Cars were a defining element of the old codgers’ lives as children, young adults with their first cars, and even as they grew older. Randy and Gary along with guest host John Foster reminisce about the vehicles they grew up with and their favorites. Surprisingly, all the guys shared a passion for Volkswagens of all vintages ranging from Gary’s 1960 VW Microbus to John’s 2004 VW Phaeton. As discussed in this episode, Randy and John retain their love for cars (Gary, not so much). Randy is looking forward to the car of his dreams, the VW ID Buzz which blends the nostalgia of his 1966 VW Microbus with the practicality of an electric vehicle.
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I am the quintessential women who names her cars. My first car was a 1964 Chevy 2 aka:Chevy Nova with 3 on the tree. His name was Zonker. Currently I drive a Nissan Pathfinder named Blaze.
Patti, this is the third time today I have heard about women naming their cars (Bee did). Guys (at least the ones I hung out with) never named their cars. Our cars were important since the type of car we owned defined who we were. I was a Detroit guy (’55 Chevy) until I discovered British cars followed by German cars. I consider myself very “sophisticated”. Yeah, right…not from South Seattle in the ’60s.
My first car was a 1963 Chevy convertible which I proceeded to customize. When all the work was done, the first day after it came out of the paint shop, I took a gal out on a first date and went to a movie. When we left the theatre, I was looking for my car without success. When the lot had emptied, my car was nowhere to be seen and in fact had been stolen. Days later they found it wrecked and eventually deemed to be totaled. Good grief!
As a young guy, I clearly had to make up for this dastardly deed and bought a 1962 Corvette, which is by far my favorite car of all time. I remember many a time cruising to Cape Cod with the top down and enjoying the times with my friends. Why I don’t have a photo of this car is sad but that’s the way it is. What I do have is the wonderful memories I had with the car.
A Corvette! Now that clearly defined Ken Ford as a very cool guy! Super-cool! Getting your kicks on Route 66! Well, maybe I-495 or Highway 3. The imagery is the same…cool guys and cool cars. American car culture at its best.
I had no car in high school, but I sure put a lot of miles on my little Honda 50. Later I had larger bikes, so 2 wheels was my style for a long time. The first car I drove was the family ’65 Mustang–an original classic! It’s still a favorite. A car I always wanted, but never owned would be a Thunderbird.
Soon as you mentioned muscle cars, I cringed–loud mufflers and street racing are a HUGE nuisance in Albuquerque (and everywhere else , I guess). We need some monkey wrenchers with spike strips in the dead of night.
I have a lot of stories about cars. Since I was 17 I’ve probably owned at least 50 different motor vehicles so there are a lot of memories. But the most important one was my old Volvo P 1800. My friend blew the head gasket when he borrowed it and I proceeded to take the engine out, take it completely apart on the garage floor, labeling every piece so I didn’t have any extras when I was done. All the machine shop work blah blah blah, when I put it back together, turned that key and it started, well I don’t know if I’ve ever felt that satisfied with an accomplishment since. Thanks guys for stimulating my feeble memory to remember this wonderful car.
I used to be able to drop a VW engine in 15 minutes. Not certain if it was a testimonial to my mechanical skills or a statement of the poor quality of that blasted air-cooled engine. Perhaps a bit of both. And you are spot on–it feels so good when the engine starts after a rebuild. Hard to beat that sense of accomplishment.