Gentle reader,
Way back when I first began blogging (2008, or so) I had not yet figured out how to put pictures in the posts. As a result, my first few posts were simply, lists and comments. Here is a link to the post I wrote about cars that I've owned.
If you look, there is a list starting with my first car purchased at 17 in September, 1973 which was a 1964 Chevrolet Impala two-door hardtop coupe. It was tan colored with a brown vinyl interior. Engine was a 283 cubic inch V-8 with a two-barrel carburetor with a two-speed Powerglide automatic transmission. The only "power" options were power steering and brakes. The latter were four wheel drums. No A/C, no cruise control. An AM-only radio with one speaker in the dash. Oh, but I loved it! The freedom of driving one's OWN car!
Recently, AUTOWEEK magazine posted a short article on a new website devoted to collecting, scanning and sharing automobile sales brochures from around the world with the majority being American cars.
Classic car brochures and owners manuals - The Old Car Manual Project
Cruising that site, it inspired me to do a post devoted to as many of the cars that I owned that I could find images from vintage dealer brochures on their site as well as ones that I have found a purchased over the years.
Cruising that site, it inspired me to do a post devoted to as many of the cars that I owned that I could find images from vintage dealer brochures on their site as well as ones that I have found a purchased over the years.
NOTE:
ALL the images and text within all images shown copyrights belongs to the automotive manufacturers that produced them. The images I have posted in this blog are for illustrative purposes only. Since I have arranged the images below in chronological order of the cars manufacture to facilitate this trip down memory lane, that is the order in which I will show them. In the majority of cases, I do not remember what year I purchased these cars. The number of NEW cars I have owned I can count on one hand. So almost all of them were bought used. I will underline the order number in which I bought them.
My next posting after finishing this series using brochures will feature photographs of some of the actual cars that I owned and if I did not have a camera then, then images I made at car shows of other peoples cars. With all that being said, on to the cars:
Below is the front cover and a picture of the 1941 Plymouth coupe that I bought from a fellow mechanic at Emrick Chevrolet, in Richmond, Virginia.
He was the third person to own the car who worked at the same dealership. He'd bought it and took the Chevy engine out of it to use in his race car.
The second owner was the parts manager and did considerable work converting it from 1941 Plymouth drive train to more recent Chevrolet gear with a manual transmission. He made a lot of changes. Then I took over. I also bought from the 3rd owner a 1957 Chevy 283 engine. Continued below 2nd picture:
I had my work cut out for me. To top it off, since I had NEVER SEEN A 1941 PLYMOUTH. The front end was in pieces and I had no idea how it all went together.
Fortune smiled on me however, as my girlfriend's grandmother had died and we came across an October, 1940 LIFE magazine in Grandma's attic. To my delight, there was an ad for the new 1941 Plymouths!
So I now could assemble the many pieces of sheet metal back into a whole. I recall paying maybe $250 for everything and he towed it for free to my parents back yard from Woodstock, VA to Richmond. Looking back, I have no idea how I got the engine into the car after rebuilding it.
I could go on and on about that car, but I don't want to get carried away. Technically, this was my fourth car, my daily driver was a 1967 Impala convertible which you will see below.
Next, by age, is my first car, the aforementioned 1964 Impala. These next images are from Classic Car Brochures Project:
Super Sport models had one larger straight trim stripe front to rear. SS cars also had bucket seats and consoles with a floor shifter. I paid $300 for my Impala. It was nine-years-old at the time.
The next car, my second one, was purchased from a buddy strictly for the engine: It had a 327 V-8 with a four barrel carburetor with .202 inch intake valves cylinder heads that he had rebuilt. I SHOULD have fixed up that car and kept it, but I was young and stupid.
So once we had removed the engine from the car, I sold the rest. What was it? A 1964 Chevelle Malibu Super Sport convertible. Equipped with the aforementioned 327 c.i. 4 bbl, four speed transmission and Positraction equipped rear axle.
And was it FAST! Again, this image is from the brochures web site:
A former coworker bought one decades later and took a couple pictures of it to show me. I was envious, but happy he was fixing it up.
I pulled over, looked it over quickly and walked up to knock on the door. The owner was home, he got the keys and I took a more careful and complete look at it.
The driver's door had a dent in it, but otherwise the body was fine. The top and interior were in great shape.
We opened the hood and (heavenly music must have played in my head) there sat the fabled engine that Pontiac had bucked the GM rules by installing in their mid-sized Le Mans two door cars: a 389 cubic inch big-block with THREE two-barrel carbs! It was Coupled to a four-speed manual transmission and positraction rear!
We took it for a spin and when we got back to his house, I asked what he wanted for it. "$250, you think that's too much?" For the first time in my life I tried a poker face, "No, that sounds about right for a ten-year-old car."
I raced home and begged my dad to lend me $250. He replied, "But you already have a car." "But Dad, this is a GTO!" "You could get into trouble in a car like that." And he was right.
So without further ado, once again, from the brochures web site:
So, on to my third car. I sold my '64 Impala and bought a 1967 Impala Super Sport convertible with the 275 horsepower 327 V8 engine with Quadrajet four barrel carburetor. Again, equipped a two-speed Powerglide automatic transmission. I also paid only $300 for it in 1975.
This brochure I also found during that trip to Carlisle.
Next, chronologically was a car that was GIVEN to me. A very rare 1973 Chevelle Malibu Laguna station wagon. It was light green in color inside and out and had a 350 V8 engine. I don't remember what carb it had. According to my previous post, this was my ninth car. Once again, these photos are from the brochures web site:
We'd had our first child by then and a Triumph Spitfire was not conducive to having a baby in a car seat! Sigh.
It had a 351 Windsor V8 engine. It went through starter motors like crazy and had other problems too. Cars were MUCH less reliable back then.
Speaking of Triumph Spitfire automobiles, here are images made from the brochure I bought. Mine was a 1974 and was very red. It was my seventh car. I eventually had it repainted to a brighter red. But that will be in the next post with pictures of the original cars.
My wife-at-the-time, sold her first car, a YELLOW Datsun F-10, (talk about a hideous looking car!) and surprised my with the Spitfire. One of the few nice things she ever did for me. It was fun to drive. When I see one now, I wonder how I ever fit my 6'3", long legged self into it.
While owning it, I spied at a used car dealer down the street from the Kelly Springfield tire store where I worked, they had the fastback/coupe version of the Spitfire on their lot. It was called GT-6 because it was a hardtop and had a six cylinder engine. I test drove it and wanted it so badly! It's transmission had synchromesh problems so it was hard to shift and needed rebuilding. Thus, I did not buy it.
Again from a brochure that I bought:
The GT-6 is a car which I still want to own today. I've read of fellows that swapped the six-cylinder engine from the GT-6 into a Spitfire.
A whopping 79 horsepower from the US Smog Laws strangled straight-six two-liter engine. Still, way more than the Spitfire put out.
There is a Canadian son/father team which are converting one to a Chevrolet LS4 V-8 engine, with a Mustang four speed manual transmission and Corvette independent rear end/suspension. The LS4 was made for Impala front-wheel-drive cars and was mounted transverse (sideways) which created it's own problems.
I had bought my first NEW car in 1978, a Chevy Monza fastback. You will see it below.
Since my wife sold her car to buy me that Spitfire, AND she liked Audi cars, I traded my six-month-old new car in on a 1975 Audi they had at my dealership.
It was my sixth car and was very nice in many ways. The speedometer cable was broken, so I had no idea how many miles it actually had prior to buying it.
A four-cylinder engine mounted longitudinally (front-to-rear) with four-speed manual transaxle driving the front wheels and it was my first: German car, front-wheel-drive car (the Datsun was hers), four-door car, fuel injected car and I'm sure some other firsts.
From a brochure I bought:
Another 1975 car I purchased, was from our next-door neighbor. I got it for $150. It was a Chevy Monza 2+2 and had the 4.3 liter V-8 engine with 3-speed automatic transmission and very nice brown leather interior. The 262 cubic inch (in American measurements) V8 engine put out a whopping 110 horsepower, I don't recall the torque figure. But I tell you what, it was still quick and always started "like that!" Here are images from my brochure:
I also made clear covers for the headlights. I buddy at work asked me about the paint and I told him it was "RAP". "RAP? What's that?" "Radar Absorbent Paint. I got some from a buddy at Andrews (Air Force Base)." "Really? Does it work?" "I haven't gotten a ticket yet. Nah, I'm just messing with you!" He believed me for a minute though.
From my own
brochure that came with the car:
It came with the new cross-flow cylinder head version of a four cylinder engine Chevy first came out with in the early 1960s. Called "The Iron Duke".
It was all cast iron and they changed the cylinder head in anticipation of the upcoming front-wheel-drive Citation models and their GM siblings.
It had a two-barrel Weber carburetor which I quickly broke the plastic cover off the idle-air mixture screw and set the idle so it was smooth.
Because one could buy a Monza with a 350 V8 engine in it, it had an 18 gallon gas tank. This car got great range as a result.
As mentioned above, I had it less than six months when my we married and I traded it in on a the 1975 Audi 100LS.
I should have kept the Monza, but the Audi was more practical as a family car. And pretty cool too.
My thirteenth car, The Reliant K and it's Dodge sibling the Aries K, SAVED the Chrysler Corporation from bankruptcy and went on to be sold in countless versions for MANY years. Even the Chrysler-invented Minivans were descended from the humble "K car".
It had the reliable 2.2 four-cylinder engine and automatic transmission. Your basic plain-Jane unremarkable sedan.
One day after work, I hopped into it to drive home and it won't go forward! Only reverse. So, AAA to the rescue. See? I learned my lesson!
I traded it for a pocket-rocket in the form of a 1989 Pontiac Grand Am which had GM's first twin-cam multivalve engine they named "Quad-4". Powerful and quick. Later on, it's transmission also died and that was it for me, no more automatic transmissions! The Grand Am was my fifteenth car. No brochure could be found. Oh, GM still makes a version of the Quad-4 but now they call it "Eco-tech".
Next in model year, but not order of purchase, is a 1985 Dodge Aries station wagon. Yet another station wagon which was GIVEN to me. I LOVED that car. It was Red/Red and so comfortable inside.
The same reliable 2.2 liter engine gave which gave me no trouble. As to my (now) wife, well it didn't seem to like her. It broke down on her, twice. Both times it was the distributor rotor that failed. The first time I thought it was the timing belt, only to find it was fine! The little tongue/tab which slid into a notch on the ignition distributor shaft had sheared off!
If I had known about a gasoline additive called "Guaranteed to Pass" I would still have G-G, as the kids called her. But I could not get it to pass emissions testing. G-G was my eighteenth car.
One could say "understated" for the brochure cover of the next car chronologically.
Since the kids were grown and gone, and had finally stopped moving back in, I wanted to have fun cars!
You will see which fun car came first later on. I always wanted a Porsche. My first choice was a 1976 912E. That's a 911 body with the 1975 Porsche 914 VW two-liter four cylinder engine. Only 2050 of them were made and only sold in the USA.
Google that special one-year-only-car for more info, if you wish.
All these gorgeous images are from my own brochure. It could have been my car that was the model, except ours didn't have a rear wiper. 
Who doesn't love a good cut-out drawing?
Below is one of what changes the humble Audi-engine pre-1987 924 cars into the "S" model.
The 2.5 liter REAL Porsche engine as used in the wider-hipped Porsche 944 and later models.
1987 and 1988 were the only model years the 924S was sold. It was lighter and more aerodynamic than it's 944 brother and therefore it was quicker accelerating and had a higher top speed than the same year 944s.
"1975 VW Super Beetle Sun-Bug. Once gold, then flat black. I owned this while trying to sell the Grand Am. What a P.O.S! It actually slowed down going up hills on the interstate highway! Some previous owner tried his own heater set up and I swear exhaust gasses were getting in the car. The defroster was a joke. I hated that car!"
Next in the chronology is a car I bought to replace the awful 1975 Gran Torino.
A 1988 Chevrolet Caprice Classic Estate station wagon. The closest I could find on the brochures web site was a 1987.
Same car. Very pretty it was. Ours had a white exterior with blue velour interior. My first but not the last, with a blue interior.
It was my twelfth car.
Ours did not have fake wooden trim. It did have an Oldsmobile V8 instead of a Chevrolet one. It was a 307 or five liters.
It had a Quadrajet four barrel carb which I managed to get the secondary barrels open one time before the computer slammed them shut. I think it's horsepower was in the very low 100's range.
Below is a car I found when I wasn't even looking for one. We'd gone to a used car dealer to check out a Volvo V40 wagon. It had issues, and was only available with an automatic transmission. Meh.
So, looking around, I spotted a gold 1985 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce sports car. Brown leather seats in an otherwise black interior, black top and someone had put in a roll bar on it and padded it. No matter how I tried, I could not get in the car! Curses! Not enough leg room!
I stood up, looked around their lot, saw another black soft top, and headed that direction. Very red paint below. It was a 1991 Mercury Capri XR2 convertible "sports" car. I had forgotten all about those Mazda Miata competitors.
They were asking the same price as the Alfa. It was front-wheel-drive with a turbocharged four cylinder Mazda engine and five-speed manual transmission. It was made in Australia and was the first car they ever exported.
Sold only in the USA as a Mercury and at home as a Ford with right-hand-drive and no airbag.
This is my own brochure pictured below.
The car was gobs of fun and it was my first: Australian car and Mazda anything. I miss it, but my current car is WAY better in every way except it's not a convertible.
Next up by model year and that I have the brochure got with it, at sixteenth and only my SECOND new car and first from the 1990's: a 1993 Ford Escort LX wagon.
It replaced the useless 1989 Grand Am. I even installed a sunroof in it! Boy, drilling that first hole was the no-turning-back point!
Above is exactly what it looked like.
For the next car in the chronology, I have no brochure. It sits at nineteenth and was a black 1996 Chrysler Sebring JXI convertible.
I traded the Escort in on it for my wife to drive. She enjoyed it's luxury for many years.
Another 1996 model year car in the list at twenty-forth is a 1996 Chevy Camaro Z-28.
When we still owned the Porsche, I had learned that late-model Camaros could be had for little money.
I wanted to get rid of the Porsche because I did not know when the timing belts had last been changed. That was vital to keep the engine alive.
So, I traded it for the Z-28. Ours was white outside with charcoal leather interior. 350 LT-1 V8 (5.7 liters) with six-speed manual transmission. Sixth was double-overdrive. At 60 mph it was turning only 1,200 RPM. It had the obligatory T-Tops, but I refused to grow a mullet. Images are from my own brochure.
I replaced the air cleaner, etc. with a cold-air intake setup and the stock exhaust with a Magnaflow cat-back system. That raised the stock 285 horsepower to about 300.
I replaced the Z-28 fog lights (above) with Hella driving lights.
Ours looked like the one above, but a hardtop.
I included this image to show just how sleek these cars are. This is a base V6 model shown.
Next at seventeenth is
only my THIRD new car: A 1997 Dodge Stratus ES.
Actually it was bought
for my wife, I still had the Escort. When I bought her the Sebring, I
inherited the Stratus. She drives a stick shift as well as I do.
We had special ordered it (I still have the
personalized window sticker) with Candy Apple red paint and a cassette
deck radio as the only options. The ES model already was very well outfitted.
From my own brochure:
Nice looking interior. Quite comfortable too.
Another 1997 that we still have, but no brochure for and standing at twenty-first is our Ford Ranger XLT crew cab pickup. Well over 200,000 miles on it and going strong. Got it via eBay for HALF of Blue book value. Our first and hopefully last up truck.
Another two that I should mention, but have no brochures for are: a mid-1980's Chevy S-10 Blazer. An oil-smoking beater we got for our teenager that we bought for our teenager to drive.
The Ranger was too nice for a teen to drive. So, we paid $600 cash for the Blazer. It was rear-ended a few weeks later and pushed into the truck in front of her. Our daughter was fine, but they totaled it. Insurance paid us $2,100 for it! Gotta love that!
The other is a 2002 Saturn Coupe we traded the Sebring for. My wife didn't keep it for long. That was twentieth in the order and the S-10 technically twenty-second but it didn't stay long.
Next in the chronology is a 2000 model year car. I sold the Z-28 and my 2002 WRX wagon (yet to be shown) in order to buy it: An Audi TT quattro. It comes in at twenty-sixth:
These images are all from my own brochure.
The spoiler plus some under-car aero aids create down-force and they added software tweaks to the stability control programing.
Yes, that is FIVE valves per cylinder. To my knowledge an industry first. Two intakes and three exhaust valves.
Ours was denim blue inside and out. A first model year exclusive. The engine had been highly modified by a previous owner so output was around 270 horsepower.
It was QUICK! I loved it so much but over time expensive things started breaking. So, onto eBay it went and soon it was off to Kentucky.
(The fourth new car purchase was again for my wife. She drove a friend of my daughters, Scion TC and decided she HAD to have one. So, we ordered a 2005 and she just recently traded it in on a used 2014 Ford Escape. Like the Capri it has a 1.6 liter turbo engine and it is four-wheel-drive. She is very happy with it.)
Second-to-now is next in the chrono-list, and first of my the-kids-are-grown-now-it's-time-for-fun-cars, a: 2002 Subaru WRX wagon, in WRC blue. My first (but far from last) turbocharged engine, first all-wheel-drive too. From my own brochures. It comes in at twenty-third:
Because of the textured paper they used, making pictures of these was tricky.
Above is a wagon in silver. Below is the interior. Momo wheel is stock. Blue in the seats is not as obvious in real life.
Finally, at twenty-eighth is my current car. A 2005 Volvo V50 wagon. A FANTASTIC car that I adore! All images are from my brochures.
This is the cover of a teaser brochure that preceded the car's launch by several months.
Above is most of the cover of the actual multiple page brochure.
This appears to be the color of mine, metallic gray.
Note the "floating center stack" the cars have. Nice storage for CDs behind it.
That tiny wheel provides explosive acceleration. I mean it, stomp the "loud pedal" and tire-smoking, push-you-back-in-the-seat pressure ensues. I love it!
I describe my car's interior as "many shades of gray" but they clearly call it "Umbra Brown/Quartz Beige". I love the multiple colors and super comfortable and what so many cars deny me: plenty of leg room.
A few cars in the long list lacked brochures so no pictures. You should be able to find images of them if you really are curious what they look like. BTW, Datsun is what Nissan cars used to be called long ago. Go ahead and Google "Datsun F-10" to see how hideous looking they were. My ex-wife, before we met bought one new in bright yellow with a huge glass sunroof. Talk about a LACK of leg room in that car!
Thanks for looking, it took me MANY hours of work to compile all this and I appreciate all of you and the time you take to read my humble blog. Over 81,000 page views so far!
Scott
Updated, January 12, 2022
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