(November 2, 2016 at 7:09 pm)abaris Wrote: You know, if I played a game on building a car, better make it a real one. My father was a trained mechanic since 1940 and he let me in on the secrets of his trade. Back in the 80ies when I drove cars from the 60ies and early 70ies I knew all about taking them apart and putting them together again. Given half a chance, I would still drive a car from the 70ies, but today they're luxury products by now. As opposed to the 80ies when you got them for an apple and an egg. I hate todays cars where you have to be a computer expert with the right equipment to keep them going.

I love spinning wrenches, and have done light-to-moderate work on all my vehicles. My favorites were the two early-70s Toyotas I've owned. Simple iron engines, no computers -- even at (at the time) an ignorant kid, I could open the hood and spot the problem pretty fast. I never took apart an engine, but replaced/repaired just about everything above the valves, and that has gotten me home on a couple of occasions (in other vehicles -- those two Toyotas never left me stranded) when all I had was a simple toolkit and a pair of Mark I eyeballs. Computerized engines suck, from that angle.

(November 2, 2016 at 7:26 pm)abaris Wrote:

(November 2, 2016 at 7:23 pm)bennyboy Wrote: THAT was fun.  I sold that car to my buddy for $300 to buy stones tickets.  That I don't still own it today fills me with infinite sadness.

The one and only car I already knew would become a classic was this one. Had it between 1984 and 1987.


Same color, but couldn't afford to keep it in running condition. That's on my list of ten things to do before dying, if that means anything to you.

My favorite car I've ever owned was a 79 280ZX much like this one -- mine had stock rims and tires, and rode a little higher. Not my pic.

I'll probably be buying one in the next year or two, for old times' sake.



Could corner like nobody's business, and the best thing about that car was how intimate the throttle was with handling -- I could charge into a sweeper curve with the back end swinging out a little, hit the apex of the curve and lift off the throttle when the car was pointed where I wanted to go -- the back end would fall right into line and I was off to the races again.

(November 3, 2016 at 4:26 am)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: My favorite car I've ever owned was a 79 280ZX much like this one -- mine had stock rims and tires, and rode a little higher. Not my pic.

I'll probably be buying one in the next year or two, for old times' sake.

I remember when these were still a common sight on the streets. Do I mistake it for another car from the same time or did it have a rotary engine?

(November 3, 2016 at 6:18 am)abaris Wrote: I remember when these were still a common sight on the streets. Do I mistake it for another car from the same time or did it have a rotary engine?

You're mistaking it for the Mazda RX-7, which did have a rotary engine. The 280ZX had a fantastic inline-6 engine which generated about 145 horsepower and oodles of torque.