Why Did You Buy Your Classic Car?

I am always looking for something that I think is special. I rode Harleys for a very long time. I had Fifties Cadillacs and Sixties Buick Rivieras. Had several Datsun Z cars and a ’70 Mustang a couple of years back. Now I’ve got a few old Jaguars. An XJS convertible, a ’97 XJ6, and a ’51 Mark VII. I find that the Jaguars are beautiful and have a lot of mystique. It’s full time job trying to keep up with my fleet of projects. I know I shouldn’t keep looking for something new, but I constantly do.

What a question… Styling, performance and passion! Subjective all of course – The ’67 Plymouth Satellite convertible in 2002 because it’s my personal favorite Mopar design*, flat and scalloped the way Elwood Engels intended and I found one of 96 with the smooth willing thrust of a factory 383 big block (*so sue me that it’s not a ’68 Charger RT). Then the ’65 Satellite hardtop came along in 2006 as a project car offered by a guy who knew I loved Satellites (the cheaper but still V8 powered sibling of the GTX). The hardtop has the reverse C-pillar I craved to satisfy my classic Mopar design fetish. It was restored by 2012, and time to step up to an Exotic. This means Italian! And I’m attracted to the offbeat, so it was Gandini’s 4 seat, V12 jet-age Espada I set out to buy. But the seller offered me to try a Maserati Bora he happened to have in. Giugiaro styling, check! Gorgeously sonorous V8, check! Better built, far simpler and cheaper than the Espada, CHECK! So, no Espada for me, I bought the Bora and never looked back. Then came 2013, a suggestion by my wife to get another classic, and the siren call of an Alfa Busso V6 engine.. again: Giugiaro styling, check! Operatic engine sounds befitting an aria, check! 5-spd manual transaxle, check! Enough passion to make you rob a bank, CHECK! Thus sits a peppy red GTV6 Balocco SE in our garage awaiting next summer’s track days. Finally by 2015 we needed to get right with the British… And increase the number of cylinders to 12… And have enough space for our young kids and some luggage. Styling was paramount, and comfort for the family, but keep it a manual for sporting, please – so a V12 E-Type 2+2 you think? Close, but no. The FHC prices had gotten away from us and the 2+2 is a stylistic stepchild… In the end, this choice has ended up turning more heads than any of the previous: Christmas Eve 2015 finds a heritage Chiltern Green Aston Martin DB9 in our garage with 38k pampered miles, V12 and manual 6-speed transaxle. And that’s it for now. Here it’s all about a diversity of selection based on the common theme; styling, performance, passion. ( PS – Methinks a German is up next, as we have no greenhouse cabin designs or inline engines).

Is it cliche to say Top Gear showed me what I had to have? There is a scene during the classic British roadster episode where they show the abandoned old factories that were previously booming car makers. I’m not British but it pulled at my heart strings to think that style of car building has gone away. In America, we see cars shaped to save fuel, not to invoke feelings of lust and that’s where my heart lies. I want cars that are built to be beautiful and fun.

So, after months of searching, I happened upon an older man who repairs watches for a living (my lovely fiance dropped mine into the toilet and broke the face) and he had car magazines thrown out all over his shop. We got to talking and he let slip that he had once tried to restore an old British sports car but ran out of time and energy with his age. I immediately told him I’d buy whatever he had with the cash I had in my pocket ( just over $1000) and I’d pick it up myself. He grinned cheesily and said deal. Hindsight I should’ve never tried that stunt but in this case I hit the jackpot, a 1974 Jensen Healey Roadster. I fell in love instantly and after further inspection was happy to see that it was in spectacular shape for having sat in a barn under old bicycles for the better part of 15 years. I showed up with a U-Haul truck and trailer and the biggest smile in the dreary Pacific Northwest to simply pick up the car and take it straight back home. 7 hours, 6 beers, and a lifetimes worth of story telling from the old chap later and I finally head back. I didn’t care that I’d racked up a U-Haul bill that was half what I paid for the car, I got to hear how he met his wife in an old Alfa and how she decided they’d build this car together because it was pretty and he showed me something that will stick with me forever. He had stuffed a picture of himself next to his Alfa with his wife into his helmet from Vietnam. Being a jarhead myself, I needed no further convincing that this car was meant to go with me and stay with me as long as my hands can hold a wrench to that little Lotus motor. I found my car, my stress reliever, my bachelor party with my mates, my template to teach my future kids about work and history and the way things should have always been. I can’t wait for the adventures to come.

Because my clownshoe is freaking hawt. 🙂

64 MGB – Red – I was in college and bought it as practice for someday having a Jag. 31 years later I still have it, and no Jag.

91 MR-2 – Yellow – Midlife crisis, boy-racer, wanted a car I could drive to work that had some form of modern safety features. Plus we had two Previas at the time and I wanted to keep the Toyota mid-engine vibe going.

95 M3 – Yellow – Wanted to own a straight six, the Jag dream was out of reach, and I fell into the best driving car I’ve ever had… when its not down for repairs 😉

Completely inexperienced, I was – for some reason – determined I needed to learn how to wrench on old cars. I’ve always liked two-seaters, and figured something from the 1960s would be both advanced enough to be fun to drive and simple enough for me to learn how to work on.

After seeing an MGA in an auto museum, I was certain that was the answer. Then I thought, “I should get something more ‘practical'”, so I set my sights on an MGB. While researching these cars all over the internet, I came across a post on an MG forum that said something like, “Does anyone remember those Datsun roadsters?” At the time, I had no idea that Datsun ever made a roadster, but once Google showed me that first picture of one, I was absolutely hooked and had to find one.

After 7 months of looking day after day for “the one”, I finally found it and bought it immediately. In retrospect, I probably paid a little more than I should have but, after driving it, working on it, taking it apart & putting it together again, then driving it some more, I have precisely zero regret.

I wanted something analog, simplistic, reliable, cheap and enjoyable to drive. Its hard to find modern cars with those personality traits.