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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Ragg Topp
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moron
Shipmate
# 206
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Posted
or
Convertibles You Have Loved (with apologies to the Ames Brothers)
My first one was a brand spanking new 1992 Suzuki Samurai 4x4 (set me back $3k) which, with the top down, was fun to drive albeit not a vehicle that rewarded attention lapses. ![[Eek!]](eek.gif) With the top up it was noisy at best and approached howling with a stiff cross wind at highway speed. And the front part of the top was attached in such a way you couldn't flip it open to have a sunroof effect.
Next were a couple three Suzuki Sidekick/Geo Trackers whose tops could be flipped open and overall the cars were much more user friendly than the Samurai although IMNSHO they weren't as capable off-roading.
Yesterday I purchased a 2006 Mazda MX-5 Miata and I am infatuated - this car is brilliant. Top opens in about five seconds and closes nearly as fast, and is quite quiet for a convertible. You can even feel resistance from air pressure when the door closes, if that makes sense to anyone.
Plus with the ~ 50/50 weight distribution it tracks like it's on rails. You can get used ones in good shape for not all that much money and if you appreciate the 'driving experience' it doesn't get much better, bang for the buck wise anyway.
Convertibles you have loved?
Posts: 4236 | From: Bentonville | Registered: May 2001
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Og, King of Bashan
Ship's giant Amorite
# 9562
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Posted
A friend of mine in college used to house sit for a retired professor when he was out of town. Any time that happened, he had access to the professors car, which was a 1984 gold Chrysler LeBaron convertible, complete with a tape deck and beaded seat covers. Mind you, it was 2003, so this was far from the coolest car on campus. (Link to a picture of a similar vehicle.) That didn't stop us from putting the top down, putting on our tweed sport coats, putting some tunes on the tape deck, and going cruising.
Who cares if the groups of women we drove by turned their heads because we looked ridiculous. In our minds, they were checking us out.
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"I like to eat crawfish and drink beer. That's despair?" ― Walker Percy
Posts: 3259 | From: Denver, Colorado, USA | Registered: May 2005
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BessLane
Shipmate
# 15176
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Posted
My first husband collected classic cars, and was particularly fond of convertibles. My favorite was the 63 Austin Healey. About the size of a roller skate, but so much fun to drive. The 74 Jag XKE was pretty awesome too though...
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It's all on me and I won't tell it.
formerly BessHiggs
Posts: 1388 | From: Yorkville, TN | Registered: Sep 2009
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
I learned to drive in a 1964 1/2 Mustang convertible just like this one! It was a blast to tool around in. My folks were trusting me to take my younger brother and sister to the places they needed to go, and, darn! We made all kinds of excuses why it made sense to keep the top down! ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
I taught my wife how to drive on our honeymoon in our 1969 Plymouth Fury III convertible; my sister had learned on it earlier when I was away at a summer job. It is green with a black top and interior. We still have it, but it has been off the road for awhile. It can seat seven in comfort.
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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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Eutychus
From the edge
# 3081
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Posted
In the days when I was still a full-time pastor, our family once borrowed a house in the Channel Islands for a holiday. Given the price of putting a car on a ferry, and knowing that many Channel Islanders have an old banger hanging around to do short trips on the island, we asked the family whose house we were staying in if they had one we could borrow.
They agreed.
The "spare car" turned out to be a Mercedes 280 convertible. I don't think we have a photo of that holiday in which the car does not feature.
(and if we ever did get bored with the Merc, there was a Citroen Visa convertible available for use too...)
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Let's remember that we are to build the Kingdom of God, not drive people away - pastor Frank Pomeroy
Posts: 17944 | From: 528491 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sir Kevin:
... It can seat seven in comfort.
I think the technical term for a convertible that can seat seven is "open-topped bus".
Eutychus, that Merc is about as cool as a Merc could ever be. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Lucia
Looking for light
# 15201
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Posted
Ah the memories!
As a teenager my older sister's boyfriend and his friend had a convertible Triumph Spitfire (Mk4 I believe) and convertible Triumph Herald. Memories of driving around in said Herald as teenagers with music blasting out and generally having a good time.
My sister's boyfriend (now my brother-in-law) spent about an year totally stripping down and rebuilding the Spitfire in my parent's garage (they were very tolerant of not being able to use it for all that time). I remember the engine being stripped down on the kitchen table!
I remember also monthly meetings of the local branch of the Triumph Sports 6 club at a local pub which mainly involved drinking beer while peering under bonnets in the pub carpark!
These cars gave me an early love of open top motoring!
Later in my 20's I had a boyfriend who drove a convertible S series TVR. (The car turned out to be the best thing about him...) A car that was great fun to drive around in and the only car that I have ever traveled at more than 100mph in. We went to occasional TVR club meetings including a memorable one at Brands Hatch where I was scared witless being driven round the track at high speed!
Then there was my last boyfriend, now my husband of 18 years, who owned a grey convertible Triumph TR7. Very happy memories of our courting days driving around in that. They were not great cars in many ways (mechanically, reliability etc) but it was a lot of fun. I used to joke I only married him for the car but sadly it got written off in an accident only a few months after we married.
We still tell ourselves that one day when we no longer have to cart kids around with us we might get a two seater convertible again and relive those days.
Posts: 1075 | From: Nigh golden stone and spires | Registered: Oct 2009
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
A 1967 Fiat 500 convertible - no, not the cool topolino, the later car.
The top rolled back, like a blind. It was definitely NOT waterproof, either around the sides or in general.
But where it scored was that when my 6'5" friend drove the car (with knees either side of the steering wheel) he could roll back the top and then sit with his head fitting through the gap.
A great car, made the round trip from the UK to Italy and back with few problems, even being done for speeding (downhill, naturally).
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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moron
Shipmate
# 206
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lucia:
(The car turned out to be the best thing about him...) A car that was great fun to drive around in and the only car that I have ever traveled at more than 100mph in.
(At least there was that. sigh)
And you haven't lived until you've gone 140mph in a 1969 (if memory serves - it was my friend's) Dodge Road Runner (440 cubic inches and 4 barrel carb, and geared tall - with the auto choke when cold it idled at ~20mph in first ![[Hot and Hormonal]](icon_redface.gif) ) with at best sketchy suspension , fortunately the roads were straight and barren of traffic.
Posts: 4236 | From: Bentonville | Registered: May 2001
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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by piglet:
quote:
Originally posted by Sir Kevin:
... It can seat seven in comfort.
I think the technical term for a convertible that can seat seven is "open-topped bus"....
Actually, it's more of a boat!
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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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Stercus Tauri
Shipmate
# 16668
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Posted
After more than half a century I still haven't forgiven an aunt for dumping the boyfriend who took me for rides in his Austin Healey, a car that still arouses lust in my heart. But many years later I had a Triumph Stag, which I had also lusted after terribly when I was a student. It was past its prime when I bought it, but it was still ravishingly good looking (to my eye) and very fast. A lovely beast, but I couldn't afford to rebuild the engine, and ended up selling it to someone in the Netherlands for a price that might have sent a good Catholic straight to the confessional. It's been good presbyterian VW diesels since then.
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Thay haif said. Quhat say thay, Lat thame say (George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal)
Posts: 905 | From: On the traditional lands of the Six Nations. | Registered: Sep 2011
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