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I grew up playing with big loud American V8's, helped some friends with Chevys, Mustangs, and spent a lot of time tinkering on a 1971 Pontiac Grand Prix w/ a 455 in it .
When it came time for me to buy my first car (1982,a few weeks after my 16th b day ) I was looking at camaros/mustangs/ etc and happened upon a well maintained and somewhat modified 1970 Triumph GT6+. It was a hoot to drive and affordable and I jumped on it . Awesome little car,though the ride was incredibly "stiff" the thing handled quite well and was pretty quick, not to mention simple .
Drove that car for about a year and put it in a ditch one night. Dammit, just a dumb thing , no people hurt but the car was a mess. Managed to find a 1969 GT6 shell and swapped over everything taking time to rebuild the engine during the swap. It was around this time that I my dad asked me if I knew anything about Austin Healys...
Turns out he had a friend with a non running 1969 Sprite looking to get rid of it. I went out and looked at it , offered $500 and it was mine. Some new ignition parts and I drove her home. A new top , cheesy seat covers,black indoor/outdoor carpet etc and I had two pretty nice Brit sportscars in my driveway at the ripe old age of 17.
You can see where this is going,
I eventurally sold the Sprite to finance some repairs on the GT6. The GT6 suffered death by 73 Thunderbird on Ho Hum Hollow/78 on day as I was on my way to school at UGA. Of course I took a hit as the insurance company didnt give me anywhere near what I had in the car and after a brief stint with a Renault Alliance purchased by my well intentioned but misguided dad I managed to get myself into a nice, straight "mechanically sound" (tongue firmly in cheek) 1976 MGB. I really loved the B and drove it for several years , finallyt selling it to fund a motorcycle habit that lasted a few years.
After school I got a job in Atlanta and a 1977 Spitfire found me and followed me home on a flatbed wrecker. This thing was a total heap and needed EVERYTHING. I spent the better part of a year donating my paychecks to Lamar at Atlanta Import Auto and put together what became a really nice Spit. I was commuting from Gwinnett to ATL every day in the thing and through a couple of rebuilds I ended up putting well over 200K on that car. It was during this time that I met my now wife who was the proud owner of a pretty beat 82 RX7. We spent a good bit of time chasing each other around in (and out) of the cars . The lady can hustle a car quite well so we had a lot of fun .
She eventually traded the 7 on an 88 Acura Legend and I came to own a company truck , a 91 Ranger. The Spit eventually spun #4 bearing (again) and by this time we were married and had a kid so I didnt have the time/money/space to put it together again so I parted it out and drove the Ranger for the next 10 years until, finally at 326,000 miles the freeze plugs began to rusto out of the engine. I overcooked it one day and that was that.
So April of 07 I needed to buy a car and was looking to get back into a two seater .By now the wife is driving an Exploder so we had the necessary family car . My daily commute is now only about a 6 mile round trip. Found and bought my 96 Miata. Clean ,well maintained car that needed nothing . Cool ! I'm back in a fun car again...
Of course now the wife begins to miss HER sportscar and wants to drive mine all the time ..so , naturally we ended up hunting another Miata and found a super nice hi mileage (200K) 1992 Black & Tan that we drove home for a song.
There were some "others " along the way that I missed, there was a Midget in there, a 1971 XJ6 that belonged to her brother and more than a few bikes as well . I also have a friend who managed to get himself into racing and we built an 88 E30 ITS car that we are still racing (and currently leading in the Atlanta Region SCCA PRO IT points after a BIG win July 20 at Road Atlanta).
We met a few of you guys on a mountain run last fall and look forward to the next one we can make it out to . I've got my suspension pretty well sorted out since then and plan to dive into the same on the 92 soon.
When it came time for me to buy my first car (1982,a few weeks after my 16th b day ) I was looking at camaros/mustangs/ etc and happened upon a well maintained and somewhat modified 1970 Triumph GT6+. It was a hoot to drive and affordable and I jumped on it . Awesome little car,though the ride was incredibly "stiff" the thing handled quite well and was pretty quick, not to mention simple .
Drove that car for about a year and put it in a ditch one night. Dammit, just a dumb thing , no people hurt but the car was a mess. Managed to find a 1969 GT6 shell and swapped over everything taking time to rebuild the engine during the swap. It was around this time that I my dad asked me if I knew anything about Austin Healys...
Turns out he had a friend with a non running 1969 Sprite looking to get rid of it. I went out and looked at it , offered $500 and it was mine. Some new ignition parts and I drove her home. A new top , cheesy seat covers,black indoor/outdoor carpet etc and I had two pretty nice Brit sportscars in my driveway at the ripe old age of 17.
You can see where this is going,
I eventurally sold the Sprite to finance some repairs on the GT6. The GT6 suffered death by 73 Thunderbird on Ho Hum Hollow/78 on day as I was on my way to school at UGA. Of course I took a hit as the insurance company didnt give me anywhere near what I had in the car and after a brief stint with a Renault Alliance purchased by my well intentioned but misguided dad I managed to get myself into a nice, straight "mechanically sound" (tongue firmly in cheek) 1976 MGB. I really loved the B and drove it for several years , finallyt selling it to fund a motorcycle habit that lasted a few years.
After school I got a job in Atlanta and a 1977 Spitfire found me and followed me home on a flatbed wrecker. This thing was a total heap and needed EVERYTHING. I spent the better part of a year donating my paychecks to Lamar at Atlanta Import Auto and put together what became a really nice Spit. I was commuting from Gwinnett to ATL every day in the thing and through a couple of rebuilds I ended up putting well over 200K on that car. It was during this time that I met my now wife who was the proud owner of a pretty beat 82 RX7. We spent a good bit of time chasing each other around in (and out) of the cars . The lady can hustle a car quite well so we had a lot of fun .
She eventually traded the 7 on an 88 Acura Legend and I came to own a company truck , a 91 Ranger. The Spit eventually spun #4 bearing (again) and by this time we were married and had a kid so I didnt have the time/money/space to put it together again so I parted it out and drove the Ranger for the next 10 years until, finally at 326,000 miles the freeze plugs began to rusto out of the engine. I overcooked it one day and that was that.
So April of 07 I needed to buy a car and was looking to get back into a two seater .By now the wife is driving an Exploder so we had the necessary family car . My daily commute is now only about a 6 mile round trip. Found and bought my 96 Miata. Clean ,well maintained car that needed nothing . Cool ! I'm back in a fun car again...
Of course now the wife begins to miss HER sportscar and wants to drive mine all the time ..so , naturally we ended up hunting another Miata and found a super nice hi mileage (200K) 1992 Black & Tan that we drove home for a song.
There were some "others " along the way that I missed, there was a Midget in there, a 1971 XJ6 that belonged to her brother and more than a few bikes as well . I also have a friend who managed to get himself into racing and we built an 88 E30 ITS car that we are still racing (and currently leading in the Atlanta Region SCCA PRO IT points after a BIG win July 20 at Road Atlanta).
We met a few of you guys on a mountain run last fall and look forward to the next one we can make it out to . I've got my suspension pretty well sorted out since then and plan to dive into the same on the 92 soon.
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