Sept 30: Barry's cars cont'd

So the Caddy was causing me "metal" anquish as there was so much of it to move around and after 10 months, I realized my mistake. Doing a 180 degree turn, I got the following.......

My '76 Corvette was dark brown with beige leather, aluminum wheels, automatic with the "big" motor, the L82. Now remember, this was the mid '70's, so big or powerful was a relative term. Yes, it was faster than a transport truck, but in today's terms it was dead slow. How about 0-60 in about 10 seconds! You can beat that today with ANY economy car. Problem.......it had a habit of tossing the fanbelt. Like one January day on the 401 near Guelph  -  dam it was cold as I waited 3 hours for a tow truck!! Other than that I enjoyed my Vette experience. Did you know you could fit two pairs of Xcountry skis into this car?

After two and a half years it was time to trade in. I had just got married (and 32 years later am still to the same lady) and I wanted something with more room. I thought the new for '79 Toronado was striking, so I ordered an '80, but after a few second thoughts and the possibility of buying a house, my plans changed. Two people were now making these decisions, not only one as before. So this was next.......

Yes, I succumbed to the GM X car fever. This was an '80 Skylark coupe in dark blue/white vinyl (left over form the '70's) with every power option and mag wheels. The money we saved was used for a house down payment  -  the house is now worth tons while the Buick less than 0. Nice little car, but oh what a lemon. Everything broke on that car, even had the headliner burn through due to faulty wiring and it started to rust after ONE year. The X cars in general had a bad reputation and deserved every ounce of it.

Suffered thru this car until '84 and then went back to something a bit more sporty........

I loved the new Camaro that had come out in 1982, but since I had started a new business, was a bit strapped for car cash. This was the base model in dark gray, manual trans (my wife taught me how to drive it) and wheels like in the pic. I had ordered the F41 suspension, so this little 6 cylinder handled quite well. Not tons of power, but being a manual, it was quite peppy  -  probably as quick as the smogged up Vette had been.

It's fun looking back at my past cars and remembering their good and bad points   -  not everything improves with age.

Until next time.........