Let's talk cars

[McC]

(03-05-2016, 08:33 AM)Wyche Wrote: So, McC......you never told us your story.

Best car/first new car--2010 Civic EX-L--I might drive this car until I die.

Learned to drive in a '68 Mercury Monterey which later became my first car.  Took my driving test in a blizzard in that car.

My parents always had Fords.  My mom would have a car and my dad a truck or a van. 

The first day my dad had his first new van, he took me for a ride,  I was pretty young--maybe 8 or so.  Somewhere along the way to wherever we were going, he made a stop and I stayed in the van.  I was exploring the van, came to the cigarette lighter.  I push it in, it pops out.  I pull it out, accidentally touched the hot part with my hand, drop the lighter.  It lands on the driver's seat, burns a big hole in the brand new seat.  As one would imagine, I caught hell over that.  My dad remembered that until the day he died.

Worst car--1973 Mazda RX 3.  Anybody know the name Wankel?  Rotary engine.  Very fast.  Problem was, every time you shifted, it backfired.  I'm talking LOUD.  Heart attack loud.

This car ate fuel pumps.  Electronic fuel pumps, mounted in the trunk.  The pumps would overheat and then shut down until it cooled off.  Eventually, after three or four three hundred dollar pumps, I came up with a bright idea to keep the pump cool.  I used one of those ice pack things for an Igloo cooler that you toss in the freezer overnight.  I would strap it right to the pump.  Worked like a charm.

Bought the car for 1500, put at least 5000 into it, sold it for 300 after the second replacement motor blew.

Road trip/funny car story--

The first year I went away to college, I had a month long Christmas break.  About the second week, a couple friends and I decided to take a road trip to, of all places, Pittsburgh, to see a friend who had moved down there after HS.  I grew up in northern NY, right on the Canadian border.  Snow was a fact of life.  Up there, it didn't snow inches, it snowed feet.

We take this trip in my friend's '65 Dodge Dart.  Good weather all the way down.  We stay in this big old house that was supposedly one of Foghat's houses.  It was a dump but there was musical equipment everywhere.  Our buddy told us he lived there for nothing in exchange for being the care taker of the house.  Judging by the condition of the place, he didn't do much care taking.  But Foghat was rarely ever there, so the place was basically his.

We spend a few days there, great time had by all.  We leave on a cold sunny day.  Pittsburgh had snow but not our kind of snow.  The roads were clear and what snow they had was melting.

By the time we get to NY, it was snowing.  By the time we got to Rochester, you couldn't even see to drive.  We were the only ones out there.  We crawl along until it is snowing so hard, you can't see past the hood and the wipers couldn't keep up.

We decide to pull over.  Up there, everybody carried blankets in their car.  You break down when it's 20 or 30 below, there's a good chance you freeze to death.

So we pull over, get out the blankets, go to sleep.  It was cold but we were bundled up pretty well.  We go to sleep.

I open my eyes, it's daylight.  All I can see out the windows are walls of snow.  I wake up the other two.  We have to dig our way out with a scraper.  After about an hour and very little progress, we start hearing voices outside.  We start blowing the horn. 

It was a state trooper and a plow driver.  They dig us out.  We get out of the car to find we were in the center lane of the expressway.