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Dream car
- Thread starter oldsoul
- Start date
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- Tags
- classic cars dream car
One of the cool things about the car hobby is that you can have just about anything you want, if you are willing to wait a few years, particularly if you make use of the internet and are willing to travel to get what you want.
That old Mercedes SL or an M3 or a CTS-V? Search Autotrader, cars-dot-com, and others for older, low mileage examples, and you can usually find one that is a "steal" - even though it might be on the other side of the country. So you pay $500 to have it delivered (if you don't feel like going out to get it yourself). It's a small price to get exactly what you want at a reasonable overall cost. And I've seldom even heard of people getting burned. Usually, the people selling "enthusiast" cars - or motorcycles - are just as neurotic as you are about the condition, and they tell you EVERYTHING wrong with the car they are selling.
That old Mercedes SL or an M3 or a CTS-V? Search Autotrader, cars-dot-com, and others for older, low mileage examples, and you can usually find one that is a "steal" - even though it might be on the other side of the country. So you pay $500 to have it delivered (if you don't feel like going out to get it yourself). It's a small price to get exactly what you want at a reasonable overall cost. And I've seldom even heard of people getting burned. Usually, the people selling "enthusiast" cars - or motorcycles - are just as neurotic as you are about the condition, and they tell you EVERYTHING wrong with the car they are selling.
Exactly.One of the cool things about the car hobby is that you can have just about anything you want, if you are willing to wait a few years, particularly if you make use of the internet and are willing to travel to get what you want.
What helps even more is if you can do some mechanical/restoration work yourself. There are those out there that only want cars in perfect shape, and they usually end up paying a premium for them. This leaves those cars that are a little "rough", which a capable person can get for a steal and, with a little work, turn them into something just as nice.
I've lost count of the cars my father (a mechanic) picked up for literally nothing, just because the owner didn't want to put a couple of hundred into fixing them. He did the work himself, drove them for a couple of years, then sold them for two or three times what he had in them.
Boss
Take a Memo:
Here are a few more cars I have always been in love with...
1959 Chevy El Camino
Both the 59 Impala and El Camino are absolute works of art.
1969 Plymouth Roadrunner 440+6
Nothing but serious hot rod here. The '69 Roadrunner had no luxury options, rubber floor mats, no air conditioning or power anything, the rear windows didn't even roll down... just one bad ass 440 hemi with triple 2bbl carbs and 4-speed. They could smoke most Corvettes of the time.
1987 Buick GNX
The original "smart car" had state of the art electronics and one bad attitude. The small turbocharged V6 could run the quarter in 13 flat. This was during a time when most muscle cars had been neutered by emissions standards but the folks at Buick teamed up with McLaren Performance to produce this wicked ride.
1968 Pontiac GTO
Awesome muscle car of the 60s with that 455 c.i. Rocket engine.
1959 Chevy El Camino
Both the 59 Impala and El Camino are absolute works of art.
1969 Plymouth Roadrunner 440+6
Nothing but serious hot rod here. The '69 Roadrunner had no luxury options, rubber floor mats, no air conditioning or power anything, the rear windows didn't even roll down... just one bad ass 440 hemi with triple 2bbl carbs and 4-speed. They could smoke most Corvettes of the time.
1987 Buick GNX
The original "smart car" had state of the art electronics and one bad attitude. The small turbocharged V6 could run the quarter in 13 flat. This was during a time when most muscle cars had been neutered by emissions standards but the folks at Buick teamed up with McLaren Performance to produce this wicked ride.
1968 Pontiac GTO
Awesome muscle car of the 60s with that 455 c.i. Rocket engine.
- Jan 8, 2011
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No such thing as a 440 Hemi....426 hemi is the one.Here are a few more cars I have always been in love with...
1959 Chevy El Camino
Both the 59 Impala and El Camino are absolute works of art.
1969 Plymouth Roadrunner 440+6
Nothing but serious hot rod here. The '69 Roadrunner had no luxury options, rubber floor mats, no air conditioning or power anything, the rear windows didn't even roll down... just one bad ass 440 hemi with triple 2bbl carbs and 4-speed. They could smoke most Corvettes of the time.
1987 Buick GNX
The original "smart car" had state of the art electronics and one bad attitude. The small turbocharged V6 could run the quarter in 13 flat. This was during a time when most muscle cars had been neutered by emissions standards but the folks at Buick teamed up with McLaren Performance to produce this wicked ride.
1968 Pontiac GTO
Awesome muscle car of the 60s with that 455 c.i. Rocket engine.
Boss
Take a Memo:
No such thing as a 440 Hemi....426 hemi is the one.Here are a few more cars I have always been in love with...
1959 Chevy El Camino
Both the 59 Impala and El Camino are absolute works of art.
1969 Plymouth Roadrunner 440+6
Nothing but serious hot rod here. The '69 Roadrunner had no luxury options, rubber floor mats, no air conditioning or power anything, the rear windows didn't even roll down... just one bad ass 440 hemi with triple 2bbl carbs and 4-speed. They could smoke most Corvettes of the time.
1987 Buick GNX
The original "smart car" had state of the art electronics and one bad attitude. The small turbocharged V6 could run the quarter in 13 flat. This was during a time when most muscle cars had been neutered by emissions standards but the folks at Buick teamed up with McLaren Performance to produce this wicked ride.
1968 Pontiac GTO
Awesome muscle car of the 60s with that 455 c.i. Rocket engine.
Ahh.. you are correct, the 440 wasn't a HEMI. It was the much cheaper alternative in 1969.
Plymouth Road Runner 440 A12
Boss
Take a Memo:
I own one of these. I bought it when they were cheap and unwanted.... Best buy I ever made....
Can't imagine those ever being "unwanted!"
man if i were to pick a dream car, it would be one of like 5 different cars.
68 charger rt hemi. plum crazy.
69 plymouth roadrunner hemi. red
67 gto 400/4spd. red or turquoise
i like my current 68 camaro, im rebuilding. swapping a 383/t56 in
1997 nissan gtr skyline...blue
68 charger rt hemi. plum crazy.
69 plymouth roadrunner hemi. red
67 gto 400/4spd. red or turquoise
i like my current 68 camaro, im rebuilding. swapping a 383/t56 in
1997 nissan gtr skyline...blue
I own one of these. I bought it when they were cheap and unwanted.... Best buy I ever made....
Can't imagine those ever being "unwanted!"
The racing world is very harsh. Once technology has passed you by they are on to the next, big, thing. These were literally under 12,000 for years and years. Now mine is worth over a million thanks to it's documented racing history. Crazy I know but there you go...
Even more so the dream that I'd be able to comfortably fit inside one:
I recently ran across a car that I hadn't ever seen or heard of before. It was a Nash-Healey.
Produced from 1951 to 1954 in both a hardtop and convertible model. It was America's first post war sports car and cost almost double the price of a Corvette.
Which helps explain why only 507 were ever produced. ......
Nash-Healey - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Produced from 1951 to 1954 in both a hardtop and convertible model. It was America's first post war sports car and cost almost double the price of a Corvette.
Which helps explain why only 507 were ever produced. ......
Nash-Healey - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bob Blaylock
Diamond Member
- Banned
- #34
I very much miss my first car, a 1969 Falcon station wagon that was a hand-me-down from my parents. One of my automotive fantasies is to have a fully-restored, and only slightly-modified version of the same car, with a period-correct engine, but bigger and more powerful than the 200-cubic-inch inline six that I had in this car. I'm thinking of a 240 or 250 I6 that Ford made in that time period, with some performance enhancements, and a modern OBD-II-driven fuel injection system instead of a carburetor. (Being diabetic, I have to be careful about carbs.) maybe a V8, but one of the things that was really wonderful about this car was how easy it was to work on, largely in part because of how much room the I6 left around it in the engine compartment to get access to everything.
More recently, I've been thinking about a different car that my parents had, and fantasizing about a much more heavily-modified version thereof. That one was a 1975 LTD station wagon. It was a huge, heavy, powerful behemoth, practically indestructible. I'm given to understand that some time before it came to us, it had been in a collision with a bus, which it survived with no noticeable damage. It survived me and my two younger siblings learning to drive. On one occasion, while my mother was driving it, it was rear-ended by some flimsy pathetic piece of Japanese trash. The LTD sustained only very minor damage, but the piece of Japanese trash was totalled.
In spite of its size, it was also amazingly maneuverable; being one of few cars I ever drove that could easily make a U-turn in the street in front of my parents' house. Its biggest downside was that it was a horrendous gas guzzler, getting about seven miles to the gallon. I'm given to understand that of all the engines that Ford was making in that time period, it was the 400-cubic-inch V8 that suffered the most adversely from the hasty efforts by its manufacturer to comply with emissions regulations that were suddenly imposed in the 1970s. It also seemed to me that the overall quality of this vehicle was noticeably short of that of the Falcon. I imagine getting my hands on a similar surviving car in good shape, tearing it down and rebuilding it to a higher level of quality more in line with that of the Falcon, keeping the suspension and steering systems, but putting in a completely modern drive train. I wonder if Ford's 6.8-liter V10 would fit. If not, I'm sure that whatever Ford's biggest V8 is probably would, along with a modern transmission.
More recently, I've been thinking about a different car that my parents had, and fantasizing about a much more heavily-modified version thereof. That one was a 1975 LTD station wagon. It was a huge, heavy, powerful behemoth, practically indestructible. I'm given to understand that some time before it came to us, it had been in a collision with a bus, which it survived with no noticeable damage. It survived me and my two younger siblings learning to drive. On one occasion, while my mother was driving it, it was rear-ended by some flimsy pathetic piece of Japanese trash. The LTD sustained only very minor damage, but the piece of Japanese trash was totalled.
In spite of its size, it was also amazingly maneuverable; being one of few cars I ever drove that could easily make a U-turn in the street in front of my parents' house. Its biggest downside was that it was a horrendous gas guzzler, getting about seven miles to the gallon. I'm given to understand that of all the engines that Ford was making in that time period, it was the 400-cubic-inch V8 that suffered the most adversely from the hasty efforts by its manufacturer to comply with emissions regulations that were suddenly imposed in the 1970s. It also seemed to me that the overall quality of this vehicle was noticeably short of that of the Falcon. I imagine getting my hands on a similar surviving car in good shape, tearing it down and rebuilding it to a higher level of quality more in line with that of the Falcon, keeping the suspension and steering systems, but putting in a completely modern drive train. I wonder if Ford's 6.8-liter V10 would fit. If not, I'm sure that whatever Ford's biggest V8 is probably would, along with a modern transmission.
Bob Blaylock
Diamond Member
- Banned
- #36
In those applications, it wouldn't be burdened with all the smog-control crap that my parents' LTD had.Actually, the 400 had a great deal of potential...a guy named Barrie Poole ran one in NHRA drag racing in the 70's (under the name "Border Bandit"). Hot Rod built one almost 20 years ago that made 380HP.
Theirs passed California smog in a 1979 Ranchero.
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