While cleaning out the basement this morning, I came across a lost picture album. It’s the one my maternal grandfather had put together for me a few years ago. In this picture, a high school friend sold me his 1976 Honda Civic for $50. The car was originally green, but the previous owner had spray painted the car red. It didn’t look too bad until I wrecked it into a parked car a few weeks later. 🙁
You can also see the 1970 Ford Turtle Top van behind us. That was a great vehicle for trips. It was tall enough for me to stand up in without hitting my head. That was a cool thing to have back then. And we could put a clothes wrack up inside for long trips instead of packing lots of suitcases. But the best part of the van was the transmission. The three speed on the tree coupled to the big six cylinder was just a lot of fun.
The other car is a 1971 VW Beetle (I think) which was owned by my brother. As I recall, it had an clutchless manual 4 speed transmission. First and second gears were located in the forward position. Once you had used them up, you would pick up your foot off the accelerator and pull back the shifter for third and fourth. It was a fun car for a while until my brother found out the spark plugs were ceased into place.
And while I’m reminiscing about old cars, here’s a shot grandpa took of our 1969 Plymouth Satellite station wagon. It was the coolest car my dad ever bought. It had two tone exterior, a 318 V8, mag wheels, roof rails, and a see-through external fuel filter. How cool is that? This is the car I drove into an attorney’s fence while practicing driving in our church’s parking lot. He wasn’t too happy, but $200 later, he agreed not to press charges.