My first hobby car, other than my own daily jalopies, a 1967 VW Beetle. It had a 2110 cc engine and was shockingly fast. My friends had a love hate relationship with it because it was always breaking down on a drive, but it was fun to ride in and hilarious to see me step out of because I am pretty tall and the Miata seats were mounted very low on the floor pan.
Traded the above VW for this 1965 Valiant convertible. Was an awesome daily until the slant six engine lost oil pressure. A teardown revealed spun bearings and some very worn cylinder walls. Replaced it with a super six build that took some work to get right because all the linkages were different. Great slow cruiser though, I miss it.
This last shot is a picture of the intake from my 1993 Toyota pickup, and I just want to share the story of when my IACV didn’t work. That had obviously been a problem with the previous owner because when we were replacing a head gasket on it some 13 years after I bought it, we found a paper towel had been crammed into the idle air port. It had been effectively reducing the air flow into the engine, rather than the idle air control valve doing so. I passed smog and ran the truck 50,000 miles with that paper towel in there. It ran perfect for so long. I was so confused when we rebuilt it and it ran terribly because the IACV never worked in all that time. Man I miss this truck.
This is the 1928 Ford that I learned most of what I know about cars from. It has a built chevy 350 in it, a quick change differential, stainless pipes with barely any mufflers, it’s great. It has forged pistons and rods and a demon carb, and the combo is excellent. It’s a great car. The owner actually drives it everywhere, unlike most people who do a classic car. It’s low and loud and mean, what’s not to like?