My Cars
My first car was a 1977 Dodge Aspen Coupe, two-tone blue with a 225ci super six and 4-speed manual transmission. It was my favorite car and I still find the Aspen my favorite style of car. It served me well until its untimely demise at the hands of my then girlfriend.
The Aspen with my friend Randy and its 225ci slant super 6
The Aspen after its introduction to a tree by my then girlfriend in 1990
After being without a vehicle for a couple of months a friend of mine offered to sell his van to me. It was a 1967 Chevy Sportvan 108. It had a 250ci straight 6 with a 3-on-the-tree manual transmission. I had a lot of fun with this van, many parties etc. But the best thing was drag racing with it. It was a lot of fun seeing the expression on people's faces when I would beat them with this big van. The most memorable wins were against an 1986 Firebird, an 1987 Camaro, and an 1989 Daytona. I actually kept it up with a 1977 Camaro 350ci 4bbl.
Pictures of the interior with the bed removed. The engine cover can be seen in the center.
It was kind of interesting when I took this picture since seconds afterwards the two cars on the left ran into each other.
After sticking thousands of dollars into maintenance plus the fact that it only got around 8 miles per gallon on a good day, I decided it was time for a change (though I regret that decision). My mom had gotten married and was moving over 300 miles from where I was going to college, so driving home at 8 mpg didn't sound like much fun either. I sold it back to my friend, that I had bought it from, in the spring of 1993. With the money I bought a 1977 Plymouth Fury Salon. It had a 318ci 2bbl V8 and an auto transmission. I actually piled 12 people into it once.
I drove the Fury for almost six months when the engine started to knock. So that and seeing an attractive white Aspen, I decided it was time to sell it. I went out and bought that Aspen I saw at a dealership. It was a 1977 Aspen SE with a 318ci 2bbl V8 and an auto transmission, quite a fun little car. Unfortunately it was plagued with many problems, defrosters that frosted better than they defrosted, a bad carburetor, and lots of rust. After about a month of winter driving the transmission went out, so I was without a car.
It was not until the summer of 1994 that I got another car. It was a 1983 Cadillac Classic Eldorado, with a 4.1L V8 and an auto transmission. It had a number of options: power seats, cruise, climate control, telescopic and tilt steering, etc. I have never seen another Classic Eldorado, and I wonder how many were made.
I was bored one day in the fall of 1994 and decided just to flip through the classifieds and test drive some cars. I am glad I did. I found a 1981 Dodge Diplomat Salon with a 318ci 2bbl V8 and auto transmission for $200. The only thing wrong with it was it had been hit on the front passenger corner taking out the header panel and bending the fender down on the tire. I removed the fender and banged it out until I could replace it. It has been the most dependable and cheapest car I have ever owned. In all the years I have owned it I have put little more than a thousand dollars into it including the purchase price. I was able to pick up a header panel and fender for it so it looks much better now. This car will probably be with me until it drops dead or I do.
About a year later my parents found a 1979 Chrysler LeBaron SE two-door, with a 318ci 2bbl V8 and an auto transmission. It used to get up and go, for a while, but near the end it had gotten a bit tired and extremely rusty. The differential went out on it in February 1998 and it was parked in the garage for six months until I was able to get another axle for it.
Here is a picture of the four cars I owned at one time.
I picked up a 1976 Chrysler Newport Custom with a 400ci 4-bbl V8 and an auto transmission at an auction for $140 in January 1998. I got it running a month later. I took it to the mechanic and he could not figure out what was wrong with it, but he charged me $50 anyway. It was pretty simple and made me feel stupid for not checking it, but it was pretty obvious the mechanic was an idiot. It just needed a new set of points at a cost of 40 cents. It gets up and moves pretty well for a 3 1/4-ton car, it will actually out accelerate a lot of these modern cars. The quarter panels have no bottoms and there are a couple of small rust holes in the trunk lid but other than that it is in pretty good shape. The interior was in near perfect condition until I borrowed it to a friend and he broke the sun visor off, not to mention he broke a trim panel in the rear a few months earlier. Here is the Newport with my friend George. It looks kind of cool jacked up.
The front of this monster lowered back to its stock height.
Here are five of the vehicles I had at my apartment until December 1998 when I sold the LeBaron. I had the Newport and Cadillac for sale, though I was not sure if I would sell the Newport or not, it was just too much fun, at least until the tranny went out. This picture is missing the 1996 Chevy Cavalier that my brother and I had parked here as well.
It was sad to see the LeBaron go, but I was running out of room and there was very little metal left in it. The rear half of the car had no jacking points left that were not rusted to the point the you could poke holes in it with your finger. But it will be sadly missed.
I finally sold the Caddy in 1999. Several months later I got a call from the Sheriff wondering why my car was parked in the middle of one of the county roads. I explained to her that I had sold it and gave her the information of the lady that had purchased it, but that was the last I ever heard. I am not sure what happened to it but my friend said he saw it in the salvage yard. It is sad to know that it got junked.
I had many fun days with the the Newport before it got sold in the winter of 2000. One day there was a car show at one of the local gas stations. I drove the Newport down to check out the other cars and take a few pictures. After I had ogled the cars for awhile, and burned up two rolls of film, I decided to head home. As I was leaving I decided to put on a little show. The rear wheels easily spun if you applied the brakes a little and the tires would leave a nice cloud of smoke. So I proceeded with the burn out, after which I cracked the four barrels open to head down the street. Just as the four barrels cracked the exhaust pipe came off. Turned more than a few heads with the hellacious sound that came out of that big block 400 with no exhaust and the four barrels wide open.
I thought about salvaging the exhaust pipe and hooking it back up, but just wired it up so it was not dragging and left it disconnected. It was fun that way. At cruising speed or idle you would barely notice any noise, which was good, but when you cracked the throttle it would roar. This came in handy for annoying cell phone users and young punks with 4 cylinder cars with resonators. 4 cylinder cars were never ment to be noisy, so why make them noisy? When ever I was in the Newport and saw one of these cars I would try to get along side of it. People who drive these cars always seem to rev the engine and try to race people. It was great fun to pull along side of them at a light and as they rev their engine I would rev mine. Gee for some reason the sound of an exhaustless big block drowns out that annoying little buzz. Luckily the Newport had little problem keeping up with them as they race off the light trying to get away from my noisy beast. Of course I would leave the Newport in first or second gear to keep the engine roaring over their annoying buzz. Pretty much the same for people driving while talking on the cell phone. For some reason they tended to hang up when I pulled up beside them.
Unfortunately all that fun smoking the tires on the Newport did not do wonders for the tranny. By the time I sold it, I would have to add a quart of tranny fluid for every quarter mile I drove it. It would have been nice to fix it, but the local shops wanted $750 to put in a rebuilt tranny. If I would have had a place to store it until I could fix it I would have, but I didn't. The place I was living in at the time only had two parking spaces and my roommate and I already had those filled with our two motorcycles, his car and the Diplomat. So I had to sell it. Hopefully it's being treated well with its new owner. He said he had plans to fix it up but I haven't seen it since. It too is greatly missed.
Now I only have two vehicles left, the Diplomat and my bike. Here are some more pictures of my 1980 Honda CB650C that I bought in the summer of 1996. Who says you need to park your bike for the winter (taken December 1998).
