Show your first car…

[STEVES]

I got my MG when I was 14. Learned auto mechanics on it and by the time I was 16 I had a nice driver. Painted it 66 Corvette Maroon. That's me on the left

The car is now painted in the original color and fully restored except for a couple of things. I still have all the original stuff, but I put a 5 main bearing B engine along with a B tranny. It has 1st gear syncros and is way easier to drive.

[swcarroll]

Dad and me with my first, a '55 Bug bought with lawn-mowing money when I was 15. Converted to Baja but no money for proper tires. On cold days at "high speed", the carb would ice up and I was forced to putt along the shoulder until it melted. That little heat riser just couldn't compete with the rear scoop and all that cold air. I knew it wouldn't get me back and forth to college so stepped up to a '65 and requisite haircut. These cars taught me a lifelong confidence with using tools, for which I'm forever grateful.

[H-viken]

CHP car from 1984. Drove it my first couple of years in college. That thing was a tank and hauled ass!

“Cop shocks, cop tires!”

[Frankr]

50 something Bug. Ran and drove $100. Circa 1966

[Chuck Miller]

These are such cool stories !!!!!!

[21window]

The lotus was my first car. It had been in storage for 10 years or so when I got it. Burned to the ground the day I brought it home late at night.

After insurance paid me for the Lotus I bought a 66 912. My high school girlfriend and current wife in pic.

[928cs]

Minis are great cars for young folks. I learned to drive and passed my test in a Mini Cooper S and did a lot of driving in it but technically the Capri is first car I owned ie my name on the logbook so that’s what I posted.

Insurance for younger folks is prohibitive they often decline or set premium so high as to dissuade buying interesting performance cars so is an issue for many younger folks in getting decent first cars in UK. My son bought himself a new Golf R as his first car — he won’t even tell me how much the its annual insurance is costing him !

I can't imagine how expensive it must be to insure a Golf R as a first car
It would be impossible with the company I work for, in France.

The great thing with the Mini, is that you've got a sensation of speed, even without proper one. And you learn how not to lose speed into the corners
But, I had to learn again how to do a parallel parking with a regular size car.

I would love to test drive a real Cooper S

[Unobtanium-inc]

It was a special car for me, circa 1991. 82 Scirocco, first year of the big body, one wiper. Cool car, until it was stolen and stripped.

First Porsche wasn't until about 4 years later.

---Adam

[gbone99]

Great thread. I desperately wanted a VW Bug in 1996 as my first car. Sadly we couldnt find any good ones in upstate NY for <$5,000 and not rusting into the ground (my budget at the time). Instead we got a 91' Suzuki Swift, 2-door in white (not the actual car in the photo, but exactly the same). It had a 5-speed and maybe 90 HP (Just like my 912'). We lived in the boonies and I learned so much bouncing off the rev-limiter on back country dirt roads using the e-brake to whip around 90 degree bends. It got even better in the winter with studded metal snow tires. Had it into freshman year at Syracuse and then inherited my sister 95 plymoth sundance duster with a 5-speed and the Mitsubishi V6.

[911T1971]

1984 AMC Eagle

Bought the Eagle 1998 in Brooklyn off the sidewalk having a sign “For sale” by its former owner, drove it 2 years in NYC, NJ and Long Island, left the US back to Europe, gave it to my Ex-Girlfriend who used it Upstate New York until 2005.