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Joe Bonamassa Forum → Off Topics → Wackiest Cars Owned By Forum Members
When I was a young Hot Dog cruising around Bournemouth, England ( takes some imagination- I know)
I owned a Lime green, fibre glass bodied, Clan Crusader, one of only 350 made.It was a project by some ex Lotus Elan engineers. -
Have a look - http://www.clanownersclub.com/
Anyone owned anything wackier than this ?
Hey Crossroads,
That sure is a wacky car alright.......You even got the steering wheel on the wrong side. 
In my younger days I owned a bright yellow 1959 Chevy El Camino mounted on a 1969 Dodge 3/4 ton 4x4 Power Wagon frame. It was pretty wacky.
My first new car I ever owned was an AMC Germlin. How appropriate it was that they named that hunk of junk a "Gremlin". Had it for about 3 years and in the third year when I would merge onto a freeway, all of a sudden the engine woud go CLICK and shut off for a couple of seconds, then start up again. Scared the bejesus out of me! 
Took it to a couple of mechanics and it scared the heck out of them too. They couldn't find out what it was, so I traded it to a dealer. Wacky? That car had a mind of its own! 
Roy
my current car is a 2001 Honda Insight... 58 miles per gallon!
http://www.hibredvehicles.com/honda-ins … tallic.jpg
whats even more wacky is it's looks... check it out.
It fits two people and (maybe) a small dog... 
When I was a young Hot Dog cruising around Bournemouth, England ( takes some imagination- I know)
I owned a Lime green, fibre glass bodied, Clan Crusader, one of only 350 made.It was a project by some ex Lotus Elan engineers. -
Have a look - http://www.clanownersclub.com/
Anyone owned anything wackier than this ?
HeyCrossroads I remember one of those being driven to within an inch of its life on the Manx Trophy Rally. I was stood on the outside of a bend called Kate's Cottage and he just chucked the thing sideways at about 90mph in the most glorious 4 wheel drift I have ever seen. Four crisp black lines for about 60 yds. The bend is on the TT course just before Creg Na Baa. They had hillman imp engines as I remember?
crossroads wrote:When I was a young Hot Dog cruising around Bournemouth, England ( takes some imagination- I know)
I owned a Lime green, fibre glass bodied, Clan Crusader, one of only 350 made.It was a project by some ex Lotus Elan engineers. -
Have a look - http://www.clanownersclub.com/
Anyone owned anything wackier than this ?
HeyCrossroads I remember one of those being driven to within an inch of its life on the Manx Trophy Rally. I was stood on the outside of a bend called Kate's Cottage and he just chucked the thing sideways at about 90mph in the most glorious 4 wheel drift I have ever seen. Four crisp black lines for about 60 yds. The bend is on the TT course just before Creg Na Baa. They had hillman imp engines as I remember?
Geoff, they used to go well,you are very low on the ground and it was so light you could push it with one hand.Yes, they did have Imp engines - fine accept they had alluminium heads which warped if the engine got overheated.Mine got overheated, so I didn't keep it long. My old car was still going strong in 1995,(23 years old) when it was stolen in London.
OK Ian you've outed me, here's proof of me on my way to a Joe show with suitcase on roofrack but as you can see i broke down in Oxford Street and i had 200 bottles of Peckham Spring water in the back .......... i'm jus pullin' your plonker
...................... Del Boy
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgur … start%3D20
Bet that suitcase is full of dodgy Bonabillia
Ian
OK Ian you've outed me, here's proof of me on my way to a Joe show with suitcase on roofrack but as you can see i broke down in Oxford Street and i had 200 bottles of Peckham Spring water in the back .......... i'm jus pullin' your plonker
...................... Del Boy
My first new car I ever owned was an AMC Germlin. How appropriate it was that they named that hunk of junk a "Gremlin". Had it for about 3 years and in the third year when I would merge onto a freeway, all of a sudden the engine woud go CLICK and shut off for a couple of seconds, then start up again. Scared the bejesus out of me!
Roy
Roy, my first brand new car (1975) was a 258 6 cylinder Bumblebee (yellow with black racing stripes) 3 speed manual Gremlin...
Mine was great until the headlights started going out in the middle of sharp turns!!!! Sold it to a member of the family (folks NEVER EVER sell your used car to anyone you know) and she used it for another 5 years before it died....
I owned both a 1976 and 1974 Chevy Vega. Some of the biggest junk ever made. The only good part was that that me and my girlfriend could use the hatchback for fun as it was almost like a station wagon in back!!! Good memories in that car!!
The first car I bought was a 1964 Chrysler Newport...a proverbial boat, and it handled like one. That car was absolutely huge!
For some reason, I felt like Mr. Magoo when I was driving it
The first car I bought was a 1964 Chrysler Newport...a proverbial boat, and it handled like one. That car was absolutely huge!
For some reason, I felt like Mr. Magoo when I was driving it
Ok, I've resisted posting til now, but after this^ I can't resist...
MY first car (this was back in 1984) was a 1965 Dodge Polara... now THAT'S a real boat! 
But the price was right ($500 at an estate auction), it was in great shape, and it passed my Dad's safety approval, lol. I hated it at first, it was so big and embarrassing, lol... but I soon learned to love that car. It was always very dependable, had it for 6 years. Great car for hauling friends to shows and stuff, with all that room... my brother used to joke that you could play volleyball in the back seat, lol. And talk about powerful, jeez... 8 cylinder, 383 engine... made it way too easy to speed... oh and add the fact that it always had a broken speedometer which just bounced up and down... in fact to this day I blame that car for my speeding habit, lol.
Um, about that speeding habit... I now have 9 speeding tickets under my belt, ugh ... the most recent one being just a few weeks ago, grrr 
... but that was the first one in like 6 or 7 years... and hopefully my last!
--Vik
Bill S wrote:The first car I bought was a 1964 Chrysler Newport...a proverbial boat, and it handled like one. That car was absolutely huge!
For some reason, I felt like Mr. Magoo when I was driving itOk, I've resisted posting til now, but after this^ I can't resist...
MY first car (this was back in 1984) was a 1965 Dodge Polara... now THAT'S a real boat!
Um, about that speeding habit... I now have 9 speeding tickets under my belt, ugh
--Vik
Vik,
Those were a couple of sweet cars. I unconsciously wrote "Newport" (I owned one a few years later) but my first car was actually a New Yorker. Those two (Newport and New Yorker) used the same chassis, and it may be that the Polara did as well.
I couldn't find actual length, but did locate wheelbase info. The 1964 Polara had a whopping 122" wheelbase...the New Yorker? 126".
Mine was a 4 door sedan, which just barely fit in my brother's garage, with a few inches to spare.
The first day I drove that car, a woman in a Ford Pinto blew a stop sign and broadsided me. The Pinto was pretty much destroyed, the New Yorker had two bashed doors and a broken tie rod, but hardly moved when it was hit.
They don't build them like that anymore...maybe a good thing!
BluesMan wrote:My first new car I ever owned was an AMC Germlin. How appropriate it was that they named that hunk of junk a "Gremlin". Had it for about 3 years and in the third year when I would merge onto a freeway, all of a sudden the engine woud go CLICK and shut off for a couple of seconds, then start up again. Scared the bejesus out of me!
Roy
Roy, my first brand new car (1975) was a 258 6 cylinder Bumblebee (yellow with black racing stripes) 3 speed manual Gremlin...
Mine was great until the headlights started going out in the middle of sharp turns!!!! Sold it to a member of the family (folks NEVER EVER sell your used car to anyone you know) and she used it for another 5 years before it died....
Gee Mike,
That must have been a pretty hot looking Gremlin. Mine was pretty much a basic blue and since my friend's father worked for AMC, he got me some Gremlin stickers to put on the car. My friend and I used to wax our cars like every 2 weeks and still at the end of the thrid year, I had rust on the body. I guess it just was my bad luck car.
Roy
Ok Bill, you got me all curious and nostalgic... I did some searching for specs and photos... seems the 1965 Polara had a 122" wheel base... and I had the full-size 4-door model. Here's the closest pic I could find... this was basically my car, similar condition too, except mine was blue... sigh...
http://www.prestoimages.net/graphics07/ … 2345_1.JPG
Oh, and get this... one weekend that I was home from college, I slipped on some ice and crashed my Polara into a telephone pole, crumpling the fender to the point that it was undrivable (would've been much worse in a "normal" car). I needed a cheap car fast to get back to college and for daily use, so my parents quick found a $450 Chevy Chevette (otherwise known as my "Shitvette"). Imagine going from an 8-cylinder 383 engine, to a 4-cylinder 212 engine! I'd go up hills (even slight inclines) chanting "I think I can, I think I can..." But at least I didn't have to worry about speeding anymore... not only was it was almost impossible, but I didn't even mind, as 55 mph felt like 75 mph in that car (as opposed to 90 mph feeling like 55 mph in the Polara, lol). But that car had problems and didn't last too long, so I used my parents' Dodge Aries station wagon for a little while... so uncool, lol. Then for a graduation present my parents spent the money to fix up my Polara, including a new paint job... I was so in my glory to have my baby back! Never got rid of it til I was 22, and then it was mainly because I was pregnant and needed a car with back seatbelts! Sold it to a friend of my brother, and we just happened to run into him together last year and found out that car was still on the road until not all that long ago... amazing.
--Vik
Roy, yellow, blue whatever ALL Gremlins (and all AMC's for that matter) were rust-buckets. Here in Canada at the time it was the cheapest brand new car one could get new, priced the same as a Lada s&%tbox.... Think I paid like $3200 or $3300 Canadian all in.....
You're right Mike, they were rust buckets. I got mine around 72 or 73 and paid, gosh what did I pay? Could it be $2200, or maybe it was $2800? No power steering either, manual steering. It drove like an 18 wheeler.
Roy
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