Cars I have owned and worked on

"Dave the car guy , still here" (a3dave)
01/07/2017 at 12:45 • Filed to: None

Over the years I’ve owned a fair number of cars considering I hang onto most for 5-12 years. So there is a lot of overlap and at times I had 3-4 cars at once for a while.

1968 Fiat 850 Spider

1972 Gremlin X

1963 Triumph TR4

1973 Saab 99EMS

1976 Mercury Monarch Ghia 302 with factory alloys

1979 Ford Fiesta S

1977 Buick Regal Limited

1983 Honda Prelude

1987 Mercury Cougar

1992 Cavalier RS wagon w/3.1 v6

1996 Lumina APV

1998 Audi A4 quattro 2.8

2000 Nissan Altima

2000 Audi A4 quattro 1.8t

2008 Ford Edge

2012 Audi a4 2.0t (I co-signed)

2008 Audi A3 3.2 S-line

This list doesn’t include the Mercurys , Lincolns, GMCs or Jeeps my dad owned and allowed me complete access to. Some days if my car was blocked in on our driveway I’d borrow another family car. I’d show up at local surf spots in a Red Metallic Lincoln mk IV with white interior , surfboard across the back seat and then a few days later showing up with a bright yellow Wagoneer. Dad let me have one of the Wagoneers for a month during college and he took my Saab. Was great to drive onto the beach to remote locations without any other surfers. From the time I was a kid until adulthood I think there could may have been about 12 different Jeeps from 40's MB model up to ‘87 Wagoneer.

I got to hone my mechanical skills from my Triumph ownership on the various cars of wife, friends, sisters, college roommates and nephews. The short list of those is a bunch of Audi, Volvo 140 series , Volvo 240 series, VW bugs, Toyota HiLuxs, Toyota FJ60, MG Midget, 1949 MG TC, Ferrari 365 GTB4, Chevy G-vans, Astro Vans, Blazers, BMWs, Olds, Pontiacs, Hondas, Pintos, Vegas and a‘61 Thunderbird. At jobs I won’t even start except to say even though I’m a parts guy I’ve occasionally gotten involved on weekends with engine swaps, diff rebuilds,, tranmission jobs and demo derby cars.

Not sure which I miss the most. While my present Audi is such a fun car, the Audi 2.8 was a beast in the snow with snow tires. The Fiat despite being under powered even after a cam and exhaust swap was so much fun. The Triumph taught me to work on cars by necessity. The Saab was the right car at the right time and was 3 years of awesomeness. I really regret selling that one. The Fiesta was fun and just fast enough with a few changes to embarrass many a late 70's to early 80s sports cars. The Cavalier 3.1 wagon had enough guts to outpull an MR2 one day on a hilly Ohio back road. A Z-24 in disguise, its torque was the advantage that day. Of all of them I still probably miss the Saab most of all. It wasn’t very quick but was just such a great car. Any car that can hit a large bobcat at 65 mph and only break a fog light is tough as hell. The impact did knock something out of alignment though because the hood never could be adjusted correctly after that.

DISCUSSION (4)

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Dave the car guy , still here
01/07/2017 at 13:20

A guy I knew in the Army in Germany in 1989 or ‘90 had a turbo Saab similar to the one you have pictured. The exhaust manifold exit pointed forward, which I thought was curious. I wish I’d had a chance to drive that car on the Autobahn.

Dave the car guy , still here > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
01/07/2017 at 17:14

They drive so well and the ride is very comfortable. Mine was pretty much stock other than the stereo and remote tape setup in mine. I added the 8-track deck under the right side of the rear seat. Could only reach it from in the back or when stopped. Had a rotary switch I soldered many connections to which switched all power and speaker connections from one audio device to the other. I can’t remember where I found the wiring info way back in the mid 70's but I made a passive center channel with the dash speaker. Used low pass and high pass filters to get it to work.. That was the only factory speaker when I bought the car but they had added two rear shelf speakers with dash speaker improperly tied into the right channel. I McGyvered it to have 5 speakers with proper balancing . Wired in my CB and PA system at same time. It was a Midland and I had a kill switch for the stereo when using the PA or external CB speaker. My parents thought I was nuts when I was spending an almost all nighter in garage doing the install. Also got two stiffer rear springs to make turn in better and swapped to a better performing Conti tire from the Semperits it came with.

tazerpruf > Dave the car guy , still here
01/08/2017 at 19:10

Interesting list.

Seems strange that we’re both car guys with pretty long lists, but zero overlap.

Dave the car guy , still here > tazerpruf
01/08/2017 at 20:57

I have a bunch of friends who are car guys and have never had any car I’ve owned. The best thing about that is you get to drive something different if they trust you with their cars. I have a good friend with money so that has rewarded me with drives in Carrera, DB9, 248, 5000s, AMG55 and Phaeton that I could never have done otherwise.