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Thread: What's the oldest car you've driven?

  1. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by moroza View Post
    Cuute! What was parts availability like?
    I could rebuild the entire truck using repro panels if I desired. But it was way far gone by the time I got to it. And of course there's the college kid budget...

  2. #27
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    Oldest I've driven was my 1957 Chevrolet wagon. It was a fun car to work on and fun to drive, but the constant questions from morons at every gas station and every parking lot became too much to take.

    Moron: "hey man my dad had a 51 buick just like that"
    Me: "this isn't a buick, it's a 57 chevy"
    Moron: "no man, my dad had one just like that and it was a 51 buick!"

    I grew up in the 80s, with crappy 80s cars, and always dreamed of owning a 50s classic. I'm glad I did but it really had more in common with a farm tractor than with a modern car.
    1989 750iL schwarz/schwarz
    1991 M5 schwarz/silbergrau
    2013 328i coupe diamondschwarz/caramel
    2003 525iT orient blue/tan
    1990 535i/5 schwarz/schwarz

  3. #28
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    E34, E30, LC, VP44, CJ7
    moroza I want your car.

  4. #29
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    S54 E36
    At one point I owned an 1957 Volkswagen Type I (Beetle) with a grafted in ragtop.

    Great weekend car but sucked for commuting.








  5. #30
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    93 325is, 98 Nissan Maxima
    1981 Mercedes 250

  6. #31
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    E24, E34 x2, E36
    My 1974 bmw 2002. It drives quite modern other than the lack of power steer when parking. The main difference to driving modern cars is the visibility is much better in the old ones. Easier to avoid an accident as less blind spots. I like driving the older cars more as u actually ate in control of everything.

    My mrs has an Audi S5 the v6 supercharged model with dsg and some apr tuning. It is an absolute weapon from a standing sta in all conditions but there is not much intuitive feel to it.
    BMW’s
    90 E34 M5
    84 E24 M635csi standalone ecu with coil on plug
    94 E34 540i/6 SC 5-17psi Flex fuel/standalone ecu
    97 Z3 2.8
    97 E36 M3 euro SC still u/c


    OTHERS
    11 Audi S5 APR stg2
    19 Volkswagen Amarok V6


  7. #32
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    moroza is offline MORΩN ΛABIA BMW CCA Member
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    Quote Originally Posted by GazM3 View Post
    the visibility is much better in the old ones. Easier to avoid an accident as less blind spots. I like driving the older cars more as u actually ate in control of everything.
    This +a million. I'm in a perpetual quixotic struggle to make mass society realize it.

  8. #33
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    Quote Originally Posted by moroza View Post
    This +a million. I'm in a perpetual quixotic struggle to make mass society realize it.
    Well, my brother it certainly is a Quixotic struggle.
    Canted A pillars for aero are the permanent undoing of good forward visibility.
    Our E39 has grown on me but I can never see a left turn apex, even in my preferred upright seating position and this annoys me to no end.
    They cant them for aero then make them huge because the shape is weak(and we are going to roll over), then make them bigger still to accommodate airbags.

    My thoughts are that safety is better if a driver can SEE and aren't distracted by a half dozen on board toys. Oops, sorry, that touches the realm of personal responsibility. Nah, nah, let 'em crash and provide a cocoon of airbags that won't hurt Siri.
    rant over

    If you can leave two black stripes from the exit of one corner to the braking zone of the next, you have enough horsepower. - Mark Donohue

  9. #34
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    moroza is offline MORΩN ΛABIA BMW CCA Member
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    Quote Originally Posted by ross1 View Post
    Canted A pillars for aero are the permanent undoing of good forward visibility.
    Our E39 has grown on me but I can never see a left turn apex, even in my preferred upright seating position and this annoys me to no end.
    They cant them for aero then make them huge because the shape is weak(and we are going to roll over),
    I'm a huge fan of aerodynamics as it's effectively a free lunch (once you've paid for the recipe). What other feature gives you more comfort (less noise), more speed, less consumption, and for the cost of no moving parts, electronics, weak materials, significant weight increase, or too many design compromises? Yes, styling can suffer in the eyes of a traditionalist, but 1. tradition is a common watchword for something in need of review, and 2. form follows function, so 3. learn to love it. It's part of why I dislike the 2g Prius far less than most gearheads do, and aspire to build a 1g Insight someday. As for visibility, you're right in that that's how it is, but it doesn't have to be that way. See how they did the Renault Espace. It still has modern poor visibility, but you can see the potential in this design. Note how much thinner the A-pillars are compared to the airbag-infested NCAP-overrated A.5-pillars:


    then make them bigger still to accommodate airbags.
    This, however, is an unacceptable tradeoff and...
    My thoughts are that safety is better if a driver can SEE and aren't distracted by a half dozen on board toys. Oops, sorry, that touches the realm of personal responsibility. Nah, nah, let 'em crash and provide a cocoon of airbags that won't hurt Siri.
    rant over
    ...you nail the reason why. Thank you. I wish more people understood.
    Last edited by moroza; 08-06-2018 at 10:22 PM.

  10. #35
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    I want to agree but it seems....confident?
    Predating angled pillars is going back pretty damn far. Like 1960 and earlier. Though it was indeed mentioned it wasn't until recently that they've gotten much wider. How would anything from that era actually be better regarding the keyword here which is "safety"?
    Last edited by bigsixe34; 08-07-2018 at 02:46 PM.


  11. #36
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    moroza is offline MORΩN ΛABIA BMW CCA Member
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    You're right; at a certain point, better visibility and more encouragement of safe driving do not overcome unassisted drum brakes, bias-ply tires, no headrests, no seatbelts, and impaler steering columns in overall safety. My argument is that there's not only a happy medium somewhere (late 80's seems about it) but we could be designing new cars today without quite as bad compromises, combining the best of the old and the best of the new. Let's have modern engines, aerodynamics, tires, and metallurgy, but leave most of the rest alone, as it's long reached its peak and in many cases has been in decline*. But this is coming from the same crackpot who's designing a house with Viking-era turf roof, gothic spires, and that meets Passivhaus energy efficiency standards...

    *That 1948 Chevy towtruck had original window regulators that worked great. So did the '53 Caddy I hitchhiked in. My 1981 Toyota's are original but sloppy. My 1994 E34 had one fail in my time with it; looked original. My former 1996 Passat's had a lifespan of about five years if ever used. See a pattern?
    Last edited by moroza; 08-07-2018 at 11:44 PM.

  12. #37
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    Yeah, I definitely do see the pattern and I certainly ain't disputing that "they don't make em....."
    I'd love to see some bolder nods to automotive styling of yesteryear, both aesthetically and functionally. Some companies have even managed to reverse/save an entire brand (IMO, Ford did with the Mustang's Gen 4 --> Gen 5 transition) by doing so.

    Edit: Visual salvation only; I would imagine those 'stangs suffer the same vis deficit as everything else on the road by comparison.
    Last edited by bigsixe34; 08-08-2018 at 09:49 AM.


  13. #38
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    moroza is offline MORΩN ΛABIA BMW CCA Member
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    I hear you on the retro Mustang thing. I also am one of maybe half a dozen gearheads who thinks the PT Cruiser looks good (Chevy HHR too, though I hear the mechanicals are sub-par). More on the retro topic, someone needs to pull a Mustang/PT Cruiser revival on 1930's Tatras. This thing from the 30's has a Cd of 0.21-0.25 depending on model (all similar Tatra 77, 87, 97 and sub-variants), which is outstanding even by 2018 standards:

    But the visibility - to the front, anyway - is as good as it gets while still having pillars:


    So much potential! That's all with 30's technology, even before curved windshields existed. Imagine what it could be if built with 2018 materials and tolerances. Pad the dashboard, give it some crumple zones, modern footwork, throw a 2-liter turbodiesel under the (front) hood. Build the A-pillars out of modern high-strength steel but leave them pencil-thin for visibility. Modernize it, just leave out the touchscreen, facebombs, and all those #$!@% Driver Incompetence Compensators.
    Last edited by moroza; 08-08-2018 at 09:37 PM.

  14. #39
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    Quote Originally Posted by moroza View Post


    just leave out the touchscreen, facebombs, and all those #$!@% Driver Incompetence Compensators.

    If you can leave two black stripes from the exit of one corner to the braking zone of the next, you have enough horsepower. - Mark Donohue

  15. #40
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    What an interesting design with the break angle over them.
    My friend's aforementioned 1965 GMC had a pillar and 2 windows in the door. He really resented that and always wanted to find a '63, which had wraparounds that not only looked better but gave great vis.


  16. #41
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    Quote Originally Posted by bigsixe34 View Post
    What an interesting design with the break angle over them.
    My friend's aforementioned 1965 GMC had a pillar and 2 windows in the door. He really resented that and always wanted to find a '63, which had wraparounds that not only looked better but gave great vis.
    Having had a bunch of GM vehicles from the early sixties I can attest to good visibility with the wrap around windshield. I can also attest to the pain of bashing you knee on that corner of the door opening where the windshield "wraps".
    Tell your friend to be careful what he wishes for.

    If you can leave two black stripes from the exit of one corner to the braking zone of the next, you have enough horsepower. - Mark Donohue

  17. #42
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    moroza is offline MORΩN ΛABIA BMW CCA Member
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    I forgot about the wrap-around windshields on 50's and 60's cars. So it's not manufacturing difficulty that's the reason we don't have them anymore... what's to prevent something like that Espace from having relatively upright A-pillars (like its A-and-a-half ones), built normally, and keep the same upper body shape but do away with the forwardmost ones altogether?

  18. #43
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    Quote Originally Posted by moroza View Post
    I hear you on the retro Mustang thing. I also am one of maybe half a dozen gearheads who thinks the PT Cruiser looks good (Chevy HHR too, though I hear the mechanicals are sub-par). More on the retro topic, someone needs to pull a Mustang/PT Cruiser revival on 1930's Tatras. This thing from the 30's has a Cd of 0.21-0.25 depending on model (all similar Tatra 77, 87, 97 and sub-variants), which is outstanding even by 2018 standards:

    But the visibility - to the front, anyway - is as good as it gets while still having pillars:


    So much potential! That's all with 30's technology, even before curved windshields existed. Imagine what it could be if built with 2018 materials and tolerances. Pad the dashboard, give it some crumple zones, modern footwork, throw a 2-liter turbodiesel under the (front) hood. Build the A-pillars out of modern high-strength steel but leave them pencil-thin for visibility. Modernize it, just leave out the touchscreen, facebombs, and all those #$!@% Driver Incompetence Compensators.
    I totally agree! Those things were groundbreaking... but if you leave all the gimmicks out, you're gonna reduce sales in more than half, that the sad state of affairs...

    Not to divert from the thread, but our other car is a 2012 Fiat 500 (manual of course ); it's a little underpowered but man, that thing is fun!!! No touchscreen, no gadgets... it's the closest modern equivalent to old school driving I've ever experienced. I had the opportunity to drive our neighbors' new Honda Odyssey and what can I tell... it was a soulless and borderline depressing experience...

  19. #44
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    I've driven a '77 Ford potato truck with a gas engine, and a '79 Mazda Rx-7, which was my first car. I almost feel bad about selling the Rx-7, but my e34 just blows it away in terms of practicality and gas mileage, and the price was right.

  20. #45
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    I inherited my dad's '58 Bug in '71, drove it a year, then sold it on his instruction for $250. He had only paid $1800 for it and thought that the $250 was a pretty good return on investment. It had 112,000 or so miles, hole through the floor under the battery, and a string of holes around the edge of the front floors. I drove through a deep puddle and got 2" of water sloshing back and forth but it only stayed for a block b/c it all washed out the way it came in. It came without radio, in blue paint, but at time of selling there was precious little blue left. Still, no holes in the body exterior, attesting to good thick steel.

    But I learned to drive on what I remember as an ex-WW2 Jeep (Willys MB?) in the mid-1960s, then a '50s (?) Dodge Power Wagon with flatbed and PTO winch up front. Boy those have gone up in price nowadays. These were on my uncle's ranch on the east end of Molokai, so rugged was the word of the day.
    Last edited by Honolulu; 12-28-2018 at 06:43 PM.
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  21. #46
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    1940 ford pick up.

  22. #47
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  23. #48
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    oldest car that I've personally owned was my 1989 toyota cressida. that I used to slide around parking lots. Now I still have the 94 540 and a 96 z/28 6 speed. oldest overall that I have driven must have been a 73 volkswagen beetle. The cressida was a light car and handled really good I used to hang sharp turns going 45-50 around town and it would stay planted. my 540 Handles good too but you can definitely feel the difference in weight transfer in a car thats much heavier. The camaro is fun but people always think you want to race because you're in a red z/28. I've also driven my dad's 79 L82 5 speed swapped vette, that's a fun car. I liked the bmw the most though because it has really good visibility and a metal roof lol. Im not into driving the camaro as much because the glass t-tops are nice but not safety oriented.

  24. #49
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    moroza is offline MORΩN ΛABIA BMW CCA Member
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    I was surprised by the interior quality of a Cressida I found at Picknpull. Sat there for 20 minutes and decided to take the front seats for my Yota. I wish the styling were less boxy-80's, otherwise I'd've liked to own a mid-sized sedan with a straight-six made by Toyota at its zenith.

  25. #50
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    x7.PNGx8.PNG
    the cressida was their flagship model until they came out with the ls400 and my favorite part of the interior was the pop out climate control and those seats were very plush. you may have been sitting in a box cress x7 chassis. the x8 chassis was less boxy and the interior had pretty nice lines. the doors were paper thin though and the b pillar could have been a bit larger for safety. lots of guys swap them with a 1jz or a 2jz but a cool swap would be an m6x with a 5 or 6 speed instead of a 1uz. the shell is only like 2.7-2.8k without the iron beast 3.0 it comes with. it would be a cool swap. and wouldnt be too hard to wire. I put a pic of the x7 and x8 not sure if it was either of these you sat in but the x8 began in 89 and lasted til 92.

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