Sorry what? Got Distracted. May be NSFW

It's heaven, I tell you. Sheer heaven.
People look for a corvette or a Ferrari or something for their midlife crisis mobile. There isn't anyplace to turn something like that loose around here, so I'm looking for a 60s caddy.
/ former owner of:
66 impala, 68 LTD, 66 Coupe deVille, took the road test for my dl in a borrowed 68 Bonneville.

It was farkin' sweet, that's what it was.

When I was in hi skul, the OL' Man had one of these:



Pontiac Bonneville, 455 V-8. I have documentary proof from the NC Highway Patrol that it will do 105 MPH on Hwy 70 outside of Atlantic Beach.

Lost my virginity in the back seat. Not only was there room for two people to lay flat, there was even room to cuddle afterwards. Take that, you green weenies and your eco-mobiles.

Since dad was an aviator, he had the optional SW radio package, so we would listen to something other than shiat-kicker or holy-roller music while we went about our business in that back seat. Bench seat forward, too, so you could slide over (no head rests to impede your progress). No getting out of the car to make the move, in case the ground was muddy on that logging road you were parked on.

Another good thing about bench seats - your sweetie could sit right next to you, "helping you drive" as we called it, while you cruised the crowd at the beach. Gas was a quarter a gallon and a sixer of Bud tallboys was $1.25.

/lawn, off

My wife has shown me pictures of the car she drove around as a teenager - a massive mid-80s Buick land yacht.

I kind of wish she still had it.

It's kind of sad that the don't make some of the types of cars that I remember from when I was a kid (station wagons, cars with bench seats in front, etc.). Now all there are is same-looking sedans and SUVs.

This was my father's but I drove it often. What a crappy color, and so hard to park.

Drove a hearse conversion of a land-yacht Caddy for a while.

Now, I'm too young to have lived through the era.  Any old-timers?  Were parking spaces bigger back in the day?  Because, from pictures and from old unreconstructed parking lots, they often look smaller and more frequently "90 degree" than most modern lots.  And it's a royal biatch to park a land yacht in many modern lots.

The pictures could be deceiving (since all the 60s cars were manatees), but some of the 60s-era stores I've seen... I can't imagine getting a 60s Buick into.  Were drivers just much better?

First car bought with my own money, great A/C, BIG back seat (wink, wink)

People can still use a car from 1967, or a plane for that matter. How about a computer?

Quantum Apostrophe: People can still use a car from 1967, or a plane for that matter. How about a computer?

If only information processing required very little energy and materials and we could make it so cheap and small that even poor people could have several of them, sometimes even without knowing it...

=Smidge=
/Like the cars, computers from 1967 work just as good today as they did when they were made. Probably more so than the cars, actually...

ybishop: First car bought with my own money, great A/C, BIG back seat (wink, wink)
[www.autogush.com image 850x565]

When the back seat wasn't big enough:


Mine was identical to this.  13mpg on a good day.

I've been looking for a '66 Galaxy 500 for a few months now.

Fond memories...

Went to work one day (late 80s), parked my 84 Chevette and went inside. I was early; a waitress asked if I'd take her car and fuel it up - a 66 Caddy. I got in, and the first thing I noticed was that I could fit my car in the passenger seat...

1966 Oldsmobile Delta 98 Luxury Sedan.  Plenty of room front or back.



/drank gas

"Old Lady Tan" 82 Buick Electra 2 door with a landau top. Bought it from the old guy next door. Damn thing was a tank. Slept in the trunk a couple times, stretched right out...

My first car was a 1979 Olds Delta 88. It had seen better days when I got it handed down to me from the family in 1991, but it was still a fun drive. I got my first two speeding tickets in that thing because it was so easy to open it up on the highway. The 8-track still worked and my neighbor gave me his old classic rock 8-tracks, so it was fun rolling down the road listening to Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap and Women and Children First.

Once bought a '73 Plymouth Satellite from a little old lady who bought it new.  4 door, 318 engine, nothing special, but I loved that car.  Would do a 100 with no effort and you felt like you were just gliding.  Could fit 6 people with room to spare.  Lived in the back of it for a few weeks one summer.  Sadly - a friend borrowed it one night and t-boned a Cadillac with it.

A little while after that I was out for a drive and saw a '66 Buick Le Sabre for sale.  Bought it on the spot for $400.  2 door, 340 engine - and massive.  Friends would ask me if the Navy tried to commission it as a battle cruiser.  Looked great, but sadly it didn't run all that well - spent more time trying to fix it rather than drive it.  Drove it one day back to college, and it broke down - just decided to leave it there and let the state figure out what to do with it.

I'm not sure my '75 Malibu Classic qualified as a land yacht under these rules, but it was by far my favorite car ever.  It was like driving a living room.  Fantastic in the snow - like a tank.  And it was just as happy cruising at 125 as it was at 55.  Great times.

Dad occasionally let me take the helm of his 66 Catalina.

Generation_D: First car: 1965 Impala with 3 on the tree shifting and manual brakes/steering.

You punks try and drive one of those with 16 year old stick arms and legs. That thing was better than going to the gym. Try backing up to parallel park.

Oh hells yeah. Those old manual steering racks were something like 4-5 revolutions lock to lock. So you went out and got one of these from Manny, Moe, and Jack:



Attach it to the steering wheel so you could roll that thing while parking. When I was cleaning out my dad's house I found the old steering wheel ball from that Pontiac, he had actually saved it when he sold the car. I have it mounted in my garage as a reminder of the days when you could see the gas gauge move when you floored that V-8.

You don't have to go back that far:


THAT was a great car.

How I miss thee..


http://www.velocityjournal.com/images/stk/1967/fd1967thunderbird01.j pg

Earguy: It was pretty awesome.

You know how people talk about having sex in the back seat of a car?  And you look at the back seat of your car and wonder how people did it?  Go to a local classic-car show and check out a late-50s Cadillac.  I'm six feet tall and can lay flat in it.

Is that what TFA was talking about?

it's easier to get in and waaaaaaaaaaaaaay easier to pull out.

In in the early '80s my dad had a '64 Lincoln Continental convertible that looked just like this:


Compared to "my" car, a '74 Oldsmobile Delta 88 I inherited from my grandmother, or the van my mom had for her company, it drove like a dream. Compared to just about any other car I've owned since it wasn't so great.

Smidge204: Quantum Apostrophe: People can still use a car from 1967, or a plane for that matter. How about a computer?

If only information processing required very little energy and materials and we could make it so cheap and small that even poor people could have several of them, sometimes even without knowing it...

=Smidge=
/Like the cars, computers from 1967 work just as good today as they did when they were made. Probably more so than the cars, actually...

Yes, please demonstrate how somebody can just go find a 1967 computer, the multi-kilowatt three phase power supply, the room and know how to operate it. You can look at a 1960s car and know it's a car, sit in it and drive it. A 1960s computer? Come on. You are so farking stupid it's either sad or hilarious. I have no idea what you are trying to demonstrate by quoting me, since I am 100% correct, and just exposes your monumental ignorance and arrogance in one simple post.

The 1960s car will still get you to the supermarket like a modern car, within maybe 50% of the gas usage. The 1960s computer will not perform the same amount of calculations for the same energy as a modern computer, it's off by several orders of order of magnitude!

Why? Because our information processing technology has changed in the same way our moving and energy technology hasn't. That's why you Space Nutters better get used to this rock!

Why? Because information processing requires very little energy and materials. It just took several decades for our capacity to build *small enough things* to catch up to the theoretical limits.

Are you also claiming that computers DON'T require far less material and energy to operate these days? Or that computing power is so cheap it ISN'T running the fridge light?

I seriously have no idea what you are trying to say. Are you in an "institution" that needs you to be signed out if you want to leave?

=Smudge=

We had a variey of land-yachts when I was a kid.
My personal favorite was my '67 Ford Fairlane coupe.

Like this, only dark blue, and not as nice:



A girlfriend I had in high school drove a '72 Delta 88. the backseat was the size of a twin bed, and we frequently used it as one.

Mine was a 77 Plymouth Fury with a 440 Police Interceptor motor. I think it got gallons per mile. Could just about see the needle on the gas guage moving as you drove along.

midigod: I'm not sure my '75 Malibu Classic qualified as a land yacht under these rules, but it was by far my favorite car ever.  It was like driving a living room.  Fantastic in the snow - like a tank.  And it was just as happy cruising at 125 as it was at 55.  Great times.

[carphotos.cardomain.com image 575x431]

I had a '74.  That thing ruled!

64 Wildcat Convertible / 425 Nailhead with Dual 4 barrels, / I affectionately call her the 7 liter gas depleter .  Floats on the highway @ 80, also corners like a bull elk on ice.

Olds fan here. 1968 98, 4 dr., 1969 88 4 dr. and this beast. 1970 98 convertible.

Back in the early 90's my neighbor gave me a 76 AMC Ambassador 4 door.  I think he may have intended it as a joke, but it was in pretty decent shape and free so I wasn't going to argue.  A couple hundred bucks and one weekend was all it took for me and my dad to get it roadworthy again.  It may have been huge and ugly, but it was cheap to insure (I think $300 for 6 months of insurance.....dirt cheap for a 16 year old living in Michigan) and never left me stranded.

That car had this one feature that came in particularly handy though; the front bench seat would lay completely flat and fit perfectly against the back seat.  It was like having a queen sized bed where ever you went.  Oh, the AC was the coldest I have ever felt.  It had a setting labeled "desert only" and you could practically make ice with it.