soontobered84

Okay, my first drivable car was the 1961 MG Magnette Mk III. I bought it from a family friend for the princely sum of $63.( One payment on the new Mercedes he had bought) The leather seats were all torn up and it was ugly as all get out, but it had the same engine in it as my true first car, a 1961 MGA that I bought for a dollar when I was 13. (It was in boxes). I finally got the MGA drivable my senior year in high school. Thank God.

Both images are stock images and merely representative although the MGA looks a lot like my own.

cpayne

dr bob

Car ownership started in NJ with a '58 beetle $50 barn find as a winter car in blue, matched almost immediately with a '65 356 SC cab in red for fair-weather use. The 356 arrived sans engine, and spent the first years of its ownership period with a 1500CC VW power plant hidden under the double grills and luggage rack in back. Finally got a 912 engine after a couple years of life in Cali. Left the beetle in NJ, sold the cab to make room for a couple Lotii...

F451

Awesome thread, and wow, some of you guys were riding in style back then.

My first that I actually owned myself was a '71 Super Beetle that my uncle gave me in '78, just in time for my senior year of high school. It needed a little work, but it was basically sound so I was thrilled to get it. It had been in a flood in Long Island and had a push button starter button behind the drivers seat. Lots of fun starting it up with first time passengers.

Not exactly a babe magnet, but it sure beat walking. This is not mine, but it looked just like this one.



Prior to that, money was tight in our house and I'll never forget the day my dad bought home our first new car, a 70 something Valiant. What a turd. 4 door, slant 6, I think it had an AM/FM radio, but that was it. The poor guy, my dad comes in the door announcing he has finally bought the new car home, I go running out to see it and am immediately deflated.

It looked like this, but was a non-metallic beige/tan thing. Poor car.



Later, when I was 16 or so, just before I was to get my drivers license, my dad bought my brother's 260z (after my brother lost his job), talk about excited! I couldn't wait to get my license and rip around in the Z car.



Fast forward a few months, my dad rolls the Z car, gets it fixed up and trades it in for 4 door Datsun 610. Fun car, but it was no Z car.

Tony

1972 MGB GT...Orange. Loved it and the first car i tinkered with.

DR

Tony,

OH man, I always wanted one of those back in the days..

Looking forward to seeing you again!! It starts to really feel like SITM for me when I get to shake your hand once again!

928 obsession

My first and current car '82 Porsche 928, wouldn't trade it for anything.

DR

Hard to top that...WAY TOO COOL!!!!

Ad0911

All these youngsters driving 928's. Makes me jealous. I drove 200.000 km with no more than 34 hp in my 1976 beetle before driving my 1971 911 with 140 hp. But I think there is no better way to train youself for driving an old-school 911 than driving for years in a beetle, practicing the oversteer in the wet.

Bill Ball

You have to start somewhere.

DR

This is not a "First Ride Story"...but seeing all the older cars and some of the British hardware reminded me of something I had almost forgotten about..

Being car guys hopefully you will cut me some slack, it's a fond memory and thought I would share it with you guys.

Back in mid/early 90s, I had the extreme pleasure and honor (understatement) to spend the Christmas Holidays with Mickey Spillane, yep, "Mike Hammer" himself!!

My second wife's Aunt Jane, was Mr Spillane's 3rd wife (and last until his death in 2006) and we drove to Murrell's Inlet and spent 5 days or so at his house.

I could tell you a million stories about that visit...but just sitting on the porch drinking coffee and chatting with Mr. Spillane was a priceless memory. We were always the first ones up and he made coffee for the 2 of us every morning. Some of the evenings were even better sitting in his study where he wrote most of his books (women were not allowed in that room, no BS). It was hard at first to not stare at THE typewriter on his desk....but that is another set of stories.

Among the many discussions we had in the early hours looking over the inlet, one morning we started talking "cars". He then started telling me the story about John Wayne flying over a brand new Jag XK-140 and surprising him with it as a gift. (There are a lot of BS stories on the web about this, most are inaccurate.)

I could see the glint in his eyes as he told the story, it was obvious that car meant a lot to him. After he finshed the story, he asked me if I wanted to see it...you can guess my answer. So we walk around to the front of his house and there was a single garage door that looked like it was an entry to a "Vault"....luckily it almost was, as if survived the Big Hurruicane that hit a few years after that without a scratch, even though the house was badly damaged... any who, he opens the door and there was a single small car under a cover.

With a sly grin on his face he pulled the cover off andf there it was..the lighting wasn't great, but it looked like it was brand new (1956 Model IIRC). Then he asked if I wanted to sit in it, oh yeah, you KNOW that answer.

The only thing that would have made it better is if he had offered for me to drive it...oh well, probably would have been to scared to damage it anyway.

I would give anything if I had had the insight to take pictures (where were Droids back then??, dang it).. but heck, I was trying so hard to not act like a rabid fan anyway, so I am not sure if I would have asked to take pics regardless.

The best I can do is a couple of pics I found on the web of Mr. Spillane and the Jag, the first one is within a few feet from the garage where he showed the Jag to me. FYI, Just behind the chainlink fence you see in the background, is the "Dock" used in some of the Miller Lite Commericals.

Wish I had better pics, first is a promo pic..




This one is pretty old, but I recognize that store right down the road from his house in Murrel's Inlet..




What a Great Man... this is not my pic, but it could have been, this is on the porch where we spent those wonderful mornings chatting...and I can still see him just like that!





Funny, this was one of the only good things that came out of my marriage to #2...other than that nice round a.... nevermind.

tilac999

1982 Suzuki Katana 1000

F451

Nice Brad. Have you posted in the Any Motorcycle Riders Here? thread yet?

Here's mine. Not my first ride though. Since sold. Fun bike.



Ps: DR, cool story!

killav

First car was a truck, 1968 GMC with a 383 stroker, 480 lift 292 duration Lunati cam, "461" casting chevy heads, ported and polished with 2.02/1.60 valves, 1.6 ratio roller rockers, 2600 converter, turbo 350 trans, 3.73 posi rear end....and thats me in front of it 90 pounds and many years ago......can't wait to get flamed for the spandex....Sean.

dr bob

Stretching the theme a bit, a recently-moved neighbor, post-war immigrant from Prague, spent some time in the restaurant business in Los Angeles. His scrapbook is a whoes-who of political and entertainment icons of the 50's through the late 70's. His son mentioned casually that he remembers riding around in Tyrone Powers' blower Bentley as a child. Seems Mr Powers was off in Europe for a couple years on film projects, and left the car with his favorite restauranteur for safekeeping while abroad.

We are digitizing the scrapbook and photo albums, and are probably 80%+ through the task of identifying all the people in the photos. Karen spent a morning recently at her stylists, grilling all the white-hairs about the characters in the photos. Lots of history! Jerry was the wine steward at the Ambassador, on duty the night Bobby Kennedy was shot; just one of many interesting stories in his scrapbook. Kinda wish he still had the Blower Bentley. There's a bit of history in that baby I'm sure.