OT: What did your parents drive?, Not to work - for fun? Options

[Pat Garvey]

Just spent a nostalgic week with my parents/in-laws. Guess i know where I get my moto-DNA.

My father-in-law, who dies last week once had, as his premier car, a first-run Cobra! I never knew it! '64 289. kept it for 3 years, before deciding it wasn't a "family" car. Traded it for a Cadillac.

My father had 2 hemi-Dodges. A '55 and and a '56. Two-tone paint on both (black & red). Bought my Mom a deuce coupe in '60. She hated that car! Traded it for a '66 VW, which she still misses at age 93.

My 2nd car (after the beer wagon hand-me-down '60 Dodge) was a '66 Dodge Dart GT (I'd KILL to have it back). 273 cid, 4 speed, balanced blueprinted & dyno'd at 304 hp, Edelbrock, dual carter AFB's w/postive linkage. 6 mpg.

So....why have I spent 35 years with a 1.7 914/4?
Pat

[Scott S]

We had some fun cars. Mom drove a VW square back that my dad kept in almost concour condition. Little yellow car - man I would love to have it today. She traded up to a two year old 1979 VW bus that was in nearly the same shape - had this giant sun roof and a way cool cassette player. My dad drove a 68 Cutlass untill 1974 - thats when he bought his 1971 914-6 that a neighbor was selling. I need to see if he has the serial number and see if anyone on this list owns it. It was the lighter orange with black. Plate number was California blue/yellow 787-ELU. Even had a factory bra that covered the entire front hood. I would love to find that car....
He sold it in 1981 to buy a 930 (from the same neigbor). It was a tad blinged out for dad - red piping on the seats, speakers in the headrests, red piping on the mats and the wheels were polished with the red background. I dont think he ever took that car over 70 mph. Unfortunately he thought it would be silly to own such a car when we moved to colorado - so it went away. He had a company car and mom traded the bus for a full size blazer. Other than some grey market Audi 100's and my grey market GTI, things were pretty practical until about 15 years ago. Since then we have been collecting and restoring all sorts of stuff - most of it british and all under the premise of investment. We try to keep at least a 50% debt to equity ratio - not including our personal time we have invested.

Dad still loves Audis. He drived the a-4 and mom has the TT. He has been looking at the A8 recently as the A-4 is getting old. He is a pretty big guy and I think he would be more comfortable in a bigger car. He loves my Sliverado!