I currently have a 5 speed 4x4 4runner for truck stuff.
A 1966 Corvair for old car stuff
A 2018 Armada for road trips and heavy trailer hauling.
A 1992 Nissan NX2000 for autocross/radwood awesomeness.
Hopefully I will be replacing the NX with a 987.2 Cayman at the end of the year.
Oh yeah and a street legal golf cart because I live at the beach.
In reply to pimpm3 :
Your garage is way cool. My old college roommate had an NX2000 that we did road rallies in. and your Corvair just looks right.
In reply to Caprigrip :
Thanks! It's a fun little car.
Theoretically I could live with downsizing my current cars alone, but not a lot.
1: road trip/tow vehicle- finish my full size van project that is a whole 2% finished.- seats everybody, will be able to tow car on trailer, sweet recliner comfort. Finishing this will involve cannibalizing my truck, but I can live without the pickup.
2: DD/year round fun and practical car- current gen sti. Seats family comfortably, big trunk, good in winter, still not boring
3: Fun car- rx8 r3. Used to drive this a lot but the last few years it's only been used for autox. Sounds fine, as my wife might need the other car if I'm gone for a day at an autox.
Also have a 323 gtx I barely drive and cant really justify keeping but you'll have to pry the keys from my cold dead hands, unless I swallow them in my last living moments.
Realistically the sti could do everything if my wife could drive the giant van when I'm away at an autox but shes not a fan of driving things that big. Also it's not done yet.
In reply to Caprigrip :
I shall not be constrained by your silly 3 cars only scenario
I think I'm doing it wrong:
Winter DD XJ that has spent 3 months of my ownership broken
Summer DD e36/5 that has oil/coolant/diff leaks
Track car/project W116.120 that I couldn't afford to fix after it blew up in 2016
My current compromised situation is that my fleet has gone from 5 to 2. Currently have a Tahoe for trucklike stuff and weekend group activities and a G35 sedan for DD, most trips, and somewhat fun duties. No track time currently or planned in the future & no local autoX so those aren't needs in my plan.
My future plan is to remain at 2 vehicles with 4 wheels, but a somewhat different set of compromises. Once available get a CyberTruck (or other electric truck) as the truck, DD, and trip monster with something fun for other duties such as hopped up Miata or modified Cramit or Moostang...
This reminds me of a conversation I recently had with myself about guns.
With purpose:
Part time DD/Solo long drive/Hooning: CTSV Coupe
Long drive family hauler: Ford Flex
Farm duty/hauling/towing/part time DD: beat assed old suburban
Without purpose (any could be sold without diminishing the function of the rest of the fleet):
Beach cruising with the wife: Jeep CJ7
General cruising/ice cream runs: 63 Corvair convertible
Solo 'clearing the mind' cruising: Trike
I've been having this same thoughts about what 3, fit the bill. Currently:
1. Fun car/old car/project car... 76 Porsche 911
2. Wife's DD/family trip car/4wd/towing. 11 Lexus GX460
3. DD/fun/would like to autoX/track. Revolving door. Currently 05 Mustang GT, but already looking to move. Heavily considering a Miata cause I've never owned one. But this one is the hardest to settle on.
I had 9 cars at one time when I lived in L.A. Moving from PA to CA with a job that actually paid was like a fat kid in a penny candy store with $100. I bought things. All the rust-free things.
Right now I have the makings for a pretty good do-it-all garage.
-Compact pickup for the work-y and off road-y things. It will also tow up to about 5000 lbs if I'm careful, 4000 easy.
-67 Lemans convertible that is getting an LS/T56 swap and a stiffened chassis
-Shopping for a Jag XJR or Super V8 for the cross-country stuff.
-Also in the wings, 66 Bonneville that will someday get a duramax, at which point the jag will be wasted and this will fill that hole.
Depending on your area, a classic with some modern touches makes an amazing wow-factor car and (while not a Miata) can be modded for some serious fun. Those old "lead sleds" are lighter than you think. A 73 Ford Maverick with an all iron V8 is actually lighter than a 2004 WRX.
I decided on a Jag XJR from around the Ford years because they can be remarkably reliable, they're dirt cheap because luxury marque, and they turn heads big time. I can't wait to see my friends wonder how I bought a top-of-the-line jag on my non-profit theater salary.
I decided on a 67 Lemans because it is my all-time dream car.
I think between the three, any of them will be a good cross country cruiser, although the truck would get boring after a couple states. The Lemans will carve well enough for my tastes and turn heads. The jag will be the "let's go to NYC and catch dinner and a show" car, or "yes, let's drive to Seattle next week."
DX household:
Mrs DX DD: 17 Jetta
My DD/hauler: 15 Versa Note.
This thread is teaching me that dreAming is fun and I've made up and changed my mind at least twice a day since ;). But I'm thankful and happy with my garage and love pretend shopping.
Are these inclusive the household daily drivers, or in addition to?
In reply to pimpm3 :
Those DS2s look so great on the Corvair. Well done!
There are six cars at the house:
1. 2010 Santa Fe wife's DD
2. 2005 Imprezza 2.5Rs son's DD
3. 2011 Outback my DD
4. 90 Ford E250 Camper Van to haul races cars and large items home from Lowes
5. 72 Datsun 1200 I've owned for 36 years and race for 31 years (19 years of SCCA & 11 years vintage)
6. 87 Novakar F500 autocross and vintage race car.
If I were to condense things down I could sell the Datsun and the Van and simple keep the F500 as it weighs 635lbs, the trailer is 700 and so the Outback could tow it no problem. That would takes us down to 4 cars total with two of those being mine.
Even with six cars at the house I still window shop for cars. If I could find one do it all car some day (for Autocross, days, lake road cruise and vintage racing) like a 2.0 911 or 356 (out of my price range) I'd rid myself of all the extra stuff.
Realistically I'm too attached to the Datsun and I like having an inside place to sit (the van) at the track. I've thought about taking the Datsun back to a street car (cut out the front half of the cage & put an interior back in it) but that's probably a dumb idea.
I do like the three car idea; buying tires for six cars as well as routine maintenance gets to be a chore sometimes. Truth be told I love driving cars and it wouldn't bother me to never work on a car ever again.
Been sorting through the same dilemma myself. Currently have 6 cars and 5 bikes, which is too many. Bikes are less of a problem, but it all adds up to lots of time in the garage and less time doing stuff.
1. 1991 318is turbo. Blown engine, has been for 2 years. Have all the parts but none of the time. Was my first car, love driving it, it's not going anywhere. Great track day and nice weather car, and passable for longer trips without luggage since turbo + muffler kept it pretty quiet.
2. 1998 Silverado K1500. Good for truck stuff, have driven it across the country as a race bike rig a few times. Boring. Caprice wagon in the background was sold when I bought the Tahoe.
3. 2000 Chevy Tahoe Limited. Wanted to see if an SUV would make a better race bike/cross country trip/trailer hauler than the truck and still have some daily driver fun factor from the Caprice. 2wd with the G80 locker and simple as a box of rocks, and surprisingly good mileage. I have a T56 6 speed to swap in, and an engine with more juice, but it's so good right now that I'm not in any hurry. It's almost shockingly fun to drive with the chassis updates, and being able to lock stuff inside and sleep in the back makes it all-around more useful than the Silverado.
4. 1984 Porsche 944 LS1 that I bought from a member here. Ongoing long term project car, with time trial goals. Slow progress since focusing more on bike racing.
5. 1986 Porsche 951. Runs and drives but was rear ended, so parting out and keeping some parts for the LS1 build. Surprisingly no pictures of this one.
6. 1987 BMW 325is 5 speed. Runs and drives well but major rust. Fell into my lap and couldn't say no. Either going to buy a good shell and build a nice-ish E30 to flip, or will part it out. Undecided yet, and until then will probably use it as a daily driver. No pics of this one either.
The 951 is obviously not long for my garage. The 325is probably isn't either. But I keep coming back to what to do with the other four. The E30 is a keeper. I have to finish the LS1 944 before I can make a decision on it, but I think it will be a better and more reliable track car than the E30 considering some of the repeat issues I have with the turbo setup. But right now, I'm not spending nearly as much time at the track as I thought I would be since discovering my love of dirt bike stuff.
Do I keep the Tahoe and the Silverado? It's kind of nice having a truck with an automatic sometimes, and 4wd can be useful. Truck stuff obviously is easier with a truck. But simplifying to 3 cars does sound good and the Tahoe has already proven to be a better all-around vehicle. Until the Silverado, I had never had 4wd before anyway.
for now, the bikes aren't in question. They all serve a different purpose, are much less of a time and money sink to have around, and all get used more than most of my cars.
I'm not even remotely fitting myself into the 3 car scenario but I totally came here to recommend upgrading the Lexus to something faster and potentially flashier. GS460 if the budget is <20k, Probably some newer F-Sport if you like the look and trim of that over the actual speed of the 460, or a GS-F if you can afford that. Can't really do an RC or IS since it's supposed to be a trip car that needs an actual back seat.
I'm liking all of these ideas. As Vigo mentioned, speed isn't important to me. I owned a 700 hp Supra for years and actually preferred my current 160 hp miata - the power was useless in the street, and anything over 3rd gear was 'i am going to jail for this ' territory. The miata i can romp in in front of police and not be sweating ;)
So as much as I like an gs-f or isf, the speed would be lost on me. So a sensible newer lexus makes sense for Mrs Caprigrip to drive. I still like the usefulness of the land cruiser. A friend has a 1m that I've borrowed extensively and that makes me smile and I think I could drive that daily including daddy duties and fitting my daughter and a friend in there. I love 911s too - but the back seat room would probably not be enough. Wife loves a Cayenne (which could replace cruiser for my occasional towing) but we would be buying used and repairs scare me. And the inner child in me loves the Toyobaru with some flares and huge tires - that makes me happy.
So as you can tell, I have absolutely no idea.
This is my setup so far
Fun Car: Turbo NA
Truck stuff/hauler: 2000 Silverado 1500 reg cab (coming up on 250,000 miles and is next in line to be replaced)
Fancy going out car: IS-F
Park downtown/fuel miser: 2013 Prius C
After selling off my Elise, I lack a "wow factor" car, but honestly the turbo miata is more fun at a small fraction of the price, and I don't live in constant fear of an F-150 hitting me at 5mph and totalling my car.
edit: I'd really love one of those FJ-40 pickups to replace the silverado, but I doubt my wallet could handle one
I really like the tricycle. I'm sure it would be cool to ride around the city in the summer on such a beast. The color was clearly chosen to draw attention to itself. You have very cool cars, but I have only one car in my garage and it's a Tesla Model 3. Considering that this is a very popular model, I found out about it here https://sizedly.com/, after some time after its official release. Elon Musk really made a breakthrough car that seemed to come to us from the future. After the Tesla, I don't want to get back on cars with an internal combustion engine, so as not to pollute the atmosphere.
A rust free K24 swapped EF hatch covers all the bases except for tow pig.
KyAllroad (Jeremy) said:My garage is similar and for similar reasons.
DD and all weather hooning car is the VR6 Passat. Road trips for 4 or fewer, seems to do everything competently.
Tow pig and hauler of up to 8 is the QS Suburban. Nothing else out there does the job quite as well as a Suburban.
My new autocross toy (the Zoomboni) has bumped the "too nice for me" Miata off my list because I never drive it. (new owner coming to pick it up soon)
Tiger Mom has the unicorn Jaag. (stick shift, big motor X-Type) that we take out occasionally for evenings out to dinner.
I may see about copying Ashyukun soon and find a BMW convertible for short money to have a summertime toy. But I've done 5 Miatai now and I think it's time to change that up.
Hmm, it's been almost exactly a year and the fleet is the same. I didn't find a BMW though, instead I bought my 6th Miata and have sunk my soul into rebuilding/restoring/refreshing/upgrading and generally spending FAR too much money on it.
And I bought an enclosed trailer for the Zoomboni to live in.
well, in a year I've decided that a 4 car garage is a good size for me and being able to actually drive everything regularly. Picked up a Cayenne for wife-duties. Still dreaming about the next car - which will probably replace Lexus at some point. Since starting this thread, both my cruiser and lexus have rolled over 212k miles (and i took a pic when they matched mileage). I think the Lexus is now redundant, but i like driving it and compared to the Cayenne, it's nice and inconspicuous.
The cayenne took over back roads driving fun this week when Miata was down. Fun but heavy. Makes a good family road trip car though and i am confident that it keeps us safe.
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