And now I have the feels

My 454 swapped 90 c1500 shortbed 2wd 5 speed truck makes me sad occasionally 

88 Spider Veloce. Nuff said. 

'64 Fairlane Sport Coupe

young n dumb, I wanted a truck 

I cash for clunker-ed a 91 standard cab short bed Silverado package Chevy 1500 with a factory 350 and 5-speed manual. It was still under 200k miles and everything worked.  Great truck,  but paid for and not worth anywhere near the 3500 we got for sending it to a horrible death.

81 marquis 2 door. Purchased from the original owner for 400 bucks with no rust and carb issues. Intake, cam, carb, exhaust and 3.73 gears and a Trac loc later it was my favorite daily. Sold it to build my 2.3t mustang and the guy demo derbied it. Apparently 2 doors are worth more because locally you can x brace them behind the doors.

My first car, a special order 1960 Plymouth Suburban two door wagon. First year of the slant 6, 3 on the tree, radio delete, as basic as they come.

My 9'4" long board fit between the back of the front seat and the tail gate with room to spare. It was bought by a family friend, then bought by my dad in about 1968. I turned 16 in 1971, and it was turned over to me.

This isn't it, mine had less trim and more rust, but it's the right color.

Mine would have to be the 1999 Mustang Cobra convertible I bought in 2003 when I was 22. I had just arrived at my first duty station after joining the Air Force. I had a real paycheck for the first time in my life and I was super into Mustangs at that time. I had a 1999 Mustang GT coupe for about 6 months prior but the Cobra caught my eye at a dealership lot.

I learned a lot in that car. I discovered throttle oversteer, double-clutch shifting but I never mastered how to launch that car without getting terrible wheel hop. The car payment and insurance was over half my paycheck so I didn't have a ton of money for parts.

I loved that car; cruising with the top down on a warm midwest summer night, listening to some tunes while the 32v 4.6L burbled in the background, looking for silly ricer boys to embarrass. I did get a few tickets in that car. I received 2 for loud exhaust; an SLP Loudmouth and offroad x-pipe will do that. I only received one speeding ticket; 90mph in a 55. I was actually doing 135mph

Sadly, my wife made me get rid of that car shortly after we got married in 2006. That car made such an impression on me that I wanted to get a tattoo to remind me of all of the good times I had behind the wheel. So in 2008, I got this:

I still think about that car all the time

A couple of GIFs from a video shot in 2003 of various hoonage:

I'd say the only car I genuinely miss is was my 2005 cobalt ss. I ran almost twice the factory boost level with an emailed flash tune on that car for 80k miles without so much as a single cel. It never left me stranded even on multiple cross country trips. Wanted a 4 door so I sold it to buy the e46. 

Sold this for $3600.  A friend saw it recently, it's gray metallic now.  =~ (

I'm a bit emotional about the R63 being for sale. I'm ok that it's still in the driveway for now. 

I traded my '68 Volvo P1800 (technically 1800S by then, but P1800 always seemed more appropriate to me) in '76, which I'd owned for six years, for of all things, a new Buick Skyhawk. The Skyhawk was an absolute piece of crap, typical of the poor GM quality during their dark ages. I regretted getting rid of the Volvo about ten minutes after I picked up the Buick.

Just sold my 96 chevy conversion van last night. Was very sad to see it go. Had it for 6 years, it served me well as a tow rig, a weekend motorsports camper, and it made a few cross country trips in amazing comfort.

I had bought it from a friend. He gave me a good deal. I think I sold it off well below market value. I think it's the longest I've owned a constantly running automobile. Thing still runs great. Unfortunately for it, we had just bought a motorhome, and there really wasn't room for both on our property, otherwise we'd probably have kept it until death. It wasn't a daily driver, but damn it was useful.

This thing: 

This was my 1987 Mercury Cougar XR7. It was my 4th car, and my main ride in high school. I've told the story about this car a few times, but I'll tell it again: 

My sister used to work for a Hyundai dealer that had a wholesale lot they would sell cars to employees or families of employees before they hit the auctions. For some reason, it was always full of non-Mustang Fox Body cars. I bought two cars from them, both 1987 Mercury Cougar XR7's. My brother in law even bought a Cougar; a 1986 LS with a 5.0 and a pegleg rear that would boil one of the 14" tires FOR DAYS. They also had a host of Lincoln LSC's and even a 1984 Cougar XR7 Turbo with a stick once! Each one of these odd-Foxes were just $250 each. When my first one grenaded the transmission, they had this silver one sitting there. It needed a few things, so I used the first one for parts and was back up and running in a few days! 

That car was my ride for the summer between 11th and 12th grade, as well as the remainder of my senior year. It was in really nice shape, and I cleaned it up so it looked presentable. I learned a lot about wrenching on this car, and did everything from an exhaust upgrade to a heater core, suspension, and a lot more. The 5.0 had a quarter-million miles on it, and even though it ran great, it was getting tired. I made grandiose plans to build a LSC-sourced 5.0 H.O. and convert it to MAF and do a ton of other mods in order to prepare it to daily drive 15 miles each way to college. It was a really solid platform to do some mondo mods! My parents thought that was a terrible idea and a money pit, and they made me buy a more dependable car (a 1989 Nissan Maxima SE that was a great car in its own right) but I had to sell the Cougar. This made me very sad.

I sold it to a good friend, and gave him a good deal on it. A few weeks later, his dad called and threatened to take me to court because the car was "a lemon" and "unsafe". The transmission had gone on it, the shocks (which I had just replaced) were blown, and the exhaust was falling off. I obviously wouldn't have sold it to him if that was the case, but I was scared and refunded his money and took the car back. I later found out he blew the transmission by putting it in reverse at about 50mph trying to manually shift it while racing another kid in town, and he had taken it "off road" following his buddy's lifted Bronco on a trail which broke the exhaust and suspension bits, but it was too late. 

I had to sell its broken carcass to another guy who used it for parts for a Mustang project. 

I haven't seen another Cougar XR7 of that vintage to this day. I wish I never let it go.