OT: Talking Cars Tuesday - Oldest Drive
As the glow of the BTT remains and before the terror (and hopefully joy) that is March Madness starts... another car thread. Inspired by Jalopnik's thread on the topic (which, why have I tried to come up with other ideas than just checking there?) what's the OLDEST car you've ever driven? What made it great? Awful? We've got a wide age range of readers here, I bet it's a similarly diverse set of old cars.
When I started thinking about my answer, I assumed it was my 91 Jeep. Even the Mazda 626 I tried to drive at 13 was a 1992. The more I thought though, I realized that my hockey coach in high school had me move his Gen I Bronco. I'll call it a 1968. (Similar to pictured, but MUCH less nice)
After I figured out which small puill switch was the headlights, it was just fine. I remember thinking that my 1991 YJ hadn't modernized that much in the 25 years that Jeep had to try to make improvements, considering this Bronco was supposed to compete with the CJ.
was cool. I never thought it could do a good job competing against the YJ, but it was neat in and of itself.
And again, I feel ancient.
Well, the YJ was new in 1987... and not that "New". Same frame and tub as the CJ7. But that OG Bronco did have a lot of character, I understand the pining for a new one
March 14th, 2017 at 10:32 AM ^
went from Tracker to YJ to TJ.
I liked the YJ, though I think the TJ is a better execution.
I can't believe they let me do it, but for a glorious three blocks, I was allowed to drive a 1938 Plymouth - possibly badly, but I didn't crash it or annihilate the transmission. Given the cars I grew up with and the cars I've owned and driven over the years, that was an alien experience in comparison, but an awesome experience.
March 14th, 2017 at 10:39 AM ^
Oldest calender date ride: 65 chevelle SS. Purchased in 1988 while I was attending the Air Traffic Academy in OKC.
Oldest car chronologically is my current everyday driver. 1979 El Camino
Neither is the actual car btw. 
Your daily driver is a '79 El Camino?? That is awesome.
Been that way for three years, when I traded off my Explorer Sport Trac. I'm a crusty, old retired dude now, and I have time to spend on tweaking the El Camino. A man needs a hobby....
and 87hp of fury!
I had an '87. :-)
.... and now I feel ancient....
but after being in the Miata always wanted to try one. Particularly the third gen. The idea of winding the wankel really sounds like fun.
I'm rather depressingly deficient in this regard for a guy who loves cars.
I'd have to guess it was the '79 LTD from HS/college I drove. What made it great? Room. And the thing cruised. It was truly at home on the freeway. It wasn't fast, but it'd do 80 easy and smoothly; and that is when it was old and clapped out.
What did I like? I suppose it was a certain design philosophy. Interior space was its own luxury. Things could be simple without being overly spartan. Crank windows are viewed with horror today, but I don't mind them and they're simple to fix. The thing didn't have the 0-60 power I wanted, and didn't handle all that well, but if you got in a groove with it it cruised. Need a new key? Go get one! $1.50 at the hardware store.
What made it awful? It was a design philosphy I like (large cruiser, lots of space) but filtered through the malaise of the 70's manufacturing scene. I'm not a guy who goes all anal with a micrometer and says a car is trash if the panel gaps deviate by 3mm; but at the same time the panels on my car should stay on. The steering wheel had somehow migrated (no idea how) so that 'straight' had the crossbar at a 70 degree angle. I'm assuming a repair gone awry prior to my ownership. And the carb was weighed down with a crapton of 70's emissions crap. I love the earth, I wouldn't take them off, but man did they make getting the thing fixed a PITA.
March 14th, 2017 at 10:00 AM ^
+1 for using the term "clapped out"
Next auto thread ought to be obscure auto terms.
March 14th, 2017 at 12:23 PM ^
trying to think up other obscure automotive terms! I got nothin!
Most people don't know not to flood a carb, how to work a choke, what a kick parking brake looks like, what a band is and why you'd have to tighten it, the right amount of blinker fluid to add, or why you "roll" down windows
and my muffler bearings need re-seating.
The LTD had the floor high beam switch. I kind of liked that. Until it got snowy and shitty outside and it got stuck.
what I really miss are the quarter vent windows.
my '98 ZJ (May it be forever happy on the 4x4 farm to which it went to frolic) started shifting oddly at about 180K. Stop by the local car shop and get 'New Tranny!' Take it to my buddy who works on it and he adjusts the bands. Good for another 60K.
.... I didn't drive, but I rode in a neighbor's '48(?) Lincoln Zephyr.
V-12, wired like 2 V-6's (no idea how they made that work).
The back seat looked like a sopha. The front seat was a nicely appointed bench seat. No AC but if you flipped a lever a scoop opened up on the cowel to feed air into the vents.
Good? It was a wise old Grandpa of a car. Never had a smoother ride. The 12 cyl was amazing and cool. Exquisitely inefficient but super smooth. My 80's 4 banger brain couldn't imagine that many cylinders under one hood.
Bad? Turning was something akin to making a boat change direction in terms of body roll.
Different? Today luxury often means technology. Then luxury meant being super comfortable.
Scary? Crumple Zones, those are for suckers. Seat Belts? Suck it up son. Eating dash is good for you.
March 14th, 2017 at 10:21 AM ^
I forgot one, a tie: 1972 Toyota Landcruiser FJ40. Neither the picture above, nor the one below are the actual trucks, but they look exactly the same...minus some rust.
389 Tri-power, Rally I's, Redline tires, 4 Speed, 4:11 rear end (would overheat if drove it at 90 for more than 10 minutes), wood steering wheel, console and gauge package. Awesome car!
Oldest car I've ever owned is a 91 Honda Accord LX.
Oldest car I've ever driven is a 75 Lincoln Continental. In Manhattan (the NYC one, not the one in KS). That was good times. What did I like about it? Interior space. What did I hate about it? That thing is a land yacht. Not the easiest thing to drive around the city.
This was my parents car. It was the first ever car I drove and a stick shift nonetheless.
has "love shack" written all over it.
March 14th, 2017 at 10:28 AM ^
nor as big as a whale...
March 14th, 2017 at 12:01 PM ^
And it is not about to set sail......whoooooooo!
Oldest car I've driven is a 1974 Triumph TR6 convertible. I've owned it for 25 years.
Edit; oldest I've driven was my grandma's 1972 Plymouth Gran Fury Coupe. It had a 440 engine in it. It hauled ass.
March 14th, 2017 at 12:14 PM ^
Drove a 70's TR6, Porsche 914 and MGB. TR6 was my brothers and fun to drive and quick. The brother in law's MGB was a piece of crap compared to it. My 914 was slower but better handling and despite being the VW of Porsches seemed more appealing to the opposite sex. The TR6 was just a bit more challenging to keep running given it's english origin.
1st car, bought from an older friend of my mom's for $500 - she felt sorry for me b/c our mom had died a few years prior. not actual car (mine was stock all the way), but representative picture here:
mine had none of this fancy stuff, but the colors were the same. low point in dart history was when it snowed inside the dart on the way to hockey practice. sold it as soon as the weather warmed up. 
I remember a similar year Dart having an odd steering ratio. You had to turn the wheel about 10 times to go around the corner. Not sure if it was done to lessen the effort of steering a non power steering car - but it took lots of wheel cranks to drive that car.
March 14th, 2017 at 10:06 AM ^
too funky of a ratio. one thing you've reminded me about the steering wheel was that the horn part was a separate smaller 'circle' of metal an inch or two inside the regular circumference of the steering wheel itself. not sure that would fly nowadays.
March 14th, 2017 at 12:33 PM ^
rebuilt a Dart. Loved the car. It seemed to need alot of work though.
Why did yours snow? Rust? Bad seals? Bad manufacturing?
between the metal top of the windshield and the canvas ot the convertible top, even though it was 'locked' down. i think it was just getting old. in retrospect i guess like a lot of us i wish i had somehow had the vision and ability to keep that old car. it did have some character.
I present to you a 1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. I bought it with my own money (thank's dead aunt Lucille!) and drive it all through high school.
Mine looked exactly like this one. It had a bench seat and a one speaker AM radio. I left it totally stock except for having dual exhaust put on.
March 14th, 2017 at 10:27 AM ^
the one speaker AM radios.
It would stop my kids from fighting over the damned thing.
Any Hatterlets created on the bench?
Thankfully no, but it wasn't for lack of trying. The front seat was actually better for recreation than the back was.
Oh, and no shoulder belts either, just lap belts. It was like driving a piece of freedom, if freedom were a tangible thing. God I miss that car now.
I look for it every year at the Dream Cruise. And if I ever find it, I'm buying it back.
"It was like driving a piece of freedom, if freedom were a tangible thing."
That's exactly how I felt about driving when I turned 16. It was amazing. Empowering. FUN.
Some of the kids in my town just see it as a chore. I don't get it.
March 14th, 2017 at 10:36 AM ^
Dating myself here, but that looks like every car (with one exception, which was a huge "three on the tree truck) I drove during driver education. Parallel parking those was fun.
I drove my Dad's '55 T Bird and later bought it. I owned it for a few years before selling it
The first vehicle I owned was a '66 Chevy Pickup - much rougher than this one
Pictured in my avatar...or whatever those things are called.
1966 Chevelle Convertible.
Had it 7 years now. My dad owned one when I was a kid, but never got to drive it.
I loved that car, so had to have one for myself. It only has the standard 283, but I'm old and more into cruising these days, my muscle days are over.
Dad also had a '53 TR3 that he loved. I have pictures of me sitting on his lap "driving", but I doubt that qualifies for this thread.
March 14th, 2017 at 10:05 AM ^
All my grandpa's cars, he has since sold them all except the A and the Cordoba.
'29 Model A Tudor Sedan. My grandpa's pride and joy. He has since equipped it with hydralics brakes, but before he did that they were mechanical. He drives this one a lot with his model A club so he made the change for safety even though it isn't true to the original model A.
'40 Plymouth
'42 Desoto S series
'70 Challenger
'79 Cordoba
March 14th, 2017 at 10:05 AM ^
I'm 60 years old, but the oldest car I personally have driven or remember is a 67 Bonnieville. I also owned it. It had a big 400 engine in it. It was a tank of a car.
The wild thing about that car was the trunk. You could have fit 6 Jimmy Hoffa's in there. I've never seen a trunk as big.
March 14th, 2017 at 10:25 AM ^
to see old trunks vs. new. My LTD trunk was huge, but shallow. My current Ford Five Hundred has a 20 cu/ft trunk. I love it.
March 14th, 2017 at 10:08 AM ^
Some of you may remember seeing it around Ann Arbor. The gear heads in our frat put a salvaged V-8 from a 1970 Dodge Charger in it. No exhaust system, so loud as hell. It had purely mechanical brakes which were scary bad. Sometimes you'd press the peddle and nothing would happen. Open air motoring in all seasons. It just barely made it around the drive to pull into the Beer Depot back when it was a drive-thru.
The oldest car I've driven is the boat I drove in high school drivers ed. 1973 Pontiac Parisienne.
March 14th, 2017 at 10:13 AM ^
My first car was a 1964 Rambler American stick shift with an automatic clutch.
It didn't have a clutch pedal. The clutch was operated by a hydraulic servo. I just had let up on the gas pedal to shift gears.
Problem was the servo seal leaked. When the servo didn't work, I would have to open the hood and push the servo, which was located in the lower back corner of the engine compartment, with a broom stick to move the mechanism so I could shift gears. Everytime I stopped at a traffic light, I had to hope the servo didn't stick.