Car Lust

Our Cars Week: "1998 Camaro V6"

(Submitted by Car Lust reader "Sir Danley" [Name withheld to protect the innocent])

"Don't feel bad if the car you'd like to write about isn't a supercar; most of us find everyday cars as interesting, or potentially even more interesting, than exotic hardware." --Lindsay Jacobson, Car Lust Editor

...I learned a gigantic amount of the above by driving an '86 Lotus Esprit for a few years; turns out, no one cares if you're driving a twenty year old, Torrid-sized Toyota MR2. This is especially true when most modern, midsized sedans can eclipse it in performance. Only the most knowledgeable nerds will swoon over that car, dumber girls won't notice you're driving in anything special, and the smart girls just think you're overcompensating.

None of which mattered to me; for less than the price of a new Chevy Aveo (and with just as much Giugiaro style), I enjoyed sublimely weighted steering thanks to the MR configuration, a peaky engine of modest HP, and unloaded it before any major bills really came pouring in.

Driving a three-foot-tall black Esprit in Southern California practically camouflages you as a pavement onramp, and I got near zero compliments on the car, ever.  Aside from Roger Moore era James Bond fans and F1 fanatics, a mid-'80s Lotus Esprit is about as utterly un-relatable as a car can get.

…So heavens no, I won’t talk about that.

Our Cars Week: "My Car Lust: Mom's 1972 VW Bug"

(Submitted by Car Lust Reader and commenter Kenny Heggem)

I really don't know what it is exactly. It could be a semblance of different reasons... but I have been obsessing over wanting an early 1970's VW Beetle. A standard little Beetle. Not a Super Beetle, just the standard non-McPherson strut style, flat dash "Bug."

It is likely the nostalgia. Mom had divorced recently, when I was 11. She needed a car, and bought an orange and primer 1972 Bug.

Takes me back a to a time of struggles, but keeping our heads up high. Living on spaghetti every night and struggling to buy school clothes, while Dad partied with arm candy and eating expensive sushi power lunches.

Our Cars Week: "My Most Fun Junky Car"

The most fun junky car I ever had was a (originally) gold-colored 1972 Chevy Vega Kammback wagon. Cookie The Dog's Owner's Monza wagon was probably a cream puff compared to this thing, but I had more wrench turnin', parts pickin', shade tree mechanicin' fun on this little car than I ever had on any other vehicle I've owned.

The car was eight years old when I bought it in 1980, so it was tired already. I was a poor college guy, and wanted away from our gas-thirsty, full-size, hard-to-drive (And park!) 1968 Ford Ranger pickup. And hey, what's sexier than the lines of a '72 Vega station wagon?

I had already owned a red '72 Vega Hatchback as my first car, so I kinda already knew my way around these things. We found this Kammback on a used car lot, paid $700 plus tax, tags, title, and license, and immediately went to work. First to go was the cheezy purple rear window tint.

Our Cars Week: "The Ford Mustang: Can you go home again?"

(Submitted by Car Lust reader and Carspotting: Auto Archeology Editor Michael E. Gouge)

For my fellow car lovers, there is no need to explain the bond a 16-year-old has with his first car. Mine was a 1966 Mustang in Nightmist Blue, and it opened up a world of freedom, of escapism, of pleasure in the sound of an engine purring along an open road. In other words, this angst-filled teenager discovered a home, a sanctuary, in a Mustang.  Three decades hence, that old pony car--along with my youth and a new-found euphoria for the open road--are but memories.

Our Cars Week: "Saab 9000 Aero"

(Submitted by Car Lust reader Julian Santa-Rita)

I have been naming my cars since my first one. Each is its own personality to me. My first was a grey Volvo 240 with velour seats, and I named it " Nigel." Later a 1986 RX-7 I named "Chu-Chu Rocket" passed through my hands. There was a Subaru GL called "Roo-Badoo" and a MKII Jetta who was renamed loads of "happy expletives," depending on whether one or both of us was in a saucy mood that particular moment.

But it took me almost a year to understand my Saab 9000 Aero well enough to finally give it the pet name "E.M.," which was shorthand for "Executive Missile." The relationship began as I left college to move to my new home 1,000 miles away, and I needed to replace the "expletive" Jetta. My father brought me to see this somewhat awkward silver Saab which I’d never even heard of before and I’d certainly never seen one in person. Someone had traded it in on a Subaru WRX.

Our Cars Week: "Oh Camry, My Camry"

(Submitted by Car Lust Reader Karen K from New Haven)

 

"OH, CAMRY, MY CAMRY"

Bruises bashed into my head
From banging on the ceiling
Of my pirhouetting car
As it was sent a-reeling,
Into the woods
Down in the ditch,
I sort of had this feeling
That if I lived to tell the tale,
I’d spend some months a-healing.

January 30 Weekly Open Thread: "Our Cars Week"

Well, here we go folks, with another Car Lust "Our Cars Week." We have guest writers from all over the planet contributing their personal vehicles for us to embrace, along with a familiar face or two.

Here are a few images from some previous "Our Cars" articles. This week has some nice ones as well, and with the volume of excellent submissions, we may even go longer... possibly even into a fortnight.

 

 

 

 

 

"A little driving on a Saturday night..."

Not too long ago, I was driving along at night listening to the radio when the oldies station played one of my favorite one-hit wonders, "Driver's Seat" by Sniff 'N' the Tears. Suddenly, it was once again a May evening in 1988...

1990 Subaru Legacy Wagon ("White Car Station Wagon")

It's winter prep time again, and the changing leaves are a reminder to us here in northeast Ohio that we'll soon be driving in snow again. It seems as good a time as any to tell the story of the best snow car I've ever had: a 1990 Subaru Legacy station wagon.

Or, as my oldest son called it, the "White Car Station Wagon."

June 20 Weekly Open Thread

Here at the Car Lust Garage, it's high summertime: the azaleas are in bloom, the kids are playing in the sprinkler out back, and it's perfect weather for shade-tree automobile maintenance.  Grab one of the lawn chairs and a cold root beer and come join us. We'll have hot dogs and barbecued shrimp for everyone as soon as the grille heats up.

As always, this is the place for you to talk about any topic that doesn't fit anywhere else. Since this is the season for shade-tree mechanics to get out in the shade, here are some maintenance and modding-related links you might enjoy:

• We'll start with a short instructional video on motorcycle oil changes.
• TTAC columnist Sajeev Mehta's "Piston Slap" is devoted to maintenance and repairs, and always a good read.
• In other TTAC auto repair news, columnist Steven Lang chronicles his search for a new transmission.
• "Studeblogger" Clark Novak does detailed posts on the work he does on his '63 Lark. In his most recent essays, he fixes part of the ventilation system with an ingenious field-expedient rubber and Delrin grommet, and explains how to adjust valve lash on a solid-lifter engine. Check out the main page and the archive for more tales of Stude repair.
• More Stude-iousness: blogger "Grease Girl" recently gave her '55 Studebaker a metal-flake paint job.
• Here's a truly creative bit of restomodding: a '59 Edsel with a turbocharged 2.3L 4-cylinder. It's a daily driver.
• Speaking of creative restomods, a Chinese welding shop turned a Nissan Bluebird into a Lambo-lookalike.
• Irish website Juicebox has a nice photoessay on a tuner's garage and workshop.
• And finally, detailed instructions for building your very own tuner garage.

That reminds me: the left rear door on the Frazer Manhattan isn't latching properly. Where'd I put that Phillips head......?

--Cookie the Dog's Owner