All cars are Autopian cars in their own ways, of course, and simply loving your car makes it an Autopian car (and you, an Autopian).
But there are certainly some machines that resonate on what one might call an Autopian frequency, a vibration that comes from weirdness or earnestness or goofiness or an undefinable something else (or it may just be a missing wheel weight, you never know).
This evening, I’m wondering what vehicles you’ve owned or experienced in some way that you would consider “most Autopian.” And for inspiration, I’ve put the question to The Gang:
Mark Tucker
My most Autopian car, hmm … probably the 1991 Mazda Miata that I owned before my MG. It had 205,000 miles on it when I got it, and 250-something when I sold it. I paid $2,000 for it, with a factory hardtop and an extra set of wheels.
I sold the hardtop for $900, the extra wheels for $100, and eventually sold the car for $2,500. Had the entire car apart at one time or another, except for the engine and gearbox internals. It was my daily driver for eight summers, and my only car for two years. Stock except for a Hard Dog Fabrication roll bar, 2001 Special Edition Miata leather seats, and a MOMO Montecarlo steering wheel. I still kinda miss it.
Mercedes Streeter
My most Autopian car is my 2012 Smart Fortwo Passion Coupe. This car continues to serve as proof to me that dreams can come true. Further, this is the car that I used to prove to myself that I am capable of anything. Back when I was dirt poor, I used this car to tow motorcycle trailers some 20,000 miles and I’ve even driven it for a few thousand miles off-road.
Like me, this car has done things nobody ever thought it could achieve. I also have nearly two decades of encyclopedic knowledge mostly uselessly floating around my head. Cars will come and go in my fleet, but this Smart, as well as its five other comrades, will probably be with me until the day I die. I own far weirder and far more historically significant cars, but only Smarts are so distinctly … me.
Griffin Riley
My most Autopian car was my first car, a Scion xB. My Dad loved it, it took me to many a party and date, and it had an engine and sound system even folks in the early aughts would pity.
Second-most-Autopian was the Ford Bronco II we repaired, which I learned stick on. Dad forced me to sell it cuz he didn’t want me to flip on the highways between Tucson and Phoenix. [Ed Note: Stupid Dads and their love, so annoying! – Pete]
Adrian Clarke
Matt has asked us about the most Autopian car we have owned. As everyone is probably sick of hearing by now, I have a highly strung Italian car that has left me stranded a couple times. That’s probably my most Autopian car.
But I think my second most Autopian car would be my old Land Rover 110 Defender. 1990 G-reg, bought sight unseen from eBay for about £1200 (that will tell you how long ago it was). Decidedly non-turbo diesel, no power steering either. Ran out of breath at about 65 with the off-road tires singing. A one hour drive gave you a four hour headache. I lived in the Docklands. Did I need a Defender? Nope. Did I want one? You bet your right elbow banging on the driver’s door I did. Only reluctantly sold it because I wanted a motorbike to learn to ride on.
Stephen Walter Gossin
I suppose my Most Autopian Car would be the ’66 Citroen 2CV that’s currently sitting in my driveway. If you recall, I picked this car up last summer while helping Mercedes score her dream ’46 Plymouth from the same seller.
Interestingly enough, I find it to be a cool car and wicked unique, but it just doesn’t move my soul as much as my ’03 Stratus Coupe does. I’ll be replacing the soft top & the bullet-riddled glass windows (flat glass!) and getting it ready for sale in the upcoming weeks.
Torch
My most Autopian car may have been my Reliant Scimitar; technically strange (fiberglass body, front-mid engine, first split folding rear seats), famously owned by a princess with a horse fetish, built by a company that’s mostly thought of as a joke, shooting brake, weird gearbox (overdrive on rear drive, so you have 3 1/2 gear and a 5th gear) and just deeply, satisfyingly weird. Quick, too!
David
My most Autopian car was Project Cactus, a steaming heap that started out as a parts car for my main project, which I found out was in no shape to be a “main project” of any sort. The amount of work to put that thing together in a single month was shocking, but in the end, it became an Australian hero.
The most?
I’m not sure, my first car, a 1970 Rover 2000TC or my later NADA spec 1970 Rover 2000TC,or one of the other 12 Rover 2000s, or the ’78 Chrysler Alpine, or the ’74 Rover P6 3500S manual, or the ’63 Triumph Herald, (mosdef the worst car), or one of the cars I still own, the ’88 Rover 820 fastback, the ’86 Renault Espace, the 86 Mercedes W124 300E, ’88 300CE, ’89 300TE, 91 ‘300E 24v, 89 300E Sportline, ’78 Lancia Gamma Coupe, ’86 Citroën BX, 76 Citroën CX, ’98 Rover 75, ’96 Rover 420 turbo with MG ZS suspension, or ’97 Rover 420.
Probably the Lancia Gamma Coupe, with it’s odd combination of sub-Lada and ’80s Mercedes Benz build quality.
’67 Sunbeam Alpine purchased in Phoenix in ’85 as a fun car and commuter for my short trip. Ran just fine, until my spouse drove it for the first trip, and the thermostat failed and I had to tow it home. Replaced the thermostat, and soon one of the wire wheels became out of balance. Took it to a specialist who tuned it up, but screwed up the splines so when I hit the brakes, the wheel spun on the hub. Fnally fixed that and drove it. Then summer hit and I realized that the heater was stuck in the full-on position. Around then we decided that Phoenix was an irrational place to live, so I sold it as we quit jobs, packed up, and left the state.
1988 Grand Marquis wagon, brown with the fake wood siding, with the towing package so it had dual exhaust, better gears and an LSD. Fantastic college car!
1979 Caprice Classic Wagon with rear-facing third row seat, or 09 Manual Brown Outback Wagon (not diesel).
I have to say my 1974 Jensen Healey followed by my 1968 Javelin.
My 1973 SAAB Sonnett. Just weird enough that many people asked me about it, and drove like a go cart.
Still wish I had kept it.
I had a ’74 Sonett, my most A utopian car too
1989 Mazda 323. It had a crotch vent.
Perhaps the most fun I had in a car until it disintegrated within a year. I learned how to do all kinds of mechanical work on the car too. Then I moved to NYC for 35 years and forgot it all (no car). Fiat 128 SL.
https://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5w7k4ToO51r4jcfjo1_1280.jpg
How about a brown 1978 lotus elite?
All of the 70’s in just one car.
I’ve owned six Peugeots, 3x 504Ds and 3x 505s (two turbodiesels, one 2.2L SW8). Two Alfa Romeos, ’86 Spider and ’86 GTV6. Two ’69 Saab Sonett V4s. And a Trabant. 🙂
I suppose if I had to pick just one for this, it would be the Trabant.. Spent the summer of ’91 in Budapest with my Hungarian college roommate (he played basketball on a full-ride scholarship). We bought the car for $500, drove it all summer, sold it for $500 when we went back to school. Cheap transportation.
A much younger me in my Trabbi:
https://flic.kr/p/5XyiG5
At first I was thinking the 1984 Isuzu P’up Diesel longbed I had in the 90s, that I had to swap the grenaded 4-speed on it to a 5-speed to get it running, which I then dailied for almost a year but the body was rusting out so bad I ended up trying to transplant the engine/transmission into a previous gen Chevy Luv shadetree mechanic style(literally used a tree branch as an engine hoist), only to have the Luv’s radiator not able to handle it and, and not enough room for the original radiator so just give up on the whole thing.
But then I realized I currently have a 2000 Ford Ranger Electric(factory!) that I use all the time and it’s body is in near perfect shape(paint is not), it gets over 30 miles of range!(how much more I’m too skeered to test) So I’d say that one, a vehicle so common like every 3rd driveway around here has a Ranger, yet so rare they only made 1500 of the electrics.
On your left you will see my avatar, a 1956 Cadillac Sedan de Ville Camper Conversion. 350 small block, 3/4t rear end from a F250. In my defense, I added seat belts.
Runners up: 1966 Toronado, VW camper so rusty the engine fell out, 1949 Plymouth business coupe, 1991 Olds Custom Cruiser, 1966 Corvair convertible.
I didn’t own it, but my parents bought a ’53 Dodge pickup truck in which the previous owner had dropped in a 318 V-8 and an automatic transmission. It had ridiculously wide tires and no power steering. It was quite a workout parallel parking it. It also had a glass pack for a muffler and an AM radio. I had forgotten how much I despised driving that thing, but it was better than walking.
I owned an Alfa Romeo 147 2.0 TS.
It exploded its bottom end,leaving an exit wound on the aluminium oil pan dropping all its oil, cooked the engine in the 1/4 mile I drove to find somewhere safe to park.
It still didnt come close to the sheer
jankAutopian-ness of the base model Audi 80 Wagon from 1993.Probably my first car, a 1976 MG Midget. My dad likes MGs, and helped smooth things over with my mom about a 16 year old driving it. Car had sat in a garage for a decade and was rusty in the usual places, and needed a repair to the drivers side A pillar so I could open the door. Got that fixed then the transmission failed. Got that fixed and used it as much as I could between other running repairs, till the clutch throw out bearing went out again when I was in college. Bought something else to drive and parked it, using it occasionally just to run errands.
The last time I drove it, the alternator had failed (again), so any time I hit the brakes or turn signal the engine would die. I abandoned it a couple blocks from home, and went back after dark to limp it home with no headlights.
Eventually donated it, after attempts to sell it failed.
Owned? I mean, I have a Lancia Scorpion, so that’s pretty legit. Driven? I drove a Reliant Robin last week, which beats the Lancia for weirdness, and it was really ridiculous fun
I’ve driven a Reliant Rialto. Despite the missing wheel it was less weird than a 2CV. But still deeply weird.
Nothing special, but I had a red ’91 Audi Coupe Quattro for about a year.
Until the brakes failed on the highway thanks to a faulty ‘bomb.’ I didn’t crash or get hurt, but that effectively killed my interest in keeping it.
It was fun while it lasted.
1. 1968 Yamaha Big Bear I got for raking leaves when i was 15. We had to fab some stuff and I couldn’t change the gear oil due to a stripped bolt. I drove it 3 years until my then GF and I got T-boned by a trans am and were seriously injured.
2. 1986 Porsche 944. It leaked every fluid, had seriously dangerous brakes, original fuel rail hoses (infamous failure point), none of the gauges worked and basically everything else was bad. That was 12 years ago and I’m still working on it, but it’s in pretty good shape now and the engine runs like a top. Many hours and lots of $, but it’s a great car.
1958 Volvo 444. No fabric of any kind in the interior except for the broken down driver’s seat . Autopian finish on the outside, What do I win ??
Brown, diesel, manual Volvo 245 wagon.
I’m on my third manual diesel wagon in a row (none brown, sorry) but my most Autopian car was the Smart Roadster Coupé. Bought on a whim, driven even when our more practical hatchback would have made more sense, just because it was always fun. Sold reluctantly 14 years ago, I still have a scale model of it on my desk.
I’ve liked or loved all my cars, but I don’t know if any have been particularly interesting.
However, it seems somewhat Autopiesque that when I was growing up, my dad had (at different times), two different AMC Gremlins (one of which got us through Mt St Helens), a 1971 Datsun 240z, and a 1969 Mercedes 280SL. Also a Dodge station wagon and a Ford Ranger. When I look back, that’s quite an eclectic mix of automobiles for a typical suburban dad.
Probably the ‘61 Peugeot 403 that I got free from an engineer at Boeing. I was driving by in my ‘80 504 diesel wagon and stopped to admire the 403. He was working in his front yard and said something like ‘You like that car? Want it?’. Yeas of course. It came with a back seat full of extra parts and bits. It had a 4 on the tree, hand crank start (in addition to electric). Reliable actually, though it tended to channel exhaust through the leaky trunk into the cabin.
Well, I had to swap the motor in my first vehicle—72 Westphalia—a week after I bought it as a 1300 would only go up my mountain in first, enraging everyone.
My first electronic fuel injection was in an 87 Subaru XT with a 2yo timing belt change unfinished and pieces strewed throughout the car—that took some time to sort out.
It sort of depends on your definition of ultimate. Is it the car that always gets you there? The one that somehow miraculously gets you there—or the one that you always carry xxxx and xxxxx in because you can usually get there eventually?
Or, maybe it just induces that fizzy feeling when you dance with friction.