Did your Dad own a cool car?

For a while my Dad also had a rough Siata Daina Gran Sport Coupé, which we actually have an old polaroid of:

There is the 67 Camaro with (allegedly) hot 327/powerglide in the garage under a pile of stuff, I've never seen it move. The cool car he had that ran when I was a kid was a E36 M3 brown 86 Chevy C10 longbed with a mild 350 in it, apparently tires were cheap in the late 90s and early 00s, because he seemed to smoke them daily.

Dear old dad has had many cool cars over the years, the list in chronological order is:

MGA 1500 Coupe

63 MGB

TR4

Lotus Elan Sprint

MG TD

66 MGB GT

35 MG PA

48 MG TC

MGA Twin Cam

75 Caterham Seven with the Lotus TC engine

Austin Healey 3000 2 seater

54 MG TF

65 MGB

Intertwined with those were things like an Austin Somerset, Fiat 128 sedan, Mazda Miata etc. Mum on the other hand had a bunch of Mini's in her youth. An interesting fact about his MG PA, it arrived in town (Vancouver) in the same container as the prototype MG TA (serial 0251). Dad was after a pre-war MG while his friend was after the very first T series MG.

My dad had some way cool cars mainly before I was born.

1923 Rolls Royce when it was just an old car in the 50's. In winter (never as cold as here in America, this was London) he drained the water out every night. Started it and let it run for several mins before slowly filling the radiator.

early 60's Cooper Formula 3. There was a pic of me as a baby in the cockpit somewhere, but I haven't seen it for 30 years and my mother can't find it (alone with the Christmas card from Bruce McLaren)

Early 60's Chevy Impala convertible in Cornwall where the roads are tiny.

66 MGB GT when i was a baby. He and my mom sprinted and hillclimbed it. Me being fed between runs!

For a time in the early 80's he was running a couple of Mk II Jag's as daily's

Last cool one was a bit of a unicorn. 1985 XJS Cabriolet (Not Convertible) 3.6L Manual trans and TWR body kit.

I'd say he did!

'38 Chev Coupe - 283 Chev - Hillborn Mechanical FI, but I thought it ran better on the triple deuces (Strombergs on an aluminum Offy intake), Super T10 and rear end from a 57 Chev. Done up gasser style!

Dad's first sports car, that is my brother at the wheel

This is his current ride, that he has had about 30 years, shortly after he got it. That is me on the left. Has about 300,000 miles on the 911.

In between, he had a silver '67 XKE, gold '67 Riviera, baby blue '72 XKE V-12. That blue car would go about 60 in first gear, the sound was, glorious. Yes, he has had cool cars. He likes my Miata better than my 914, I think

Not really.

Not pictured: a rusty Toyota Echo with completely shot clearcoat that liked to fly off in big sheets at high speed, and a 2013 Hyundai Who Cares.

My dad was always a car guy, but sold everything interesting prior to my birth.

My dad had a 68 mustang coupe in high school that he hopped up and used to street race.

After that it was a few Torinos and Fairlanes.

He bought a 78 Mustang Cobra II brand new, which he only had for a few months after killing 3 transmissions and an engine. This isn't the actual car, but it looked just like this:

Once I was born, up until I was 11, it was a series of boring cars; Mercury Monarch, ford tempo, base model Taurus, base grand am, v6 thunderbird.

When I was 11 my dad finally bought himself a fun car, a 91 mustang:

He owned that from '95 until '02, when I bought it. I still have it. This pic is about 20yrs after the one above.

Now he's back to driving boring cars. His current is a Ford Flex with about 200k miles

Early on, my Dad was a car guy. He had an early Corvair, a 67 Baracuda, and eventually this...

a 1970 non-hemi Barracuda. After 2 speeding tickets in the first year of owning it, my Mom made him get rid of it. I have faint memories of sitting in the back with no seat belts doing 100 MPH on the Interstate. After this car, his tastes definitely mellowed. He was 40 when he bought this, which was almost exactly his mid-life crisis car.

My dad owned the "sister" car to this one. John Buffum brought four of these to the States, and two of them went testing at Road Atlanta.

The one my dad ended up with had a motor let go, and spun in it's own oil, nose first into a tire wall. It was sold to someone in Mexico, but for some reason the truck driver abandoned the rig in Brownsville, Tx.

A customer of my dad's German car repair shop bought the rig at a sheriff's auction for his grocery business, and sold the car (damaged nose, no motor or trans) to my dad.

Even at cost, parts for a new motor and trans was approaching 10 times the cost of what he bought the car for. Alf Gebhardt, who was running BMW's in Trans-Am and IMSA at the time ended up buying the car.

My Dad had a couple.

His first car was a 1970 Duster with the 340 and the super drag pack option and a 4 speed. Not his but it looked just like this:

Then when I was in HS he had an 85 mustang GT that I ended up taking when I left for college. Again, Not it but our's looked like it.

My dad had some cool cars, including:

55 Chevy coupe

63 Falcon wagon

67 K-code Mustang

71 Olds Cutlass SX convertible (fast!)

74 Fiat 124 Spider (terrible!)

80 VW Scirocco S (Mars red!)

84 VW Scirocco

Taurus Wagon (That was referred to as "Moby")

From the time I could remember anything, dad only had a motorcycle until he fixed up an old pickup. Before that it was mostly a string of fords.

My Dad had an interest in cars but wasn't really a car guy. The coolest cars he had were from well before I was born, a 64 1/2 Mustang with a 289 3-speed, a 67 Impala SS convertible and a couple of old Beetles. Other than those it was just the generic big GM coupes/sedans and trucks. I do still have the 1965 short & wide GMC that he bought in 1980 but it needs everything. I keep trying to convince him to buy another 60's Mustang but don't think he will.

Once thing that is cool is that his last few cars have all been manual transmissions. Even at 66 years old he just bought a 2015 Jetta with a stick and has no plans to own an automatic.

The cool car my dad had when I was growing up was a Bradley GT kit car w/silver metallic flake in the gel coat, the most fun 50 hp car around. Before I was born he had a couple of 60's Triumph Spitfires that he never drove with the roof on even in the snow in northern ohio it was top down. Probably the coolest one was a home built sports car that started life as a 48 (or was it a 58) Chrysler sedan. He stripped it down to the frame, rebuilt the Hemi (said it was probably 400hp) and built his own fiberglass body for it. Moved the radiator and the battery to the back to balance it out enough to be drive-able. He claims he could lay on the roof and touch the ground with his hand. Sadly it found its way to a junkyard before being completed.

56 Chevy 66 Pontiac Tempest 73 Chevy El Camino SS350 Several 4x4 pickups (he was a farmer so we always had a few around) Raced snowmobiles in the sixties always had dirt bikes Last cool car was a 2011 Camaro SS (which I still have)

Dad definately made me a motorhead. I still remember when I was 9 or 10 he asked me and my brother if we wanted him to keep the 56 GMC 4x4. It had a blown motor and he had newer trucks to use. At the time I couldn't see any reason to keep it.

NickD wrote: He did have a '48 Ford F-4 duallie dump truck that he still used routinely as a truck though (and this was in the '90s). I can still remember the flathead exhaust note, whine of the straight cut gears, bouncy ride, springy seat (with no seat belts) and that old vehicle interior smell. We still own that as well, and though it's not in awful shape it needs a thorough going through.

Got talking to him about the dump truck last night and we were both imitating the straight cut gearbox noise and flathead exhaust note. My mother looked at us like were both insane.

I don't think I need to reply to this thread.

1974 comet only a 6 but it was brown with a white top auto. I thought it was a cool car.

My father was a car dealer, so we never knew what he was bringing home. Usually it was a SAAB, but I remember Isetta's Triumph Heralds, Alfas and the likes. He sold most of the British and French cars, and had Volvo, Subaru and Studebaker. Variety is the spice of life.

Debatable on the coolness aspect, but:

1971 Plymouth Fury Grand Coupe. Yes, Coupe...with 4 doors...before Germans thought it was cool. Apparently, it was sold as a Grand Coupe in both 2 and 4 door versions. What is difficult to see in the first picture is the paisley upholstery and vinyl roof material.

I thought it was the most beautiful car in t he world the day he brought it home when I was a kid.

(to clarify, none of the pictures posted here are of his actual car)

My dad's first car, which he bought in 1952 with money earned from after-school and summer jobs, was a 1932 Ford Model B Sedan Deluxe with the larger flathead four. After he finished medical school (and married my mom) it sat unused in my grandad's garage until 1980, when he began a 10 year restoration that was so complete and authentic it ended up netting him an offer he couldn't refuse: $80,000!!!

As a young Naval Aviator and Flight Surgeon he had to keep up with the cool kids and thus bought his first-ever new car: 1968 Charger with the 4bbl 383 and Torqueflite. Ever the practical man, he also bought a new 1969 Beetle. His succession of cool cars after that (all bought new from dealerships) was: 1969 MGB, 1971 914, 1973 911, 1978 280Z, 1984 Mustang GT convertible, 1934 John Deer Model D tractor (100% restored and running to this day) 1986 Z-28, 1987 911, New Old Stock (literally sat in it's original wooden shipping crate until 1988!!!) U.S. Navy 1952 Jeep (we use it as an airplane tow tractor at the airport), original un-restored 1941 Ford Sedan Deluxe with flathead V-8 (engine has been overhauled twice in it's life and has been converted to 12V electrical), 2003 Miata LS (mine now!!!). And currently a 2015 Boxster S!!!

He had a 1957(?) Alfa Giulietta coupe that died with a hole in the block. 1965 Triumph TR4A IRS, I remember doing over 100mph in it and him saying don't tell your mother. 1970 Mustang Mach 1, first car I got to drive. 1973 Jensen Healey, 1971 Jaguar V-12 2+2.

When he was 18/19 bought a brand new 1970 Challenger 340/4spd.

A few years later in life were two IHC Traveler trucks (Scout based) with the 304? V8s

Now, it's a 2001 3.0i Z3 with various M pieces (But, not an M roadster)

My father had an 86 vette when I was in middle school, seemed pretty cool at the time. He still lights up a bit everytime I mention the possibility of picking up a vette.