First car was a '61 Volvo P544, 4spd, red, with red leather interior... in Germany where I lived at the time. It was my neighbor's who bought it new. It was his pride and joy... and I got to drive it around to the back of the building to wash, vacuum, and wax it at least 1x per month (or more if I could convince him it needed it) before I got my driver's license in '62. In mid '62 the owner was transferred back to US and offered it to my parents for well under blue-book IF they let it be my car while I was still in Germany.
My parents bought it for me and I drove it 'til mid '64 when I came back to the US after graduating high school... I was just turning 19. Drove it all over Europe (Italy, France --- mostly the Riviera for a teen-ager's fun in the sun and surf, & back seat), Neatherlands, Switzerland, Paris (more fun, no sun) topped out all the time (Autobahn's at that time were open roads, no speed limits on any of them... and no speed limits on most of the highways either (until highway went thru a town or village). My parents sold it right after I left Germany for only a little bit less than they paid for it. I had to pay for insurance, gas, & maintenance though, not to mention ferrying my younger sister around whenever my mom or dad did'nt want to (which translated to anytime I was home).
I learned to drive on icy cobblestones in mid-winter, in major cities (Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, Amsterdam, Geneva, etc)... around the arc de Triomph in Paris without hazard... one thing about the European drivers at that time... there was a discipline in driving... everybody followed the same unspoken, unwritten rules, though the Italien's drove with a bit more "freedom" than most.. still disciplined, but on the hairy edge. Rules were that you passed if you thought you could make it... whether or not you could see around the bend or over the hill.... at least those were the rules I learned ... and since I survived it, I guess I learned those rules well enough.
Driving back in the US I was appalled at lack of driving discipline, and speed limits that people only marginally exceeded... 65 mph limit mostly at that time, and drivers rarely drove over 75. I was used to a minimum of 80 mph... 90 kind of normal in cruising along... 100 - 110 (115 was the Volvo's max) when I was either racing somebody down the freeway (kind of a European "sport"), or drunk... sometimes both. In the US people passed you on the right on the freeway's... and in US there was no discipline about slower drivers keeping furthest to right, with consecutively faster drivers further to the left... nobody moved over (to right) when you came upon them on the freeway, and obviously slower cars (car model) didn't move over a bit on the highways to let faster version cars pass them more easily. Amazing I didn't get a ticket driving in the US 'til ~ 10 years later (85 mph on a 65 mph freeway... I was shocked beyond belief that I got that ticket for only going 20 mph over the posted limit --- and it was a clear, sunny, dry, no traffic freeway condition besides).
Anyway, I went to a high school reunion for the 1st time after over 40 years since graduating and it was clear that everybody I knew remembered me and that red Volvo, especially the girl's I'd dated, and most were amazed I'd survived it. A couple of them even told me I was the reason their parents didn't let them get driver's licences while in Germany... since the word got around the parents that I drove like a maniac ... besides the issue of no speed limits on highways and freeways.
My parents were a different breed I guess... survival of the fittest I think... I'd either live, die, or learn one way or another (the hard way is best teacher). I was a daredevil, as probably most males at that age are (why else would they volunteer to go to war?), and even drove back from Italy to central Germany over the Brenner Pass when I'd lost my brakes (master cylinder shot)... thank god for my Volvo's 4 speed and a hand operated emergency brake which kept me slow enough to barely negotiate the pass on the way down... didn't hit anything though. Even drove the German Autobahn at speed all the way back (stayed behind trucks since I figured they wouldn't be able to slow down as fast as cars did in traffic, so I'd at least have a chance to ditch the car to the shoulder or off the road if I couldn't down shift fast enough.
FWIW, I've had 3 accidents.... 2 fender-benders and a total. My first fender-bender occurred in US in '72 on my way to see my wife after our 1st child was born... following too close I hit a guy's rear at ~5mph. My second fender-bender occurred in '76 when I misjudged a turn onto free-way and braked, sliding slowly into a guardrail... again at about 5 mph. I drove 3 years again in Europe when I was employed over there (bought a new '82 528e in Europe) with no accidents. In '90 on way back from Europe after a long flight and no sleep for 24 hrs I drove home from SF Airport on the Freeway (101) at 5pm... rush-hour. My responses were too slow to keep from rear-ending a honda... which totaled my BMW, and didn't damage that damned honda... my front end nose-dived and the honda's rear-end had risen up in hard braking... so the bottom side of the Honda's bumper was scratched... and my front was caved in, engine pushed back into fire-wall... totaled. Nobody hurt, no ticket though, so no moving violation (cops came and said "not my fault"... some car 5 or 6 cars ahead had virtually stopped in the middle of the freeway for no apparent reason in bumper - bumper traffic going 65 - 70 in rush hour).. but I was the only one to rear-end anybody. That's the last time I drove home from a trip over-seas after 24 or more hours of no sleep.
I've had 2 moving violations --- speeding tickets --- the one mentioned above, and another (I was ticketed for 79 mph (actually was clocked at 90 and that's what I told the cop I thought I was doing) in a 55 on a highway.. no traffic in either direction for miles, clear daylight)... CHP having to do their "job" I guess and save me from myself once again. Had I been given a ticket for 85 I'd have been charged with reckless driving... a big no-no in CA.... so the officer was actually being nice to me if you consider that he didn't actually have to pull me over in the 1st place)... i think it was because I was racing a Camero at the time.... now that I think about it. But the Camero got away.
Loved that Volvo though.
Longtooth
67 250SL US #113-043-10-002163
'02 SL500 Sport
