I not-so-fondly remember my lesson on its fuel gauge: E meant Empty not 2 more gallons heralded by an abrupt stop and a staccato fuel pump behind my rear. Their were a lot of spontaneous learning experiences with my Midget. Bless its heart.

During those younger days (when I didn't need a/c) my Midget was bracketed by a MGA and Fiat X 1/9 both of which I enjoyed but not to the extent of the Midget. Pound for dollar the Midget was King of Thrills.

 Porsche 914 - Sumflow 11:55:47 06/21/12 (0)
 Re: Your most fun or cherished car? - Camrahnbay 18:49:50 05/29/09 (0)
 E36 M3 with coilovers and LTW aero kit - navman 15:29:41 05/18/09 (0)

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Show full thread outline!

 Porsche 914 - Sumflow 11:55:47 06/21/12 (0)
 Re: Your most fun or cherished car? - Camrahnbay 18:49:50 05/29/09 (0)
 E36 M3 with coilovers and LTW aero kit - navman 15:29:41 05/18/09 (0)
 Re: Your most fun or cherished car? - calloway 13:47:27 12/21/07 (0)
 Re: VOLVO!! Don't you forget it! - xrayspex78 22:50:42 10/11/07 (0)
 Kho tang meo vat Viet Nam - meovat 06:56:34 07/10/06 (0)
 a few... '88 M5, '96 XJR , '67 healy sprite Mk IV - stan2 11:02:38 01/11/05 (1)
 Lovely! I have an E34 M5, but the E28 has always ingrigued me (NT) - Jeff Cullen 11:46:21 05/23/05 (0)
 59 Alfa Guilieta Sprint GT - MylesJ 20:25:23 12/29/04 (0)
 Tah John - Timbo in Oz 17:54:04 11/09/04 (0)
 Re: Your most fun or cherished car? - Owen 02:34:10 10/13/04 (0)
 Re: Your most fun or cherished car? - NoTransistors 17:35:48 07/23/04 (0)
 1973 MGB... - millen 14:07:02 07/20/04 (1)
 To have it looking that good today would have cost you $36,785.13 by now. Still, you sholda kept it. n - albee33 13:34:33 07/25/04 (0)
 Right Here.... - pburant 17:24:53 07/15/04 (0)
 Re: Your most fun or cherished car? - Jack Seaton 09:48:47 06/21/04 (0)
 Back then: - grinagog 03:52:45 06/18/04 (2)
 THAT has to be the ultimate sleeper...cool...(nt) - Gordy 14:08:14 07/14/04 (0)
 And Now: (not sure if two wheels count tho') - grinagog 04:01:35 06/18/04 (0)
 Well - here's mine - kavakidd 11:34:01 06/16/04 (1)
 Without a doubt you gotta miss it! Route 66! n - albee33 17:58:49 06/16/04 (0)
 Without a doubt a '71 Vega - subcoolman 18:00:58 06/13/04 (0)
 Re: Your most fun or cherished car? - G.George 13:10:23 06/13/04 (3)
 Remember the steering gear on the X1/9? - albee33 18:39:18 06/13/04 (2)
 I still have a X1/9. - Bandit 07:36:17 07/21/04 (1)
 Hey - Stephan 21:28:23 06/14/06 (0)
 I had a 67' MG "B" and while I loved driving it...it always seemed like it... - TWB 12:28:38 06/13/04 (0)

I loved them all, they were all great cars. I was looking for a Lotus, but at the time what turned out to me my most fun car was the Porsche 914. Two people could do things in that car that cannot be done in a Corvette or a Boxster.
~~~
Hide it ~ nothing looks better..

• 914 World

• Kho tang meo vat Viet Nam

I got it as part of my pay apprenticing to a mechanic from Team Alfa. Guiseppe (Joe) Solvino came to the US. It was his hill climb car. His personal racer redlined at 10,000 rpm. It had a P33 trans that he liberated when he left the team. We had to put Blue Streaks on it and it did wheelies once we stopped the tire spin.

Lots of late night blue highway runs close to 100mph were done in that car.

Or my first really quick VW, a type 3 1600S fastback, a real Q-car too. It had a 2.2 Kombi engine in there, stroked and bored, roller bearings, DC progressive downdraughts, extractors. compensator bar, and wides and radials. Front DISCS! metallised pads and linings.

the most fun is whatever I have at the time, I think.

Warmest

Timbo in Oz
The Skyptical Mensurer and Audio Scrounger

'Still not saluting.'

Read about and view system at:

http://www.theanalogdept.com/tim_bailey.htm

Fond memories - in Limeflower

Owen

Too bad, I have to trade it with a Mustang GT because of my Italian girlfriend who hated driving it in the winter due to the cab heating output deficiency.

I should have kept the darn thing and let my girlfriend go. Of course, at that time I was so naïve about women.

Loving every minute of it!

Of course, I'll always have fond memories of my first car. It was a '79 Olds Cutlass Diesel. Yes, DIESEL! It was one of the worst engines ever built - a 260 cubic inch V8 boat anchor. Fortunately, my mechanic-by-trade older brother helped me rebuild an old Chevy 350 motor to put in it and by the time we were done we had the thing keeping up with modern Mustang GT's (this was in the late 80's). Of course, one of the things that held it back for awhile were the rear end gears - 2.41:1. I could do 65mph in first gear! We replaced them with a set of 3.42s and things got much more interesting off the line....the final result was an ugly green car with Cragar wheels doing 14.3 second 1/4 miles (took it to the track many times).

-Pete

-Pete

Then - Corners: In my mid 20's I had a BRE SCCA legal Datsun 510 that I used to autocross. It cornered much better than my other cars that I'd owned then and after (2 stock suspension 911 Porsche's and a 1968 Corvette with John Greenwood handling package). I did fairly well until a guy showed up with a 300 hp 13B rotary in a Datsun 2000 which was/is an incredible car. Nobody could keep up with the car, it had so much acceleration.

Now: MB 300SD diesel gets 35 MPG and is comfortable to drive on short and long trips. I'll likely buy a 560 SEL this year, which has always been a dream car of mine.

1950 Commer 1 1/2 tonner built in Auckland New Zealand in early 1980s
Wolseley 6/110 indy front end with discs, 327 Corvette V-8 with floor change manual
Eventually a Laycock overdrive was fitted to the automatic diff head that gave this an enormously tall top gear
Plywood floorboards were original, it weighed nothing and it was STREET LEGAL(!)
Hustle!? Yo Mama... the looks of utter astonishment from the sports car set when this roared past them in stoplight races were priceless...

Grins

nt

1962 Corvette, Fuel Injected - 360 HP when stock. Removeable hard-top, no soft top. Rebuilt the engine several times and, in its last incarnation before selling it, produced about 400 HP. Purchased in 1966 for $2,500 - sold in 1979 for $5,000. Ran many Autoslaloms over the years (including SCCA Solo II at Lime Rock Park) and garnered about 100 trophies/awards.

It's a distant memory now but it sure was a lot of fun at the time.

"If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving's probably not for you".

Everything went peachy for about a year, until "she" showed up. "She" was a lime green 1971 Chevy Vega from San Diego. She left a cloud of blue/white smoke in her wake, and was about as unreliable as the Vikings in the Super Bowl. One day on the way to a friends house out in the country I decided to "open 'er up" to see what she could do.....

One minute later I was walking.

I walked to my friends house, and we got his old clapped out Caprice to tow the Vega back home. Now, you have to understand, this Caprice was given to him by his Grandmother (I swear!), and the term "rusty turd" would be an apt description of its condition. So, here's the scene:

It's early summer, in this corner was a clean Vega with a blown engine, in that corner was a rusty Caprice with a good 350, and in the midst were two teens with more time than brains. Hmmm.......what to do.......what to do.....

Holy Crap did that little thing fly with that 350 in it! Stories? You want stories? I'll tell you stories!

(Man, I just realized how much I miss that car).

Oh yeah- my first car? That would be a '75 3/4 ton Chevy van purchased from the Pabst distributor here in town. Imagine a 16 year old kid in a van with absolutely HUGE "PBR" stickers on all four sides! That one was pretty fun, too.

Jim
audio apprentice.

Oddly enough, I also had a midget and an X1/9.

Very fond memories of the MG...this little guy could almsot turn in its own radius! Best handling car I've ever owned...conversely, the Fiat (Fix it again, Tony) was one of the worst...but I did like the "T" top versus a convertable...the thing looked like a flying doorstop.

I bought a used Mazda Miata a few years ago, hoping to rekindle that magic of the midget...sadly, to many years had past, and I had grown to large and to used to the creature comforts of large cars. The Miata, however, was faster than either of these other two, and was a better all round car... but I only kept it about a year.

Now, on occasion, the new Mini Coopers look good to me, and the newish T-Bird is drop dead gorgous...maybe a previously owned model some day.

Thanks for the memories.

Gary

I got brave one day and wound it out to 104 mph and was trembling trying to make sure I didn't need to move the wheel. (Yeah, 104 is all I ever got and only tried it once.)

My interior went first, then I went through a wave of thermostats but outside of that the car held up to my insane college-boy behavior. Once my car overheated until the engine froze up! I left it parked on a side street and went back 12 hours later. I cranked right up and was angry enough to blow it up. Took it out to my favorite windy road and shifted at 8K rpms for quite a while. Nothing happened. It stayed together and seemed to like it. I somehow never managed to damage the clutch, tranny, or engine. Miracle.