My first car was a 1972 Volkswagen hatchback. Butt-ugly, but actually a cool little car. I purchased if from my room-mate at the time for a whopping $500 (he got too much for it)

If it were not for the fact that it leaked about a quart of oil every 20 miles, the car was in great shape. I commuted to and from work in that little bugger for 4-5 months before that same room-mate stole the car from me one morning and forgot to top it off with oil. It tossed the motor within 5 miles of the apartment. He actually wanted me to pay half the towing!

I was 17 years old when I purchased this car. Unlicensed at the time, because of too many tickets when I was 15 years old. The courts had suspended my license until I was 18 because of all the driving (and tickets) I did when I was under age.

I went a few years without a car after this one. Finally at the ripe age of 20 (yes I kept getting my license re-revoked) I obtained my license and legally purchased my first true car.

A 1972 Mustang Mach-1 with the tried-n-true 302! This thing was a kick-ass car, in near mint condition. I stole it for $1200 because the guy had moved out of state and needed to get rid of the car.

I tried to insure the car at AAA insurance, but they refused to insure a "Mach-1". Even though I had a policy, the Mach-1 was not allowed on it.

Exactly 28 days after the purchase of this car, I was cruising through an intersection where an accident had just happened. Fire crews, Ambulance, and Police were already on scene, but none directing traffic. When I got into the intersection I glanced up to see the red-light. I glanced back down at all the pretty red-n-blue lights that had distracted me, then turned to look out my passenger window. What I say was this word out my passenger window;

ODGE

"Oh Shi...." BAM!

I was hit by a commuter can (Dodge of course) doing 50mph. He crushed the passenger door in all the way on top of the transmission. Every window broke and all the glass went into the cockpit of the car, into my face and every exposed part of my body. I bounced back and forth between the doors (not wearing a belt) taking a lot of bruising because of it.

The van drove through my 3200 lb car, took the front end off a Chevy truck on the other side of the intersection, and even made it through the intersection before making a U-turn to come back. My car was thrown 3 lanes in a violent spin, finally coming to rest on the sidewalk across the intersection, right near a power-grid box.

I remember blinking my eyes, sitting back up in my seat, and turning the car off because the throttle linkage locked itself at full throttle from the impact. i actually had to kick the shifter into park to keep the car from moving. I tried to open the driver's door only to find it stuck. The car was bent in half, literally. I braced myself against the passenger door (only inches away now) and kicked the driver door open, stepped out, reached for my cigarettes and was promptly tackled by 6 police officers.

The officers were not detaining me, they wanted me on the ground and still. They had figured I was dead and all were caught off guard when I actually walked out of the car. Let me tell you, Im a whole 125lb at the time... and the 6 cops couldn't get me to the ground :)

I walked to the gas station that my car 'parked' at, walking into the attendant's booth and used his phone. I didn't care of he was going to let me or not, I just DID it. When I finished calling work to let them know I wouldn't be in (HA!), I finally turned to look at my car. Complete total of course.

I finally sat down to have a smoke and to let the firemen pick the glass out of my face and arms. Took a ride to the hospital where I took a few stitches (nothing new to me) and found out there was a family of 4 in that van. Everyone was OK, except the mother broke her leg. She was doing her make-up in the mirror with her leg on the engine-hump when they hit me. Kids were fine, father was not happy with me of course.

3 days later, in utter depression, their insurance adjuster came to my apartment to get my story. Turns out they were covered by AAA. This adjuster told me of the new law that had taken effect that very year (It was January, 1992) that says you are automatically covered by your insurance for the first 30 days after purchasing a car. This allowed a new car buyer time to get all the insurance taken care of without driving around insurance-less. And since I had a AAA policy, guess who had to cover my car? Yep, they covered all the medical bills, both cars, and even full-coverage on my vehicle.

I purchased the car for $1200, and received a check for $8000 for it only 8 weeks later.

My second "first love"

A 1973 Mustang Mach-1 with the 351-C motor.

I purchased this car with the money from the wrecked '72. I actually found it on the high way, hooked up to a tow truck. I followed the tow-truck and left a note on the car. A few days later I got a call. $2600 later I was the owner of a yellow Mach-1 that did not run. The interior was in great shape and I was lucky enough to have the Magnum-500 wheels that were in near perfect shape ($600 each at the time, very rare).

The car had been sitting in a field for so long that weeds were growing in the fuel tank (seriously) and the carb was totally destroyed. I took care of the obvious things and got the car running well enough before focusing on the rest of the mechanical fitness of the car.

After months of little issues plaguing the car I had finally got it running to the point where I took it to the drag strip here and there. Nothing special, in the low 15's in the quarter, but it was fun. I eventually got sick of the yellow and painted it the flat-black that you see in the picture. I never wanted a pretty paint-job on it... in fact, charcoal was the color I wanted... with no clear-coat. Think "shadow" :)

Once I got the speed-bug though, I got myself in trouble. With my license suspended again (speeding tickets!) and California's new laws, my Mach was taken from me by the Highway patrol. The new law stated that anyone driving without a license has their car impounded for a month. You know what it costs to get your car out of impound after a month? First you need to get your license before they will even give it to you ($3600 in tickets in my case). Then you need to pay the towing and storage fees (Another $3000!). A week after this, my license was re-suspended by the DMV because of all the points hitting my record... from paying all the tickets. At least the judge saw the error in that a few weeks later and took care of me.

6 months later, my license was yet again going to be pulled from me (another ticket). So, to prevent the car from being taken as well I bought an old 'beater' instead. I Garaged the Mach... actually to the point of putting it up on 4 jack stands and removing the wheels, just to make sure I didnt take it out for a spin. I was already driving this thing with open headers, so every cop in town knew when I was on the road with it.

A month goes by and everything is going well until I get the urge to open the motor up and do some "cleaning" in the heads. Turns out, one of my valves had a hole in it so I went to pick up new valves. New valves expects new springs. new springs = new rockers = head-rebuild = may as well get new pistons = better get the crank lightened and balanced = a complete engine rebuild plus some

I ended up rebuilding the entire car; Tranny, engine, Suspension, etc. I didnt bother trying to make the car "nice", it was now an all out dragster!

The motor was converted from a smogged down 351-C with 180HP to something much more repspectable;
13:1 compression
Cranked lightened and balanced ($1200 on this alone)
.40 over Keith Black pistons ($400)
Gapless rings ($400)
.625 lift cam
750cfm Holley (actually the 650cfm Carter was better) was fed by a 6" hood scoope
Heads rebuilt with a complete roller rocker setup and triple-valve springs on each valve rated at more then 800lbs. The machinist broke two valve spring compressing machines and a thumb getting those bad boys on!
When it was all said and done, it was an 8000rpm revving big block with 450HP to the 12" wide Goodyears in the rear.
Suspension was upgraded to a much stiffer spring and damper setup and lowered 2 inches.
Car was gutted of anything not needed to drive fast, including carpet, dash, door panels, wiring for lights, and the passenger seat. It had a steering wheel, gas pedal, and a drivers seat left when I was done.

$6000 grand in the motor alone and I did all the work but the machine-work to save money.

I drove the car only a very few times after the rebuild. That much car was scary as hell and the radiator was too small to drive it longer then 15 minutes at a time. i basically drove it down the street to fill it up to make it back home :) It got 8mpg after the upgrade.

It made a hell of a lot of noise too with 13:1 compression and the long tube headers ending right under your feet. In fact, if you drove it longer then 10 minutes, your feet and butt were rattled so badly that they went numb (serious!). The car was actually louder OFF the throttle then ON. The "jake-brake" effect from that much compression is deafening.

Anyway, the car made the move to Mass with me in 1998 when I went to go work for Papyrus. It sat for nearly a year without every driving it. When I moved back to CA, the car did not return with me. I don't want to talk about it... I will cry.

This was my truest love in a car. So much of my own blood was in that car. It was perfect for me... complete and total raw ANGER when you fired it up. It wasnt pretty, it wasnt nice, it was hell on earth complete with flames shooting out the headers when you came off the throttle. Im going to build another just like it some day... Man I loved that car

I have had numerous other cars over the years since the Mach-1's and now. While those cars above were my first three, I am now on #12. None prior to #9 are worth typing about (Ford Taurus, Ford F150, couple other Ford items, etc). Can you tell I was a Ford guy? At one time I owned 5 cars simultaneously
... you try finding parking spots for all 5!

It wasn't until recently (2000) that I bought my brothers old Honda Civic (garbage!) which was promptly stolen from me (whew), then found the next day (dang it!) in one piece. I got rid of that trash and cycled through a Dodge Van (It had a bed in it, hehe) before finally going after what I wanted again;

My 1978 Datsun 280Z
Due to a court settlement in which my employer had to write me a fat check (I told you so, you bastards!), I finally paid off those credit cards that the Mach was built from, and put aside a few thousand to purchase a new car as my mid-life crisis car. I wanted sporty, fun, RWD car... and the Zs had always caught me eye.

For a complete history and pictures of my Z, you can view The Z's web page

Again, I am un-concerned about cosmetics in my Z, I just like it to be fun, and it surely is. I bring it out to the track from time to time and it is a blast to drive. Great balance and just a pleasure to throw around a race track at speed.

Thanks to ye another recent court settlement (Bastards! I told you so... LOL), I recently purchased my first BMW.

Actually, I bought it from our very own Tommy Regan... and a funny story that was...

I was speaking with Tommy one evening asking his advice on what BMW's I should look at in my budget. After an hour of some great advice, tommy says, "Too bad you are not here in TX because Im selling mine." Needless to say I was on an airplane two days later on my way to TX. Problem was, I needed to be back in CA on Monday morning and it was now Friday evening (after a day at work) on my way to TX. I arrive in TX at 4am (Thanks again Tommy for picking me up). Tommy and I got a quick meal in, I grabbed shower at his place, and was driving out of his garage at 7am (Sat) on my way back to CA.

I planned ahead knowing that it would be a long, lonely drive. i posted on Craig's list the day prior and found two guys that wanted a ride from TX to CA. one was only 15 minutes from Tommy's place, the other was 8 hours away but on the path I was taking. I picked up the first (a 20 year old that did not know how to drive a stick, GRR) and made it only 4 hours before having to pull over to get a 15 minute nap in. back on the road, I made it to El Paso where I picked up the 2nd guy (scary dude, but he was cool) and we got back into the drive. I handed my new ride over to him so I could get a 2 hour nap in, once the sun started to set that Sat night. I took over the driving responsibility again and dropped off the kid in LA at 3am Sunday morning. Grabbed a quick meal at denny's with the weird/cool guy and dropped him off in Oakland at 9am (That's LA to SF-Bay in less then 6 hours for you math challenged). I arrived home at 10am on Sunday an slept the rest of the day. TX to CA in 28 hours... straight through. The car mileage rolled to 200K as we left El Paso. I had the cruise control set to 90MPH the entire way :)

Tommy, correct me if I am wrong; This BMW has won regional championships in SCCA auto-X. It also put you on the podium of the 2005 SCCA nationals... in the rain! Tommy placed behind two AWD cars, and only barely.

Anyway, I have done nothing to this BMW. It is perfect as it is and I plan to leave it alone. It's a great car to cruise in and event to romp the throttle here and there. My son and I drove it up to Portland last year to meet Scott Whitestine, Rob Melchione, and Matt Percival in 2006.

That was a great story Tim, I am also glad to see the door isn't ajar on the BMW ;-P

Tim, I was sailing thru you story TIL I saw that BOAT that YACHT that LUMBER TRUCK that Ford tried to pass off as a Mustang. It was no more a Pony than the Mustang II. That colossal land behemoth almost KILLED the Mustang name and legend. Whatever it had under the hood couldn't overcome the huge design choice error.
The Mustang, the Camaro and other PONY cars were just that. Not Muscular Clydesdales but athletic graceful thoroughbreds.(sp?)

The Ford MoCo spent the better part of 40 years and tons of $$ trying to recover from the damage that barge caused to the myth of the Mustang.

I'm glad you enjoyed the car, hope it made your life at the time more bearable, but it was nothing but an iceberg with the SS Mustang's name tatooed to the fender. Ford was justly chastised by the market, and Chevy Camaro owners had nearly two or three decades of dominance over the decendants of that twin-hulled oil tanker. And now I am doing the same to an actual owner. :)

take care my friend...

dave henrie

Totally correct Dave, they screwed themselves badly in '71 when they decided to change the body of the Mustangs. The '69 and'70 Mach-1 is the most looked-for Mach-1 because it has the "real" Mustang body along with the Mach-1 name and motors.

Actually it was the '74+ Mustang II that ruined Ford. The 72-73 Mach's were not popular, but still good cars. Remember, these things were built in the Aero-wars period to beat the "birds" and "tona's". It was the next evolutionary step from the Torino and Comets of the 69-71 era. The "big" Mach's were actually a much more efficient body shape for superspeedway racing.

I do like the 72+ body in the right dress... she is a big girl I agree, but sleeker then sh*t thru the air (I personally had it up to 155mph a time or two, and even then I was only at 5200rpm... I had a bunch left to go.

The total weight of that car was only about 2800lbs... kind of hard to beat that.

Datsun would appreciate if you would take rear bumper off too. ;)

Not yet, I need to extra weight over the rear tires for the neutral handling. It's ugly, but it serves a purpose still :)