...the Trabant! With genuine cardboard panels! The apex of communist innovation. 25 HP and a 20 year waiting list.
Posted on 10/08/2006 5:20:54 PM PDT by GretchenM
Buddy of mine had one of those used 3 years ago. I never believed him about the Desert only setting till he showed me.
Or if one happens to appreciate interesting, utilitarian design.
Of course, you aren't seriously implying that anyone who likes a CAR is somehow a Nazi sympathizer. Because that would be insane.
Renault Dauphine...LOL. I completely forgot that one. I remember that car in about 1964. It was owned by the Dad of one of my close friends. He was a professor at Cornell University (natch). Even at age 13 I thought it was really weird.
Had one of those 1980 chevettes as my first car also. Was a scrawny teenager but was still able to lift up the back end by myself enough to slide it sideways.
read later
Found an interesting video of what happens when the Citroen drives behind a 747 jet engine. Doesn't fare too well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSxMOzBsOeQ&NR
Worth looking at for sheer humor. I wonder what "crikey" means?
My scary car (besides the Fiat 600 and Fiat 124 I owned...:^) was the Lotus Elan.. just like Emma Peel had in the Avengers.
Fiberglass shell, no real chassis (just a "backbone"), a hell of a power to weight ratio, and foam filled fiberglass bumbers!!
Fun to drive, but scary... you looked sideways at the axles of busses.
http://www.neilslade.com/gifs/lotusemma.jpg
The Escort was a fine economy car and if you took care of it it lasted forever. I owned an 86 Escort GT and also a 94 Escort GT because the extra horsepower made it quick enough to make it bearable and it still got 38 mpg. I bought the 86 from the original owner when it had 140,000 miles on it and I sold it in 1996 with 355,000 miles on the ticker. I bought the 94 with 180,000 miles on it but I sold it right away because I HATED the motorized seat belts.
The body looks stout enough; needs bumpers though.
TT
I use to love to do the Bond reverse to forward 180 spin around trick in a Pinto. Loads of fun, even though the engine sounded like a barrel of tortured squirrels when you stomped on the accelerator and yet achieved next to no acceleration.
My sister and I were listening to a news story about the exploding gas tank while driving it to Rent-A-Heap Cheap in hopes of selling it. Just then we were rear ended by a truck. While unhurt, time froze as we turned to each other waiting for the inevitable fiery boom.
Loved a cartoon of that era that showed a pair of B-52 pilots on their bomb run with the "big one" in the bomb bay. The very upset pilot is telling his copilot "This is too horrible, we just can't do it." The final frame shows the bomb bay loaded with a Pinto ready to drop...
I had a 72 Subaru 4WD Wagon. 2nd car, after a Datsun B110 2dr coupe. Back in my roller-skate phase...
Bump
I'd rather read this thread than a North Korean thread
Mine was a beauty. I bought my Spitfire right off the showroom floor... a '73 Spitfire with real wire wheels - candy apple red. Cost was $100 less than a VW Bug. Had a five gallon gas tank and we once had 3 adults and 5 children onboard while attending Sunday school and church services at the CBC Chapel in Gulfport, Mississippi.
Never could get the hang of the split electric shift.
Thank G-d, no.
Actually, there's one (halfway) pictured in post 3, on the right side.
It's the "GT" version, which featured 3 seats. That's two in the front, and two halves in the rear. < }B^)
Is the little girl putting flowers in the "trunk" to take to their own funeral?
That is one beautiful picture. It has a power and grace that comes through the monitor.
My older brother (the one on my FR home page) won the use of a GTO for the summer of his senior year in 1965. It was black and it was a beauty. He raced it everywhere (street racing; there was a perfect quarter-mile spot on one of the not-so-used freeways near where we lived). He also met his future wife at the drawing when he won the car.
It was killer hard to take the car back to the dealer in September. The car was rather throaty sounding when he handed over the keys.
OMGosh that is AWFUL!
But it made me laugh out loud -- which is okay cuz you lived through it.
The right wheel breaking off the axle -- I can't imagine the shock. Or the humiliation.
Love the part about the mechanics narrowing their eyes.
Very interesting. That car is definitely one of the coolest and most memorable movie cars. I'll never forget the opening scene in Mad Max (or was it the Road Warrior? Anyway, the second film...) where Max comes to a stop with the rear tires turning in reverse. I don't know why, but it's the coolest thing.
As a sidenote, I read recently that there's a new genre of car restoration which, rather than emphasizing factory fresh rehabilitions of old cars -- with perfect paint and perfect chrome and all that, detailed with a Q-tip -- instead seeks to create a more broken in and roadworn appearance, kind of like the way they do with the broken-in jeans these days. The idea is to get just the perfect amount of apparent wear and tear on the vehicle, mainly on the body and upholstry, but have the mechanicals be in good shape. Some of their creations are really appealing. The Mad Max car is the perfect example: a lot of its coolness is in its raggedyness.
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