I also think the 2002–2006 Mini Cooper S should be on this list. I still have the one I bought it brand new in 2002. Super charger, six speed manual transmission, fantastic handling. I added the John Cooper Works exhaust and smaller supercharger pulley. The car is probably worth 200 hp now-up from the stock 163hp for the S. When we first bought ours, we drove it round-trip from Florida to California and through the Rockies for 8000 miles round-trip. Lots of people have not seen the mini yet because not many dealers were established. To this day people ask me how old the car is because it still looks like a brand new model. That’s the beauty of a design that was not changed until they came up with all the other (often cringeworthy) variations. This past week I changed my brakes for the first time. 18 years on the same brake pads/discs if you can believe it. ... View more

I owned a Suzuki GS 850 G wow living in San Francisco. This was a great super smooth bike that I was able to buy at the time for $800. With slightly lower superbike bars and a 4-to 1 Kirker exhaust, it was a very good looking bike. Also has the reputation of having the most comfortable stock motorcycle seat of of that era. Super wide and firm. I even took it on a ride one time looking for Hot Springs in Mendocino county. Where it was written like a trail bike. The shaft drive was a real benefit. Poor man’s BMW. Which is what I have right now BMWs. ... View more

I had a 1973 RD-350 with Toomey Pipes and later a red RD-400. I liked the RD-400 more. I bought it and parked it in a parking lot to find it on it's side when I got back. The side stand dug into hot asphalt and in the process, broke the gear shift off. I went into the drugstore and bought a pair of channel locks and used it as a makeshift shifter for the 30 minute drive home on the Freeway. I was wearing flip flops, shorts and a t-shirt. I got pulled over by California Highway Patrol to see if I had a pink slip. (crazy, now that I think of it.) The RD-350 seized up at about 95 mph. The shop had not put the right side pipe on flush and it was leaning out. Locked the rear up and instinctively pulled in the clutch until I rolled to a stop. Let it cool for 30 minutes and still drove it home from 20 miles away on Hwy 94 in Jamul, CA. Years later, met a guy that described a black RD he owned. It was my old bike. It turns out that the shop put an RD-400 piston in one side, a RD-350 piston on the other. This from a motorcycle race shop. No wonder it ran like crap when I got it back from repairs. Two different compressions. The 1979 Daytona Special was my first RD ride from the back in high school with Dennis Robinson at the beach in San Diego-riding a long wheelie in Mission Beach-I was hooked! I ride a BMW R1200GS Adventure these days-with all my gear on.  ... View more

My friend "Dilly-Boy" had a Chevy Luv pickup lowered during the time in the mid 80's that lowered mini-pickups were hot. We had a trip planned to drive his Luv  3 1/2 hours from San Diego to the Colorado River near Yuma, AZ to camp for the weekend. While filling the truck up with gas-a rare full-tank fill-up - we started smelled gas and seeing it leak out under the truck. It turns out that he had a hole at the top of the tank. (Never noticed it before because he had never filled the tank to the top. Usually $5 a fill-up.) We pondered what to do, three wide in the cab listening to Iron Maiden. He went back into the 7-Eleven and came out with gobs of Bubblicious bubble gum-which we all started chewing. He stretched the bubble gum out and put pieces of it on top of the gas tank hole-which eventually hardened with the gas. No more gas tank problems during that San Diego-Yuma road trip.  ... View more

Learned to drive stick in a Ford Courier. I was hired as a parts runner for a brake shop at age 15-1/2. Truth be told, I only had a CA learner's permit. Loved driving that truck.  ... View more