Cars Part 2

Wifey reminded me of two more cars that I forgot to list in yesterday's post.
1980? Volvo
1986? Pontiac
Both of those were cars purchased for our sons to drive to school/work. "Cars for sons" also accounts for two others on the list: the RX-7 and VW Fox.
I also forgot to include a red '87 Subaru station wagon we owned for a few months in 1990. We bought it from our neighbor because it was in excellent shape. What I didn't realize until later was how ridiculously underpowered it was. It was embarrassing!
You may be wondering, "I wonder which car(s) was/were his favorite(s)?" Well, wonder no more!
There were several favorites: I had the '50 Merc when I was a senior in high school. I liked it because it looked like a hunched rat. It was raked, had all the chrome taken off and was painted flat black. The interior was red/cream and the rims were painted red which showed as a red ring between the spinner hubcaps and white-wall tires. The white-wall tires were actually black-wall tires with Port-A-Wall white-walls. Does anyone remember those?!! It had a 3-speed on the floor and a 51 Merc flathead under the hood. Exhaust cut-outs were welded just behind the manifold and capped near the back of the front wheel wells. When I took the caps off, the ol' Merc sounded like a semi! The only time I took the caps off however was when the car was sitting in some one's driveway because it was illegal to actually drive around making that much noise. The purpose of cut-outs was to improve performance on the drag strip but the Merc was no competitor. Nonetheless, the caps were visible from the street and they looked cool.
The Merc was great for cruising up and down 8th Street on Saturday nights. In those days, it was popular to paint names on hot rods. The name was usually painted somewhere on the rear quarter panel. I didn't have a name on the Merc. but two of my favorites were: "Night Crawler", a '32-ish black Ford pickup with a 57 Merc Turnpike Cruiser engine and "Li'l Miss Carriage", a candy-apple red street rod.
The car that everyone yearned for back then - but no one could afford - was the '57 Chevy 2-door hardtop or convertible. I guess I never got over it. So when I had an opportunity to buy one in 1984, I did so. Even then, driving down the highway brought stares, "thumbs up" signs and smiles from other drivers. Every time I stopped for gas or groceries, someone would inevitably come up and ask if it was for sale or just to share some story they had involving a '57 Chevy. I decided to sell it in 1991 because it needed up-grading and I couldn't afford to do it right. I hope it's starring in lots of "show and shine" events to this day.
The '65 Olds Cutlass was my first and last convertible. It convinced me that convertibles don't make sense. When it's warm enough to drive around with the top down, you get baked. When it's cold enough to have the top up, you hear lots of wind noise. Regardless, it was a beautiful car. It was teal green with a white top and gray leather interior. I don't remember what engine it had, but it could get up and go. I wish I still had it.
All the other cars served their purposes to one degree or another. The conversion van was great for long distance travel. The Scout was unstoppable in snow. The Newport was a great ride and excellent family car. The Horizon took me back and forth to work reliably for over a decade.
These days, when I see a rusted hulk abandoned in a vacant lot or behind some farmer's barn, I often wonder what it looked like when it sat in a showroom and how excited somebody was to buy it new. And I wonder how it got from the showroom to its final rusting place.