Do Webers, Mahle and Oscar's mean anything to you? Have any of you owned a car with double Webers DCOEs? Then read on....
I doubt any of you know what a Lotus Cortina is, but it was my first car. Bought it $700 and why it went so cheap was obvious. Ugly as hell and those Webers were monster level upkeep. Kept it for a year, added too much wrinkle ugliness ice racing it and sold it for $1,500 for the motor.
Then I bought a BMW 2002 straight off the racetrack for $3,500. Came with the interior in a big box. Took out the roll bar and put the interior back in. Absolute little terror. Abolutely nothing could handle like it on the road. Not a damn thing. Remember that all the "fast" cars in that time period were straight line big boxes. The only thing that could keep pace on a twisty road was a Boss 302.
Upkeep? Sure, if you came close to balancing Webers in minus 10 Montréal winters, let's talk....because you are a serious car nut.
A few more interesting cars before I volunteered myself into slavery and started buying new VW diesel cars. First one was the Rabbit diesel that literally had to put into 3rd gear to get up a hill. From racing BMW to VW diesel....you can't imagine the difference unless you know both cars.
Onward to more expensive VW diesels until I had my own business and bought the obvious step up in diesels...a Mercedes.
Now for the cream of the crop....Lancia Stratos. Put down a deposit and flew to England to pick up my LUST CAR. The car of my dreams and the one I would be buried in when I died. Got to England, look over my new soon to be pride and joy. Bit of a problem....I couldn't fit in the car. At 250 pounds, getting into thst car was an absolute bitch. After getting in, comfort was none existent. Then came the terror of driving it. It was the most nervous, the most twitchy car I ever touched. It's engine was glorious...for the track. Otherwise it was on on-off switch. The racing BMW was a limo by comparison. Pure track car and there was no way of taking it for those Sunday outings to the country side. Basically I would go to the garage to hug it but wouldn't drive it. Of course, even with a $5,000 deductible, it was still $5,000 insurance compared to new big Benz at $1,100 at that time. The very definition of the word "exotic" and the word "impractical".
The most exciting day of my car nut life was right up against the most depressing day ever. I got my deposit back and the next three weeks of our tour of the country was a car funeral. Went back the last day of the trip but just couldn't do it. Money was irrelevant, but to buy a car just to keep it in a garage was criminal for a car nut.
Here the interesting part...remember those VW Rabbit diesels my little boss insisted on? She was depressed I didn't buy it. By now, 20 years later in our lives, she had tasted fast cars in places like Greece and Lake District (if I have to tell you about the Lake District, you are not a car nut). Airborne with rock walls on either side, terrified, pissing herself, gripping anything for dear life...but came out of the car with a smile glued to her face.
So here we are in 2022 with lustful memories of my first and my most exciting cars, yet now, when the costs of these cars are pocket lint, I don't have the will or the patience or the physical desire to buy anything that crazy. Well, almost. I have one German road weapon and a bike, but a far cry from what I dreamt I would have when I was a teenager.
Life is funny...