1967 GTO: got it back on the road in '16, but now my dad is nearly 80, and I think the GTO owners' association convention in Loveland CO this summer is gonna be one of my last opportunities to do stupid stuff with him, so I've been getting it ready for that trip.
1969 Datsun 1600 Roadster: been fitfully working on it with my younger kid, and it's nearing the point where we're mechanically sound and ready for body work. Here's the kid putting some re-designed fuel tank hangers over the frame (instead of the trunk floor where it ends up ripping the sheet metal.
1971 240Z: still kickin' it. It underwent a COVID facelift, and then got all dolled up to do AutoX, right in time for me to lose my summers to coaching swim team. I still enjoy driving it, and the updated suspension and 350Z seats a lot. In 2012, it won the "driver" category at the national Z car owners' convention. In 2016, it was invited for the Japanese Nostalgic Car Touge California.
1984 Cadillac Eldorado: inherited this turd circuitously from my grandmother. My aunt took it from Gram's house in California when she was selling it in '16, and drove it back to Wisconsin where it was just left to rot in a garage. It only had two issues: the AC compressor was seized (which meant the power steering didn't work, as they share a belt), and the urethane body parts had all rotted. I got the AC compressor replaced with an R134a unit, and it's working fine now. The body parts are on the to-do list, but I hate painting, so it may be a few more years. Eventually the engine will destroy itself, but right now, it's only got 42k miles, so we're gonna let it ride.
1985 Toyota MR2: my friend and I were talking at Cars and Coffee one morning when I took Luca (the younger kid). He said to me that his MR2 and his '79 RX-7 were occupying roughly the same spot in his collection and he was thinking of selling off the Toyota. Luca started tugging on my sleeve, because an MR2 was absolutely on his radar as an achievable dream car. $15k later (and an entire attic's worth of spares), I managed to time it exactly as he and Jason were driving home from school down the street one way as I drove the MR2 from the other direction. He had to pull over because of the tears.
First drive:
1992 300ZX: first car I ever bought myself, and I still own it. In 2016, it was invite to participate in the Japanese Nostalgic Car Touge 80s. In 2025, it won "Best Z32" at the Williams AZ JDM Classic, a show I attend almost every year, because it's in Williams AZ, and I love that little town. It's also been to a couple of Radwood events, which are fuckin' great. It makes around 420HP on pump, 480 on E85.
1995 Audi S6: my friend (different than MR2 friend) decided he was going to sell off his projects and get a Tesla (this was 2019, so somewhat before Elon's shittiness was more widely known). I offered to buy this from him, an old performance modded Audi station wagon with 260k miles on it. I was in a bit of a state at the time, as it'd been a little while since my main daily driver (then a '90 Cadillac Brougham) had been stolen, and this one was (and remains) my daily driver. In 2023 just outside of Lampassas, TX on the way home from Radwood Austin, it boosted its last boost and broke the engine in half (literally, there were holes on both sides of the block) from the rod on #3 cylinder exploding. I've since rebuilt the motor for more power and a much bigger, more efficient turbo. It makes about 400HP right now, waiting on an e85 tune for another 5 cylinder.
2015 VW Golf GTI: bought for the kids. It's a Mk7 and has the 3rd gen EA888, so I don't need to worry as much about the timing chain nonsense like the Mk6 owners. It was previously owned by a hotboi who put a tune on it, but I had that removed (as it wouldn't pass emissions). Currently, it's Jason's car, and he has taken it down to NM Tech, where he's going to college. When we bought it, it was covered in these purple triangles made of vinyl.
We removed them.
2017 VW Golf Alltrack: Louise's Infiniti had bad compression on cylinder #5, so I packed it full of Marvel Mystery oil so it'd hold enough compression to not set misfire codes, and we traded it in on this. It's been way nicer than the Infiniti, largely because of the seats and ride quality (where the Infiniti was "sport tuned" or some such bullshit, the VW has softly sprung suspension, with big balloon 17" tires). It's a 1.8T, so it does fine in terms of getting itself around and not doing horribly on mileage, and it's much quieter than the VQ35 in her old car. It's the Mk7.5 Golf, so it's also largely immune from the MK6 timing chain bugaboos. I added a "Radio Flyer" logo from the Cricut because it's a little red wagon. It starts every time you push the button.
Google did us dirty when we went to visit Maynard James Keenan's winery in Cottonwood, AZ, just after the Williams show in 2025, by taking us over some horrible forest service roads. The VW did fine though.
