So, by now, if you’ve followed my for any length of time, you have come to realize that I have a strong infatuation with both women and cars.
“Women and Cars” is an exceptionally bland term. I love the unusual and exotic of both. I share quite a few photos of beautiful women-not so much of cars.
Today we are going to strap ourselves into the wayback machine. First, I’ll share a conversation that I had with a brother of mine, then we’ll set the needle on the dash to…waaaay the fuck back. It’s a setting, trust me.
So, the conversation with the brother (Stephen, the middle of us three boys), went something along the lines of how many cars we own now, and how many we’ve had.
Now, at the time, he had several. I had a few, and the youngest brother had something close to a car lot mixed with a classic car museum. So that got me thinking, then writing down the cars that I’ve owned through the years. And that’s where we’re going today-a time travel of my other interest, and see what kind of score card I can manage.
There are, of course, a few notes. Most of these pictures I’ll share are off the internet. So, if you recognize your car on my post, relax, I’m not taking credit for your hard work, etc.
There was a period when I went through a string of cars that were about the same vintage, same manufacturer, and body style. Thinking about it, there will be several times when I’ve gone back to a previous make and model, but the time when I went through five of the same car in a row, it seems rather repetitive to show the same stock file photo over and over and over, so I’ll just make a note and drive on, pardon the pun there…
And lastly (I think), this list probably isn’t complete, as impressive as it might seem. I had forgotten about several cars, only to remember about one as I was thinking about another. Eh, must not have made that much of an impression…
Anyway, here we go….
‘72 Honda N600. Fun little car, and just the car to learn to drive in. Assuming you don’t get run over or kill yourself hitting a deer. If you survive, you will become a rather paranoid driver, always looking for the accident waiting to happen. Air cooled 600cc motorcycle engine, top speed @80mph, 10” wheels
Having survived the Honda, I graduated into one of these. Mine was used as a chicken coop (I shit you not) in Northern California until my father blew the engine in my little Honda. I guess this was a consolation prize… ’72 Datsun B210
My father had a weakness for ugly cars. And also French cars, which by default makes them ugly, as well. Case in point was my next car, a ‘69 Renault R10. 30,000 original miles when I got it, dad got it from his childhood Sunday School teacher. Still had the original tires on it. This photo is NOT that car. I drove the “car that was so ugly it’s cute” until it was time for an engine rebuild, then drove the next car ‘till it was ready…
‘74 Vega. And folks, after the Renault, this was a relative sports car. Mine was two tone-kind of a blood red with a contrasting orange fender where someone had hit a pole or something. But a real rocket compared to the Renault.
Ah, the ‘90 Geo Storm. And mine was this color, too. Bought this car in Nov. of ‘89, before enlisting in the military and going overseas. Left it with my Mother, who taught my four younger siblings to drive in it. Really liked this car.
Going overseas was a major turning point in my life. I had just discovered before leaving that one didn’t have to go through life driving old, stodgy, ugly cars. This, in turn, led me to become something of a Yuppie (when the term was first becoming en vogue), and being in Germany, naturally you buy a BMW. Or, in my case, several. And then you learn where the nickname BMTrouble W comes from. Still, being strong willed and hard headed, I continued to support the German replacement parts store as I bought a total of five of these Ultimate Driving Machines. Whatever. This one is an ‘82, but I got creative and bought several different years, all which were junk.
Which brings me back to the States in ‘93. Bought a nearly new ‘91 Nissan truck, 4X4, extra cab. Loved this truck (not the one in the photo), and had to sell it when the kids started arriving…(sigh)
Here is our/my first family car. ’92 Honda Accord. As a family, we loved the hell out of this car, and never left us stranded. Eventually we sold it to a friend of ours, and by then it had over 325,000 miles on her. That was several years ago, and she’s still running strong. Fucking tank.
Eventually I left the military and we found our way to Spokane, Wa. My brothers were there at the time, and I fell into the hot rod addiction. Whereas my brothers collected Mopar and Pontiac, I found two ‘68 Chevelles that I paid $1500 dollars for (a price, I’m sure, never to be seen again) with my/our tax return from 1999. This would happen again, later, with disastrous results. But until then…
Fat dumb and happy after moving to the middle of nowhere for a new job, flush with cash, I bought another Nissan 4X4. Unfortunately, this experience was nothing as nice as the first truck when we found out that new toy had been 1)totaled 2)sold under another title, and the best one, 3)stolen by the guy who sold it to me. Ugly story, POS truck. But, as my luck would have it, my temporary plates would expire Sept 11, 2001.
After arriving at the end of my National Guard deployment, my wife decided to treat me to a Camaro. This served a two fold purpose- one, I hope she really was that happy to get me home safe, but it also 2), got rid of the POS Nissan truck. The picture above is Rebekah, as I soon had to start naming my cars. Once I began collecting Camaros, it just wouldn’t work saying, “I’m taking the Camaro out tonight.” So Rebekah was named. All Camaros are named after women (duh), and maybe sometime I’ll run a post on the women I named cars after.
Another Storm. Think this one was a ‘92. Car was abandoned on the Base I was activated at. In between deployments I got the thing running, then traded it for a Glock pistol before I was demobilized. Which is kinda odd, because I’m not a Glock kinda guy…
After unassing the Nissan, it was decided we needed a snow truck-the Camaro just wasn’t making the commute to work. So, we bought a ‘85 Suburban. Didn’t keep it long, wasn’t real happy with it.
One of my friends was infatuated with Rebekah, and wanted help finding a Camaro of his own. He already had a retired Caprice police car, so he decided to find a Camaro one, as well. Unfortunately, Chevy didn’t make that many, as in the case of this ‘95 that was originally an Oregon State Police car, then a Junction City (that’s what’s left of their badge on the door) police car. “Heidi” is one of 309 made in 1995, in fact, on June 7th, 1995. I found out she was built the same day my oldest was born. Anyway. Once my friend bought the car, he found out that fitting his extreme girth into it was a bit of a hassle, so he sold it to me. And that’s why my Camaros have names.
(Note, in the background here you can see Rebekah, the Accord, and the ‘Burban)
Here is Heidi with her new sister, Elizabeth. I bought her on eBay down in Sacrament, and drove her home, a good 500 mile trip or so. She is a ‘67, and one of the first 10,000 made, with a birthday in Oct of ‘66
And look! Another Storm. Now, I told you I bought several cars of the same make and model. And I’ve got a weakness for these Storms. I found this one (stock photo, not actual car) in Portland with less that 60,000 miles on it. ’91, I think. Once we bought it, it had a rough life. We had a foster daughter living with us, and her boyfriend was t-boned in it on Thanksgiving night. Then we found out he didn’t have a license. Police took my car to jail, and $250 later I began repair. Originally bought as a snow car-my job has me drive 50 miles each way over a mountain, she was never quite right again. Later, our foster daughter would end up stealing this car and abandoning it in Utah, where it sat for a couple of years before it was found. We had named her Suzie, after the Disney cartoon, but it seemed her life ran backwards compared to the ‘toon.
So, by now my car collection was getting a bit too large for the driveway, and I bought a shop to store my hot rods. It was in rough shape, and we recruited a young man from a single parent family to help out. Kid didn’t have a car, so I found him a ‘73 Vega, like this one, as a gesture of appreciation. Kid took one look at the car, said he would never drive something like that, and promptly disappeared. Sold the car to a drag racing buddy, and now she races at the local drag strip with something a bit larger than the original four cylinder.
Got a truck similar to this one for free. Didn’t know what to do with it, so pulled the engine out of it (at one time had twelve engines sitting in my shop), then sold the shell. ’85 Chevy short box
Another eBay find. Went to Reno to get “Dita”. Intend on racing her in Nevada, during a race called the Silver State Classic. She’s a 95 Z28 with a 6 speed manual.
Remember when I bought the Chevelles with the tax return? Well, I did it again. ’68 Firebird. This one was yellow. Showed it to the wife (but not until I paid for it), and she surprised me by claiming it. Huh. Sold it to redo the roof of my shop, not knowing how hard it would be to find another.
Found another Camaro on the way home from work. I wanted one (or at least one) from each generation, so I needed one of these. $400. This one, Anna, is an ‘86.
‘89 VW Golf. Was given to me, and told the timing belt broke. Not a big VW fan, it being from Germany and all. But the price was right, so I took it. Belt was fine, put it all together, and sold it for $1000. Didn’t even have it long enough to name. Which is good, because it probably would have been vulgar.
Needed another snow car. Bought this ‘95 Civic from my Mother. I mean, come on, she’s an old lady, right? Very disappointed in the fit and finish from Honda with this car. My Geo’s built better. Sold it to one of my race car guys so we could buy this-
Yeah, bitches, that’s a van in a truck magazine. ’95 Toyota Previa with a super charger, stock. Fucking A! Seats 7, Blown, and four wheel drive. Wife took away from me.
But I was fortunate that at that time, another Accord came up for sale. Id been trying to talk a nurse into selling her car for seven years, and then she called. This Accord was a ‘93, with every option on it, with 111,000 miles on it. And it burns regular gas, something none of our other regular drivers do. And gets 30 mpg, and none of the others do that, either…
Right about then, a buddy of mine from work calls me to tell me he has a car for me. I told him that cash was tight, and he replied that I was gonna take this car, or he was going to crush it and sell it for scrap.
Well, what was I to do? He even offered to deliver it to my house! I set up the drop at 0630, as the Boss never wakes up before 1030/1100.
Except, as you guessed it, the day the car comes. She steps on the porch just as the trailer was backing into the drive way, gives me the Evil Eye, and tells me the truck better be turning around, right?
So this makes Camaro #6. I don’t even have a name for her, yet…
So, let me get some help here and crunch some numbers, and see what we have…
Even with her help, I’m only getting 31. Seems like I’m missing some. But maybe we’ll keep that for another day.
