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Were Old Cars more Fun Than Modern Ones?
hpmctorque
Member Posts: 4,600
Of the cars you've owned or known, which one(s) gave you the most pleasure? If it was an older model, was it because it wasn't so perfect? As odd as it may seem, for me if a car is too predictably perfect, as many modern ones are, they're not much fun.
Unfortunately, I didn't have the pleasure of owning a sports car in my youth, but I had a friend with an Austin Healey 3000 and another with a '61 Corvette. While these cars had unique quirks and drawbacks, they were blasts to drive. Another acquaintance had a '30s Ford with a hopped up Olds Rocket engine in it; dangerous, but a blast.
Modern cars, even budget models, tend to accelerate faster, and corner and stop better than yesteryear's models, but are less thrilling to drive. Sometimes they don't even feel faster, in part because they're quieter, vibrate less, and don't squat, dive and lean as much.
What are your thoughts on this?
Of the cars I've owned, a '65 Mustang V8 with 4-speed, heavy duty suspension and posi-traction was the most fun. Apparently someone else liked it too because it got stolen.
Unfortunately, I didn't have the pleasure of owning a sports car in my youth, but I had a friend with an Austin Healey 3000 and another with a '61 Corvette. While these cars had unique quirks and drawbacks, they were blasts to drive. Another acquaintance had a '30s Ford with a hopped up Olds Rocket engine in it; dangerous, but a blast.
Modern cars, even budget models, tend to accelerate faster, and corner and stop better than yesteryear's models, but are less thrilling to drive. Sometimes they don't even feel faster, in part because they're quieter, vibrate less, and don't squat, dive and lean as much.
What are your thoughts on this?
Of the cars I've owned, a '65 Mustang V8 with 4-speed, heavy duty suspension and posi-traction was the most fun. Apparently someone else liked it too because it got stolen.
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I do remember always liking convertibles, so I've owned a few. I wouldn't mind a '12 Camaro convertible.
I do like all the improvements that we see in today's cars. So,if I could have today's modern car features on say, a 1972 Cutlass convertible--I wonder what color???
Had to be some beer involved in that trip - right?
Absolutely, a friend had a Dart 340, lots of fun. My 198 didn't have much power, but it did pull a small uhaul from Houston to the west coast!
Favorite experiences with old cars:
1. '68 Morgan -- what a wonderful primitive rattle-trap of a car. You could be doing 45 and it felt like 145. As the joke went, in a Morgan you could run over a dime and tell if it was heads or tails!
2. '66 Toronado -- blasting through snow drifts in Colorado with 4 studded snow tires. The car was virtually unstoppable.
3. Jaguar XK140 -- the engine note was wonderful
4. Mercedes 220 Sb -- compared to domestic cars of that day, it had a feeling of clockwork precision about it--an almost feminine car in the controls, yet looking out over the rounded hood and the gunsight, you got a sense of solidity and determination. Great old car with the best windshield view I ever had.
5. Mini Cooper S -- engine is on cam, on boost, and you floor it---the supercharger wails like a siren and you're pushed back in the seat. Way fun.
6. '63 Buick Riviera -- cockpit of a spaceship...floaty boaty in outer space, the world outside a mere noiseless distraction. Big leather buckets coddling you. Hood rising up when you floor it. Massive feeling, as in "get out of my way peasant".
7. Porsche 928 -- a German Corvette, with all that implies. Go as fast as you dare, it doesn't mind.
8. Honda 600 coupe -- a motorcycle with a roof...tinny, noisy, tiny...the ladies just loved it.
9. Triumph TR250 --- a man's sports car through and through. The good looks of the TR4 body mated to the big 6 engine of the TR 250. I miss that car still.
10. Volvo 544 Sport -- Sweden's idea of a '48 Ford...that long gearshift lever, peppy little 1.8L engine. Fun to drive, good heater, vent windows...ah. The car was indestructible and dead reliable, and so easy to work on. I miss that car a lot, too.
My experience was with my 66 Mustang convertible.
Pros:
I mentioned it was a convertible, right?
289 V-8 checked the box on the butt o meter, even if it really wasn't that fast.
Driving it was a visceral experience, yet it was tame compared to some of the other brute muscle cars or imports of the same vintage.
Minor foibles taught a young, poor driver to turn a wrench or 2.
Lord was it pretty. (in my mind at least, truthfully it was a 'driver')
Cons:
Sometimes there, sometimes not feeling from the 4 drum brakes.
Minor foibles mentioned above kept me from keeping it as my college car. 250 miles from door step to campus and mom said no way was her precious little boy driving that 'death trap'
Wallowy steering that I never could quite solve despite new shocks and bushings.
Useless heater and the cold naturedness of Fords. I placed a pizza box over my radiator from about November to March to heat the engine up quicker.
So, was it more fun than anything 'modern' I have had since? Probably, although I had a Wrangler for a while that scratched the convertible itch and was pretty fun as well. Ladies were pretty fond of it as well.
Would I like to drive it every day? No, don't think so.
2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee L Limited Velvet Red over Wicker Beige
2024 Audi Q5 Premium Plus Daytona Gray over Beige
2017 BMW X1 Jet Black over Mocha
I've only had a lot of personal experience with 2 old cars - my first car, a 66 Galaxie 2 door HT, 390 4bbl, and the fintail. The first car had pinkie finger power steering, drank gas like Niagara Falls drinks water, could burn rubber for an entire block, and generally didn't like corners or braking. Where the fintail has an engine like an electric sewing machine, loads of body lean but actually some handling at the same time, and as you mention, it is as precisely built as a Swiss watch. There have been other old cars in the family, including an unpleasant to drive stripped down 68 Fairlane, a fun barge of a 60 Ford Country Sedan, and my dad's tin can Datsun 710 bought out of an estate for $100 about 7 years ago that for some reason he liked, but the first two will always be in my head.
Sure it's nice having a car that pretty much never breaks down and is quiet and doesn't smell like unburnt fuel when it's sitting there idling, but where's the fun in that?
Those had TWO 4bbls and if I really nursed it, it MIGHT have been good for 10 MPG.
When that second carb opened up, I could literally watch the gas guage drop!
And, of course, it required the super premimum 100 plus octane stuff.
But, what a car! It could lay a two strips of rubber for as long as I wanted to hold the gas pedel down. I think I tried that trick once!
You mentioned 544 Volvos. I owned a couple of them in my youth and I wish I could find another. They were tougher than a box of rocks and so much fun to drive. For just a few hundred dollars more than a VW beetle, they were SO MUCH more car!
Were it not for the lack of AC, I am often tempted to ditch all my modern cars and just drive one of those (restored, of course).
" Do you remember the time we....?"
We once spotted a much despised math teacher at a bus stop huddled in the rain as he waited for a bus. I forget which of my beaters I was driving at the time but as soon as I spotted him I
switched off my ignition.
When we were right along side of him, I turned it back on.
Of course, this resulted in a LOUD explosion! He jumped and screamed like a woman!
We were all laughing so hard I nearly ran into a parked car.
Can't do that with a modern, fuel injected car!
So, yeah...old cars could certainly be more fun even if we did have to replace a muffler now and then!
I was working in a gas station and I bought it from a customer cheap because it had a bad clutch.
Replacing the clutch was a simple job. I did that, and waxed it up and it was like a new car!
Two weeks later I guy pulled me over while was driving it and offered to buy it.
I really was becoming attached to it but when he offered me twice what I had in it, I jumped at it.
The weak spot seems to be rust even around here where it doesn't snow much and they don't salt the streets.
And it had a good sound too.
One night a guy in a GTO decided to show me how fast his car was.
The Riviera leaped ahead of him just before he blew his posi unit.
Galaxie 500's were built in sedan and hardtop guise through the '74 model year.
I've had some fun cars-
'66 TR-4A perhaps even more of a man's car than Shifty's TR-250 since it rode like an oxcart (non-IRS). Not exactly the ideal car for NYC but it had great brakes, and cornering for it's day. Basically 1930s tech wrapped in nice Italian (Michelotti) coachwork. Needed lots of TLC, rust and bad electrics were real problems but it was really fun to drive and easy to park, surprisingly good in snow. No power assists whatever, comprehensive instrumentation, tonneau cover.
'71 Fiat 124 Sport Spiderr, the opposite of the TR, : feminine and graceful, cool racing horn, wonderful convertible top, decent ride, good on gas nice seats and cool gauges with Italian lettering (Benzina, Olio Agua). Peculiarities included manual choke that would stick whenever temps dropped below freezing. Surprisingly good in snow but wouldn't start in single digit temps. Rev-happy motor and five-speed gearbox. Wish I still had it but it was as good a car as any to get through the 70s. As rust-prone as the TR.
'70 Pontiac GTO convertible, bought used when 12 y/o, 400CID-4V 4-speed, power top. Handled and braked well for it's size, tons of low end grunt. Crappy seats, interior ergonomics. Poor steering feel. Used as second car but it stepped up when my regular ride got wrecked ans served as commuter/sales led for 2 months which worked except for awful mileage (14-15?). A real kick when floored in low gears.
'83 Volkswagen GTI, great (Recaro) seats, instrumentation, and transitional handling. Great in snow and commuter traffic, crummy interior (exc. seats), good versatility thru hatch. Buzzy ride on long rides (3800RPM@ 70mph) Sold it to get '85 Prelude, wish I hadn't.
'86 Ford Mustang GT conv. 5-speed. Strong acceleration, so-so mileage (18-22mpg), Good mechanical grip but too much understeer (easily overcome with throttle input). So-so build quality/reliability, crappy gearbox. Kept for 12 years but I don't think I'd buy another, even if I could find a good one.
I need another two-seat roadster, there's nothing like them. It saddens me that kids don't go for those any more.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
As I have gotten older, I'm willing to give up the fun of getting there, to tipping the balance toward getting there.
The most fun car I ever had was an 86 Mustang GT 5 speed.
Made me feel like I was Steve McQueen.
I sold the car because my wife had trouble driving it, but it a good decision in the long run.
The survey of 1,115 Britons aged between 18 and 39 showed that one in five (19 per cent) think older motors are more stylish than modern vehicles.
The same percentage believe older cars are better made and last longer, while 18 per cent reckon older cars are unlikely to depreciate in value.
Topping the list of cars that have made the transition from cringeworthy to cool is the Honda Civic 2001-2003 model.
One in eight (13 per cent) used car dealers surveyed for the study said they had sold a Honda Civic in the past year.
In second place is the Ford Sierra, once dismissed as a ‘jelly-mould’, followed by the classic Ford Capri, launched in 1969 but which became a staple of the 1970s and 1980s.
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Also, you could hold the throttle full bore for a good time and not get over 120-130 or so.
No More..
My stock and low-horsepower 1990 Corvette gains speed in a HURRY.
Passing a car from 45 or so, holding it till you clear the vehicle, I find it going 110mph or so.
Much too Quick.
The Speed Limiter is set on mine at 165 more or less, due to the limit of the tires.
Old cars were more fun, slick tires, long acceleration times and looud.
Today, from a rolling start, the fun is OVER in 10 sec or so, unless you're living in Montana.
When I started getting speeding tickets in a Subaru, I knew the end of the world was near.
I drove 114 miles from Santa Cruz to Sonoma today. I counted 5 highway patrol cars sitting in wait, + 2 having stopped vehicles, + 2 on the road just rolling along.
And it's true! A coat hanger, a piece of wood. I've done this very thing, and I'm sure many of we older chaps have as well.
I get to drive a lot of older cars, and they certainly do vary in their driving characteristics and the level of enjoyment one has with them.
I remember separating the tread and 1st steel belt on I-395 in CT going 140MPH. That was my introduction to the need for speed rated tires!. It blew my fender skirts clear off. I never did find them - had to buy another pair at the junkyard. I had that car for 7 years.
Cadillacs from 1968-1970 had many modern features that other cars of that era did not have, like:
Safety:
Power dual master cylinder so many single cylinder non powered cars back then I see them at car shows and thank heaven I'm not driving that car home.
Front disc brakes (although they were optional on 1968 RWDs)
Collapsible steering column unlike just a couple years earlier that basically became a pike aimed at your heart in a front end collision
Comfort & convenience:
Climate control - 'nuff said
8 way power seats - dual power seats in 1970 Fleetwoods
Twilight Sentinel auto on headlights with adjustable delay
Auto dimming headlights
Cornering lights
Auto parking brake pulloff, the brake came off in gear with the engine running. Very annoying that my CTS and STS do not have this.
Power trunk release with power pulldown
Power windows with lockout and ignition bypass Power vents on 1968 Fleetwoods (optional on others)
Power door locks
Comfortable leather seats
Limited slip differential
Cruise Control - very finicky though
Auto level control - also finicky mainly due the the vacuum powered pump for the shocks
Reading lights 8-10 light came on when you opened the doors in my Fleetwood.
Tilt & telescope steering wheel Freaked my wife out when i first showed it to her. She made some comment about my driving, and i said "you want to drive" and i unlocked the telescope and pulled the wheel up slowly. She about fainted.
There was even an experimental ABS on a very few 1970 called Trackmaster. Without high speed computers it wasn't so great, but it did work.
Thy got 10-12 MPG in mixed driving, better than some giant modern SUVs, but not so good when you consider they require 91 octane or better - meaning premium only.
They were also easy to work on.
And that 472 CI with 10.5:1 compression ratio (10:1 on 1970s with 1970 Eldorado having 500CI) made for tons of power and the Rochester QuadraJet with its 750CFM rating could actually feed it nicely. I've had my 1968 overhauled, set it up like a 1970 (no A.I.R pump) with a mild camshaft upgrade. It rocketed down the road before at 95MPH with the top down. Can't wait to get it back (almost finished with body restoration) and get it back in action.
And, I loved the look of Crager S/S wheels, still do.
But eventually i decided that Cadillacs (perhaps Lincoln at one time) were my favs and it's been that way.
Final confirmation was in 2002 when i drove our fairly new 2001 Miata from Tampa to Ft Dix NJ. My hands & arms nearly vibrated off my body from all the vibration. Fast forward a few years and driving the Eldorado Convertible a similar distance was like night and day.
I borrowed it and took it to school one Thanksgiving and unseasonable weather froze it up and cracked the block.
Funnest old car would have to be one of the 70s Beetles I drove.
Hey, with a big enough odometer discrepancy, it's possible! :shades: My '67 Catalina convertible's speedometer reads about 10% fast, at least when checking it with portable GPS's. And going in the other direction, my old '79 Newport was clocked by a cop's radar gun at 88 mph, when I swear the speedometer only read 73! My '89 Gran Fury got me in trouble with the cops once too, so I took it to a specialist to get tested and re-calibrated. Turns out that 100 mph true only registered as 91 mph on the speedo.
Yeah, both of them did. I forget now what the stock tire size was, but I remember I had 235/70/R15's on the Gran Fury, and 235/75/R15's on the back of the Newport (215/75/R15 up front).
The base tire on a '79 R-body is a wimpy 195/75/R15, but mine had bigger 15x7 wheels and deep, turbine style hubcaps. Those normally came with a larger tire, like a 215/70 or even a 225/70, but I can't remember for sure.
I actually still have the Gran Fury's old tires and copcar wheels on the back of my 5th Ave. Dunno what they're throwing off the speedometer by, but the odometer reads about 2.3% slow, at least from using Google Maps as a reference point and checking the distance. I think I've read that whatever your odometer gets thrown off by, the speedometer is usually doubled. Something about it not being a direct connection, but magnetic, or something like that?
Oh, now that I think about it, my other New Yorker's speedometer is off, too. I remember the day I brought it home from PA, with my buddy following me in his 2006 Xterra. He calls me on the cell and asks me why I'm doing 80 mph. I told him I'm not; I'm only running 65-70. Turns out, I wasn't!
I had totally forgotten about that one, because I hardly ever drive it.
I get nervous in big older American "floaty-boaties" at about 85-90 mph.
I think 90 is kind of iffy in any 40 year old car, just due to the ravages of time. I don't get the fintail up past 80 or so anymore, and even that is maybe a twice a year occurrence at best.
The averaged-out answer was 93 mph.