Remember your first car?

[Douglas]

The Wall St Journal did an article on this clever Website back in January. No Mercedes (or BMWs) listed yet:

http://www.lost-car-registry.com/main.html



Douglas Kim
New York
USA

[JamesL]

Oh yes

Mine was a Mini (the proper ones, not those newfangled BMW things)

1982, red, blue/black check interior, 998cc engine. An "HLE" in the weird model types that BL (as it then was) put on things. It had 40bhp!![:p]

I had the seat so far back that the rear of the front seat touched the front of the back seat (I am 6'3"). Crashed it twice, minor stuff, and I loved driving it, despite having to contort myself. I'd love another...

I sold it in '84 for a 1.3 Metro of the same age. A little more practical, especially for lugging stuff to college and back...

The former car has not been taxed - so assumedly off the road/scrapped - since mid 1995, the latter (below) since April 1997.

[al_lieffring]

1959 Bug-eyed Sprite / M.G. Midget.



In 1970 I was in Junior High (they call it middle school now), a teacher told me that she had an old car in her garage that her son Carlton had dismantled before he left for Princeton, it had been sitting there ever since. I begged my dad for the $100 to claim it, he relented. We dragged home the body and I litteraly hauled home the rest in baskets. The body was rotted away so we found a solid tub in a scrap yard for a 62 M.G. Midget that I put the Sprite's driveline into after I rebuilt it all. By the time I turned 16 in 1973 I had it all overhauled, rewired, repainted and reuppholstered.
It was white with red uppholstery, the 948cc engine and an axle ratio of 5.?:1 gave it a top speed around 50mph. That summer gasoline in Kansas City was selling for $0.18-9/10 a gallon, the tank cost less than a Dollar to fill.
I sold the Spridget to buy my first Pagoda a euro 65 230sl.


Al Lieffring
66 230SL

[thelews]

My mother's, brother's, then me.  1965 Mustang fastback, 289 V8, automatic.



John
1967 Early 250 SL Red/Caviar, Manual

[Mike Hughes]

1966 MGB.  Met my wife when it broke down and she helped me push start it.  This picture taken our first summer together, 36 summers ago!


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- Mike Hughes  -ô¿ô-
  1966 230SL Auto P/S
  Havanna Brown (408)
  Light Beige (181)
  Cream M-B Tex (121)

[Paddy_Crow]

'67 Pontiac Catalina convertible.

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch...

[Raymond]

I was 14 and bought a '62 VW with a sunroof for $100.  The engine was in cardboard boxes in the back seat.  My dad helped me rebuild the engine.  My brother got it painted free at his job.  At 16 I got my license in it and later discovered the importance of a nice back seat.  My next car was an Impala.


Ray
'68 280SL 4-spd Coupe

[thelews]

When I had my Mustang, pictured below, in 1972 my mother got this '71.  Drove it for 17 years before it rotted away...Wisconsin winters.



John
1967 Early 250 SL Red/Caviar, Manual

[J. Huber]

Well, I was just talking to M. Salemi about this...my official first car was my sister's hand-me down -- a 1974 baby blue Ford Mustang II. The II was for too bad your sister didn't have a '67. The good news was my "other car" was available for things like Senior Proms!
(dig the hair!).



James
63 230SL

[hauser]

A 1971 2002tii!  The most impressive thing was the handling.  I bought the car on my own without telling my parrents ( yes I caught hell for it).  Other than the engine losing compression, the clutch needing replacement and oh yes the large ventilation holes in the foot-well area (rust holes!  I could see the ground through them) there was nothing really wrong wit it.

1969 280sl 5 spd
Gainesville, Fl.

[JPMOSE]

1969 Lincoln Continental Sedan.  Last year with suicide doors.  I loved that car and had it several years as a second car restored (it was totaled in 1987).

Best Regards,

J. P. Mose
1968 250SL
1987 560SL

[bpossel]

My 1st car was a 71 VW, baby blue...

My other car, the one my parents let me drive, was a '65 190Dc.  Not as sexy as James 113, but it did have a Blaupunkt 5-Band Radio...  Not a chick magnet, but the guys liked the short wave radio!
Had 4 on the column, lots of room and very slow at the gate...  Was also fun finding diesel fuel back then...  mostly had to go to truck stops...
Parents bought it new and we took delivery at the Sindelfingen facility.  We traveled in it, visiting relatives throughout Germany for 2+ months (May-July 1965)...  This was my parents 1st trip back to Germany after moving to Dayton, Ohio in the early 50's...




Bob

bpossel  (Memphis, TN.)
'71 280SL  /  '97 E320

[dhunter]

VW Beetle here too.
Same spec and colour as in photo but unfortunately without all the er...scenery!  

[flacc]

Peugeot Station wagon 1974...burgundy.  The things was huge!  Traveled cross country and slept in the back "wood paneled" bed.  The beast had a 1/4 ton rating for a load.  Two problems, often got passed by motor homes when going up a mountain pass (in 2nd gear) and almost had to settle in Elk City OK when my slave cylinder in the clutch went.  Always had a thing for wagons, lots of room in the back :twisted:

christopher
1970 280sl
1985 300td wagon
1999 320 4matic wagon

[Chad]

Alfa Romeo Spider Giulietta.  A 1300cc engine with oil bubbling hot within the four spark plug wells.  By the time I got it the car was almost a fossil of it's former self, having spent it's life around and now possibly within the La Brea tar pits.

1967 230SL

[Rolf]

My first car was a 1952 Plymouth Cambridge. Got it from my grandfather. It was so easy to work on. I wish I still had it.

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Rolf
1966 230SL Auto
1992 300D
1991 FLHS

[hauser]

The nice thing about old American iron is that you could sit alongside of the engine while you worked on it.  

1969 280sl 5 spd
Gainesville, Fl.

[CarlG]

1957 Cadillac Fleetwood, bought it from my Dad for $50 when he upgraded to a 1960 Caddy.  It had all kinds of options, most of which did not work by the time I got it.  Even had an automatic headlight dimmer.  I sold it about a year later for $90 when the transmission started to go out.  My first new car was a Datsun 240z, right after they first came out and there was a long waiting list, but nobody on the waiting list wanted the orange one with the black interior so I grabbed it.

1967 230sl (stick)

[hill]

First was a rotted 1933 5 window Ford coupe. But my first street car was a 1969 CHP car. 400 HP for a 16 yr old was fun.

Happy Benzing
Darryl, Hill
350 SL4.5 #60
1967 250sl "California"

[tuultyme]

Mine was a 57 Chevy in 1968.  A lot of rust and I had to replace the 6 cylinder with a V8.  Learned a lot about cars working on it.

Bruce; 268Blaugrun(green) 1970 280SL; IL

[jaxxonia]

1970 Datsun 240Z. I was 18 years old. Even at that age, I really wanted a 280SL, but couldn't afford one.  The Datsun was $3,528
out the door. I said to myself, "Almost the same engine-a straight 6!" Drove across country 9 times in the Z without even a flat tire.
I sold it after 7 years for a BMW 320I. I never owned a car longer than that Datsun until I finally bought a 280SL, which I have now owned for 8 years. There is still something about a straight 6 that sings.

Jackson Schwartz
1970 280SL automatic
Tunis Beige Metallic & Cognac

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[rob walker]

A Ford Anglia 105E with more holes in it around the inner and outer front wings than metal! But oh boy did the Peco big bore exhaust make a difference  :oops:

Rob Walker
1968 280SL papyrus white/green leather
Spain and Turkey

[Kemal]

VW Beetle, Sky blue metallic. I loved the way the side windows would open and direct the air to your face. [ Porsche Engine! (' ') ]

Kemal
280 SL
Manual 69 LHD

[enochbell]

'67 VW Beetle, hand-me-down from father and brother.  By the time I got it in '72 it had already lived a full (and hard) life.  Windsheild wipers used to flip-flop on that stupid set-screw and arbor thing...until everything rusted permanently in place, problem solved.  Clutch went and I drove without one (clutch) for about a month until I scraped together enough $'s for the repair.  Easy enough, living in Boston, could always find a hill to park on.  Couldn't afford to be too picky about where to park, though.  You could get the car to begin rolling forward by applying pressure to the gear shift from neutral toward first, never understood (still don't) how it did that.  Tuned it up using a matchbook cover to gap the points.  Finally destroyed it by setting the valves, at least some of them, don't know which ones, out of sequence.  I think I was using the muffler as a combustion chamber.  All I know is that I got it to run, for about 1/4 mile, standing on the gas.  But things got dicey when I saw a faint "glow" out of the rearview mirror.  Pulled up to the nearest house to use a phone to call the fire department...too late.

Great memories, except for that very last one.

Best
g

'64 230sl, fully sorted out...ooops, spoke too soon

[Cees Klumper]

'66 Alfa Romeo 1750 GTV for EUR 250 in 1977. Since I did not have a driver's license yet, my friend had to drive me around. The first fast run we did late one night, and it was only after some 10 miles at top speed that we discovered the car had a hand brake - and that it was still applied! It went even faster after that. Leaked oil so bad that to this day I am sure you can see the marks on the pavement where I used to park it, even though I only owned it for a few months. Traded up to a Jaguar 4.2 sedan with its own stories (and a larger back seat, which seems to be an item here!).

Cees ("Case") Klumper in Amsterdam
'69 white 280 SL automatic