people need to start off in shitty cars like that - it really taught me to think about driving - you'd need to be constantly planning shit in advance, to leave a shitload of space between you and any car ahead, and accelerate well in advance of any potential passing spot. -
@Kruse said in First cars!:
Vauxhall Chevette, 1978 hatchback coupe, in orange.
Fucking beauty.Second car. Loved it too. Was a '78 but in a sort of a vile blue / green.
The mini wasn't very practical on the streets (with the whole not idling thing) so I inherited my Dad's company Chevette. Probably a bent chassis too, after I removed a completely unnecessary power pole with it (and power from the neighborhood). Had it for years and definitely needed a "run up" to overtake. Suspect all of them only had 3 cylinders working at any one time. Throw in the slipping clutch and I was lucky to get past anyone, but we certainly tried. Around 280,000 km by the death from memory. Great car (well, shit, but i liked it).
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@Kruse said in First cars!:
Vauxhall Chevette, 1978 hatchback coupe, in orange.
Fucking beauty.
By the time I got rid of it, it was running on 3 cylinders, had a slightly twisted chassis, and the ignition-by-key didn't work... so I'd installed a push-button for ignition.
I think people need to start off in shitty cars like that - it really taught me to think about driving - you'd need to be constantly planning shit in advance, to leave a shitload of space between you and any car ahead, and accelerate well in advance of any potential passing spot.Many years ago driving north during the holiday period I was stuck behind a truck. An approaching hill and an overtaking lane provided me with the opportunity to pass so I moved into the overtaking lane and accelerated. I dropped back a gear as the car inexorably lost momentum going up the hill. Unfortunately as I pulled alongside the cab I ran out of torque and the truck slowly pulled ahead and I had to swing in behind the truck as the lanes merged.
About 15km later another opportunity presented itself. This time I slowed up to give myself a run up. timed it to perfection and again swung out, dropped a gear and headed up the hill. Approaching the top I had to drop back into third as the truck driver stayed left as long as possible until he could merge right behind my rear bumper, leaving a very long, probably very angry queue of cars behind us.
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Learnt to drive in one of these, dad being an ex cop was pretty sharp on the finer points of driving (and was a pretty angry fucker back then). So most of the first few lessons was spent learning to go down through the gears approaching roundabouts or give ways, without touching the brakes or get shouted at. Oh and backing it up our 40m skinny driveway only using mirrors or get shouted at.
Guess I inherited my style off dad.
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@Bones said in First cars!:
pretty angry fucker back then). So most of the first few lessons was spent learning to go down through the gears approaching roundabouts or give ways, without touching the brakes or get shouted at. Oh and backing it up our 40m skinny driveway only using mirrors or get shouted at.
We might be brothers by a different mother, as they say (except I'm not from middle Eastbourne).
Our Dad's taught us the same way. Bloody funny when I look back at it."Where are the wheels!!!?
"You are still 3 inches from that wall!"
"It's supposed to be parked, not abandoned!"I still drive my car rarely touching the brakes, which is good as I have discovered what they cost.
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@Snowy said in First cars!:
Was going to say that you guys had some really shit cars and then realised that at the time they were all shit and we took what we could get.
Times have changed. Most of us would have had a cheap manual car that was probably at least 10 years old for our first vehicle because that was before the cheaper Japanese imports flooded the market. Now almost everyone learns in an auto and wouldn't know what that left-hand pedal was for, or even know how to use it.
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@Bovidae I still prefer manuals. 3 of them at the moment. The best thing about that is nobody ever wants to borrow them - even the RS4 and TVR.
When my father taught me to drive an auto (my Mum had one) I had to stick my left leg over the center console so that I didn't left foot brake and could prove it. Left foot braking would have been handy when I was racing but my left leg was always over the console.