Years ago, (1979) I answered an ad in the newspaper to deliver cars across Canada.I was told I'd be delivering cars for owners that didn't want to drive themselves. As it turned out, I was really a "Repo Man..." It did seem odd that we'd be sent to someone's house at 3:00 in the morning to pick up a car in the driveway. One of the cars we drove from Toronto to Vancouver was a 1978 Honda Civic. It was a blast to drive. This one had a manual transmission and it was like driving an elegant go kart. My co pilot, who I'd never met before and I had a few adventures along the way but I'll save those for another day. ... View more

"African swallow..." ... View more

I've been blowing through BMW 3 series for the last 20 years as well. 1991 318is 1995 318is 2001 328is 2011 328is (current car) Like you, I buy them used (10 years +/-) and get one with reasonable mileage. They're used as daily drivers in Canada and I generally let them go when the bodies start to fail. I really like the 3 series but over the years they've gotten progressively "bigger". In particular they've gotten longer and the U-turns I could do in the '91 are now 3 point turns in the 2011. There was a 2011 330 (twin turbo) that I also considered but my mechanic talked me out of it. I had my own doubts as well.... I'd like to have another '91 (or earlier) but the current prices are out of reach and the ones that do show up have been heavily modified. ... View more

Sadly,almost everything today has some sort of computer control built in and this seems to be what fails first. I've said this before but future car collectors will need to be mechanics and computer hackers combined. I sold a 1997 BMW to a young man a few years ago and he showed up with a computer that he hooked up to the car to check codes.He said it all looked good unless I had reset them.... I told him I had no idea how to do that. He bought the car and I delivered it to his work and he then drove me to the subway. My old water heater at home had a simple dial on it. My new heater has a complex array of buttons that need to be pressed in a certain sequence to make a change. I'm literally afraid to touch it as it has a habit of turning itself off. I had a rental VW. Touareg last year and I couldn't get the radio (Entertainment centre) to work. Neither could the younger people I work with ... View more

I had one years ago. Fastest car I've ever owned until I burned out the turbo. I didn't know about letting it cool down etc. It broke down one day out of town and I pushed it off to the shoulder. I called my mechanic and said if he came and towed it he could have it. I never saw it again.... I got a ride back downtown to a shady used car lot and bought a 91' BMW 318is on the spot and drove that for 4 or 5 years. ... View more

I have a Porsche 914 and even though it's not a "fast" car it's so small and low to the ground it feels a lot quicker than it really is. Basically a fancy go cart. ... View more

There used to be a program in the late 60's where you could fly to England, pick up your new motorbike, travel around for a bit and then have it shipped home. The price was equal to or lower than buying one in the U.S. ... View more

I still have my 69 Lightning though I haven't really ridden it in a number of years. A beautiful looking bike that sadly was never as reliable it's Japanese counterpart. A British friend of mine says BSA stands for "Bits Strewn All over....." I strongly disagree. Just some of the bits fall off. ... View more

I'd like to know about the bullet holes as well.... ... View more

I often wonder about future collectable cars. I suspect you'll need to be a mechanic as well as a computer person as it seems the computer systems often fail before the mechanical parts. BMW's are notorious for this. ... View more

Porsche 914!   ... View more

Glad to see a Corvair in the fleet. It seems he had a placement deal with Chevrolet. ... View more

Yes, all good points. Better to buy a car that someone else has spent the time and money on. Glad to see the Corvair featured. Still a very affordable classic to get started. The trouble these days is finding an old school mechanic that wants to work on old cars.  ... View more

having trouble getting to the log in page here ... View more

I own a 1969 BSA Lightning and plan to get it back on the road soon. British motorcycles are a great hobby and also a great form of exercise! You can work up quite a sweat pushing one home...... ... View more

How about a TV car? My 1965 Corvair Corsa was used in the 90's TV series Kung Fu TLC. I was a set dresser on the show and they wanted a quirky car for one of the characters. They repainted my car a bright green and it was dubbed "The Kermitmobile"   ... View more

I had an ill running BMW a while back. Inspection revealed a crack in a rubber air intake hose that was upsetting an air sensor. I quick wrap of duct tape solved the problem. Also used black duct tape to patch up some rusty rocker boxes mostly so the police wouldn't notice from a distance.   ... View more

Years ago, my 1964 Chevelle died on the highway. I left it there with a note and took a bus home to get some tools and returned the next day.  The police had been by and left their own note. This went on for a couple of days until I checked the recently new distributor cap and found a small crack in it. Thankfully the old one was in the trunk and the car fired right up. I did manage to make friends with a groundhog that came by everyday to watch. ... View more

Last summer I was driving a rented Toyota Corolla on the highway. I mistakenly hit a button on the back of the steering wheel that dropped the car down into first. I had no idea what had happened and tried to use the gear shift with no luck. As the car slowed down and other cars were honking I managed to re hit the shift button and get it back in drive. I thought it was a radio control...... ... View more

I pull my batteries out in the fall and store in the basement over the winter.   ... View more

Double Ugh! ... View more

The advantage of using an illustration is the ability to slightly "cheat" the size of the car in relation to to the people. This is something that made Volkswagon's "realistic" photo ads so refreshing back in the 60's. ... View more

It was generally accepted in the comics business to NOT use the name "Clint". The L and the I can often run together..... http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002971.html   ... View more

That was a good episode. ... View more

  I've often wondered how model cars were made before computers and CNC machines. They used a very old device called a pantograph. Used to scale a model up or down. Here's one from the 60's in action. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DRbgYLhc4Y ... View more