Q: a red late-sixties/early-seventies Olds Cutlass coupe is about as close as they've come.
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My dad had many Camaros and Corvette through the years. He stuck with the 67-69 Camaros for the most part and has had 5 Corvettes since I was born. He did a lot of restoration while I was little.
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I definitely earned my love of British Sports Cars from my father and uncle. My father had a Triumph TR-4, MGB, and a Sunbeam Tiger Mark II. My uncle had an Austin Healey 3000.
My father had to give up the sports cars because he "couldn't fit the groceries, wife and children in the Tiger..."
Recently, my mother persuaded him to get an S2000. It's definitely his pride and joy! But, my brothers and I are still looking to get him back into a Tiger...one day.
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My dad's first brand new car from the showroom floor was a '73 Ford Pinto. He got it a couple years before I was born. It was in our family until the late 80's. His second car (also new) was an '84 Celica. It was called a GT - I wouldn't call it a sports car, but we had it when we lived in a very small town in Tennessee - it may as well have been a Ferrari to the other kids in my school whos daddy's all drove old, rusted out Ford pick-em-up trucks.
I've always been into cars for as long as I can remember. Don't know what sparked it, but I'd guess it had something to do with my oldest brother & his affection for fast cars.
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Dad was always a 4X4 kind of guy....
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My dad had a couple of Z cars (240 & 260) before I was born.
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Yes. Porsche 914 and Lotus Europa were the two that impacted me the most.
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4 Corvette:
1957, 1965, 1969 and 1994 ZR1.
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My dad was not a sports car guy at all...more like Brando in the godfather....but be that as it may.
Along the way we mostly had Caddys...and Buicks..but we also had a TR3.....then a Jag XKEcoupe..1963. He then bought the Buick Rivera 1963 when nobody could fix the jag. At the same time he had the Mercury Comet...with the 4 speed and I think the 390..it was the biggest engine they put in the car.
He bought a 63 Corvette for my brother...9 years older than me...and when he came back from College...he gave it to me. That was my start. Then one day I got passed on a curve (in 1969) by a Lotus Elan S2.
I knew I had to have that car.
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My Mom and Dad had several sports cars before they started having kids. One of the favorites was their MG TD in the mid 50's. Here's some photos:
Mom at a ice rally on Lake Hurron in Michigan
A photo of the action from the event
A trophy she one at another event
and here she is just this summer getting out of my Elise, she's 75 now
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^ love that pic! She is a cool lady your mom is.
John
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Before me dad had :
BMW 1602
BMW 1602 with Webers (!)
BMW 2002tii (72)
BMW 2.0 Sedan
Glas 1700GT-Very minute sports car, I'd be surprised if anyone knew what is was.
Lotus Elan (69-Still has it)
My mom had a Renault Le Car if that counts too.
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77 Camaro
83 280XZ 2+2
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1960 Austin Healy 3000 (Still in his garage)
1964 Porsche 356 C (Sold )
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Mom:
- 70's Mustang (V6, ok not much of a sports car with that motor, so "sporty" then)
- Austin Healey67 Elan. S2 I believe. Sold after 1st or 2nd kid because they felt it was impractical and wouldn't get driven. Regretted it ever since. He still remembers the VIN. I'm hoping some day he'll give me his old service manual signed by Mr. Chapman himself.Future Corvette C6 owner (a gift for himself when he retires)
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MGB, Triumph TR7, '69 Camaro Convertible, '69 Olds 442.
Pixlpush - You have a very classy mother! Not many 75-year-old women would be giving a thumbs up while getting out of an Elise. And she was a competitive driver years ago? An ice rally? Wow, Nice! Not many of us would venture out on the ice even with today's auto technology.
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Dad picked our cars out of Consumer Reports. So I guess that's a "no..."
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Dad went from a 50's Chevy something or other, all I remember was that it was black with a red interior. His next "real" car, bought new in New York city on a crisp cold winter day in 59 was a silver Oldsmobile Rocket 88. I think that was his all time favorite.
Then when the parents moved to suburbia and the family grew, and the Olds was on it's last leg, and from exceedingly heavy pressure from "she who must be obeyed", Pop bought his second new car. A 1968 Pontiac Bonneville.
The purple beast. I have always been a bit shade blind and to me it looked purple. Burgundy I believe was the true color.
That car lasted for a real long time, was the car that allowed me to join the driving world, and was the car that granted me freedom.
After that came a 70 something p.o.s. Plymouth Duster for my mother. she did not decide to get her license untill after we had been in suburbia for a good number of years. She could never understand why I would not use it to go on a date. I prefered my beat up, semi-reliable, red Triumph TR3B to the thought of being seen in that Duster..
And finally, after complaints from the neighbors and more pressure from "she who must be obeyed", dad bought his final new car. A new white Oldsmobile.
4 door, automatic, power everything, enjoyment factor.....that is subjective.
Somehow, after all that I came out with a passion for sports cars.
I think I was saved by my buddy Tom and his older brother Jim. Jim and his gang of hooligans were terrorizing the neighborhood in their 60's MG's, Healys, and Jags. It was inevitable.
Dad loved his big fat cruisers. They allowed him to sit comfortably, kick back, and enjoy his smokes. It also put grandma way in the back seat on those days when he had to ferry her back and forth. Dad was a smart man.
Even though he loved his land yachts I believe that if he had not been married to the wicked witch of the east he might have seen the light and succumbed to the call of the sports car.
He would never admit it, but I caught him grinning a few times when I would come down to the train station in the TR to pick him up. I think he got a thrill or a chuckle, (being the type that he was), from the scene of this conservative looking older gentleman climbing over the door sill of a red noisey sports car which had just come screaming down the hill, chaufered by some young long haired hippy type. Then with a crowd watching we would spirit off, exhaust note screaming and my dad clutching the oh **** handle with one hand, his fedora with the other, and his breif case tucked under his elbow.
It's funny how things work out sometimes.
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Appx 66 MGB
Appz 74 Porsche 914 2.0
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My parents started out with a '57 T-Bird with a 2 speed auto. Dad still has it, and in perfect condition. It drives like a bus. They graduated to an A-H 3000, and had a couple of early '70s Corvettes. Then a '79 450 SL, now with 50K miles and perfect. And an Audi cabrio. Except for the Healy, a fleet of posers.
He took me to look at a Europa with him when I was about 10. He loved it- my pediatrician had a couple of Elans and wouldn't drive anything else. I thought we were taking one home, until the dealer said that the engine was made by Renault. I'm still on his case about that.
What really did it for me was sitting at a light in one of those Corvettes, and watching a 911 E Targa turn in front of us onto an entrance ramp in a perfect 4 wheel drift, with the aircooled 6 picking up revs at full throttle. I've had a thing for aircooled Porsches ever since.