1977 triumph TR7. Birthday present when I turned 16 in 1978. Really fun but extremely-underpowered car
I'll take that over my first car any day of the week. Mine was a poorly repainted used 1970 light blue plain-Jane Chevelle that I quickly found out burned oil like crazy, which lead me to question my older brother's sage advice that "It's a great car at a great price; you HAVE to buy it!". After killing the planet for a few years, I moved onto somewhat better wheels and something that burned NO oil at all, having learned my lesson the hard way. But one thing of note: growing up my uncle owned/ran the best local body shop in my small town. He proudly fixed up a 1967 Mustang coupe (red with white interior) that looked in MINT shape. I'd drool over it every time I dropped by his shop and was quickly told it was for my cousin (his son and my same age) for his first vehicle. While I was out buying oil for my Chevelle, it sat for several years because my cousin was NEVER getting his driver's licence. Then my uncle gave up and sold the Mustang (he had a ton of interest in it) but then fixed up (removed all rust, did all body work, repainted perfectly and did the once-over on the engine and everything else) a 1974-ish low mileage Volkswagen Karmann-Ghia convertible that once again looked PRISTINE. He again informed me that it was for his son when he got his licence. That again sat for a couple years...until my uncle finally gave up and stopped setting aside vehicles. My cousin didn't get his licence until age 30 (14 years after me) and I was told it likely had something to do with late night trips with his father to highway crash scenes where deceased people or what was left of them, would be seen on the highway. So in some ways understandable (? NOT in my books!) but for a wanna-be nice-car-owner like me, it was torture to see those 2 cars sit and sit and sit...
The final end to that story and since this is a Chev-related Forum...my first
new vehicle was a 1984 Z28 which I bought at age 25 just after I completed my "apprenticeship" for my current career and started making more than $1,200/month so I could afford the 4-year financing payments. I was set on buying a "sensible car" but drove through the parking lot of a Chevy dealer and spotted a grey Z28 for sale. Thinking it was a vehicle for "18 year old's" I thought I'd never buy it but decided to take a test-drive for fun. Surprisingly, I fell in love with its steering and acceleration so I was immediately hooked. I drove it back to my old home town to proudly show it to my uncle (more of a car-nut than me) and was completely deflated when he pointed out it was a "built on Friday car", since it had about 12 different shades of grey to its various components (fenders, hood, trunk, quarter panels, you get the idea) which he said were the left over parts thrown together to create my "Frankenstein". He was a paint expert so quickly spotted the differences from the comfort of his living room. About a year later I drove it through a tornado-induced hail storm so it needed a complete paint job. After that and when visiting my uncle again, w/o any prompting he congratulated me on having a vehicle that was now one shade of grey...
I still miss my uncle and know he would have been fascinated by my C8 although I shudder to think what he'd say about its silver paint job. LOL.