# Your first car...



## Rocky (Dec 26, 2021)

A posting elsewhere on this site gave me an idea that we can have some fun with.

What was your first car? Pictures if available.

I will start with mine: A black 1958 Chevy Impala Convertible, 348 cu. in. with 3 2-barrel carbs and "three on the tree." This is the only photo I have of it. It is a blow up from a small snapshot that I had, and I carried in my wallet. I used to tell everyone it was a picture of my "first love." My bride had the photo enlarged, airbrushed and framed and gave it to me for Christmas one year. You can see the distortion in the grille because my father's 1956 Packard 400 was parked in front of me, and the rear fender antenna went right in front of my grille in the original photo. The person who enlarged it and did the airbrushing of the background "reconstructed" the grille, and it is noticeable. Loved that car! It would go like "ca-ca" shot from a cannon! If you look through the back window, you can see the front fender of a 1959 Studebaker Lark which was parked behind me.




What about the rest of you car guys?


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## ratflinger (Dec 26, 2021)

Not this car, but close enough. 283 4-barrel, 3-speed stick. '63 Chevy Nova


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## sour_grapes (Dec 26, 2021)

I wish!!


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## Old Corker (Dec 26, 2021)

Not falling for it Rocky. Your trying to hack my Tic Toc channel aren’t you?


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## Rocky (Dec 27, 2021)

Old Corker said:


> Not falling for it Rocky. Your trying to hack my Tic Toc channel aren’t you?


Phil, I am very low-tech. I don't know what a "Tic Toc channel" is, nor do I know what you are implying. Please explain. Thanks.


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## Old Corker (Dec 27, 2021)

Rocky said:


> Phil, I am very low-tech. I don't know what a "Tic Toc channel" is, nor do I know what you are implying. Please explain. Thanks.


Sorry, Rocky. Poor attempt at humor.


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## ibglowin (Dec 27, 2021)

I'll play. First car was a 1973 Opel GT that looked just like this pic. It was in perfect condition and had low miles. German made IIRC and was quite fun to drive. I think I purchased it in 1977. No back seat and no real trunk. You could store your groceries etc. in a rear deck behind the bucket seats. Had a push stick for the head lights.












Opel GT 1973


<p>Opel GT well maintained 1973</p> <p><span style="color: #008000;"><strong>Highlights:</strong></span><br /><span style="color: #008000;"><strong>- Well maintained</strong></span><br /><span style="color: #008000;"><strong>- White interior</strong></sp




www.erclassics.com


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## bstnh1 (Dec 27, 2021)

Had this Renault for a few years then moved up to a 1964 Ford Falcon that cost me a whopping $1900 new! Bought the new car, a new house for $12,550 while earing $5200 a year. Gas was 24 cents a gallon and life was good.



'64 Ford Falcon (Not mine)


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## cmason1957 (Dec 27, 2021)

I was never cool enough to own a sports car. The first car my (now) ex-wife and I bought together was soon after we graduated from college in 1980. A Dodge Omni (basically a VW Rabbit), stick shift, she didn't know how to drive a stick, but I took her to the worst area of North St. Louis, stopped on a big hill and told her to get us home. Luckily, she had driven tractors, being a farm girl. I remember that engine had a great big VW stamp on it, but they used a typical Chrysler carburetor, after the second year, the carb had to be taken apart and cleaned up every winter or you got to drive a stick with one foot on the gas and brake at every stop to keep enough gas going through the carb or it died. Fun Times.


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## JustJoe (Dec 27, 2021)

Rocky said:


> A posting elsewhere on this site gave me an idea that we can have some fun with.
> 
> What was your first car? Pictures if available.
> 
> ...


That is exactly the same as my first car except mine had a single 4 barrel carb. Got married shortly after getting it and it was my first and last classy car.


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## Rocky (Dec 27, 2021)

JustJoe said:


> That is exactly the same as my first car except mine had a single 4 barrel carb. Got married shortly after getting it and it was my first and last classy car.


That is too cool, Joe. I am assuming you mean the 250 HP 348 with a 4-barrel. I also had a half continental tire mount on mine that you can just see the chrome ring of in the picture. My trips were on a vacuum linkage and when I started out, I was running 1 2-barrel. Then the other two would kick in and almost push me through the seat.


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## MiBor (Dec 27, 2021)

1986 Toyota Celica GT-S
Fun car, but it was a cop magnet. I don't know why... 
Not my picture, but it's the same car.


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## joeswine (Dec 27, 2021)

well, I wasn't as rich as you guys mine was a black 69 chevy with no back floor on the rear driver's side the on the driver's side you had to pull the window up and down with your hands not good in the rain or snow in Philley, it had a multitude of problems, but it was mine until someone stole it. ￼


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## winemaker81 (Dec 28, 2021)

my first was a 1971 Pontiac Catalina 4 door, dark green. 400 engine, 2 barrel carb (didn't need a 4!) The car was a tank.

I was rear-ended by a late model Subaru in 1982. The two guys in the car with me didn't realize we had been hit, and wondered why I pulled over. My rear bumper was rusted and the chrome peeling (this was Upstate NY, USA, lots of road salt in winters), and the hit produce a couple of minor scrapes, no real damage. The Subaru had the bumper pushed in, the grill smashed, the hood curled in, and the lights were askew -- $5,000+ damage at today's prices. The owner didn't want to report the accident, and since my car was undamaged, I was ok with it. I suspect his driving record was illustrated by his rear-ending me ...


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## Rocky (Dec 28, 2021)

winemaker81 said:


> my first was a 1971 Pontiac Catalina 4 door, dark green. 400 engine, 2 barrel carb (didn't need a 4!) The car was a tank.
> 
> I was rear-ended by a late model Subaru in 1982. The two guys in the car with me didn't realize we had been hit, and wondered why I pulled over. My rear bumper was rusted and the chrome peeling (this was Upstate NY, USA, lots of road salt in winters), and the hit produce a couple of minor scrapes, no real damage. The Subaru had the bumper pushed in, the grill smashed, the hood curled in, and the lights were askew -- $5,000+ damage at today's prices. The owner didn't want to report the accident, and since my car was undamaged, I was ok with it. I suspect his driving record was illustrated by his rear-ending me ...
> 
> View attachment 82598


Yeah, Bryan, that car was more than two tons (4128 lbs.) and they were monsters. Here are the specs for your car:

Classic Car Specifications, Engine, Wheelbase, production numbers, VIN numbers for Antique Cars, Classic Cars, Vintage Cars and Muscle Cars (classiccardatabase.com)

I took my driver's test in a car that was over 4500 pounds and looked exactly (year, color and model) like this:


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## winemaker81 (Dec 28, 2021)

Rocky said:


> Yeah, Bryan, that car was more than two tons (4128 lbs.) and they were monsters. Here are the specs for your car:


Thanks! I recall the car was over 2 tons of steel, at a time when cars were made of steel. The car would comfortably seat 4 in the front and 5 in the back. The one thing I didn't like was the gas mileages, 8-12 MPG ...

That's a beautiful car! I'd love to have an old one like that (or my Catalina, for that matter!).


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## crushday (Dec 28, 2021)

My first car was the very non-sexy 1979 Toyota Corolla just like this one pictured. I bought it the summer before I started my freshman year in college (1985) for $1300. Even back then it got over 40 MPG. Since gas was only 73 cents a gallon (Seattle, where I grew up) you could fill up for under 8 bucks. 

For some more price perspective, my first year of college was $6,000 all in. Senior (5th year) college expenses was $14,000. It really creeped up in 5 years. In 1990, after college, I moved to Montana for my first job, driving the ‘little sh*t’ packed to the ceiling.


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## jswordy (Dec 28, 2021)

Body and paint by Jim; engine by Jim.  I have another I am working on now. The photos were taken by my college roommate, a photography major who went on to shoot lots of album covers for country music artists and earned a Grammy for one of them.







Current project... Again, all work by Jim... Can't wait to retire to have time to finish it up.




Oh. Before...


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## Kraffty (Dec 28, 2021)

1968 Merc Cougar gifted (handed down) to me by my parents on my 16th birthday, the same day as I got my license, in 1973. Same exact color, roof and wheels as this pic I found online. I didn't realize until many years later what a great gift it was in the sense of how new of a car it was and what great condition it was in.


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## jswordy (Dec 28, 2021)

Kraffty said:


> 1968 Merc Cougar gifted (handed down) to me by my parents on my 16th birthday, the same day as I got my license, in 1973. Same exact color, roof and wheels as this pic I found online. I didn't realize until many years later what a great gift it was in the sense of how new of a car it was and what great condition it was in.
> View attachment 82620



My friend across the street had one when we were growing up. His was a 1967, when it was the Motor Trend Car of the Year, and had circular gold factory decals in the back quarter glass saying so. Who knows what that car would be worth today as a survivor? I love that era of Cougars – a plush Mustang, is exactly what they were.

Sometimes, I think of the "used cars" we all owned as teens. Lord, what they are all worth today.


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## Old Corker (Dec 28, 2021)

There we’re three of us brothers in a three year spread so three of us in high school at the same time. The first car I bought on my own in 73 after the older two had gone off to collage was a 66 Dodge Dart. Not a hot rod by any stretch but that flat head 6 was a good little engine. It had an automatic transmission but not the push button shifter Chrysler was making at that time.


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## RRRwine (Dec 28, 2021)

65 Valiant Convertible.
Years ago a guy in Florida modded the same car the same way.
No longer exists in this format, but went to a collector in PA who I think used it for parts.
(thats the 64 Cuda behind it which is now the project car in the garage after all these years; it eats more money than wine making!)


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## JB1956 (Dec 28, 2021)

Mine was a 64 Valiant Convertible with a slant 6 and pushbutton automatic trans.
It was pretty much identical to but not nearly as nice as this one that I saw at a local cruise-in. 
Lots of good memories of that old car. I built a Factory Five Cobra replica over twenty years ago but at this point in my life this is one of the few cars I would consider replacing it with.


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## mainshipfred (Dec 28, 2021)

Number 3 here for the Valiant, mid 60's, can't remember the exact year. However it never hit the road. I was 14 and my dad told me if I wanted to drive I had to learn to repair my own car. It was given to me by my uncle and had no reverse. Can't tell you how many times I practiced brake changes, tuned ups, carburetor rebuilds and who know what else. Unfortunately the transmission was too much for me and it never hit the road. 

So my first car was a 60 something VW square back I bought for $50.00 just before I turned 16. The motor was blown and the floor was rusted out so it was also a project car but it did hit the road. It lasted about 2 years and yes the price of gas was 25 cents.


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## sour_grapes (Dec 28, 2021)

mainshipfred said:


> Number 3 here for the Valiant, mid 60's, can't remember the exact year. However it never hit the road. I was 14 and my dad told me if I wanted to drive I had to learn to repair my own car. It was given to me by my uncle and had no reverse. Can't tell you how many times I practiced brake changes, tuned ups, carburetor rebuilds and who know what else. Unfortunately the transmission was too much for me and it never hit the road.
> 
> So my first car was a 60 something VW square back I bought for $50.00 just before I turned 16. The motor was blown and the floor was rusted out so it was also a project car but it did hit the road. It lasted about 2 years and yes the price of gas was 25 cents.



Similar story for me, in two different regards! My dad had a '62½ VW Beetle (yes, it was in between a '62 and a '63, as they just implemented changes to VWs as they became available at that time). The engine seized (spun/burned a bearing), and my dad threw it into an elderly relative's empty garage, intending to fix it someday. After a few years, with nothing having happened to the car, I asked "If I fix it, can I have it?" My dad agreed, as he knew at this point he would never get to it, and it was almost worthless. So I bought another engine from a junkyard, stripped them both, cleaned them up, my uncle honed the jugs for me, and I assembled one franken-engine from the best parts of both. 

I got that installed and running, but then turned to the other parts of the car. Holes in the floor, brake cylinders were totally frozen, etc. But, the problem was, this was now getting to be late in the summer before I went to college. During my freshman year, the elderly relative died, and the house was cleaned out and sold. I never saw that car again....

It looked something like this (including the ragtop sunroof):


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## bstnh1 (Jul 5, 2022)

I had one of these AMC Gremlins somewhere in the early 70s I think. Also managed to find myself driving a Ford Pinto around that time too! The Pinto was the worst I have ever owned!!


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## Rocky (Jul 5, 2022)

bstnh1 said:


> I had one of these AMC Gremlins somewhere in the early 70s I think. Also managed to find myself driving a Ford Pinto around that time too! * The Pinto was the worst I have ever owned!*


Brian, I will second that. I was driving a '67 Camaro in the early 70's and gas "went through the roof" (it would be an ultra-bargain today!) so I decided to economize and bought a Ford Pinto. I hated it from day one and then it got worse. We lived in a valley in the Pittsburgh hills, and it could barely get me up the hill and out of the valley. My daughter used to wait for the school bus in the morning and I would pass while she was waiting. I could hear her friends saying, "Debbie, there is your dad," but she was so embarrassed she would not even look. It was a danger trying to get onto a highway with an acceleration ramp. It did 0 to 60 in about an hour and a half. I had the car 3 months and was constantly complaining about it, so my bride said, "If you hate it so much, why don't you get rid of it?" I did and bought a white '74 Firebird Trans Am that looked just like this one:


I was back in my element once more! Screw the gas prices! I will cut down somewhere else.


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## Cellar Door (Jul 5, 2022)

My first car!
I couldn’t personally afford it, so my girlfriend and I bought it together. She was able to get the loan, I was able to make the payments, 46 years later we’re still setting and making goals. She loves my wine, I love her attitude. . Life is grant!


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## FlamingoEmporium (Jul 5, 2022)

66 corvair. Never should have sold it


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## CheerfulHeart (Jul 9, 2022)

1970 Ford Maverick. Yellow body with black interior. Automatic transmission. AM radio. That car had some serious power. Yep you want your teen daughter driving that on the freeway hahaha  
I bought it from my grandmother in 1982. She drove that car like a Little Old Lady from Pasadena. 
I loved that car. Wish I still owned it. Gram was pretty awesome too LOL


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## Boatboy24 (Jul 9, 2022)

A lot of nice rides!


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## geek (Jul 15, 2022)

My dad bought me a Toyota I think Tercel? when I was in college in the DR around 1985 and it has a really bad paint job and I felt embarrassed to give friends and rides because water used to leak inside from windshield when it rained so there you have it 

Then Nissan Sunny and we had a Toyota pickup for my dad’s business, model 1969 and it was a war truck, unbelievable what it used to hauled when it was falling apart……so many memories


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## heatherd (Jul 15, 2022)

First car was a rusty aqua '81 Toyota Corolla with manual everything and a tiny engine. Second car was a very fancy silver Buick Century with a V6 and bench seats - first time I ever passed anyone was in the Buick. Got it from my Grampa and it had a few pipe tobacco burns. I should have kept it. You could fit about 8 people in it.


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## winemaker81 (Jul 16, 2022)

geek said:


> My dad bought me a Toyota I think Tercel? when I was in college in the DR around 1985 and it has a really bad paint job and I felt embarrassed to give friends and rides because water used to leak inside from windshield when it rained so there you have i


I had a few guys make negative comments about my car. My response was, "Your car is better? Oh, yeah, you don't have one."


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## Old Corker (Jul 16, 2022)

bstnh1 said:


> I had one of these AMC Gremlins somewhere in the early 70s I think. Also managed to find myself driving a Ford Pinto around that time too! The Pinto was the worst I have ever owned!!
> 
> View attachment 90265


Use to be an inside joke around our house that it you want to insult someone get them a ‘72 Pinto. I found one for sale some years ago and almost bought it as a joke for my son.


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## Rocky (Jul 16, 2022)

Old Corker said:


> Use to be an inside joke around our house that it you want to insult someone get them a ‘72 Pinto. I found one for sale some years ago and almost bought it as a joke for my son.


That was without doubt the worst car I ever owned. It was dangerous if one had to get onto and travel on an interstate highway. It was so underpowered. I hated it! In the patios of my youth, "It couldn't pull a sick (lady of the night) off a piss pot!"


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## Gilmango (Jul 16, 2022)

Second generation of Honda Civic in the US (red hatchback which was maybe as old at 1981), bought used from another law student friend in 1994 so I could explore California better (improved my dating life too, not that the car turned any heads). I was very old for a first time car owner.


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## CheerfulHeart (Jul 16, 2022)

bstnh1 said:


> I had one of these AMC Gremlins somewhere in the early 70s I think. Also managed to find myself driving a Ford Pinto around that time too! The Pinto was the worst I have ever owned!!
> 
> View attachment 90265


When I was in high school in the early 1980's several of my classmates received hand-me-down Gremlins from their older siblings. The senior area in the student parking lot looked like a used Gremlin dealership for a while.


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## ChuckD (Jul 16, 2022)

1965 Malibu Super Sport. Not this one but similar. To me it was just an old car and I treated it that way. Wish I would have taken care of it.


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## ChuckD (Jul 16, 2022)

bstnh1 said:


> I had one of these AMC Gremlins somewhere in the early 70s I think. Also managed to find myself driving a Ford Pinto around that time too! The Pinto was the worst I have ever owned!!
> 
> View attachment 90265


My BF in high school had an AMC Javelin. Also a piece of  but damn that was a bad a$$ looking car. Again… not this one. 



If I remember right it ended up wrapped around a tree. We were very hard on cars back in the day.


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## Venatorscribe (Jul 17, 2022)

I was to taught to drive in a driving school VW Beetle. Just loved the car. The smell of the oil and gasoline, the sound - a great car. However - with licence in hand - I ended up taking over my mothers old 850cc Austin Mini. A starter button on the floor and a long wobbly gear stick. A fun car to drive, economical and easy to fix most mechanical gremlins.


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## winemaker81 (Jul 17, 2022)

Test drive? I learned initially on a '71 Pontiac Catalina (which eventually became mine), and '72 Opel (Kadett?), and later a '69 Chevy shortbox (3 on the tree). My dad had me and my brother do our driving test in the Opel. It was short, automatic tranny, easy to drive, and very easy to parallel park. I wanted to do it in the truck, but my dad said, "your job is to pass the test, not impress the Brownie." ["brownie" was slang for the tester, as their uniforms were brown.]

The Opel was an interesting car. It had no get-up-and-go, the heater was a joke (visualize winter in Upstate NY [Adirondack Mountains]), but it got an amazing 33 MPG -- compared to the 8-12 MPG the Catalina got.

These are stock photos, not the actual vehicles.


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## FlamingoEmporium (Jul 17, 2022)

winemaker81 said:


> The Opel was an interesting car. It had no get-up-and-go, the heater was a joke (visualize winter in Upstate NY [Adirondack Mountains]), but it got an amazing 33 MPG -- compared to the 8-12 MPG the Catalina got.


i feel your pain. I went to college in Syracuse, and the corvair has a rear engine and relied on hot air from the engine for heat in the winter. Of course the car would leak oil, so burning oil fumes almost always mixed in with the hot air. 
Drove home on route 20 to drop a friend off often, and of course there were long hills, and you had to get up to 90 going downhill so you would be going 20 by the time you got up the other side.


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## Rocky (Jul 17, 2022)

ChuckD said:


> If I remember right it ended up wrapped around a tree. *We were very hard on cars back in the day.*


Isn't that the truth! We beat the hell out of them, raced them and generally mistreated them. A car would only last about 40-50,000 miles and would be a rust bucket by then in the Pittsburgh winters. Also, it is a miracle we did not all kill ourselves with the quality (more the lack thereof) of tires, the hard dashes and no seat belts. In my '58 Chevy, I would routinely be driving at 70-80 mph and as high as 120 on tires that were tires in name only. One blessing is I got the "need for speed" out of my system early in life.


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## winemaker81 (Jul 17, 2022)

FlamingoEmporium said:


> Drove home on route 20 to drop a friend off often, and of course there were long hills, and you had to get up to 90 going downhill so you would be going 20 by the time you got up the other side.


Winter taught me to keep good tires on the car for winter. Had an '86 Jetta with bald tires. I literally could not get up an icy hill, had to back down 1/2 mile, and go a different route.

Put new tires on the car and went right up the hill!


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## acallan921 (Jul 17, 2022)

Here's mine!


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## Sage (Jul 27, 2022)

Not my first, about my 4th but the only one I have photos of. Had it for 22 years.


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## geek (Jul 28, 2022)

Sage said:


> Not my first, about my 4th but the only one I have photos of. Had it for 22 years.
> 
> View attachment 91060




This is very cool, wish I had photos from the old days. You should frame that pic..!!


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## NorCal (Jul 29, 2022)

Not my first car, but one I bought, fixed and resold at age 19. I’ll try to find my factory 289 4 speed 1965 Falcon, which was my daily driver for a number of years and the one we drove away in from my wedding.


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## sour_grapes (Jul 29, 2022)

NorCal said:


> Not my first car, but one I bought, fixed and resold at age 19. I’ll try to find my factory 289 4 speed 1965 Falcon, which was my daily driver for a number of years and the one we drove away in from my wedding.
> 
> View attachment 91095



Nice car!

A 22 mph curve? You guys in Cali are awfully specific!


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## FlamingoEmporium (Jul 29, 2022)

Sage said:


> Not my first, about my 4th but the only one I have photos of. Had it for 22 years.
> 
> View attachment 91060


A beauty indeed. I always wanted a 65 tbird but I too old and too poor now to tackle it. Making wine is so much easier.


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## David Violante (Jul 29, 2022)

White 1978 Datsun B-210 Manual Transmission. Honeycomb wheel covers and all. Below is a stock photo. Mine had a lot more rust... Loved that car... $5 to fill and it would go forever. Well, it seemed like it back then... LOL... I could shift without using the clutch, but could also get in faster without the keys than with them by popping the back window and reaching in.


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