Memories + "Uncool" Cars

[Guest]

It's sometimes ironic what will trigger a memory.

On Halloween, I went with my sister, nephew and friends to watch the kids trick or treat. One of the houses we visited was the one in which my grandparents lived during their "retirement years". Standing in front of it, I "flashed back" to scenes from Halloweens long ago of my sister, our cousins and me as kids eager to show Gram and Gramps our costumes ... and, of course, to get candy. As we walked away from the house and walked past the driveway and the telephone poll that damaged my 1981 Monte Carlo Sport Coupe, I caught a glimpse of the garage behind the house ... and almost immediately flashed back to a few "uncool" cars ... that sparked different types of memories.

I have plenty of memories of/with "cool" cars, including...
...Dad's 1968 Impala...
...my parents' 1976 MC...
...our neighbor's 1972 Impala coupe and 1976 Buick Regal sedan...
...my aunt/uncle's 1970s LTD...
...my grandparents' 1972 Impala sedan...
...(and) my MCs and Caprice Classic...

...BUT here are a few with some "uncool" cars....



1978 PLYMOUTH HORIZON hatchback sedan, FWD, orangish
= Grandparents purchased new, right before they retired and moved to Elgin
= replaced their "blue Chevy" (Gram's nickname for it), a 1972 Impala sedan
= Somewhere, I have a pic of this car with my parents' ("my") 1976 MC that Gram took while we were all in Wichita KS one summer.


1982 CHEVETTE hatchback sedan, RWD, tan
= Parents purchased used, September 1984
= replaced "my" 1976 MC...and thus, I hated this Chevette.
= When I got my permit to drive, I had to drive this car [not the 1981 MC SC that I wanted to drive], if I wanted to drive at all. I soon grew to like it....
= I was a bit disappointed when they traded it in for a 1990 Corsica.


1987 CELEBRITY Eurosport sedan, FWD, silver
= next door neighbor purchased used, early 1990s
= replaced a light green 1976 Buick Regal sedan
= I washed/waxed this car every summer. A 1998 Lumina sedan replaced it in the early 2000s.
= The FWD Celebrity sedan and coupe (which replaced the RWD Malibu, ~1983) were replaced by the new FWD Wbody Lumina sedan and coupe. The Lumina sedan had 2 generations (1990-1994, 1995-1999) before the "impala" name took over, 2000-today. The Lumina coupe had one generation (1990-1994) before the "monte carlo" name landed on the FWD Wbody platform, 1995-2007.
...HONORABLE MENTION:
"Blue Bandit" 1988 CELEBRITY WAGON owned by college friends.


1988 TOYOTA NOVA / Ch#$r%*et COROLLA sedan, FWD, light blue
= Grandparents purchased new
= replaced their 1978 Plymouth Horizon
= Just about every car my grandparents had purchased were ones that my grandfather wanted. This time, Gram got to choose...and she wanted her Nova. I couldn't persuade her to buy a MC....
= I cleaned this car every year. Once, the day after I cleaned it, they were hit in a local grocer store parking lot.
= We took this car to Pine-Apple Orchard in Maple Park IL a few years in a row and to Milwaukee WI one summer.
= My parents bought this and kept it for a few years before it died completely.


1990 CORSICA LT hatchback sedan, FWD, malachite metallic (green/grayish)
= Parents purchased new
= replaced their 1982 Chevette
= During our 1991 road trip to California, Oregon and Washington, we traveled through, among others, Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park, and I did MOST of the driving. At the top of the drive through Glacier National Park, it was quite foggy. Someone behind us was right on my tail the entire drive up, so I pulled over at the top to let that car by ... and then we traveled SLOWER with them leading than we had with me leading...!


1997 Corsica/malibu sedan, FWD, "old man tan"
= I purchased new, late 1996, so my 1979 MC could be stored during the winters
= Perhaps my fondest memory of this car was a road trip my sister and I took, headed to PA for the family reunion. Through Chicagoland, the car got an orange "dust" on it. In PA, we were stuck on the Turnpike for over an hour due to an "overhead erection".....



3 of the cars mentioned above are in this pic:
http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort/collection/DSC07708r8_jpg.html

...1 is in this pic:
http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort/collection/DSC07705r8_jpg.html



What memories do you have with "uncool" cars?




Cort | 37.m.IL.pigValve.pacemaker | 5 Monte Carlos + 1 Caprice Classic |* 06/2011.RT=us66+NW USA*
MCs.CC + CHD.models.HO.legos.RadioShows + RoadTrips.us66 = http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort
"A dead end street is just a place to turn around" ... Wynonna ... 'Rock Bottom'

 

[epstns]

I can add a couple of my early cars as definitely UNCOOL:

1. 1958 Ford 2-door sedan. This one was so cheap that it had no arm rests, and only one sun visor! 6 cylinder automatic - not cool for a high school senior. Finally went to the crusher due to extreme front suspension failure. Also rusted to (*^%* and blew an engine during the year we had it.

2. 1953 Studebaker Champion 4-door sedan. Just an old junker we kept as a second family car. The other car went to work with dad every day, so if I wanted to drive, this was it. Neighborhood guys called it "The Blue Tornado." Not because it was fast, but because of the blue cloud that followed it down the street. I fed it re-cycled motor oil for the couple of years I drove it. Never changed the oil. Traded it for the above mentioned Ford.

Other cars were semi-cool to cool, for various reasons:

= 1957 VW Microbus
= 1973 Vega GT (two of them. . . )
= 1975 Camaro
= 1977 Camaro
= 1979 VW Rabbit with GTI suspension
= 1984 and 1985 VW Scirocco's
= 1988 Mercedes
= 1993 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham

And after those, we got into the late model Japanese luxury sedans - still in the driveway.

 

[Guest]

2. 1953 Studebaker Champion 4-door sedan. Just an old junker we kept as a second family car. The other car went to work with dad every day, so if I wanted to drive, this was it. Neighborhood guys called it "The Blue Tornado." Not because it was fast, but because of the blue cloud that followed it down the street. I fed it re-cycled motor oil for the couple of years I drove it. Never changed the oil. Traded it for the above mentioned Ford.

LOL! Love that nickname, Steve!

Which did you like better ... this one or the aforementioned Ford?



Cort | 37.m.IL.pigValve.pacemaker | 5 Monte Carlos + 1 Caprice Classic |* Chicagoland Meets, 2011?
MCs.CC + CHD.models.HO.legos.RadioShows + RoadTrips.us66 = http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort
"Maybe I'll drive so far they'll all lose track" ... Dolly Parton ... 'Hard Candy Christmas'

 

[RobThatsMe]

Hi,

How about that Chevy Gremlin?

And the other car that escapes my mind from naming, is the one that everyone called the fishbowl car?
Now what was that name, I was on the H/L bipass machine for too long!!

I went up for my license and in the mid 60's in a Chevy Greenbrier Covair van. At least it could pop wheelies with the engine in the rear!
The coolest thing about this one was having it while I was in high school. , with all that room inside, it was great for the drive-in's!

Rob

 

[epstns]

Actually, Cort, I didn't really like either of them. Too many problems, not enough to like. The next car I had was a white 4-door 1960 Corvair. This was the first model year for the Corvair, and it ignited a long-term hobby for me. After tinkering with the 1960 (and driving it almost 90,000 miles) I bought a yellow 1965 Corvair Monza coupe. It had a black interior, bucket seats, 4 on the floor, dual exhaust, dual carbs - most of the fun stuff available for that model. Now that was a car I could enjoy! I kept that car (or its running gear installed into donor body shells) from 1967 until 1992, putting over 150,000 miles on it. I ran it in road rallies, autocross and even took it to the drag strip. I probably had more fun per dollar with that car than any other I've ever had. I even got together with some buddies and formed a club (The Chicagoland Corvair Enthusiasts) in 1968 that continues even now as one of the foremost Corvair clubs in the country. For a while I had up to 5 Corvairs at the same time, including the aforementioned all-purpose car, an award winning show car and other useful vehicles. We always kept an extra car in the back driveway, in case someone's car needed a repair that we couldn't get to or if we needed a beater to haul construction materials or such. Those were the days -- when you could do almost any repair on a car yourself. Lots of stories, if I had time to write them all. . .

 

[Dennis S]

Steve--I think I had the model Corvair Monza you described. To me it was, and always will be a very cool car. At that time I lived in Minnesota. It had "posi-traction, and with the engine in the rear, right over the drive wheels it could go through deep snow better than some 4 wheel drive cars I have driven since.

If I came home to discover a snowplow had left a big drift in front of our drive way, I could push the very light front of the car in into the drift, and it would actually plow snow.

 

[Bina]

Hi,

How about that Chevy Gremlin?

And the other car that escapes my mind from naming, is the one that everyone called the fishbowl car?
Now what was that name, I was on the H/L bipass machine for too long!!

I went up for my license and in the mid 60's in a Chevy Greenbrier Covair van. At least it could pop wheelies with the engine in the rear!
The coolest thing about this one was having it while I was in high school. , with all that room inside, it was great for the drive-in's!

Rob

Rob, I think you are remembering the American Motors Corp (AMC) Gremlin model....an ugly chopped off car,
but it did have lots of room under the hood for gearheads to stuff in big engines.

And the "fishbowl" car was also AMC....That was the Pacer. Which looked odd at the time, but in reality was/is
a super comfortable car with lots of elbow room. And lots of glass to clean.

 

[Bina]

My COOL car was a 1974 Chevy Camaro---my baby.
Yes, there was an MC, 1978 in my life too. With a 4 speed, lots of fun.
My dream car was my friend's 1969 Camaro, that thing could almost fly.
Also the 1969 AMX by AMC. Two seater....nobody should have kids in the back at those speeds anyway.

My UNCOOL cars:
1972 Datsun 510... in green. Yuk, but it was a bargain first car.
70 something AMC Hornet....dang thing filled up with smoke one day when the wiring for the lights started to burn.
Older Ford Tempo 4 door, beige, boring boring. But it was a good car to teach my daughter to drive on.
You just can't get speeding tickets in a Ford Tempo....ha ha ha.

 

[Greg a]

Rob, I think you are remembering the American Motors Corp (AMC) Gremlin model....an ugly chopped off car,
but it did have lots of room under the hood for gearheads to stuff in big engines.

And the "fishbowl" car was also AMC....That was the Pacer. Which looked odd at the time, but in reality was/is
a super comfortable car with lots of elbow room. And lots of glass to clean.

I had one of each AND a 1969 Rambler Rogue four door LOL then a Matador

 

[Bina]

I had one of each AND a 1969 Rambler Rogue four door LOL then a Matador

Nice stuff. We used to have an AMC Marlin 1966 with the big 8 cylinder engine, 1966 AMC Classic sedan, 1963 AMC wagon,
and we still own a 1962 Rambler American 4 door that we inherited from the original owner.
None of these is very fast, so I don't mention them much.

 

[Greg a]

True story ...a buddy and I were headed to Niagara Falls from Toronto on a whim for a burger at the Flying Saucer (that is why I had heart issues) as i was coming down the acceleration ramp/lane to merge with traffic on the QEW and iwent to check my side mirror and the damn thing BLEW off the car kept accelerating and as i approached 125 MILES per hour (pre metric) the passenger side mirror blew off LOL......we mafe the falls in 40 mins,

 

[Bina]

Yup, you kind of know you are speeding too fast when the mirrors blow off.
Much safer to ride in a real quarter mile race car (69 AMX). Tubing, full harness, sticky tires.
If ever I get diagnosed as terminal, I'm going out at top speed.

 

[epstns]

Ahhhh. . . You guys haven't felt true adrenaline until you've piloted a propeller-powered dragster down the quarter mile. One of my old hot rod clubs (The Chi-Town Shifters) had a propeller-powered dragster. It was made of aviation plywood with a water pipe rear axle. Had a go-kart front wheel (yeah... only one) and a six-foot two-blade aircraft prop at the rear. The engine was a 1953 Buick straight-8, mounted upside down to keep the crankshaft as high as possible (prop bolted to crankshaft) and the weight down low. It ran the quarter in about 14 seconds at ove 100 mph in 1965. As I look back upon the experience, we must have been really stupid to even volunteer to drive that thing!

 

[Guest]

Actually, Cort, I didn't really like either of them. Too many problems, not enough to like. The next car I had was a white 4-door 1960 Corvair. This was the first model year for the Corvair, and it ignited a long-term hobby for me. After tinkering with the 1960 (and driving it almost 90,000 miles) I bought a yellow 1965 Corvair Monza coupe. It had a black interior, bucket seats, 4 on the floor, dual exhaust, dual carbs - most of the fun stuff available for that model. Now that was a car I could enjoy! I kept that car (or its running gear installed into donor body shells) from 1967 until 1992, putting over 150,000 miles on it. I ran it in road rallies, autocross and even took it to the drag strip. I probably had more fun per dollar with that car than any other I've ever had. I even got together with some buddies and formed a club (The Chicagoland Corvair Enthusiasts) in 1968 that continues even now as one of the foremost Corvair clubs in the country. For a while I had up to 5 Corvairs at the same time, including the aforementioned all-purpose car, an award winning show car and other useful vehicles. We always kept an extra car in the back driveway, in case someone's car needed a repair that we couldn't get to or if we needed a beater to haul construction materials or such. Those were the days -- when you could do almost any repair on a car yourself. Lots of stories, if I had time to write them all. . .

I wish you had time to write 'em all, Steve!!!

I remember you telling me a bit about your Corvairs previously.... That Chicagoland club ... are you still a part of it?

A friend of mine in central IL from a GM-related board is a member of a local Corvair club in central IL:
http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort/roadtrips/200711/RT12010704_Don_GMI_JPG.html

Rob, I think you are remembering the American Motors Corp (AMC) Gremlin model....an ugly chopped off car,
but it did have lots of room under the hood for gearheads to stuff in big engines.

YES ... it was an AMC Gremlin!

And the "fishbowl" car was also AMC....That was the Pacer. Which looked odd at the time, but in reality was/is
a super comfortable car with lots of elbow room. And lots of glass to clean.

And ... remember the movie that featured the Pacer?????

"Oh God, You Devil" ... with John Denver and George Burns!



Cort | 37.m.IL.pigValve.pacemaker | 5 Monte Carlos + 1 Caprice Classic |
** RadioShow.CDshowcase.HOLIDAY | Friday | 12.24.2010 | noon-4p.CENTRAL = www.WRMN1410.com **
"He came to town on a cold dark night" ... Collin Raye ... 'What If Jesus Came Back Like That?'

 

[epstns]

Cort - As for the Chicagoland Corvair Enthusiasts, I am still an Honorary Member. I may also be the last original founding member still living. I know three who have passed already, and we have lost track of several others.