First Car - Story Time

[Wycco]

My first car I purchased was an '89 Burgundy Toyota Corolla for a mere $4000 back in '95... A large sum for someone working weekends through High School at the "Great American Cookie Co." at our local mall...

That car- plain as it's looks were... was an indistructable tank...

I recall being stuck in a traffic jam on the interstate just infront of the BMW plant on my way to work. The traffic came to a complete stop... so I stopped my car behind some behemouth of an SUV.

In my mirror I watched as a lady driving an old Buick came driving over the hill at a fast clip- quickly approaching the back of my stationary Toyota... I was thinking to myself... that lady isn't going to stop in time... she's not going too fast...

Sure enough I was hit from behind and slammed forward into the SUV in front of me...

I got out my car to inspect the damage... The Buick that hit me was a crumpled mess... the SUV that I was pushed into had severe damage to the rear bumper...

The only damage to my car was a scratch on my rear bumper... a scratch that faded with time until after a year or so was completely unnoticable.


Another time- in busy traffic I pulled out from an intersection as a car turned left onto the road I was on... result was- I hit her... She was driving a Green Dodge (Shadow I think)... A fiberglass car, that ended up with a major crumple along the length of the entire car.

Once again- the bumper (front one this time) took all the abuse from the impact... once again only minor damage... my bumper was bent down slightly on the drivers side.



But alas- even a tank can't live forever... I finally had to replace my Corolla... One night- unbeknowingst to me- the rusty radiator pipes sprung a leak... I hadn't driven far when the temperature of the engine shot way up (although the gague inside didn't change) and smoke started pouring out from under the bonnet on all sides...
(once again I was on the interstate next to the BMW plant)

The damage to the engine was immense- the repairs would cost more than the car was worth... I sold the poor thing for scraps... After taking my abusive driving for over 4 years... my poor Toyota was finally laid to rest...



I still maintain today- that car was the best car I ever had!

[RacerX]

ROFL...great stuff guys...all good reads. Mine's a bit more on the boring side:

I was young, spoiled & when I was 14 my father bought me a new Berlinetta Camaro. Midnight blue, with silver pin stripe. T-Tops, and the only year the Berlinetta was built with 350 cubic inches of American Steel...LOL! They went to the 305 the next year.

Anyway, my father allowed me to drive it to church on Sundays, until I turned 15 & could be taken to get a hardship license. (Here comes the good part...LOL)

I had awaited for months, to get my licenses so I could go out with my girlfriend...my first date, in my Camaro. ('79 Berlinetta Camaro). I knew every inch of the car, because I was doing my best to wash the paint off it. I'd wash it every Saturday, to drive it Sunday, and sometimes I'd wash it Fridays too! It just looked so cool...LOL!

Other than a few trips to church, I hadn't been allowed to sport it out on the roads, much less drive it at night. So I was unbelievably excited that tomorrow would be my big night! I washed the beast, cleaned it inside & outside...it was spotless.

I went to bed knowing that in the morning I'd get to take it to church & then that night I'd be necking with my girl...oh I could hardly sleep...

Little did I know, when I finally did go to sleep...

My older brother & his best friend decided to sneak my car out that night. (He had his own, but he knew the next day was going to be my first date)

They decided to "break it in" for me.

I hadn't a clue what all took place, but the next morning I got up, got dressed, whistled all the way to the garage. H'mm, I noticed something wasn't right, but in my excitement I blew by it (the clean shine was gone) and opened the door.

WUFF....I was knocked to the ground by the reeking smell of cigar smoke, spilt beer, pot and what had to have been nothing less than fresh vomit in the back floor board. I won't mention the so called "love trails" and spilt bong water...LOL! I freaking died.

My brother still laughs at that one, to this day. I had my work cut out for me when I got home from church...had to drive there with the windows down!

I worked my arse off to get all the stains out of the cloth seats (light blue). Spilt beer, (don't read if you're a lady)-(fair warning): snail trails, puke and bong water. A pretty vicious combination! One hell of a "break in", if ya ask me.

Wuff, I laugh too, now...but at the time I thought I'd never forgive my older brother & his freind. They pretty much "broke in" my baby.

Now my next car, THAT was the crown jewel...2 years later, my father bought me a brand new, Silver over Midnight Blue '81 Corvette. Ohhhh soooo sexy. The lines on that bitch were the finest I've ever sat in. The long sleek hood, the fenders bowed up front, the rear fenders flaired a bit, t-tops as well...wuff: One Gorgeous car, for a 16 year old, spoiled piece of sh*t like me. ;-)

But THAT'S another story...

Later,
RacerX

[DeadCat]

First Car Story Time….. (This a thread not to be lost)

OK, onto her finest hour…. (Can’t believe this was over 10 years ago, 1990-91 if I recall correctly)




We had been planning this trip for just over half a year, the destination, <spoken in a deep voice> “Steep Point…..”.

I had been there 4-5 times before (once a year) with my father, his twin brother (my uncle) and one of my older brothers (the one who got the G60 Patrol). It’s an even longer story but I thought it was time my friends could also experience such a magical place.

We had the vehicle, we had the resources, all we needed was some planning and a bit of luck….

(For some background, “Steep Point” or “the point” as it is called amongst those who have had to fortune to have been there, is the western most point of Australia in the district area of “Sharks Bay”, aptly named because of it large shark population, it is also home to debatably the best land based game fishing spot in Australia and also one of the hardest to get too. A warm ocean current just brushes the western coastline of Australia and the positioning of Dirk Hartog’s island makes for the perfect filter for land based game fishing, oh, and we only keep what we eat, but we do eat a lot and one trip will ensure enough fish for 9 months)

For an brief inventory list, this was for 4 x 19 year olds for 2 weeks……

1 x FJ-40 Cruiser, only slightly modified,
1 x Off-road trailer (Holden hubs, 10” sand tyres, square axel and all) – at discount
1 x 300 L freezer (purpose built, fully copper piped, full of food and bait) - free
1 x 30 L reinforced fridge/freezer – errr, free
1 x 2.5hp Generator – we actually had to pay for this, bastards
8 x 20L gerry cans (6 leaded, 2 unleaded) – 4 mine, 4 borrowed (6 for vehicle, 2 for generator)
2 x 40L fresh water – ummmm, thanks M&D
16 x 24, 375ml cartons of beer – again with the buying
4 ounces of, errr, sweet juicy hydroponic marmalade… - it pays to grow your own mmuphmm
14 x fishing rods. (game, spinning, balloon) – mine, borrowed, stolen, found
1 x heaps of fishing gear (all of the above)

We starting packing the vehicle the night before we planned to leave, we were all still living with our parents at the time and it was only natural that this was to be done at my place, (since we had the car and freezer).

We planned to leave Christmas Day (late afternoon) so that we could get the best fishing spot whilst all the married old sad bastards had to stay at home. (The parents were not too thrilled about this idea but somehow the logic prevailed and they let us get away with it, being men we are labelled as pigs anyway)

The big freezer had been running for a few days on fast freeze in the garage and was frozen solid; it took four solid people to lift that thing onto the trailer and even then it was still a difficult task, (always was).

We began the pack and we had arranged the inside cab of the cruiser so that two or three people could sit in the front whilst at least two people were able to sleep on top of everything in the back. We also ensured that the Engel was still available as it stored fresh food for the trip.)

At around dusk Christmas day we had finished the packing and it was time to leave, the vehicle looked heavy, very heavy, but this was what she was built for. (Everything was full and we were searching for places to put left over things). We had planned to drive the majority of the trip at night as everything is cooler and we felt it was better for both the passengers and the car… (With 40-deg heat during the day you don’t really want to be in an overcrowded car with no air-conditioning and no alcohol, everyone was a driver and we weren’t stupid enough to mix alcohol and driving in such conditions)

We finally made the finishing touches, fitted the long-range aerial (taped down), taped up the back doors and windows (for red dust, that shit gets everywhere), took off the spotty covers, and unlocked the front hubs….

And we were off…… (1st gear was indeed needed, and I said it was useless, though I could’ve started in 2nd if it was straight tooth, damned those drivers wanting easier to drive cars)

I couldn’t believe how heavy the vehicle felt to drive through suburban streets, it literary felt like a heavy truck and my main concern was over coppers since the trailer didn’t have power brakes and I was sure it was heavy enough to require them. Our first stop of course was a servo in Wanneroo (edge of town, back then anyway) to double check everything and reset tyre pressures, 36 in the back and 34 in the front.

Now, I don’t know how many of you have driven up the west coast of Australia, but let me tell you that there’s not much to see or do. We estimated the entire drive time at around 14 hours (1100km’s) with driver changes and with the majority of the road being just plain flat and straight. (I remember back in ’87 there was still a 200km dirt stretch just after Kalbarri, but that was filled in during that year)

One thing to note here is that in a heavy vehicle like this, your safe braking distance to stop from 100kmph is about 300 meters if not more. (This was drilled into us before we left by an experienced uncle). So if an animal, any animal (roo, bunny, fox, cow, moose?) jumps out in front of the car, you don’t change the vehicles direction to try and avoid it and you don’t slam on the brakes (remember they’re drums and they never brake straight). The best you can do is to apply normal braking and switch your lights to low beam. If you’re going to hit a 6-foot red kangaroo, it’s better to do so with a balanced car rather than one off balance. It may mean the difference between a roo-bar smashed into the radiator and a broken windscreen compared with a vehicle on its side with a jack-knifed trailer and the possibility of injured passengers.

(Also, at every stop we checked radiator temp, every wheel-bearing temp, tyre wall temp and tyre tread temp so we could monitor conditions the best we could. All was clear though the rear bearings were quite warm and given the weight of the trailer we wanted to keep an eye on them)

Anyway, after an eventless drive, (apart from a few dead rabbits and using gerry cans to help us get between fuel stations, at one stretch they were 400km apart). We get to the “Overlander”, basically it’s a roadhouse in the middle of nowhere with no petrol stations for a 300km radius so basically everyone stops there.

It was also our last look at any civilisation for some time so hot processed food was in order.

(This was when we relocked the front hubs to ensure the front diff was ready when needed)

It was well and truly morning and after a final systems check on the vehicle it was time for the final stretch, 100km’s of winding road before leaving the tarmac for 4 hours of straight hilly very corrugated dirt (70kph stuff, and since there were no lanes everyone always took the best line, be it on the left or right hand side of the road, the blind hills were always scary when you’re on the wrong side. If a vehicle was a approaching in the opposite direction you’d see them a few km’s away from their dust trail, it was more the stationary vehicle or a herd of cattle that you worried about). Every half hour or so you’d see a dead trailer on the side of the road, one quick look at the road surface and you knew the cause.

Once finally at the end of the corrugation, we had reached the causeway, (a massive salt reserve), we then crossed the kilometre long embankment (much like a dyke, but for business purposes with gates) to reach the base of the sand dunes. Much to our surprise at the base of the dunes was a party of 3 with a yellow 4-cyl Yoto Highlux (no trailer), still with fishing rods taped to the roof. They looked downright pissed and we knew something was up as they had tents pitched, we spoke with them briefly and as it turned out they couldn’t get up the first hill (I wasn’t surprised, with a 4-cyl and all). They had been trying for 3 days, and were waiting for some rain to make things easier. (hehe, rain in Sharks Bay in December, dream on)

So now it got interesting, we had all promised no alcohol till we reached the causeway and we had kept that promise, so it was now time for a well-earned beer. (A legacy from when my father and uncle used to take me up here, there was no law about drinking and off-road driving).

Onto more serious stuff, the first hill looked in bad shape and I’ve never been one to fuck around with formalities (thought you’d all know that by know). So the tyres on the Cruiser came straight down to 11 psi, (that’s low for you non off-road driving people), I knew we could go down to 9 psi but only if we got in serious trouble. (We let the trailer tyres down to 13 psi; we didn’t want it bounce around too much).

(NOTE: At this time we took a photo and I still have it around somewhere and when I find the bastard again I’ll post it, as it really does show the character of the vehicle, the terrain and what lied ahead.)

Now from experience (from a passengers seat) this first hill doesn’t seem to end, it just goes on and on.

So I knew before we even attempted it that is was now low range 4 x 4 time, (the first hill is one of the worst and the front diff had been turning over for the last 4 hours or so), so we get a small run up and into 4th gear low-range, (about 40kmph), sit the taco at 3,300rpm and hold on.

[DeadCat]

It’s starts as soft upward hill (about 30deg) for 40m where you must keep your momentum and then a sharp 80deg left (down to 3rd) at a steady incline and then the incline increases for the 75deg right before the incline steadies (drop it down to 2nd) for another sharp incline and a very very soft section that you swear you’re not going to make before you crawl around a final corner only to find that it’s not over and that there’s still 10-20 metres left, (resist the urge to drop to first, keep your rpm about 3000 and power through it). – first try and we were over, everyone was impressed, including myself….

Christ, I thought, this is not as easy as I thought….(I was puffing and calling for my beer, no wonder the hilux didn’t make it)

(Once I post the before mentioned photo you’ll realize how much of a challenge that was)

The next couple of hills where no real problem as I think our tyre pressures were set just about right. We broke both vision mirrors on some overgrowth on a skinny entrance to one hill and I think a mate spilled his beer on bump, (he didn’t drop it though, and he saved most of his beer, thank god!).

There were two other memorable hills on the way in but first we had the beach run, what bliss that was, at times we were sitting in 3rd gear low range ploughing along a beach at a good speed watching the taco and kicking down to 2nd where needed and back up to 3rd when the conditions allowed, we knew if we stopped we’d be plucked… (Or needed to be plucked, literally)

Back to dry land, on the second big challenge we had cleared the beach and we were back on a dry sand track with little resistance till we met this massive hill. We had only just seen the hill and we were sitting a fair way from the base of the thing looking at the 4 different paths people had tried or had looked to have tried, we were about 200m away, the Cruiser was idling beautifully, temp was little up but nothing to worry about. We decided to do the walk and have a look at our options.

After having a closer look, only 2 of the paths seemed passable, and both seemed difficult. We decided to take the path with the softer sand in the centre but without the massive angle to one side. Considering how heavy we were, we figured momentum would get us though….

Since it was a clean over we figured it was high range time as we were going to need momentum to plough over the top, we needed 4x4 to get any traction for acceleration. (If you’ve never had the chance to do a max acceleration run in a 4x4 with low tyre pressures it is a great experience). I swear we hit the base of that hill doing just above 90kmph, on the top of the hill the soft sand was fecking soft, the vehicle just sank and seemed to just drift through and magically come out the other side. (We’d done our job, we were unscathed and we were one step closer).

A long walk back to the vehicle for the boys, another cold beer for me….. (and subsequently another cold beer for them too)

After another 20 minutes or so or more of sand trails that the beast was well at home with (we also tried not the chew up the track too much with our trailer, it is an unwritten code of conduct for off-road driving) though we found we still had one last hill to challenge.

Our first impression of the last hill was that it appeared to be easier than our other challengers; it was in no way as daunting to look at, as it was smaller than the other challengers. This perception changed quickly however with a closer inspection as we found that there was no clear way over. There was still the usual 4-5 different paths over the top but none seemed obvious. Every single one of them had a slant to the left, which meant we could not just power over or we risked rolling the vehicle at the peak.

[DeadCat]

We had been on the sand now for over an hour and a half and the beers had started to kick in, we were all ready to set up camp and relax a little and we knew that this hill was the last of our troubles.

We ended up choosing the far right hand path, which also looked like the most recently used, but used by a lightweight vehicle, probably by the ranger who lived not far from here. But we were not light by any manipulation of the word.

The entrance speed to the hill needed to be controlled as too much momentum would mean less control and more damage to the vehicle if we got out of control. So I choose a controlled entry, low range 3rd , at sat the taco at 3,200 rpm.

Our entrance to the hill was fine, speed was greatly reduced for the angled peak and I flicked down to 2nd before the peak to ensure rpm wouldn’t be a problem. I then tried to crawl the vehicle ever so gently over the tricky peak when the inevitable happened. Our fears had come true and that our previous calculations had been correct, and with the grind of hardened sand from the left hand top of Cruiser sitting against the left hand bank of the dune it had become a reality.

We didn’t have much choice after this, the shovels came out and the digging started, (in hindsight we should have really done this before attempting the hill), hindsight is a wonderful thing that doesn’t help us in the slightest, apart from helping us not to make the same mistake again.

After some time we had finally got some clearance from the left bank of the cut out and we were able to crawl through with a lot of huffing and puffing….

And we were clear, there was only a couple more challenging hills (i.e. nothing like the 3 hills I mentioned before) and we had reached “Steep Point”…..

On our eventual entrance to the point, spirits in our camp were high, we also had to drive extremely carefully as we were transferring from sand to volcanic rock, (sharp at the best of times).

In the end it took about an hour and a half and nearly a tank of juice to cover the last 30km of the trip, it was all worth it, they are memories that won’t be forgotten…..

Our mission had also been a success; we had secured the (arguably) best land based game fishing spot in Australia for the next two weeks, “flat-rock”…

(DeadCat)

On “flat-rock” and “Steep Point” as a whole, I have seen things there that truly do blow the mind, I have seen schools of 24kg shark mackerel literally bubbling the water, Marlin literally changing colours and hitting lures at midday, one 18ft tiger shark being landed, 8ft wing span mantra rays playing like long lost couples in a calm sea, dolphin fish changing colours blue to green to blue before being released, shark hearts still beating totally independent in your hand after they are dead, 8-10ft whaler sharks leaping 5-6 feet in the air chasing an easy feed (and ending in a massive belly flop). I’ve seen a whale shark surface up close (awesome scene), there is much much more to “Steep Point” than meets the eye….

PS As an old avid off-road driver, I’ll try and offer some old avid advice. If you own an off-road vehicle and want to step up a level in off-road skills, practice the following, it’s quite simple. Take your off-road vehicle to a fairly open space (park, not used car park, open space, etc) and place a standard house brick on the ground. Practice putting each wheel of your vehicle directly on top of the brick. It is difficult at first but you will appreciate the training when you get into tough terrain where you need to know where all of your feet are at one time.