What got you into American cars?

[TransAmDan]

Could be a good thread to start, I'm sure many interesting stories will come up .


Many years ago my Grandad got me working on his old Mk1 Cavalier, hey gave it to me after passing my driving test. Various things kept going wrong over the next few months, like the clutch, brakes, exhaust. I always liked an Opel Manta, there was one near by going cheap as it had an accident. Was going to use it for parts to fix the Cavalier as alot of parts are shared. It turned out the Opel manta was actually in better condition. Done up the opel manta, painted it bright yellow, tinted the windows, twin 15 inch subs in the boot.
Owned this for about 7 months, when I drove past a car sales place in Purbrook. Saw this very low aero dynamic looking car. A 'F' reg, 7 year old car. Looked great, sale price of £3750. Spoke to the bank, got the cash in an envelope, went to buy the car. Never test drove it, never knew it was left hand drive. I just wanted that car. Paid for it, and had the challenge of getting it home. A mechanic greind that helped me get the Manta back on the road saw it. Said it is the same shape as the Knight Rider car. Mine was only a 2.8L, but it was my first American car 1989 Pontiac Firebird.

Owned this for around 7 years, saw a photo of a Purple 4th gen Trans-Am in 2000. The colour of the purple over the bonnet, just looked such a great colour. People in the car club were teasing me about my girley V6 powered car. so eventually wanted to change. I couldn't afford a 4th gen.
Below is the actually picture I saw back in 2000 and really wanted one like this, a new dream hard started to get a Purple T/A,

Well i knew it was well out of my price range. So while the g/f was on holiday I got the 3rd gen painted.

This was from the Thorney Island show 2002. People were offering my £4k cash for the car there and then. I had no plans of selling it. So had to decline the great offers. It did cost £1600 for a respray at the time. Had had the car around 7 years by this point. Many year of happy memories.


Well it did put the idea into my mind. I could sell this and get a 4th gen. So with that I went on eBay searching while at work. Saw a Red 4th Gen in Pensacola Floria. Starting bidding, kept getting outbit so stuck down $20k, it actually went for $17100 in the end. One of the original eBay photos.

Next challenge was getting it home, they didn't want anytihng to do with shipping. Called a few shipping agents, some took 3 months to get back to me. $700 shipping, 2 days across land to Jacksonville then 2 weeks on water to Southampton docks. All going well do far. Then needed to find £4k for the import tax, I had some savings for a deposit on a house, this cause some issue with the g/f, not alot i could do, the car was on a boat on its way.


Car was great, no issues. for a year I actually have both cars. Went to the Thorney Island show in 2003, not with a V8 powered monster (was a monster to me, doubled the engine size)

Put the 3rd gen on eBay, it sold for £3750 (same as what I paid for it 7 years before), went to a chap in Slovenia, it was actually englich, from Manchester i beleive, working out in Slovenia on aircraft engines. He drive the car all the way back to Slovenia. he made it back safe.

Eventually over the years the paint on the T/A was getting tired, lacquer on the hood peeling off.

In 2019 the car needed new paint. Is this the time to change colour too. Well after thinking about it. I had to go for Purple.

Very pleased with it. That 20 year dream of owning a Purple T/A I had finally done it.
Almost 200k miles on the clock now, around 400 miles to go.

Not planning on changing the car any time soon.



Got a bit carried away with the writing, starting out as a quick conversatiopn starter. You dont need to write much at all. Anything you have will be interesting to read. Feel free to add photos.

 

[chris68coupe]

For me, it was work trips to the States in the late 90's, especially the south west, Arizona and New Mexico. I used to get picked up from my hotel in this.

He also has a prize winning Chevy Nova 2 and a 56 Belair. Then back home I bought a copy of 'Classic Ameican' with an Olds 442 on the cover. I was surprised how many US cars were for sale over here and eventualy purchased my first Mustang in 2002.

 

[chris68coupe]

What, just me and Dan into American vehicles? Come on guys, no life stories required, just the facts!

 

[Will]

I just typed a response to this, was in the middle of uploading a couple of pictures, then it seemed to glitch and deleted everything I had written before throwing me out of the page! . Strange.
I'll try again later.

 

[Will]

It just did it again!!!

 

[Will]

It seems attaching the pictures was causing the problem for some reason. Anyway....

From a very young age, I liked the big American cars I saw on TV. And even some of my favourite British classic cars have an American look about them - like the white Vauxhall FD Victor in Randall And Hopkirk Deceased

and I liked the Ford Granada in The Sweeney. Then later, I loved the American cars made famous by TV shows like Dukes Of Hazzard and Knight Rider. I have owned many cars (jncluding a few Ford Granadas), but I didn't get my first Yank unit my Firebird which I got in 2008. I still have that but have also owned two Pontiac Grand Prix's. This is like the first one...

So...I guess the short answer is that TV and movies got me into American cars.

 

[TransAmDan]

Oh no wonder what's causing that.
I've started a post before, not posted it, when I came back to the thread, the message is still in the window to be posted. I'm using Chrome for a browser, but it should be good on all browsers.

You can post a post and came back to edit to add pictures or extra content later.

 

[renchero]

as a small child i was looking at a picture of a tail fin of a car. 10 years passed before i found out it was a 59 cadillac. wanted one for years then strangely i don't now

 

[Will]

Oh no wonder what's causing that.
I've started a post before, not posted it, when I came back to the thread, the message is still in the window to be posted. I'm using Chrome for a browser, but it should be good on all browsers.

You can post a post and came back to edit to add pictures or extra content later.

Not sure, but it definitely seemed to happen when I had uploaded one picture and was trying to upload the second.

 

[chris68coupe]

Wrong format or too big perhaps?

 

[Will]

Wrong format or too big perhaps?

Yeah, possibly. Although, they were just screenshots from my phone so not sure.

 

[saleen 192]

Same as Will many tv shows and car showsc back in the day and seeing all the custom hot rod cars driving around and working on cars much easier than todays cars. Scrapyard were more fun in them days to get parts Bloody H&E brigade ruin everybody's fun political correctness ruined it as well. . car mags also back in the day we're more fun as well custom car street machine had the funny y cartoons. Banter the babes real car stories even could buy the hot rod car craft American cars mags as well. How times have changed.no banter more.

 

[Will]

Same as Will many tv shows and car showsc back in the day and seeing all the custom hot rod cars driving around and working on cars much easier than todays cars. Scrapyard were more fun in them days to get parts Bloody H&E brigade ruin everybody's fun political correctness ruined it as well. . car mags also back in the day we're more fun as well custom car street machine had the funny y cartoons. Banter the babes real car stories even could buy the hot rod car craft American cars mags as well. How times have changed.no banter more.

Agreed re scrap yards! I used to go to scrap yards with my old Dad when I was a kid. That was part of my growing up around cars really.

 

[TransAmDan]

Could bgood and interesting to revive this threat. People to write about their vehicles.

We do have a section where users can write all about their pride&joy, https://www.solent-renegades.co.uk/resources/categories/readers-rides.2/
I should get this advertised more.

 

[saleen 192]

They outlast there counter parts of same generation easier to work in most cases few exceptions easier to get parts for and who dosnt like a v8. Few exceptions ie interceptor or stag v8.

 

[Bigmatt]

What got me into American Cars?
Well, probably a number of things. I’ve always loved cars since I was knee high; as a very small kid my dad was always either asking me “what’s that one then?” or building up my knowledge by telling me “that’s a…..”.
As someone else mentioned, some of the Brit cars I liked the most back then were the bigger cars that were heavily influence by American designs (Vauxhall FG Victor, Ventora, PA Cresta, Ford Zodiac / Zephyr / Executive, that kind of thing) but a lot of the euro dross that was around back then, I just didn’t like the styling of (anything Renault or Simca, etc etc.) Then along came all the hero cars of film and TV: Starsky’s Torino, Kojack’s Buick, the Duke boys’ Charger; even BJ McKay’s Kenworth K100 Aerodyne in BJ and the Bear; Poncherello’s gold identity crisis Firebird in CHiPs (didn’t know if it wanted to be a T/A or a Formula or both)
The 56 Tri-Chevy in American Graffiti; “Christine”; Jim Rockford’s identity crisis Firebird (pretended to be an Esprit when it was actually a Formula) and of course the real TA in Smokey and The Bandit (plus Snowman’s W900 Kenworth) and the Duck’s R700 Mack.
And I just realised that I loved the styling. Big heavy chrome bumpers, aggressive stance, fat tyres, the glorious soundtrack of a V8 working hard, or burbling on tick over, and the ludicrous propensity for anything “muscle” to spin its back wheels and step sideways if there’s a “y” at the end of the day.
I used to get given copies of Custom Car by a motor trader we knew (don’t think the parents realised there was lingerie and nakedness going on inside) and I thought “I’m gonna have a Yank motor one day.”
Fast forward to the very early 90’s; I’d just stared a new career, was getting paid far more than in my previous dead ends jobs, and one day fate took me past Albany Autos in Denmead who had a ‘77 T/A and a 76 Camaro in their window.
So I ran to the bank, got a loan and went to see what they were about. Although I loved the pointy grille of the Chevy, it turned out to be a straight 6 with a 3 speed manual, and no way was I buying a car with a gear missing, so I opted for the T/A, with its full fat 400ci, shaker hood, Cragars and what appeared (in the showroom) to be a pearlescent paint job, but actually was a car sprayed very very pale pink!
I had it for 6 months, used it as a daily to commute to Southampton and back 4 or 5 times a week, spent £200 on fuel in the first two weeks of ownership and realised I could t sustain that. Didn’t have a garage to keep her in, couldn’t afford the black respray I really wanted, and certainly didn’t have the funds to buy, insure and run a smaller daily, so after the 6 months of burbling up the motorway, and revving it hard whenever anyone pulled up next to me at traffic lights, she had to go. Sold her to some Irish guys who took it back to their Uncle in Eire who did them up and sold them on, so fingers crossed she’s still out there somewhere.
Always promised myself another Yank at some stage, and when my mum passed away and left me some money, I thought life’s too short to save it or put it in ISA’s, so I started looking around. The shortlist was a green 72 Mustang Grande 5.7, with all sorts of history (one lady owner, blah blah) but the. I saw a red 76 455ci T/A down in The New Forest; and was about to pull the trigger when a mate of mine who was a founder of the Renegades back in the day, shows me an ad for the black 71 Formula I ended up with. Always loved the aggressive look of the twin scoops and the bullnose front end (yes, even more than the Smokey T/A) and so it was a done deal.
In an ideal, money no object world, I’d have a very big garage full of Yank muscle: ‘69 Charger R/T would be high up on the list, along with a Roadrunner, Chevelle, Impala, GTO, ‘70 Challenger, a ‘Cuda, a ‘57 Bel Air; the list goes on.

 

[chris68coupe]

Great story! I think Albany was where Bob Gollners motorbike shop was (Now a Vets).

 

[Bigmatt]

Great story! I think Albany was where Bob Gollners motorbike shop was (Now a Vets).

Yes, that’s the place, on the corner of Ashling Park Road. If I can find a picture of my old TA, I’ll post it.
I thought it might be a California car as someone told me it had been de-smogged but looking back I think it had had the aircon decommissioned. It used to roll along at a silly speed on tick over; I rarely drove around town by anything than a quick tap of the gas pedal to pull away and then just rub the brakes occasionally to keep it from catching up with everything in front of it. I suspect it was over fuelling as it constantly reeked of petrol and drank the stuff like it was going out of fashion. I recall that at standstill, if I revved it, the shaker would go one way and the body would try and go the other way.
I also remember the first time I took it into a petrol station, and realised the garage had done nothing other than throw the keys at me when I picked it up and I had no idea where the fuel cap was! I think I got out of that by pure luck: a little spark of memory said “ in the movies, they always stand at the back of the car when they fill up” and it didn’t take much deductive post to work out it was behind the number plate.
My favourite trick with it was pulling up to traffic lights on the left next to boy racers, who would rev the tits off their 1300 Escorts or what have you, and I’d blip my throttle and make it bark, then when the lights changed I’d just turn left and leave them to scream down the high street looking stupid.