I posted a thread like this on my local forum and it received some very interesting responses. As mini owners most of us share a love for driving, particularly when there is no particular destination. For me, the vehicle that sparked that love of driving was my jeep wrangler. It was just a base model four cylinder, the only option it had was factory full doors it didn't even have air conditioning. It was just as fun to push it to it's(very low)limits on twisty back roads as it was to take it on trails in the woods. My mini has been even more fun, and as a bonus I've had the privilege to meet some very interesting people. What vehicle sparked your love for driving.?
1971 MG Midget. I bought it new and I've been hooked on small cars every since. I have been blessed to own and drive many great cars but I always come back to the small and nimble.
87 Mustang hatchback with the 4 banger. Bought it when i was 14 with a dead clutch, bad paint, and an interior trashed by a dog for $800. Learned to work on cars with that one and how to drive a stick-shift rear wheel drive car with an open diff in all conditions (on General Ameris in all seasons). Several cars later, I bought a 95 Talon TSI AWD. Loved the turbo and modifying it. Also had a 2000 jeep wrangler soft top that I lifted and put 33s on it. The mustang started it all though.
79 X1/9. It was a great car. I rebuilt the engine put a big valve head on it, a hot cam, Weber carb, and lowered it a tad. It was a good AutoX car. Still miss it.
When I was learning to drive, I had two cars at my disposal: a 1959 Ford Ranch Wagon w/auto, a 351 V8 and HD suspension, and then there was the 4-spd manual 1949 Morris Minor 850 convertible. Both were two-tone blue and white (the Ford by design, the Morris because the powder blue paint was literally turning to 'powder'). The fun and quirky Morris set my divergent path. In 1969 I bought a BMW 2002 (same price as the VW Type 3 I was originally considering). The die was cast permanently. Interestingly, the BMW 2002 and my MC Clubman have almost exactly the same dimensions.
I believe it'd had to have been my cousin's old BMW 2500. He bought it brand new and it was the first Beemer I rode in. As a kid, maybe 13 or 14 or so, we'd drive that thing everywhere we didn't need to take the pickup. They lived in the mountains east of Sacramento which had plenty of great winding highways to enjoy the car's handling abilities, at a reasonably safe high speed. I loved the looks of the car inside and out. Fast forward to my early driving days, after my 38 Ford Pickup (father/son project) and 72 Vega snatchback, I got a hold of my first BMW at 18. A friend sold me his 71 2002 for 3500 bucks and the rest is history. Absolutely, for more reasons than can be listed, that is the best car I've ever owned. So now, 7 or 8 BMWs, a few pickups and SUVs, a Porsche 911 and 3 Mini/MINIs later, I'm still motoring and always looking for some new-to-me car to call my own. Let's see, where's my list...? Oh that's right, there's no list.... It's all done by impulse.
For me it was a book, The Red Car by Don Stanford. It was written in the mid Fifties. It's about a boy resurrecting an MG TD for a race. I loved that book and began saving my money for an MG TD, when I was 17 I finally found one I could afford. It was my first car and I still have it! Dave
My first car was a '63 TR Spitfire. Bought it from my Division LT. Duty assignments took me to Key West for about 9 months where I fell in with the local EVSCC chapter and consequently learned how to 'drive'. Traded the TR for a very low mileage '65 XK-E roadster (BRG) which more than likely aided and abetted the capture of a comely co-ed who has since become a fantastic MINI co-pilot. Between the XK-E and the MINI were a series of family type grocery getters of various stripes.
For me believe it or not was a Toyota Corolla SR-5. I did have a 81 Buick Regal, it looked like a Grand National but cost a lots less and had much less HP. :nonod: All my buddies had big Detroit muscle cars like: GTO's judge Nova SS Chevelle and Chevelle SS, Pontiac F400 Firebird and a Shelby convertable mustang that hauled ass. They all where great cars and gas was like a $1.00 so we flew everywhere a 1/4 mile (straight) at a time. Well one day I totaled my Buick doing something stupid in the snow. :mad2::incazzato: Man I miss that car. :sad: Anyhow cash was low as the accident was my fault and I needed a car fast and cheap. I picked up a old 81 2 door Toyota Corrola 1.8 SR-5 Black on Black and it turned into a great little back road car. I only added better tires, spring and shocks. I learned to use the limited power I had combined with a new found thing called "handling" and really learned to drive a completely different way than a 1/4 mile at a time. I also found out slower is faster and you do not break as many parts when you are not launching at 5k for a silly 1/4 mile run. Since all my buddies cars always needed parts my car was the reliable ride to the salvage yard or local part stores. This also meant my car was nick named "The toy". The funny thing was if we all went somewhere I would almost always arrive first since I could turn and brake at speed and could take the twisty back roads. I could also drive at a much higher speed for longer than a 1/4 mile.
What got me excited......well it was a couple of things that did it for me. Gran Prix the movie and ABC's Wide World of Sports car racing coverage. Couldn't get enough of either growing up.
For me, it was a picture in Road & Track of a Talbot-Lago coupe with a body by Figoni e Falaschi. (I'd insert a photo, but I seem to be technology challenged today.) Finally saw one in person this last fall, and it was even more beautiful. (I almost had an "accident" standing there looking at it.) Then, getting my '67 Mustang with a 289 V8 and 3 on the floor got me forever hooked on dumping the clutch and turning the wheel. :wink:
Grand Prix was the first 70mm "Surround Sound" movie I ever saw. I don't think I'll ever forget sitting in the grand old Majestic Theater in downtown Dallas as a 16 year old kid, and hearing the whine of a Formula 1 car apparently coming off Elm Street, through the lobby, and down the theater's center aisle!
Ashamed to say it but a 1970 AMC Gremlin did it for me, Slant 6 RWD you could throw that sucker all over the place, I was drifting before it was called drifting. The came my first baby, brand new 1973 Green Dodge Charger, I was in motor heaven.
The thing that got me started loving driving was my parents old riding lawn mower lol. Or it could have been my 87 Nissan Hardbody pickup that I beat to $#!+ driving it in the fields. But I've never loved driving anything more than my MINI.
For me it was my brother's 1970 Z28 Camaro. Candy apple red with white stripes - manual trans. He had a lot of cars when we were growing up but that was THE ONE. I was a happy little girl anytime he let me drive it.
Growing up... I was all about whatever car mags the school library had a subscription to. All my friends went Mustang, Camaro, Firebird, yada yada... I picked up my best friends moms 81 Eagle SX-4, and had a blast throwing it around in the dirt. What really got me hooked though, was my first 91 Honda CRX Si. Learned what understeer was real quick, and that I couldn't kick the assend out with the skinny pedal, but also found out what balance was, and that I didn't need to be sideways to take a switchback fast.