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Posted by: wonkipop Mar 7 2023, 03:11 AM

i had a big afternoon of meetings getting a headache listening to net ball australia's special requirements for a girls netball facility.

got home at 7.00pm with a headache.
opened the fridge.
no beer.
ah - sh#t.

wander out the door, down the lane to the cellar shop to pick up a 6 pack of J beer.
and whats propped on the curb at the end of the lane.

holden fc. 1956-58.
my father's first car (not the actual one but similar - same two tone color, same interior).
my first childhood memory of a car is this one.
would have been 1964/5. sitting in the back seat of one of these little aussie numbers.
sometimes in the front seat. i specifically remember going to the bakery with him to get the bread.

he did have a car before that. a whippet. but i have no memory of that.

anyway this one was there.
completely original. no restoration.
on full plates too. not historic plates.
i have not seen an unrestored one of these for at least 3 decades.
this one was completely intact.
over 65 years old.
the aussie car.
actually a GM product and a kind of shrunken poor cousin north antarctica chevrolet!
but a great car.
these things could survive even a nuclear attack let alone australian roads back then.
ford falcons fell to pieces from the front end back under assault from australian pseudo tarmac. but not these babies.




it blew me away to run into something older than me, and with no plastic surgery. memories came back.

who else has run into their first family car they can remember?
and confronted them again in the street.

post them up.

Posted by: Shivers Mar 7 2023, 05:59 AM

I remember my Dad out running a tornado driving across country. I remember looking over the back seat, the speedo needle was pegged in the 54' caddy and my Mom was yelling "DRIVE FASTER BOB, DRIVE FASTER BOB..!"

Posted by: ClayPerrine Mar 7 2023, 06:20 AM

I can remember riding in my father's Corvair around 1968. We pulled into a gas station and the attendant filled the tank. Then he opened the engine lid, checked the oil, and opened what he thought was the radiator cap. He saw no coolant so he proceeded to top it off. My father came back from the restroom and saw him holding a hose and putting the cap on. The gas monkey told my father he topped off the low coolant. Dad didn't start the car, he just went in and fetched the owner.

The owner had the car pushed in the bay, and the engine drained and fresh oil put in.

We also got free oil changes for a year.

Funny the things you remember from 55 years ago....

Posted by: VaccaRabite Mar 7 2023, 06:40 AM

I remember Dad's Chevy LUV. Dad, me, my brother and sister all crammed into the front bench seat driving between Denton TX and Lake Texoma in the late 70s and early 80s.

I also remember moms first gen Barracuda. Which I HATED at the time and now wish I had. But as a toddler/young child.... Black vinyl seats under that huge greenhouse of a rear window baking in the Texas sun all day. Those seats would sear the skin off your legs.

Zach

Posted by: vitamin914 Mar 7 2023, 07:22 AM

Mid sixties 4 door Pontiac Strato Chief in silver (a Canadian version of the Star Chief). I was in the back seat standing on the transmission hump leaning on the front seat. Mom was in the front passenger seat and we were waiting for dad who was still locking up the house. I asked my mom where do babies come from. She then proceeded to give a very medically technical answer. It obviously went right over my head and I didn't have clue what she was talking about but I still remember the event to this day.

Same car at the Fina gas station around the corner. They were giving away a place setting (cup, saucer, and plate) with several fill ups, packed in a pyramid shaped box. The gas was 33 cents a gallon. We used those dishes for years...

Yes, strange what you remember.

Posted by: rjames Mar 7 2023, 07:39 AM

My mom had a '56 Chevy 2 door that she bought with low miles before I was born in '68. My sister and I would get her to take the corners fast so we could slide on the back seat from one side to another. So much room back there.

Car was stolen and stripped when I was in 4th grade. All she took home was the license plate. She still has it hanging on the wall in her house.

Posted by: DRPHIL914 Mar 7 2023, 08:01 AM

wow, i remember my dad's and mom's cars from when i was 2/3 years old- born in '66, dad had a '63 karmann Ghia that got sold traded for a VW squareback which i remember well- but sold when my sister was born in ' 68 , and i remember riding to the hospital to pick them up so i was 2 and a half, in mom's 1963 T-bird which was a beautify Rose Metallic with white leather and white top and electric everything. one other memory of that car- anyone else remember A&W Drive in restaurants? with a full tray of food and rootbeer floats hooked n the window i recall my grandmother pushing the down button and dumping all that on the ground . Like Clay said, the things you remember from 55 years ago!!!!!

Posted by: r_towle Mar 7 2023, 08:46 AM

1970 Ford LTD Country Squire.
6 kids...(I am the youngest) with the little kids in the back, facing backwards...window open...dog hanging out the back.

No seatbelts...pffftt

the other two cars at that time were my grandpas 57 and 63 beetles that my dad bought from him.
Those are the two that started my addiction.


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Posted by: Beach914 Mar 7 2023, 08:46 AM

My first recollection of Dad's cars was a late 50's Green VW Bug when he was stationed in Germany near Munich in early 60's. I remember driving out in the country somewhere to go to a Sailplane event. We have some pictures in boxes and I hope to get those someday.

We also toured Europe in the early 60's in a pink/white 57 Ford. We camped most places we went and saw it all. Mostly historic WWII cities and sites. I'm so grateful he did this with us.

Posted by: infraredcalvin Mar 7 2023, 08:48 AM

In elementary school my brother and I watched my dad haggle a coworker for ‘75 Thunderbird over dinner and a beer at home. They got to a point where they were close to a deal but couldn’t reach it. We had a pool table in the bonus room, they went up, still drinking, to play a few games. They got pretty competitive, all of a sudden my dad bet him on the last game, the car at the coworkers price or for free. My dad drove his coworker and his wife home that night. That night my dad became legend…

Posted by: Superhawk996 Mar 7 2023, 09:12 AM

My father was a huge sportsman - camping, hunting, fishing.

My earliest memories are riding long, long distances in the early morning darkness going on fishing trips or camping.

Dodge A100 van with some sort of roof extension on it so he could stand up inside it. Small cabinets, tiny kitchen. Sort of like this one.



There were no rest stops allowed - just one of these in the back.


Somewhere in there is probably why I don’t mind doing 16+ hour days driving cross country. Road trips were just a big adventure.

After the engine threw a rod through the block it got parked, and became a storage shed. Recycling at its finest.

Posted by: KELTY360 Mar 7 2023, 09:34 AM

Tonawanda, NY, mid '50s, dad got company cars every year or two. First one I remember was a BM brown, '53 Ford coupe - mom insisted all cars be two doors so us kids wouldn't fall out the back doors. After the Ford came a series of Plymouths; '55, '56 and '57, then back to a Ford in '59 followed by a '61 Chev. Tonawanda was a cold, snowy place in the winter and I remember my mom would always back her trusty '50 Plymouth into the driveway first so she could push start the '57 in the morning. Of all those I'd most like to have the '57, but that one was a genuine lemon.

Posted by: mgarrison Mar 7 2023, 09:34 AM

Not my Dad's first car for sure (I'm the youngest son by 10 years), but first car I really remember; a 1969 Saab Sonett V4 he saw for sale in San Diego when visiting my Aunt. He bought it and we drove it home from San Diego to Phoenix. I rode between my Mom's knees and I remember it so well because we got pulled over by CHP that night. Someone had stolen an older Porsche and the CHP officer was not sure what the Sonett was! I was in the second grade, so 1974-75ish...

The Sonett became my first car when I turned 16. I sold it years later to a guy in VA and when I sent him the title he replied back with pic of a really old registration showing that his Dad had bought the Sonett new, and he drove it during his college years! "It's a small world after all..." Sadly, he converted it to electric He does the same stuff to old 356's too...

For those that have never seen one, here's one similar to what we had:
https://www.zero260.com/posts/its-so-neat-1969-saab-sonett-v4

Posted by: ClayPerrine Mar 7 2023, 09:36 AM

In 1970, my parents bought a brown Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser. If you have ever seen "That 70s show", it is the exact same car, right down to the color.

Two parents and 4 kids in the car. Being the youngest, I had to sit in the third seat with my sister. My two oldest sisters are twins and sat in the middle seat. On one trip from Ohio back to Texas, they were fighting, and my dad told them "Don't make me stop this car." I don't know which one said it, but one of them said "You won't."

My father practically locked up the wheels stopping that wagon on the side of the freeway in Tennessee. Both of them got their butts warmed. No one ever thought he was bluffing again.

Posted by: racer914 Mar 7 2023, 10:29 AM

Being one of 5 kids my Dad mostly drove station wagons like the '58 shown but he did have a 1965 Barracuda Formula S which I lusted after. When I turned 16 he was getting ready to sell it and I begged him to sell it to me. Probably the best decision he ever made...said "you'd kill yourself" so I wound up with a '56 VW. Me on the far left, the last two had not been hatched yet.

Posted by: SirAndy Mar 7 2023, 10:33 AM

I seem to be thinking deeply about something, can't remember what that was.
I do remember the car but i've never seen one again in the wild. It was always parked in that same spot.





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Posted by: brant Mar 7 2023, 10:49 AM

luckily my dad was a car guy...
and that is what led to getting a 914 at age 15

he had always been a car guy
and had many cars that were before my birth, that I don't remember

including a convertible 59 special edition 2 door chevy v8 with factory candle apple red, carb pack, and a 4 speed, and a bigger motor from the factory option list.
not to mention the MK2 right hand jaguar that I was delivered in the back seat of.
plus the lotus Elite, and TR3

but the one I remember was around age 5... he used to own a 67 lotus Elan and would pull up on the drive way and let me sit on his lap and steer as he pulled it into the garage. I remember crying the day he sold that car...

about 10 years later we were at a vintage race in Steamboat.... walking through the paddock and there were many elans.... he was showing me how "this one is too late and such and such is different"... then we walked up to one and he got a puzzled look on his face.... he declared this is my car... the actual car...

it still had the details he had put on the car. the white painted headers he put on when he rebuilt the motor, the cracked wooden steering wheel under a cover that his neighbor had caused helping him push the car. the bumpers painted as my father had done in black.

the owner came up... to tell us that he was only the 2nd owner of the car and it had original low mileage. my father nicely pointed out that he had rebuilt the motor with a hot cam at 110,000 miles... owner got upset with us... said that there was no way.. as the car had under 30K mileage on the odometer....

I still have the factory leather key fob that came with the car when my father purchased it new... as well as the wooden shift knob from it, that had been replaced with aftermarket during the time my dad owned it....


this is not the actual car
just a screen print from google:


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Posted by: Superhawk996 Mar 7 2023, 11:00 AM

You know that story is going to happen again to more than one proud new 914 owner!

Posted by: StarBear Mar 7 2023, 11:00 AM

My dad had an early (58?) Nash Metropolitan- little car before little cars were cool. Battery under the back seat and very small windshield wipers. Sold it as he couldn’t get parts for it. Even us little kids couldn’t fit in the back unless only one of us , sitting sideways.
He Sold it for one of the first Toyota Coronas. Had a crown emblem on the front IIRC.

Posted by: Jim C Mar 7 2023, 11:02 AM

My earliest memory is of a 1954 Buick Roadmaster convertible. Originally yellow than repainted black. Had a radio you could remove from the dash and use as a portable if I remember. It replaced a 1954 Kaiser totaled by a drunk driver.

Posted by: campbellcj Mar 7 2023, 11:55 AM

My first family car memory was a white VW Bug, not sure of the year but mid/late 60s. Subsequently we got a big '68 Plymouth Satellite station wagon with a 318 V8 in a light green color, which we still had when I started learning to drive. A green 72 Chevy Vega and a maroon 77 Buick LeSabre sedan followed later. (Both piles of junk.) They also had one of the earlier Honda Accords for a while which also was kind of a junky car, surprisingly, and they dumped that pretty quickly. Since the mid-80s my parents have been die-hard Toyota people.

Posted by: 930cabman Mar 7 2023, 03:46 PM

Go Bob

Posted by: technicalninja Mar 7 2023, 05:03 PM

My first memories are all 914s...
My Dad has been a Porsche nut his entire life and when I was born he was SCCA racing a Porsche convertible D.
I don't remember the D at all, but after his stint in the Airforce he got out too late for a pilot's job with the airlines and ended up selling Porsches at Green Oaks Porsche Audi up in Ft Worth.
The Dealership owners, The Quins, are still close family friends.
Back then all of the salesmen took demonstrators home for the weekends.
Very occasionally it was a "real" Porsche 911 but most of the time it was a 914.

We called them P-Wagons as a play on their pedigree...

Dad would take me with him, in a nice brand new 914, and we'd go around Lake Benbrook at speed early Sunday morning, just after sunup.

He'd been racing for about 10 years then and "at speed" was serious.

So, I have street racing memories in many, many 914s as my first automotive memories.

These relationships are so old that when Dad found our current 914 he had Louis Quin (dealer owner son who raced 914s for the dealership) check it out.

Louis said "You just HAVE to buy it, if you don't I will".

So, the 914 saga has another chapter left to write...

Posted by: slowrodent Mar 7 2023, 05:29 PM

Late '50s big-assed Mercury... I was a wee tyke... Car was bought used, as were all my dad's cars back then.... until a 1968 Pontiac Catalina was our first brand-spankin' new vehicle...He was way proud of that one.

Posted by: SKL1 Mar 7 2023, 05:51 PM

I vaguely remember my mom's '51 Cadillac 4 door sedan, and my dad's '54 Chevy convertible. Biggest kid memory was my dad borrowing a friend's '55 T-bird to take me on rides on my 5th birthday. Think there were strong car genes in our family??


(and my dad got his own 914 6 months after I got mine...)

Posted by: Pursang Mar 7 2023, 06:15 PM

Man, I'm getting old. The first car I remember was a 1951 (?) Packard Clipper. I would have been about six years old at the time. The thing I remember most about it were the rope pulls that were mounted horizontally on the back of the front seats to aid exit of rear seat (adult) passengers.

Posted by: KELTY360 Mar 7 2023, 07:20 PM

I think those were called robe cords and were designed to hold a blanket that could keep back seat passengers warm.

Posted by: Pursang Mar 7 2023, 11:23 PM

Yeah. That sounds right. Talked to my brother about this and he said Dad's car was a 1950 model and the cord was a single item from one side of the seat to the other.

Posted by: NotLance Mar 8 2023, 12:02 AM

A little bit closer to the present tense than some here but having this in the garage definitely started my fascination with cars. (And inspired the choice of 914 for my own first car). While I don't think it was his first car, the story of him buying it when he was young and building it his way over the decades always stuck with me. Now I've started doing the same with my 914!

When the once-in-a-blue moon my dad had off of work would roll around he would drop me off for school in it - we would always stop for donuts. Fast forward the years a bit and he's got me in the driver's seat learning how to drive a standard - All so I can drive my 914 when the motor went back in.

Posted by: East coaster Mar 8 2023, 06:46 AM

My fathers restored 1910 Overland brings fond memories. I’d love to know where it is now.

Posted by: dr914@autoatlanta.com Mar 8 2023, 11:04 AM

On may 28th 1964 my Dad was cleaning out our 60 Buick Lesabre in our basement garage in Glastonbury connecticut. I asked him "Dad why are you cleaning out the car?" He replied, "Just cleaning it as I usually do!" to which I replied: "No Dad, you are taking things out of it not cleaning it!" " Ok George, Jump in and I will show you!"
We took a ride over to the Buick Dealer in West Hartford Connecticut only to behold a lineup of the best looking cars I had ever seen and my Dad's heartthrob for the rest of his life, a 1964 Buick Riviera. "Dad we are buying one of these?" "Yes George, one of these!" I could not believe it, four bucket seats and POWER WINDOWS!!!!

My Mom was not thrilled, how to fit four children (another was to come a few years later) in a car with four bucket seats???

Posted by: bossboy302 Mar 8 2023, 11:35 AM

1964 Ford Galaxie 500 hardtop. 390 4bbl carb dual exhaust:
After a family dinner (dad, mom, 3 kids) pops would slow and then do several 20-100 full floor sprints on the open road. Mom would raise her voice is displeasure while dad convinced her he was "just blowing out the carbon". My brother and I would squeal in delight at the 2 black 'contrails' left in our wake...

sorry, not his first car by far, but the one I still remember most vividly

Posted by: bdstone914 Mar 8 2023, 11:51 AM

First car I remember my dad had was a 41 Olds. When my mom drove my sisters to school they hid so no one would see them in the old car. It was a beast. He saved the front seat for a garage seat for many years.

Posted by: pt_700 Mar 8 2023, 01:48 PM

from the days of the one and only "family" car, 1970 volkswagen bus. i almost died twice in that thing!

1st time & one of my earliest memories, musta been 2 or 3, mom put me out and i reached back in the sliding door to grab a piece of styrofoam from a bean bag, she didn't see this and slammed the door on my head!

2nd time, mom rear ended someone and i was seated in the front, in the days before kid seats. i wound up on the floor with the front crumpled around me. i'm told i was extracted without a scratch.

what kinda guilt poor mom musta felt...

Posted by: Geezer914 Mar 8 2023, 02:02 PM

1950 Chevy 2dr coupe. Sold it in 1956 and bought a 55 Chevy Belaire 2dr 6cyl. Two tone white/light blue. I was 8 at the time. My dad built this go-kart when I was 11.

Posted by: flipb Mar 8 2023, 02:48 PM

I'm younger than all you geezers so mine's not as exotic. My Dad had a 912 and then a 911 but got rid of the latter around the time I was born.

I have clear memories of riding around in his Volvo wagon. It was sort of dijon mustard colored.

But the one that made an impression on me was in 1985, he ordered a new Saab 9000 Turbo, sight-unseen, before any had made it to the US. It was a month or two before it was delivered. When he brought it home, seven-year-old-me was astounded. It was like a fighter jet had landed in our driveway. It had digital screens! The cockpit wrapped around the driver! My mind was blown. I sat in it for hours. At one point, I accidentally pushed in the cigarette lighter and then ran into the house crying - I told my mom that the car was going to catch on fire the next time dad started it.

(Fortunately, it did not. But it did spend several weeks at the dealership when the computer-controlled fuel injection died a few weeks into our ownership. The techs had no idea how to service it and were on the phone with Sweden every day.)

It was pretty much identical to this one:

Posted by: seanpaulmc Mar 8 2023, 06:13 PM

It was something like this...





but without the cool shirt.

Posted by: mrholland2 Mar 8 2023, 06:18 PM

Dad had a 1968 Plymouth Roadrunner (bright blue, 383 automatic), mom had a 1964 Pontiac Tempest Lemans 4 speed, no power anything.

I recall riding in the Roadrunner with the speedo pegged on north hiway 63 in mid Missouri going to Camp Thunderbird when some Corvette decided to race my dad.

Mostly I recall sitting in the bucket passenger seat of mom's LeMans and shifting for her.

No wonder I'm into older cars!

Posted by: CCE Mar 8 2023, 06:48 PM

My dad liked nice cars but down here in Mexico there was not much to choose from. Reading the topic I can really recall my dad with his black Mustang 81, a hardtop fox body 8cil automatic. I remember it was the car he owned and liked the most, in his mind the best car ever was the 50s t-bird, he said it was the Frank Sinatra’s car.

(By the way. The mustang ended up upside down in the hands of my sister while my dad was on vacations)


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Posted by: StarBear Mar 8 2023, 06:57 PM

I LOVE these stories!! Very touching. Keep ‘em coming!

Posted by: poorsche914 Mar 8 2023, 08:39 PM

My dad had a green Morris Minor. He tells me he rebuilt the engine on the kitchen table! Used the swing set as an engine hoist.
Also had a red Saab and a blue Toyota wagon. This was in the early to mid '60s.

I remember sitting on the floor behind the driver seat (not sure which car) and "shifting gears" with an ice scraper. My dad asked why I had so many gears.

In later years, he bought a new 1975 Dodge Colt GT - yellow with black racing stripe ; a '79 Mustang 5.0 Pace Car edition ; and, finally, a '75 914 1.8 that got me hooked

Posted by: Michael N Mar 8 2023, 09:55 PM

Dad drove a brown convertible mid 60’s Ford Thunderbird. I am the youngest of 5 kids. I remember freezing my butt off sitting in the back seat of the T-bird in the SF Bay Area. I don’t ever remember the top being up on the car. It was replaced with an early 70’s VW bus.

Posted by: Maltese Falcon Mar 9 2023, 01:00 AM

Dad's* 1952 Chevy (sea foam green) business-coupe, with Mom posing in her new dress that she just finished sewing * Dad's taking the pic. I recall standing up in the rear interior area...I liked standing versus being seated when out for a drive . Fond memories listening to my Dad sending well wishes in several Euro languages to (bad L.A.) drivers on the road + everyone snacking on Mom's home baked poppyseed cookies

Posted by: Maltese Falcon Mar 9 2023, 01:09 AM

This was Dad and his DKW somewhere in Germany 1949'ish before coming to the USA. Since I was not born yet...I have no real time memories of the car, but the pic speaks for itself as he always loved the cars that he owned; one of my Faves

Posted by: worn Mar 9 2023, 03:24 AM

1961 Ford Falcon wagon. With the extra power 170 cid engine. I miss that car! Mostly though, i miss him.

Posted by: dax1969 Mar 9 2023, 03:37 AM

It so funny to see how different the cars were in Europe and the USA. While at your side BIG and BIGGER was key, on this side cars were small, nimble. Today they even look dangerous small
Most of you don't even recognize these cars I guess

Born in 1969 my first memory was this car, a green Simca 1100 (internet pic, not the actual car). I usually sat at the backseat but in between the two front seats. Seatbelts were not present at all



From photo albums I know he had three cars before

A Simca 1000



A Citroen Dyane



A Ford Anglia was his first car



rgds
Dax

Posted by: TROJANMAN Mar 9 2023, 09:08 AM

1972


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Posted by: Montreal914 Mar 9 2023, 07:15 PM

I remember lifting up as his white early 70's Citroën GS with red interior would start (hydro-pneumatic suspension). The seats were very comfortable and the fabric was soft, some kind of velour if I recall.

The speedometer was also very cool being this magnifying glass with the number scrolling behind it. They became bigger as passing by the focal point.

I remember him saying; There are probably less than 10 of these in the country (Canada), this is a special car and very ahead of its time!

Obviously, there were plenty in EU, but we didn't get a lot of that offering in North America then, and still don't.

Not his but same color in and out.

Posted by: wonkipop Mar 9 2023, 07:43 PM

@http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showuser=12023

thats cool your father owned a GS. fabulous cars.
there were hundreds of them running around down here in the 80s.
and then they all disappeared off the roads.
the rhd ones did not get the avante garde dashboard with the magnifying prism speedo
more conventional dials were used similar to this one i attach photos of for your interest.
a super special GS that comes into our workshop every now and then.
one of the very rare birotors. (comotor wankel). most were crushed by citroen after the rotary program was aborted. this one escaped to live down here.
its a challenge to find the bits for the engine.
even the spark plugs are NLA these days.






i have a 99 XM tucked in the garage and enjoy starting it up.
its fun waiting for it to pick itself up off the floor.
mostly it just sits there about 3 inches off the deck at rest.

Posted by: L-Jet914 Mar 9 2023, 07:56 PM

I was born in 1987 lol. My first memories of cars were my father's 1974 1.8L 914 and my mother's 1974 Mercury Capri (copper/burnt orange color) 4 cylinder manual transmission. I grew up riding around in both. Before the Capri she had a 1970 VW Beetle Autostick which I never got to see. Then my mother traded in her Capri for a 1990 Toyota Corolla LE 5 speed which I ended up learning how to drive on to go to high school in. Before the Corolla we had a 1986 Plymouth Voyager with the Mitsubishi 3.0L V6 a true mini van back then. My younger brother born in 1990 and I tooled around in the Voyager most of the time. My younger brother and I would sit in the 914 and ride it into the garage when my dad would come home. It was the softest riding van I had ever been in. The 914 is still here to this day and the last vestiges of my father's bachelorhood haha.

Posted by: bkrantz Mar 9 2023, 09:08 PM

The oldest family car I remember was our 1959 Chevy wagon, at the end of the era of tail fins. My dad bought this new, so probably in late 1958 when I was 1.

Check out those tail lights.


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Posted by: Osnabruck914 Mar 9 2023, 10:00 PM

My very first memory occurred in one of these (1940 LaSalle), with Dad driving cross-country from San Francisco to Offut Air Force Base Omaha, Nebraska upon the family's return from three years in Okinawa. The car barely made it across the desert and needed a rebuild on arrival.

Posted by: Ottomotion Mar 9 2023, 11:38 PM

Not dad's car but his bike.
Would love to find it. It was sold in the Norwalk-LaMirada area in So-Cal in the early 70's.

Posted by: flyer86d Mar 10 2023, 06:14 AM

Dad had a 1949 Ford coupe when I was born and in 1955 bought a new 55 Chevy 210 2 door with a V8 and Powerglide. I don’t remember the Ford but my earliest memory is Mom telling us that Dad bellied landed his Lockheed Lodestar at Chicago Midway in October of 1954 one month short of my 2nd birthday. They all walked away and the airplane was repaired. The CEO of the company was onboard and he commented to my dad, “Bill, that was the smoothest landing you have ever made!”

He also had a 1951 Olds Coupe that he would commute to the airport in. He replaced the Olds with a new 1961 VW sunroof which all three of us learned to drive in.

Charlie

Posted by: dflesburg Mar 10 2023, 06:33 AM

My Dad's Car. The one that started all this sickness with myself, my brother, my boys and my wife.....


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Posted by: DaveB Mar 10 2023, 10:54 AM

Here is my Dad and Mom with my cousin and the car I grew up in. This picture was right after they purchased the car at the Long Beach Chevy dealership in 1955. Seamist green, blue-flame six engine, vinyl flooring, all drum brakes.



BTW - I still have it.

DaveB

Posted by: wonkipop Mar 10 2023, 04:01 PM

that 55 is cool @http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showuser=26107

takes topic full circle on the cars.

50s aus holdens were basically chevs put on a diet and fed a GM straight 6.
(aussies got the fancy wrap around windscreen update in 1960 ).




the cabin turrets on holdens were tall so you could wear your hat while driving.
not kidding. everybody wore a hat permanently glued to their head in australia until the mid 1960s.

Posted by: DaveB Mar 10 2023, 05:00 PM

@http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showuser=24231 Funny, growing up in the US in the 60's my image of Australians was they wore shorts and a slouch hat 24/7 . BTW - Did the holden also have a 2 speed powerglide?

My Mom was 4" 10" or 150cm. The steering wheel in the 55 is huge. So when she drove it she barely touched the pedals and almost cleared the top of steering wheel. It looked like a ghost car from behind.


DaveB

Posted by: flyer86d Mar 10 2023, 05:13 PM

My parents 55 was the same color but with a white top and as I said before, V8 & Powerglide. Carpets, no radio and dog dish hubcaps. They bought it new in Elgin, Illinois but it was pretty rusty when they traded it in for a new 1963 Olds Dynamic 88. Now that was a great car!

Charlie

Posted by: wonkipop Mar 10 2023, 05:30 PM

like the monty python "bruce" sketch.

shorts and slouch hat is true of the working man australian from WW2 on.
until the recent era where every body on work sites wears fluoro reflective gear and full skin coverings for out door work. low ozone content in southern hemisphere atmosphere. high skin cancer rates.

but australia was a very formal place in middle class ciricles.
very british.
full suit and tie with a hat on.
even when it was 100F and a north wind blowing with bushfire smoke swirling through town.

it only really relaxed from the late 60s on.
now no one wears tie, not even politicians.
but hats are back in big time.

yep holdens had two speed powerglide but i have to think when auto trans came in.i
i don't think it was offered on aussie cars until some time in the 60s.
ford and chrysler had the autos earlier.
holden then had the trimatic auto box. think that came along in late 60s.
my dad was strictly a stick shift man.
but it wasn't on the floor.
"three on the tree" as it was known. lever on the steering column.
front seats were always bench.
often with a kid between mum and dad.
thats where i used to sit a lot until i got too big.
these days you would be accused of child cruelty if you even dared to let a kid get in the front seat of a car until they are 10 years old. no fun for the modern aussie kid.

Posted by: Root_Werks Mar 10 2023, 05:33 PM

1988 I think?

The Bug is my 1966 Oval window'd Bug. The red Vega was my Dad's he bought new in 1973. All us kids learned to drive that Vega. I took my drivers test in it. He also had a 1959 Vert Bug and bunches of other cars I don't have pics of.




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Posted by: stownsen914 Mar 10 2023, 06:02 PM

I don't have a pic handy, but Dad's first car was a 356 believe it or not. Back when Porsches were kooky imports.

Posted by: wonkipop Mar 10 2023, 08:26 PM

@http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showuser=2105

a white "pastie" i can see in the background too?

Posted by: Bullethead Mar 10 2023, 08:44 PM

My first automotive memory is seeing high tension power line structures parade past the windows of a '49 Hudson in a sunset thunderstorm... pretty scary. I was probably 3 or 4.
The other is sitting in my dad's lap, steering a '56 Ford Sunliner, two-tone green with a white top. My strongest olfactory memory is of Parliament cigarettes lit on that car's lighter.

When I was six, my dad bought a '50 Willys Jeepster to restore for my older sisters and brother to drive to high school.

I was equipped with a pair of goggles, a bandana to cover my nose and mouth, a scraper, then shoved under the car. "Get to work!". My introduction to auto restoration.

Posted by: DaveB Mar 11 2023, 05:33 AM

Charlie

My Dad's 55 is a white top too. This is the 55 today. Come this October it will have been in my family for 68 years. When my Dad was alive I just kept the car going. It runs but I wouldn't drive behind it. Now that my Dad is gone, it's next in line to be brought back after the 914 gets finished. And that is the actual license plate for the 55 in California. My Mom had a great sense of humor.










DaveB

Posted by: Root_Werks Mar 12 2023, 07:03 PM

Buddies Fastback at the time. Thunk it was FI and Auto trans?

Posted by: Unobtanium-inc Mar 12 2023, 08:39 PM

The late Great Dr. Wright had this, a few will recognize what it is.


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Posted by: dflesburg Mar 13 2023, 05:31 AM

9014?

Posted by: ClayPerrine Mar 13 2023, 05:46 AM

Diablo 914. I wanted the kit back in the day.


Big article in VW/Porsche magazine. I still have a copy of it.

Posted by: DRPHIL914 Mar 13 2023, 06:59 AM

that might be the best looking aftermarket kit ive ever seen on a 914!

Posted by: Unobtanium-inc Mar 13 2023, 06:41 PM

Nope, it was the Eagle GT.

Posted by: Puebloswatcop Mar 13 2023, 07:03 PM

I can remember my Dad had a 1964 Pontiac Tempest 4 door. It was a 3 on the tree, wich just wasnt cool back in my days. I remember it had no seatbelts in the back seat, us kids uaed to lay in the back window and wait for dad to hit the brakes so we would fly out and land on the seat ( sometimes the floor). I remember going to the drive-in theater in it. It had no AC....Dad used to tell us it did have 4/75 AC and that was good enough for us. I spent many hours under that car holding the flashlight for dad during oil changes and such (and learning to curse in German).

I used to think that car was "un-cool", he finally sold it in about 1970 to the kid accross the street......Turns out it was a pretty cool car after all, as was my Dad, I just didn't know it. This isnt an actual pic of his car (at least I don't think it is) but it looked exactly like this.

Posted by: rhodyguy Mar 15 2023, 09:55 AM

57’ Buick Special. 2 tone green. Similar to a 57’ Chevy. We drove from Seattle to Buffalo in it when I was 5. Then they bought a 67’ Chrysler Newport Custom. It had a 383 and a 2 barrel carb. Dismal MPG. There was nothing custom about it. FPOS car. I pleaded with my dad to buy a Buick Skylark (a 326?} with bucket seats. A baby GTO in the day. Nope.

Posted by: flyer86d Mar 15 2023, 02:23 PM

That’s what my Dads 55 looked like except yours is in better shape now than Dad’s was in 1963 when he traded it in. Illinois and New Jersey winters take a toll.

Posted by: wonkipop Mar 15 2023, 03:00 PM

@http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showuser=26107

chev and holden engine bays almost identical!
even down to the wiper motor.

GM had to think up a new place for the battery in holdens.
right hand drive gear got in the way.
good thing the engine bay was mostly air and you could shift sh$t around.
no worries getting your fat fingers in there to change the plugs.




aussies called them grey motors.
for obvious reasons.
red motors came along in the 1960s. high compression.
fancy!

Posted by: ClayPerrine Mar 15 2023, 06:59 PM

My father, Betty and I restored his 55 Bel Air convertible. We found the factory assembly manuals on ebay, and bought them. They referenced the Holden and all of the right hand drive components.

The manuals went when he sold the car.

Posted by: wonkipop Mar 15 2023, 08:55 PM

aussies weren't dumb back then mr. p.
(can't speak for their collective intelligence these days but).
they knew where the best gear came from and who had the right stuff.
at least back then.

except the mother country worshippers who flogged their little morris cars along highways and caused traffic jambs of holdens and fords backed up behind them.

GM always had a good product in holdens right through to the late 70s.
they dropped the ball at that point.
decided to use the GM europe platform. what a mistake.

Thats when Ford got the upper hand on them.

Shortly after that though it didn't matter because Toyota was preparing to karate chop the lot of them and did.


EDIT - in reference to the manuals and right hand drive components.
both ford and holden did sell small volumes of the larger american cars as "lux" vehicles.
can't recall if 55 chevs were, but certainly impalas were, right through from late 50s to late 60s.

Posted by: mmichalik Mar 16 2023, 09:06 AM

My dad always worked in body shops so, we've been a car family from the beginning. My oldest memory, from 1973 / 74 was sitting in the passengers seat of his 71 Corvette, backing out of the garage.
I remember the black interior and looking up, watching the garage door go by. I was 3 or 4 years old at the time.
Here's pic of a 71 Vette, NOT his actual car though. Man! I wish I had this today.




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Posted by: DaveB Mar 16 2023, 04:15 PM

@http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showuser=24231 If the engine had 72bhp in '56 that's about what the 1.8 had in the 914 20 years later. That's full circle. As I look at the engine bay it's a little more compact and has the radiator on the V8 side for chevy in 55. But, it's the same layout, even the same air filter. That's really cool - thanks for putting them side-by-side.

DaveB