What Was Your First Vehicle?

[CouchCoach]

'57 Chevy, lavender with a white top and rolled and pleated white leather interior, moons and whitewalls. I was 16 and all my buds referred to it as the MakeOutMobile, (some a little more graphic than that) even had a lavender interior light.

The problem was, actually, there were two problems. One, I was the driver and two it was such an unusual car, all of the cops that patrolled my area of Little Rock, The Heights, knew the car and who was driving it. I forgot the first rule, actually never learned it, of driving a cool car, slow down and let the chicks dig it. Instead I sped up and let the cops pull it over.

 

[JohnnyTheFox]

1970 Camaro, which did every bit of the 150 mph listed on the speedometer.

 

[pete026]

The first vehicle that was actually mine, bought by me and not a hand me down was a 1987 Buick Grand National. Still my favorite car to this day.

In 1987, the Connecticut State police quietly bought 2 Buick Grand Nationals and they were unmarked. I was going home in my 85 Honda CRX SI and this black car got on my tail doing about 65 (Nixon made speed limit 55 back during gas shortage). I pushed it to 75 and there he was back on my tail. I pushed it to 90 and again, back on my tail. So somewhere past 110 mph the alternating flashing headlights came on. Needless to say, I needed to change my underwear when I got home. I have another great story about my court appearance lol.

 

[Runwildboys]

In 1987, the Connecticut State police quietly bought 2 Buick Grand Nationals and they were unmarked. I was going home in my 85 Honda CRX SI and this black car got on my tail doing about 65 (Nixon made speed limit 55 back during gas shortage). I pushed it to 75 and there he was back on my tail. I pushed it to 90 and again, back on my tail. So somewhere past 110 mph the alternating flashing headlights came on. Needless to say, I needed to change my underwear when I got home. I have another great story about my court appearance lol.

It wasn't so quiet when they got the Grand Nationals. IIRC, they were already using confiscated cars for speed traps and such.

 

[Flamma]

In 1987, the Connecticut State police quietly bought 2 Buick Grand Nationals and they were unmarked. I was going home in my 85 Honda CRX SI and this black car got on my tail doing about 65 (Nixon made speed limit 55 back during gas shortage). I pushed it to 75 and there he was back on my tail. I pushed it to 90 and again, back on my tail. So somewhere past 110 mph the alternating flashing headlights came on. Needless to say, I needed to change my underwear when I got home. I have another great story about my court appearance lol.

Cool. Well if you got past 127mph the Grand National wouldn't have been able to keep up. That's their limit. The interesting thing about that car is that it was really fast 0-60 for its time. But after that not so much.

Speaking of court appearances. A judge did me a solid without even knowing it. I was pulled over and ticketed for doing around 120 MPH. That's a mandatory court appearance. The judge gave me a 12 day suspension. In my state if a judge gives out a suspension our motor vehicles cannot. Had the judge not suspended me, or had I just been ticketed for doing 75 MPH with no court appearance, I was up for a 2 year suspension. But instead I got 12 days. So by going over double the speed limit and because the judge was really mad I pretty much got off light.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Cool. Well if you got past 127mph the Grand National wouldn't have been able to keep up. That's their limit. The interesting thing about that car is that it was really fast 0-60 for its time. But after that not so much.

Speaking of court appearances. A judge did me a solid without even knowing it. I was pulled over and ticketed for doing around 120 MPH. That's a mandatory court appearance. The judge gave me a 12 day suspension. In my state if a judge gives out a suspension our motor vehicles cannot. Had the judge not suspended me, or had I just been ticketed for doing 75 MPH with no court appearance, I was up for a 2 year suspension. But instead I got 12 days. So by going over double the speed limit and because the judge was really mad I pretty much got off light.

The 1987 GNX is one of my favorite cars growing up. They were known as the pink slip thief for a while because they surprised the hell out of unsuspecting street draggers. People didn't realize how quickly that unassuming muscle car's V6 could accelerate in the 1/4 mile.

 

[Runwildboys]

Cool. Well if you got past 127mph the Grand National wouldn't have been able to keep up. That's their limit. The interesting thing about that car is that it was really fast 0-60 for its time. But after that not so much.

Speaking of court appearances. A judge did me a solid without even knowing it. I was pulled over and ticketed for doing around 120 MPH. That's a mandatory court appearance. The judge gave me a 12 day suspension. In my state if a judge gives out a suspension our motor vehicles cannot. Had the judge not suspended me, or had I just been ticketed for doing 75 MPH with no court appearance, I was up for a 2 year suspension. But instead I got 12 days. So by going over double the speed limit and because the judge was really mad I pretty much got off light.

I'm guessing the Grand National had a very low gear ratio.

 

[Flamma]

The 1987 GNX is one of my favorite cars growing up. They were known as the pink slip thief for a while because they surprised the hell out of unsuspecting street draggers. People didn't realize how quickly that unassuming muscle car's V6 could accelerate in the 1/4 mile.

The GNX version was fantastic. I didn't have the GNX but test drove one. The listed for around 32k at around that time. I didn't have the money for that. I bought the regular '87 Grand National for around 16k. Anything prior to the '87 models weren't that good.

Yeah, it was a 3.8 V6, but it had a twin turbo. Once you put the class 2 chip in the vehicle there weren't many stock 8s that could be it off the line. Forget beating the GNX in the 80s or early 90s.

 

[Flamma]

I'm guessing the Grand National had a very low gear ratio.

It's hard to explain the acceleration. It wasn't a typical automatic. You couldn't just floor it. You almost had to play with the peddle similar to a clutch. Almost like your foot was acting like a paddle shifter. I'm not sure what the gear ratio was. But you weren't at a disadvantage going up against a clutch.

 

[pete026]

Cool. Well if you got past 127mph the Grand National wouldn't have been able to keep up. That's their limit. The interesting thing about that car is that it was really fast 0-60 for its time. But after that not so much.

Speaking of court appearances. A judge did me a solid without even knowing it. I was pulled over and ticketed for doing around 120 MPH. That's a mandatory court appearance. The judge gave me a 12 day suspension. In my state if a judge gives out a suspension our motor vehicles cannot. Had the judge not suspended me, or had I just been ticketed for doing 75 MPH with no court appearance, I was up for a 2 year suspension. But instead I got 12 days. So by going over double the speed limit and because the judge was really mad I pretty much got off light.

I don't want to derail the thread but they only had a speedometer that went to 85 mph so I argued in court that he couldn't prove I was going 105 mph (that is what he wrote the ticket for but I know the last speed I saw was 110). Judge still suspended my license for 30 days.
https://images.app.goo.gl/6GgC6FmNpe7XqvZp9

 

[Sarge]

Datsun Pickup.

 

[Creeper]

My very first car was a 1955 Ford.I bought it before I had my license. I used to walk home from school and see this car in some guy's driveway every day. It was in really good condition. He was always taking care of it. When I turned 16 I was walking past the house and the guy had a For Sale sign on it. I stopped and asked how much and he said $100. I went home, got my cash went back and bought it. The only problem was I was not old enough to drive it yet. So I let my brother drive it around - until he blew the motor.

Then I bought a 1968 American Motors AMX. Loved it. 315 HP, 425 ft. lbs of torque at 2900 lbs out of the factory. I made a few mods to it and there was only 1 street car (stock) in my area I could not beat in a drag race, my friend's 1969 Hemi Cuda. That car was a monster and scary powerful even fully stock. I offered to buy if from him 100 times and he would not let me have it!

 

[Flamma]

I don't want to derail the thread but they only had a speedometer that went to 85 mph so I argued in court that he couldn't prove I was going 105 mph (that is what he wrote the ticket for but I know the last speed I saw was 110). Judge still suspended my license for 30 days.
https://images.app.goo.gl/6GgC6FmNpe7XqvZp9

LOL back in the 80s all sports cars had speedometers that capped out at 85. But the Volkswagon Jetta went up to 140mph. Even Corvettes, 85. The speedometer has no relation to how fast a car can go. None what so ever. In my Grand National I knew when I went 127 MPH because the fuel line simply cut off at that point. They did this because they did not want to encourage speeding.

 

[nightrain]

75 Monte......oh, the memories.

 

[Hardline]

1976 Chevy Monza. Was awful, especially in 2002. Radiator blew up on me the first day I drove to school. That was fun. Me and a couple friends get out of a car with a mushroom cloud over it and just walk the rest of the way. AM/FM radio I replaced with a less awful modern radio. 1 speaker worked and it was like center dash, just below the windshield. CD player-to-tape deck combo setup sounded awful.

Picture below isn't mine, but that's the model. Mine was maroon, both inside and out. Maroon everything. Literally, maroon interior, maroon exterior, maroon dash, console, and rims. It smelled like old people after it had been stored in someone's garage for years on end. All things considered, it was in good condition, but it just sucked. Pretty sure it only cost like $1,400.

Lasted me about 4 to 6 months. Totaled it in the mountains. They used the jaws of life to turn it into a convertible. I have pictures of the crash somewhere, maybe I'll see if I can find them. Doesn't look particularly bad but that's probably because it was built without crumple zones and light-weight metal. Hurt quite a bit, but it solved my "crappy car" problem.

https://lh3.***BROKEN***/proxy/qh_3-acjeEWX0cuBJEli2ic37UWEmTiKOciG2glBO-t57kEItjQw_4NX9EmfgoUDRUdEkzr-dznNivNeq4acO_hzROZDJaPYyz2ZLuLogzgA2fUsFbotU9_oYTPnWetXzANEfg

My second car was a 77 Chevy Monza Spyder
It was so much a piece of junk that I had a bumper sticker on the back that said "If this car was a horse, I'd have to shoot it".

 

[Runwildboys]

I don't want to derail the thread but they only had a speedometer that went to 85 mph so I argued in court that he couldn't prove I was going 105 mph (that is what he wrote the ticket for but I know the last speed I saw was 110). Judge still suspended my license for 30 days.
https://images.app.goo.gl/6GgC6FmNpe7XqvZp9

Did you look at the speedometers below, in the link?

 

[Runwildboys]

LOL back in the 80s all sports cars had speedometers that capped out at 85. But the Volkswagon Jetta went up to 140mph. Even Corvettes, 85. The speedometer has no relation to how fast a car can go. None what so ever. In my Grand National I knew when I went 127 MPH because the fuel line simply cut off at that point. They did this because they did not want to encourage speeding.

He was saying the cop's speedometer only went to 85, so there's no way he could accurately say how fast he was going.

 

[pete026]

Did you look at the speedometers below, in the link?

Yeah, you could order ones that read higher but the police officer in court showed the speedometer calibration data and it was only tested to 85 mph. I never asked if that was how high his speedometer went because I didn't even have that info at the time. Another part to the story was right after his headlights started flashing, my radar detector went off so he had turned on some sort of radar after pushing me. I was so panicked after he pulled me over that I left my radar detector blaring when he walked up to my car so he ticketed me for the radar detector also as they were illegal in Connecticut at the time.

 

[Ranching]

My dad bought me a new Crown Victoria when I turned 16. Would have preferred a truck, which he bought me the next year, but I learned to appreciate the big back seat!

 

[aria]

‘68 GTO with a red body, black top and black interior. Had a 4 speed Hurst shifter and a 400 Ram Air III.