Thread: Great Cars that you've owned

Hi

Ooooh reading this thread brings back memories

My favourites in (my) chronological order are...

S Series Valiant - to the extractors I added a straight thorugh Lukey muffler into a 2" straight through copper pipe exhaust - that sounded good, copper has a nice "ring" to it

Fiat 1500 (1968) absolutely unbelievable handling for a "normal" road car. There was nothing that could beat me at the traffic light drags - even with the Fiats column shift it was QUICK changing gears.

Mini Cooper S - wow, was I amazed at how those little cars moved I bought it in poor condition for $500 Reconditioned the engine, installed lay-back bucket seats from a ford Escort and painted it irridescent apple green. Sold it 2 years later for $2500.

1989 Range Rover ooooh, my first 4WD I wanted a RR since their release in 1970.

1994 Range Rover Vogue SE, leather, great sound system and air suspension. 4WD in REAL comfort oooooooh that's nice

2000 Range Rover Vogue auto sunroof, beige leather, an even greater sound system auto almost everything and air suspension. 4WD in REAL comfort oooooooooooooooh that's nice. It has all the bits and pieces that are now appearing in other 4WDs

This is my CURRENT vehicle.

You may detect a slight bias toward Range Rovers

Two sports vehicles were a Mini Cooper 'S' and a Ford XB 351. Best vehicle has got to be the Hilux ute, it does everything I need.

Holden WB Ute and Hilux c/c are clearly the most durable / reliable cars I have had. Mercedes 220SE was brilliant, at high speed 100k it used to out handle / corner holden / ford V8's 25 years ago owing to its handling characteristics - Not bad for a heavy car with 2.2 litre straight six.
Honda Civics my wife enjoyed very much. Toyota Kluger - Excellent on long trips with the troops on board.
Studebaker 1966 Cruiser (Chev small block) was fun!

my first car was a 1955 austin A30
indicators switch was on top of the dasboard
first bike 1955 triumph thunderbird 650cc
it could fly,
gil

First car a heavily worked XE S Pak, of course I spent waay too much money on it.

Second car a '93 SXR6 with some minor modifications of 2 1/2" exhaust and extractors.

My current car, a '07 XR6 , colour is called 'Conquerer' (blue) with a few factory extras. I'd love to put some silver XR stripes on it, but I don't think that will happen, only 2 things it will have added on it that it doesn't have now is the XR radiator grill which is an option from the factory, and a better exhaust when the current one needs replacing one day. It's a beautiful thing to drive and nice grunt. But I drive it like Miss Daisy.

Well to add to the list, I have only ever had Italian cars, Fiats and Alfas in the past 29 years.

First was a '68 Fiat 124 S sedan, which I restored to fund my first overseas trip as an adult. Then came my '69 AC 124 sport (Enzo) which I restored with my brother and had as an impoverished uni student. (Still have it to this day, albeit having been restored again). Then came my first Alfa a '68 Giulia Super which I started to restore but never finished (sold it). Thereafter, a '73 Fiat 125s, then '76 Alfetta GT, '74 Fiat 130 V6 sedan (the limo), then '72 Alfa Romeo Berlina 2L, '69 Alfa Romeo 1750 GTV series 1 (used it as my daily driver for 11 years but now sleeping waiting its turn to be restored), '69 Alfa Romeo Giulia Super (currently under restoration) and most recently I went modern and bought a '03 Alfa Romeo 156 JTS Sportwagon, to add to my current small fleet.

I nearly defected a couple of years ago as was seriously considering a Porsche: '86 944 Turbo or an early '80s 911 and still hope to acquire one, sometime. Having recently had a ride in a Ferrari Dino 246, I must admit I would love a Ferrari, but somehow doubt this will be ever possible.

I have driven over the years a huge range of cars, European (Fiat, Alfa, Lancia, Mercedes, Audi, BMW, Citroen, Peugot, Renault, Jaguar, Range Rover etc), and regrettably also driven some Australian and Japanese/Asian cars (through work and hire cars) but would never even contemplate owning them, as they don't communicate to me, and are generally very poorly made IMO).

Not sure what next car will be on the agenda for me, but I will definitely have more Italian cars, that is for sure, oh and I would love to have both an Italian Scooter and a '70s Ducati !!

My 1969 ZB Ford Fairlane was the best car i've ever owned hands down.
Payed $800.00 for it and was the pimpest mafia lookin beast ever.....
loved it so much i bought it back a couple of years later when i saw it in a caryard. The only car i've owned twice!!!!
302 windsor v8 (i prefer them to the cleveland)
oh the memories.....

I've had some fun cars.

First car was a Renault Dauphine then I progressed? to Renault Ten's and 12's. I actually drove my 12 (with an R16TS engine in it to Birdsville once.

Most fun was a Porsche 911 we used to rally. IT made it to Birdsville 4 times and cleared "Big Red" in the Simpson first go.

Over the years I've owned 4 Porsche 911's and a 928. All sold now.

2nd most fun is my Range Rover DAKAR (Bushrangie to Aussies) that has a supercharged Lexus engine and Nissan driveline. It brings a smile to my face just thinking about driving it. We actually won the National Division of the Australian Safari in 1994 with it when it was Range Rover powered.

My wife has always been into cars and currently drives a Mercedes SLK55.

Zuffen

Out of interest how did you find the 911s to live with, that is how expensive are they to maintain properly. Having only had Italian cars I know well about them, but I have always had a desire to own a Porsche 911 or 944 (Turbo or S2), and have on a number of occasions nearly bought one. I have not driven a 911 yet but have driven a couple of 944s.

I like the idea of the Rangie (Dakar), though am wondering if that is a bit like the Bowler wildcat.

I can imagine you would have had some serious fun rallying over the years. My brother is into Mercedes. His latest acquistion being a '66 250SL (Pagoda roof), manual, LHD. I am looking forward to having a drive in that one. He used to rally a 220Seb (Fintail) very successfully in Targa Tasmania, until it was destroyed by an errant Ford Escort.

A well serviced 911 will run for 2-300,000k without any major problems.

Engine rebuilds can be ugly but not in Ferrari leaque.

I'm just finishing a full rebuild on my Lancia O37 rally car and that's come in at around $45,000.00. Try $10,000.00 for a new crankshaft!

My Lexus engine owes me about $30,000!

My Rangie is like a Mini Moke on top of the Rangie chassis. No roof or doors. One piece of glass being the windscreen.

I've always had a soft spot for Pagoda topped Benz's. Great car but real old tech now.

My wife and I entered the Targa but withdrew when we decided people would die in it. Probably pretty smart not to do it. We have had people killed in events we've run but cars do that sometimes.

the best car I ever owned ( and also the worst) was the Mini I bought at age 18.

It was the best car, so compact, I could get it up to 127 KPH ( windows shut gave a few extra kph) and it could park ANYWHERE!