Coolest Car Your Family Owned?

Dad had what we believe was likely the first VW bug convertible brought into Canada. He was stationed in Baden Germany with the RCAF and bought a convertible there to bring home in 1956. At the time VW was only exporting coupes. Wish he still had that car.

Also had 1961 and 1965 Corvairs. Unfortunately 4 dr coupes however.

My dad owned a BMW 3.0l CSL 'Batmobile' in 1977. He was co-owner of a German car repair shop, and one of their Mercedes customers owned several grocery stores. This customer bought a tractor-trailer rig at a sheriffs auction, and it contained said BMW, along with about 5 sets of BBS wheels. My dad bought the car (it had no motor or trans) for $2500. He sold it about six months later to Alf Gebhardt, who was racing a 3.0CSL at the time. Even at my dad's dealer cost for parts, the motor and trans were gonna be north of $15k, so it made sense to get rid of it. We did get a nice three month trip to the Bahamas out of it though!

Years later, we found out the story. The car was crashed in testing at Road Atlanta when the motor blew. The car was sold to someone in Mexico, but for whatever reason, the truck driver left the rig sitting in a parking lot.

One of my Uncles owned a Dusenberg. He would rub it with a diaper, refuse to let anyone touch it, and take it out only once a year for a local parade.

After he died, we found out it was a replica. Still gorgeous though

In reply to ae86andkp61:

This guy wins.

For some reason Pop was never really a car guy, he had a succession of company cars: 98's, Bonneville's, LeSabre's, Grand Marquis, and ended up with Infiniti I30's. I went with him the second time to order another Infiniti...and talked him into a Touring model.

He did, for whatever reason, buy a turquoise and white '57 Chevy when I was 10. Consequently, that car was sold right before I got my license.

He was very generous with us though, my sister got a Datsun 1200 sedan, a couple of Chevettes and Cavaliers and Accords. My brother got my Uncles '67 Chevelle, I had a '65 Mustang convertible, and my younger sister got a new '91 Accord for her senior year in high school. She also ended up with the second I30T as well.

I guess the "cool" part is that he enabled us to have good cars. Later on, he would buy a car, and we would pay him every Friday...like clock work.

Probably the coolest car that I have personally owned was the '72 Pantera. But, I was 23 at the time, and my mind was on Shelby's, so I sold it.

Growing up I was blessed to have a car

Apparently windows phones are ...

My old man bought a '72 Z in '73, and had it the next 30 years. Prolly closest to cool anyone in our family had til I got my pair of Mazdogs.. errmmm, well, OK, maybe still the only cool car. It was our forever close family friends that had the cool cars. Ol' Jake raced a fuelie '57 Vette that was streetable after a fashion, and he also owned a Gullwing back in the day. Yeah. When it needed something like 3 grand in maintenance, and back then it was only a 3 grand car, he sold it. Oh, well. Then there was my Paw's high school buddy who had an AC Bristol. Raced it, then parked it for a few decades. Found out recently he still has it and is juuust finishing up a top notch restoration. I would very much like to see that one...

wheelsmithy wrote: In reply to ae86andkp61: This guy wins.

What do they say about the nut not falling far from the tree?

Actually, if I could own even half of the cool cars my dad has owned, I could be pretty well satisfied.

Mom's '85 Country Squire wagon. White with wood grain. She replaced it a year before I learned to drive.

My dad was a pilot in the Navy, 26 years of flying A4's, A6's and his last gig in a Beachcraft King Air flying an ambassador in South America. After his second tour in A4's my dad was sent to the Monterey Post Graduate School, 1969. The two years my dad spent in this program were the first time I got to spend time working with him and on the cars he would bring home. The 1957 Porsche Speedster was the first one I got to see my dad really drive. To the Fire Department, as a volunteer.

As it turns out the first volunteer to the fire house got the drive the second engine on the turnouts. NO ONE beat my old man. Ever.

On our way out of town the Speedster was sold and replaced by a BMW 2002. Our family of five fit in the '02. I no longer had to use an oil can as a head rest. My little brother moved between my sister and I, no longer at my mom's feet right below the fuel tank.

And we had seat belts.

Coolest car/s? Good Lord, not sure I can count that high...

'34 Ford Fordor 327 tri power. '43 International I-9 (mine) '47 International Farmall H (mine) '49 Caterpillar 112 (mine) '52 Dodge M-37 Lots of Corvettes ('54, '60, '61, 63, '64, '11,) '55 Dodge Custom Royal lancer '57 Plymouth Sport Suburban Wagon '61 Corvair '62 Plymouth Savoy wagon '63 Polara 500 '64 Polara 500 426W 4spd '64 Chrysler 300 '65 Barracuda (my first car!) '66 Chrysler Town & Country '67 Plymouth Valiant (mine) '68 Barracuda fastback (Dads) '68 Barracuda Fastback 340 4spd "S" (Dads) '68 Barracuda Fastback 225 /6 (mine) '69 Barracuda Fastback warmed up 318 (Grandfathers, then mine) '69 Barracuda Fastback 360 wheezebomb (mine) '69 Barracuda Fastback, really hot 318 (mine) There's a trend here somewhere '68 Chevy C-20 (our camper) '69 Dodge Charger (I learned to drive in it) '70 Plymouth Road Runner '89 Shelby Dakota #158 (mine until my insurance co found out what was under the hood ) There's many more that are rather boring ('87? Chevy Celebrity Eurosport wagon? Chevy Vega..)

The only the Valiant and both Internationals remain mine. My Dad has just his C-6 Vette left My Uncle has the '54, '61 and '63 Vettes. He recently bought a '69 Rambler Scrambler basket case. Oh, and he also has a '68 Barracuda Fastback

Maybe not cool, but Dad bought a new 1982 Audi 4000 S and it was one of the best cars he ever bought.

Then he purchased a red E36 325i.

Dad had a Corvair Corsa after college. (The turbo) He and mom literally pushed it into the scrap yard after putting well over 100,000 miles on it. Then came the kids and the coolest car they have had since is a CR-V.

In reply to moparman76_69: Wow!! Does that bring back memories My father had a '57 Mercury Park Lane Turnpike Cruiser, with the 430 engine and a huge Holley 4 barrel carburetor. I was likely 12 at the time, and remember him dropping a small part down into the carburetor. He removed the carburetor, and had me reach in to pull it out. Very large air passages. My asthma had him buy the car for winter trips to Tucson - from Connecticut. Huge car, We could get all four of us in it with tons of room to spare, and the trunk held at least 5 full size suitcases. It cruised at 60 mph virtually at idle, since he special ordered a numerically low rear end on the car. I want to say 3.6 ratio, but really don't remember specifically. It did take a while to wash though!!

My dad had a Fairlane with a 390. It was before my time, so I've only seen photos and heard stories of that one. There was also a bugeye sprite and a succession of MG Midgets.

Ours was not a car enthusiast family, not to say there weren't some cool cars over the years tho. Uncle Harry from NY had a '68 Imperial, geezus that car was berkeleying gangster. Another uncle was strictly Buick: Wildcats, Electra's and later LeSabre's, all stylin' and equipped. Dad was a Pontiac guy: '56, '61, '65, '70, mostly Catalina's. Didn't know till after the fact that he ordered a '77 Grand Prix w/ a 4-speed, factory called and talked him outta it because they'd have to pull it off the line for install. Nice try tho Dad.

Cousin married a crazy Marine just back from Nam. New '68 Super Bee, carb, cam, intake, headers, gears etc. Rode to the reception hall w/ 'em, aunt rode w/ my folks following right behind us. He pulls a smoky burnout at a light just to piss her off, my first ride over 120, needless to say I been hooked ever since.

I'm the first real car guy of the family so the learning curve was pretty steep for me. Gotta envy some of you guys w/ family already in the car culture. I've owned some darn good stuff over the years... and always will. I'll let the screen door fall off the house but dammit I'm gonna own me some nice berkeleying wheels.

My dad had some weird cars in the 80's.

I was taken home from the hospital after my birth in a lavender Cadillac Cimarron with a 4-speed manual.

After that he had a '86 Chrysler Lebaron Sedan Turbo with a 5-speed and leather.

At the same time my mom drove a 1986 Subaru GL Wagon with a 5 speed and a selectable 4WD transfer case. Subarus weren't sold in Michigan at that time where we lived, so my dad picked it up in New Jersey where his brother lived and drove it home through a snow storm in Pennsylvania.

After that my family had fairly vanilla cars - my dad got a Sable and my mom got a Cherokee. The next weird car my dad had was an '03 Cadillac CTS with a manual. That was the only year that it was sold with the 3.2L Opel engine in the US. Before that he had an '01 Olds Aurora with the "Shortstar" 3.5L V6.

My folks had great stuff in there 'single' years. When they married my mom had a '69 Mustang fastback and dad had a '70 camaro RS. Then they bought a van, travel trailer, and I came home from the hospital in a Vega wagon...

My Mom has owned an assortment of crappy cars, but in 1995 she bought a brand new 1996 Cherokee Classic in Red. Traded in her 1991 Eighty-Eight Oldsmobile to a Jeep dealership in Beckley, WV. I was not really a car guy back because I was 10 years old, but there was something about that rig that I loved. It had great power and went anywhere in the snow. My brother crinkled the front fender during his extreme douche bag high school years and we never fixed it. She traded it in for a 2001 Caddy sometime around 2004 because to my parents, once something hits 100k, it might as well be in the junkyard. God, that Caddy was aweful. (Not hers, but exactly like it).

RoadRaceDart -dang!

Mom said dad had a '50 Merc, but that was before my time. I'm sure it was "bitchin'".

Mom bought a new '65 Mustang (cool) and her last cool car was a Trans Am GTA. I drove them both. Her coolest car was a '72 Mustang she bought new and had the 351 HO with a four speed top loader.

I'm still looking for that car..

In '68, Dad bought a new Pontiac Ventura similar to the picture below. It was white (no vinyl top), with the 400 V8, dual exhaust, front disc brakes, and three-on-the-tree. We pulled a travel trailer with it and I remember passing other campers going up hill in the Rockies. We had a Spitfire at the time which I thought was way cooler. Today I have more nostalgia for the Pontiac.

Years later they got a '79 Rabbit which was a rocket. Had my license then and loved driving that. They also got a VW pickup which was a dog. Both same colors as shown. Our Rabbit was a two door.

I should also add that before I was born my dad had a '79ish Celica and a '82ish Scirocco 16V. His college car was a '66ish Plymouth Fury 4D HT slant-six that he bought for $200 when he was 18 and sold for $300 when he graduated. It was big and white and his friends nicknamed it "The Nuns' Car".

My father collected brass era cars. The neatest car that the family ever had was a 1907 Maxwell Raceabout. An early hot rod with the Maxwell cowl and hood and wicker bucket seats for light weight. The tire tread has letters that read, "NONSKID" angled for grip, rather than a simple tread pattern.

Restored in 1951, here's how it looked when he died a few years ago:

One Grandpa collected Corvettes, he also had a thing for custom Mercurys and jet boats, I'm not sure if I could remember all the cars he had. My stepdad had a few Chevelles, El Caminos, and Camaros before he got into hot rods with a 33 Ford Sedan and a 38 Chrysler Coupe. And one of my aunts still has and regulary drives her 1967 VW Beetle she bought in 1968.