When Did You Drive Your First.....................

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rp23g7

rp23g7

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Have we done this one yet?

When did you drive your first........... 4 speed, 3 on the tree, muscle car, volkswagen Bug etc. Me?

4 Speed, my neighbors Datsun 510 in the Boeing Renton parking lot, around 84, i was starting a job at a Honda dealer and had never driven a manual trans, wish my neighbor still had it.

3 on the tree, a mid 70's Dodge truck at Bellevue Public Schools when i worked there one summer in 86.

I drove a VW Bug for the first time at a Service Station job i had in 85, drove it maybe 1000 feet, wondered how anyone could actually own one of these things.

Actual muscle car, in jr high, around 79, my neighbor had a 70 GTO Ram Air 4 Convert, he asked me to move it out of the driveway to the street, sadly it got totaled by a drunk driver a few yrs ago.

Rode in a really rare car.

got a ride in Bob Kropp's 70 SuperBird, 1of 3 Hemi 4 speed, bucket seat, no console cars, last summer, crossed of a bucket list item that day.
 
All my High School cars:

1) 1957 VW Bug - 4-speed

2) 1957 Mustang Fastback - 4-Speed

3) 1967 Camaro SS 350 - 4-Speed

I got the VW in 10th Grade, followed 6 months later by the Mustang.

The Camaro was my car all through Senior Year.

I graduated in '75..


My Camaro:

1992CamaroRS002.jpg



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First three on the floor --our Farmall Regular, about 15 years old in 1963

First three on the tree----56 Chev in DRIVERS TRAINING, 1966

First 4 speed, a friends car, 67

First muscle car, a friends 68 350 Camaro, 67

Owned first muscle, 69 383 RR, 1970, 70 440 sixpack RR, 1971, 64 Dodge 426 1972

I don't understand why a VW bug is such a marker. Why not an Austin Healey Sprite? A BUG eyed Sprite? About 69 for both.
 
First manual was an early 60's chevy 1 1/2 ton farmtruck when I was 15,...broke it too,...would not come out of granny-lo ever again...

First 3 ona tree was my uncles 70 chevy shorty stepside,
First 4 speed was a 76 CJ5 w a 304,...
First 5 speed was Dad's 77 Plymouth Arrow GT, got my license in it,...

First muscle to drive was my first muscle owned,..69 Charger RT, 383 Mag,...bought it right outa boot camp,...sold it to the guys who built the cars for Dukes of Hazzard sitcom,...oops
 
First standard - 57 Chevy pick-up on the tree, with the foot pedal start, anyone remember those?
First 4 speed - 78 Chevette (I always wanted to put a V6 in that car).
First muscle 4 speed - my 57 Chevy, built it myself, 350 GM crate 330 hp, rebuilt Muncie and a posi.
 
First 4 speed My '64 Barracuda the day I bought it in April of 1974.

My first 3 on the tree My Mom's 65 Barracuda, probably sometime in 1972 or 73?

Myfirst VW Beetle Probably in late 1971 or early 72, in Driver's ED class the local VW dealer had been trying to get the school to use VW's & they gave the school a Super Beetle to use. Had an extra set of brake & clutch pedals on the pasenger side. The teachers gave each student about 15 or 20 minutes of drive time in it.

My first rare car...Drove a cousins Pantera in 1975, don't know how many they made of those. Bought a 1976 Cosworth Vega in January 1978. They made 3,508 of them.

First ride in a muscle car? Friends had them in high school....maybe 1973 or 74 had a friend with a 1970 440 4 speed GTX.


Drove my first 5 on the tree when I was 16, 1974. I think it was an International cab-over farm truck.
 
67Dart273 said:
First three on the floor --our Farmall Regular, about 15 years old in 1963

First three on the tree----56 Chev in DRIVERS TRAINING, 1966

First 4 speed, a friends car, 67

First muscle car, a friends 68 350 Camaro, 67

Owned first muscle, 69 383 RR, 1970, 70 440 sixpack RR, 1971, 64 Dodge 426 1972

I don't understand why a VW bug is such a marker. Why not an Austin Healey Sprite? A BUG eyed Sprite? About 69 for both.
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I didnt mean a bug specifically, just your first..........whatever type of car or something, i just chose that as one of my first car drives etc.
 
I think a lot of people learned to drive in V-Dubs in the 60s and 70s. They were pretty easy to drive, cheap, and plentiful. ;-)

Besides a few tractors and lawnmowers when I was younger . . . .

First 3 on the tree - 67 Chevy pickup with a 327 back in 69 (12 years old) grandma let me drive it and I missed the first turn. :shock:

First 3 on the floor - 69 Mustang with a 302 back in 75.

First 4 on the tree - 56 Diamler-Benz (Mercedes) diesel in 75. It got stolen but I still have the title. :x

First 4 on the floor - 63 Volkswagon in 73 (neat car).

First owned muscle car - 64 409 4 speed Impala SS in 73. Had a 68 390 auto Javelin a couple months before that. Do those count ??? :blackeye:
 
Ok, admittedly, I was damn lucky. My first "manual shift" car was my brother's 69 road runner! Was also the first car that taught me respect for posi traction, horsepower and wet roads (did a 180 into a corn field on the way to work at McDonald's in high school). I still own that car today...30 years later!!!
 
3 on the tree: my uncle's Ford truck
4 speed: 77 Trans Am
Never done the VW thing
First muscle car I drove: 67 GTO with a 400
First muscle car I remember riding in: my uncle's close friend's Plum Crazy 70 T/A Challenger 340+6. He still owns it to this day. And my uncle's 69 340 Swinger. I remember being about 6 years old with both hands on the dash yelling "faster, faster". My uncle had his foot to the floor yelling back at me saying "Thats it. It ain't got no more" He has always said that I was either really brave or didn't know any better when it came to speed. That old Swinger was my inspiration for being a Mopar fan. Unfortunately my other uncle went off the road driving it and rolled it. R.I.P.
One of the most impressive muscle cars I ever rode in was a 65 Chevelle conv. with a 327 4-speed. That car had pretty quick acceleration.
 
First stick shift was my Dads 72 Datsun pickemup, 7 years old. First trip on a public road was when I was 8 or 9. First time I rode a dirt bike was when I was 13 or so, was a 1975 (?) rm 100. First street bike was a 1983 GPZ 750. First hot rod was my friends 65 Big Block Vette, 800 hp, muncie m22 with 4.56's. Got to drive that car from NJ to NH and back several times. Nothing like crusing in that thing with the top down on a warm August night. 1990 I got a ride in an original 427 Cobra. The owner of it drove it like a rental, talk about fun........just remembered my neighbor had a 55 Chevy pickup, bone stock. Still had the vac. wipers on it. I remember being 6 or 7 the first time I went for a ride in it. I rode shotgun in that truck alot when I was a little kid. First time I fell out of a vehicle was when I was 12 or so. Dad bought a used 66ish Chevy truck for his business. The neighbor that owned the 55 truck was working for my Dad. Were driving out of the yard my Dad ran his business out of, rounded a corner and out I went. Fell out of that thing several times before my Dad parked it out in the field with the signed title in the glove box. Sat there for 10 years before someone took it.....
 
First 3 speed on floor 35 ply. on the tree 52 chev first over drive 57 chev first 4 speed same 57 chev that is in cars first manual was a 1951 Kenworth with a 5 speed main and 4 speed aux yes leared to drive trucks before cars
 
started on motorcycles, so the clutch and shifting was no problem just a few minutes to get used to shifting with my hand instead of my foot and clutching with my foot instead of my hand, took my driving test in a chevy chevet with a 4 on the floor, first 3 on the tree was my 58 dodge pick up, once again no problem as I grew up watching my grandmother drive her 3 on the tree 66 barracuda,
 
First 3 speed on the floor and the very first vehicle I ever drove was my brother-in-law's Jeep out in the hay field when I was 8 years old...I was too short to reach the clutch.

My first 3 speed on the tree was our '81 Chevy truck.

First 4-speed was/is our Dart when we converted it last year.

First 5-speed was/is our '92 GMC pickup, our daily driver for the past 7 years. Oh wait, we also had a 5-speed Daytona and a 5-speed Lebaron, forgot about those.

My first car was a '66 Mustang coupe, 200 straight six.

My first Mopar was my '73 Duster.

The first time I rode in a car going over a 120 mph was in my husband's (then boyfriend's) '72 Challenger. Still own it.

First car I did donuts in was my '89 Mustang hatchback. High school parking lot.

First burnout....my Duster.

First car I raced on the track....my Duster.

First car my daughter rode in on the way home from the hospital was my '89 Mustang, the same one I did donuts in. It's also the car she learned to drive in, took her driver's training test in, and will be racing this summer at Milan Dragway.
 
340demon said:
hey rp23g7 was that honda job at Renton honda I ask because my wife worked there for many years
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No, actually it was at Bellevue Honda, right next to I90 in Eastgate. I worked there in the mid 80's as the Lot Boy, my first "real" job, besides McDonalds etc.

I got fired there too as a few months after i got hired as the 2nd gen Preludes were new and i was bringing a customers car back to the shop after taking them home and took a corner too fast and slid it into a curb pretty hard, bent the strut and the half shaft, oops
 
dustergal said:
The first time I rode in a car going over a 120 mph was in my husband's (then boyfriend's) '72 Challenger. Still own it.
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Oh i forgot my first 100mph story.

First time over 100, must have been the mid 80's, 0n I90 in Bellevue, from Mercer Island up to Eastgate in Bellevue, 9 at night, in my Custom 880.

I was racing a mid 80's Mustang, and hit 100 as i crossed the East Channel Bridge, i was hitting 120 going up the rise on the freeway and the Mustang was right next to me.

I started hearing a "roaring" noise that kept getting louder, thought it was a wheel bearing, BANG, right rear tire blows out, still ran bias ply on that thing back then.

The car is all over the road, almost took the Mustang out too, got it to the side of the road and sat there for a bit. The Mustang didnt even stop, must have freaked them out too.

First time (guessing) over 150mph

In my 67 Satellite, factory 383, 2.93 rear, 750 Edelbrock, racing a 95 Cobra, on the freeway.

Someone can probably do the math for the speed, but say about 2 min, with the pedal floored, going down a 3 or 4 mile stretch of straight road (for you seattle guys, it was from the 277 exit on 167, to the 2nd 15th st exit) must be pretty close to 140-150. I spun my No. 1 rod bearing doing it.
 
My first time driving a manual tranny was when I worked for an Autobody Supply store. I locked the keys in the van that I normally drove and had to take the '74 Dodge PU about 20 miles to Head Office to grab the spare keys. I was used to dirt bikes, so the concept was fine, but the actual usage took a bit to get used to in urban traffic.

First "3 on the tree" was Gramp's old '65 GMC pickup with a 292 straight six. It was a neat old truck. And then Dad's '69 F-150.

First muscle car ride was in an older cousin's late '60's Vette. But I really would have liked to ride in his Daytona, but never got the chance.

My first muscle car was my first car, 1969 Sport Satellite. I transplanted a 383 into it after blowing the 904 behind the 318. Got the engine and tranny for a song, the guy thought it had a cracked block but it was just a bad frost plug.

I'm pretty sure that I've never been in a Beetle, or any other VW for that matter, let alone actually drive one.

But I did own a '71 Austin Mini. That car was a blast. The guys at work would laugh, seeing this guy, all 6'3" and 200# getting out of this tiny car. But it had way more room for a driver than many cars that I have driven, including my Mom's '82 Firechicken and an ex-boss's '02 Cadillac STS.

I've never owned a Chev, but did ride in a buddy's '69 Chevelle. 396 dual-quad tunnel ram, damn that thing was fast.

Oh, and my first six speed manual was just last summer. The PO of my Dart has a 2010 Challenger, 6.2L Hemi w/3.92 rear. That was fun. Can't wait for the weather to change, so I can drive it again.
 
67Dart273 said:
First three on the floor --our Farmall Regular, about 15 years old in 1963

First three on the tree----56 Chev in DRIVERS TRAINING, 1966

First 4 speed, a friends car, 67

First muscle car, a friends 68 350 Camaro, 67

Owned first muscle, 69 383 RR, 1970, 70 440 sixpack RR, 1971, 64 Dodge 426 1972

I don't understand why a VW bug is such a marker. Why not an Austin Healey Sprite? A BUG eyed Sprite? About 69 for both.
Click to expand...



haha, fisrst musle car........... camaro 350.lol who siad that was a muscle car? lol jsut pullin your chain.lmao
 
My first 4-speed was actually the car I used to learn how to drive; Datsun 1200 pick-up
First time over 120 mph was in my dad's 97 Cobra
My first car and Mopar was the Barracuda, the Duster came in next.
First car crash (minor issue) in my moms Cutlass Supreme
Learned to respect a sure grip and a wet street when I almoast hit a light post driving the Barracuda, didn't realized at the time the 440 was so damn torquey
Haven't had the chance to drive a three on tree, yet.
 
Josecuda said:
Haven't had the chance to drive a three on tree, yet.
Click to expand...

We took ours in to get new tires put on....the young guy working there got in it to drive it into the bay, got back out, and told us we'd have to pull it in because he had no idea how to drive it. LOL. The old guy working there just shook his head.
 
first time in a actual muscle car i was at the north georgia mopar meet and a guy showed up in a 69 road runner looked like some one bought it from day one and put aftermarket rims on it then put it into dry storage it was blue and blue interior 426 hemi and a 4spd i was drooling over that car it was just amazing how original it was then i met the owner he was cool as hell, i told him i never rode in a hemi car before next thing i know was, you wanna? what? do you want to go for a ride?, yeah, when?, right now, sure... the next thing you know im sittin in this time capsule and he fired it up the interior had this vintage smell about it and the vibration as i just sat there we pull out of ryan's steak house nice and easy then once we got onto the main drag we got right up to speed he wasnt even getting on it but it chirped the tires going into each gear, it was a ride i'll remember for the rest of my life and we didnt even speed
 
1st 4-speed: 1969 right after I got married. My ex's co-worker had a '66 mustang fastback that my ex would borrow occasionally to come home for lunch (we only had 1 car at the time). I'd pester her to go driving rather than eating lunch.

1st column-shift manual: never have

1st VW: 1970, my dad bought a Meyers Manx-type VW-based dune buggy while I was in Louisiana in Basic Training.

1st Muscle Car: 1969, my buddie's brand new Chevelle SS396

1st Mopar: 1969, my 340 Swinger I bought used in November of '69

1st Street Race: 1965, in my first car - '64 Olds Cutlass

1st Street Race ticket/1st Exhibition of Speed Ticket/1st Drag Race: within a couple of years of each other with my '69 340 Swinger
 
first burnout was in a 77 trans am, mom was riding shot gun (had my permit). some jerk some jerk cut me off and stopped so i slammed the brakes then took a second to figure out what the jerk was doing. romped the gas and lit them up around him. mom was just sitting there yelling about how the other guy was an A-hole.

First time driving 100mph was in my dart custom slant 6. 3am on a deserted highway, had my foot to the floor and the car would not go faster than 100.

first "real" dry pavement doughnut was in the 73 dart 318 2 barrel. had to test out the new sure grip rear. worked damn good.

first 4 speed was in my yard moving my dads 351 Cleavland 4 speed toriono around.

first time driving stick was in my moms focus before drivers ed. the drivers ed instructor was pretty surprised when i mentioned i could drive stick.

first car i crashed was my 73 dart custom. front frame was damaged badly, but anything good left on the car was saved. even the smaller parts.
 
I'm going to tell the story of the first time my buddy ever drove a 4 speed car as his story is much more interesting than mine...
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In the late '70s my buddies and I would go to Great Lakes Drag-a-Way practically every weekend to run my first Dart. On the way to the track we always passed a black '70 Dart with the 340 hood. It was sitting with a for sale sign on it, in front of an old farm house.

After passing the car and talking about it for about two years, one of my friends decided that he wanted the car. We went to the farm to find out what the Dart had in it and what they wanted for it. Turned out the car was an original '70 340 4 speed car. It had originally been painted Plum Crazy. The engine was built. It had 12.5:1 compression, mechanical cam, etc...

I don't remember what he paid, but he bought the car that day. Neither of us ever drove a 4 speed car, but he was determined to drive it the 40 miles or so from Kenosha to our place in Northern, Illinois. The car sounded great. You could definitely tell it was a high compression motor with a big lopey cam. He got the car off their property just fine and we made it to the gas station about a mile away.

We filled up and tried to start the car to leave. The battery was stone dead, and of course no one had jumper cables. To make matters worse it started to rain.

Well, we had all heard of bump starting 4 speeds, but no one had ever done it. Didn't seem we had much choice. This was a Sunday in a small WI farm town. No open auto parts stores for who knows how far. We discussed the plan and headed off.

Now it's raining, the car is on worn 60 series tires and a novice at the 4 speed. I give him a push with my Dart. We get up to about 20 or so and he let's out the clutch. The car fired, and he gased it a few times to keep the motor running. He let the clutch out while still giving it gas... the road is wet, the back end went sideways, the car launched off the side of the road, down a ditch, and OVER a young tree. Not that young either... It was big enough that it bowed over under his car not breaking, but putting enough pressure on the underside of the car to lift the front tires off the ground.

He was STUCK, and SCREWED...

Cop comes, laughs, and tells us he's having the car towed to impound. Hell of a first day with a four speed...
 
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