QOTD: Your Most Fun Summer Wheels?

Matthew Guy
by Matthew Guy

This first week of August finds us in the thick of summer, battling heat and mosquitos in equal measure. One summertime treat that has faded from your author’s life now he’s knocking on his fortieth year? The purchase of a summer car.

You know exactly the kind of summer car I’m talking about. It’s a beater, bought for peanuts and likely ending its life at the end-of-summer demolition derby. In between, though, full-throttle blasts and the lack of concern for dents and bumps (in both the car and myself, if we’re honest) lend themselves to the creation of a roster of stories to be told and re-told at the local bar that winter after the car is long gone.

There is actually a decidedly odd but fun computer game on Steam called My Summer Car, a bizarre first-person program in which the protagonist finds themselves with a knackered old beater and the summer months to themselves. The parallels between some of this promotional video and your author’s late teens and early 20’s is alarming.

We’ll leave you with a brace of fun facts: yes, it is possible to get air in a Crown Vic despite it being rusted to the point of having the structural rigidity of a week-old salad. And it is difficult to gauge one’s speed when the only thing illuminated on the dashboard of a rough-but-ready 1986 Bonneville is an angry red warning light that reads “Engine.” Allegedly, of course.

Was your summer car a rusty Detroit barge from the ’60s? Was it a knackered and forgotten old minivan into which you could fit all your friends? Whatever it was, we are certain you lot have a story or three upon which to reminisce.

[Image: Murilee Martin/TTAC]

Matthew Guy
Matthew Guy

Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.

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  • ToddAtlasF1 ToddAtlasF1 on Aug 05, 2019

    I'd say my FIAT 124 Sport Spider fell into this category, but I remember driving it to a party, meeting someone there that I rode to a club with, and coming back to retrieve my car only to find the interior full of snow. I'm guessing I had it outside of the summer months.

  • Deneb66 Deneb66 on Aug 06, 2019

    My first car, a 1968 Dodge Dart with a slant 6. Bought it from the elderly lady next door who upgraded to an Aries K in 1982. It was a bucket of rust but it was mine. I can still remember the smell of the hot vinyl seats/interior cars had back then when you opened them up after sitting int he summer sun. Best part was the "fingertip power steering" or something those cars had. It was some crappy color like Butternut Gold. It's demise was a front wheel bearing that failed and sent the drivers side wheel off into traffic while pulling out of the hardware store parking lot. Lucky it rolled off into the weeds. It was replaced with a stout 1970 Chevrolet Nova that I wish I still had.

  • Lorenzo Heh. The major powers, military or economic, set up these regulators for the smaller countries - the big guys do what they want, and always have. Are the Chinese that unaware?
  • Lorenzo The original 4-Runner, by its very name, promised something different in the future. What happened?
  • Lorenzo At my age, excitement is dangerous. one thing to note: the older models being displayed are more stylish than their current versions, and the old Subaru Forester looks more utilitarian than the current version. I thought the annual model change was dead.
  • Lorenzo Well, it was never an off-roader, much less a military vehicle, so let the people with too much money play make believe.
  • EBFlex The best gift would have been a huge bonfire of all the fak mustangs in inventory and shutting down the factory that makes them.Heck, nobody would even have to risk life and limb starting the fire, just park em close together and wait for the super environmentally friendly EV fire to commence.
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