Because my Squareback's fuel injection system was sketchy at best, it spent a lot of time parked in front of the house. Not content with sitting at home during my summer vacation, I decided to swipe the keys from my dad's drawer and teach myself to drive a stick shift. Not the most powerful truck in the world, but it was super fun to drive, got great gas mileage, and it started everytime. Something that couldn't be said about my VW. I ended up selling the Squareback and buying the 280zx, so the Luv keys went back to my dad.
The first car I ever broke a ton in (that means I went over 100mph). Sorry dad! Yes, another one of my dad's cars I used and abused during my high school days. I actually didn't drive this car all that much. I only drove it a few times when I took my girlfriend at the time home. I figured it deserved special recognition as being the first turbo car I had ever driven, and also the first to take me into the triple digits (109 mph to be exact. Stupid speed limiter).
Jeez. Where to begin with this one? My dad loved cars with wood paneling. The only problem being, this car did not have wood paneling. That's actually plastic and vinyl designed to resemble wood. Anywhoo, my dad got a "deal" on this car. In retrospect I now know why. It was kinda cool because it had that super cool 80's feature where the car would "talk". It would say things like, "Door is ajar" or "Fuel level is low." Everytime you would start it up it would run a "diagnostic" and let you know that "All monitored systems are functioning." Well, I now know that was all a sham. When my Mustang wasn't running, I would borrow, Woody as it became known as, to drive to Delta College in Stockton. One day while driving with my buddy Bryan the engine started to knock, the temp gauge was in the red and the car started loosing power rapidly. So we pulled over and let it cool down. We decided to see if we could limp it home. So we started Woody back up, it's knocking like crazy and we get the "All monitored systems are functioning," spiel. Classic. Well, it spun a bearing for sure and needed a complete rebuild. My dad was a little sad about it, but decided he needed to sell it anyways. I think he sold it for $500 to a Filipino guy named Napoleon. Go figure.
Hands down the coolest truck of my dad's I ever drove. This is what replaced Woody when it finally died, and I took over driving the truck while the Mustang was in various states of repair. Certainly not the fast vehicle ever, but the little turbo diesel engine made gobs of torque. I could never figure out why, but I could never get it to do a burnout in 1st gear, but man would it roast them in 2nd. One day when driving to college with Bryan, the truck started to vibrate like it had a blown tire. So I started moving over from the fast lane towards the slow lane. By the time I got halfway into the slow lane the vibrating stopped. I pulled over anyways and did a quick check of all 4 tires. Yep, still round and inflated. So we took off and continued to school. About 2 miles later, the vibrating came back and then the sound of something geting flung up into the rear wheel well. I pulled over again and found that the entire center section of the tread had come off the tire. The tire was still inflated, sans tread. Awesome. Another time I had driven to dinner at my favorite Mexican joint about a mile and a half from our house. The clutch cable broke and I was essentially stuck. I called my dad and he said he'd be right there. Thinking he would assess the situation as "unfixable" he'd just call a tow truck and we'd be on our way. Nope. He pushed me home, me in the P'up and he in the '89 LeBaron.
