Jeff McNeal wrote:
>
> Okay, I'll bite. In order of appearance, they were/are:
Hmm, the original of this email seems to have been misplaced by my ISP's
server. But, my list, from beginning to end, with annotations, is:
`63 Spitfire4 (ignomious demise)
`64 MG 1100 4-dr (inherited by marriage... should have known from the
car that the marriage was doomed <g>)
`64 Corvair 3-spd convert (good riddance)
`72 Mercury Capri (only car I ever bought new--great gas mileage, lousy
oil mileage, incredibly poor customer service, and the original brakes
from hell)
`62 TR4 (destroyed in 1978, and my all-time favorite car)
`64 VW bus (bought for $100 with a blown 1500g engine, from a Pakistani
graduate student... "I was going down the road at 55 miles per hours,
and everything stop." No wonder... a valve seat had grenaded and a big
chip had welded the piston and cylinder together... faithful
transportation for years after a 40hp implant)
`60 Austin Mini 850 (bought from a high-school friend of my then
youngest brother-in-law for $50, every tire hopelessly flat, and the
rear trunk deck badly rusted... fixed it up, but simply could not drive
it--my knees stuck up eight inches above the top of the driver's door)
`67 Ford Custom 500 (a dependable car, but I didn't realize it, because
of perpetual oil leaks and the worst case of surface rust ever
encountered on an otherwise solid car)
`69 VW bug (traded the Ford and $250 for it, thinking I would save on
gas on a long commute... the bug engine burned a valve after three
months, and the Ford was later sold by its new owner for $900 after a
sandblast and a $50 paint job. Eventually, the bug was retired after
322,000 miles when the driver's floorboard fell out of it and I had
nothing for an accelerator heel rest but the brake line, which
eventually stretched, cracked, and the brakes failed)
`66 VW bus w/mini camper top (put an 80-horse engine in it, ran it for a
year, and was t-boned by a nineteen-year-old woman in a new Camaro going
70 in the snow, who said, after I exited the bus with blood all over my
face, hanging onto the door for support, "are you alright?," and then,
"guess my insurance rates are going up... again")
`68 VW Squareback (mostly for parts)
`71 VW bus (a front-end wreck, bought from a friend to get it out of
storage hock before the fees became excessive... cut it up with the
intention of making the back half into a surrey for a local eccentric
lesbian who had the only mule-powered VW bug I'd ever seen)
`71 Pinto (owned for a total of three days)
`69 Fiat 124 coupe (bought to settle a dispute between a garage and
then-wife's current extra-curricular activity, hoping to bring domestic
peace and tranquility... hopeless to expect that of a Fiat, even a
nice-looking one <g>)
`68 VW camper (ran it hard for six years, and when the engine got tired,
made all the parts to install the engine from a rusted Lancia Beta
coupe, ran it hard another eleven years... it's still in the yard,
waiting for me to do something with it)
`70 GT6+ (bought from a guy in Albuquerque, NM who'd taken the entire
car apart, let it sit for several years, then had a double-bypass and
was told by his doctor not to lift anything heavier than ten pounds. He
sold the car to me and I've been working on it, when time allows, ever
since)
`71 GT6 Mk III (for parts)
`72 GT6 Mk III (running daily)
`86 Nissan 300ZX (bought on internet auction because 800-mile round
trips every other weekend in the GT6 were really wearing me out... not a
bad car, overall, but not a Triumph)
`64 TR4 (recently purchased, not the best deal I've ever made, but,
eventually, will be a replacement for the lost `62, or a gift for my
girlfriend, if she'll let me drive it once in a while in exchange for
careful maintenance <g>)
Cheers, all.
--
Michael D. Porter
Roswell, NM
mailto: mporter@zianet.com
`70 GT6+ (being refurbished, slowly)
`71 GT6 Mk. III (organ donor)
`72 GT6 Mk. III (daily driver)
`64 TR4 (awaiting intensive care)
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