Your Fathers Car., earliest memory. Options

[wonkipop]

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. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

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. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[Shivers]

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..!"

[ClayPerrine]

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....

[VaccaRabite]

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

[vitamin914]

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.

[rjames]

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.

[DRPHIL914]

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!!!!!

[r_towle]

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.

[Beach914]

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.

[infraredcalvin]

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…

[Superhawk996]

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. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/av-943.gif)


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. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/av-943.gif)

[KELTY360]

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.

[mgarrison]

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 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif) He does the same stuff to old 356's too... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/chair.gif)

For those that have never seen one, here's one similar to what we had:
https://www.zero260.com/posts/its-so-neat-1...-saab-sonett-v4

[ClayPerrine]

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. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/slap.gif)

[racer914]

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.

[SirAndy]

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.

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.
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif)

[brant]

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:

[Superhawk996]

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....

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/av-943.gif)

You know that story is going to happen again to more than one proud new 914 owner! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy11.gif)

[StarBear]

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.

[Jim C]

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.