ubertuber

This is my car. It's a 1977 Datsun 280z. It was my dad's car - he was the original owner. Because he was in the military and we moved around a lot, this car is the one thing I have memories of from childhood. I remember my dad picking me up from pre-school in this car... I could barely see out the windshield, and I'd look over at him shifting with one hand, driving with the other, and I knew that I had the coolest dad in the world.

It got its name when my little sister, in a fit of inarticulate contrariness spluttered that she "would never get in that, that...BOMBFIRE!" She was a little girl and didn't understand how cool the sound of the engine was as it changed tone through the powerband. She didn't understand that it was ok that the car only had a radio, that it only has one side mirror, or that you have to hold the handles up when you close the door or else the locks release. She definitely didn't appreciate the stiffness of the sport-tuned suspension. Whatever, I have always known that this car was the epitome of cool. It wasn't expensive, extravagant, or showy like a Porsche. It isn't mainstream like an old Corvette of Mustang. It's a light car with an engine that puts out moderate horse power at absurd levels of torque. It's for someone who loves driving.

When I drive it, I hardly go a day without someone giving me a thumbs-up at a stoplight, or an older guy asking me about it at the gas station. Other z owners (almost all of them with newer cars) nod in appreciation, or rev their engines to get my attention when they are stopped behind me. But all of that isn't what makes this car cool. It's that it has been in my family for longer than I have. It's the car that my dad's parents helped him buy. It's the car I rode to pre-school in, and it's the car that has followed our family to 9 houses. That's what makes it cool.

But here's the thing. It's in good shape. Not great, but within striking distance of a restoration. And I'm going to school. If things go well, I'll be in school and training until 2017 - when the bombfire will be 40 years old. I can't afford to fix it up right now, and I don't really have a place to keep it for the next decade. I'm not sure how I'll drag it 2,600 miles to Los Angeles later this month, and I sure as hell don't know where I'll put it while I'm there. I'm not even sure it would pass the more stringent emissions standards in California, so I might not be able to drive it. So, I'm thinking I may have to sell it. That's what my mother is pushing for. I think that would break my heart.

So this thread may be the place where you guys tell me to be less emotional about it and do the smart thing. Maybe it will be the place where you tell me to forget smart and keep this as a memory of my childhood and my dad when he was still invincible. Maybe it'll just be a eulogy...

Without further adieu, the bombfire:

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Cogito ergo spud -- I think, therefore I yam

amonkie

One of my friend's dad had an original Sting Ray - to this day he regrets selling it.

There are some things you can never put a price tag on - and the fact that your dad hung onto this car through all the moves, and now has held onto it for you- This is a legacy in the making.

Hell I'll even help on the committee to figure out exactly how we're gonna keep this car in your hands. I've heard you rave about it too much to want to see you hanging your head in regret in 5 years.

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Calling from deep in the heart, from where the eyes can't see and the ears can't hear, from where the mountain trails end and only love can go... ~~~ Three Rivers Hare Krishna

abaya

Dude, I am in the same boat (er, ride) as you. My father bought a brand-new 1978 Trans Am, poured his heart and soul into that car... and died a year later, before I was born. You can imagine the sentiment that car still holds for me, since it was the most physical link I had to my father.

My mom drove me all over the place in that car when I was a kid, and I listened to my dad's old Icelandic music tapes in that car. She saved it for me to drive when I turned 16, which I did... I may have been prime dork material in high school, but when I drove that car around the HS parking lot... I was cool. (I also had to sit on like 3 cushions to see over the steering wheel.) My friends and I had so much fun in that car... I made my own memories with it, and it became MY car, even though the primary link was to my father.

The car has always been housed at home, though, and since I left home (across the country/ocean) several years back now... no one drives it. In fact, since my mom moved out of our old (spacious) house and into a new (suburban cul-de-sac) one, the car has been hogging half the garage and people have to park on the street. She's been wanting to sell it for a long time, but I don't know what to say.

Truly, it's not fair for me to want her to keep it... I don't know when I'll ever be able to drive it again, let alone maintain it and give it the attention it deserves. Right now, she's stuck with the job, and the nostalgia. We'd get a couple thousand for it, MAYBE... but it's worth so much more than that to me. It's just storing and maintaining it that would take so much, and I can't give it right now. So I'm afraid we are going to have to sell it soon, hopefully to a good owner. After 30 years, man... I know how you feel.

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And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran

snowy

While my old ride wasn't as cool as your Z car (my aunt had one, and I thought it was AWESOME), I regret selling it. It was a 1989 240 Volvo--typical boxy Olaf Volvo, only a 4-cylinder, 105hp, but insane amounts of torque in 1st and 2nd gears. I could beat anyone across an intersection from a dead stop, but hills required a good running start. Because of its low-end power, I named the car Zippy. My parents were the original owners, and they passed it on to me.

The car I currently drive I will drive until it dies (a '94 Volvo 940 wagon). She is named Baby--as in she's my baby, because Baby is the car I learned to drive in, the car I took to prom, etc. When I almost wrecked her last winter attempting the pass in the snow (mistake), I cried. I don't want to lose this car--though since gas prices are going up, we'll be buying another car to keep Baby company this fall. I'm looking forward to hitting 200,000 miles in her--right now she has 186,000. She looks a little gnarly--my mom hit a stop sign and left a good-sized dent in her hood, and she also has a small dent from where my high school crush tried to slide across her hood on his ass and didn't make it. Plus, the leather seats in the front have extensive sun damage and need seat covers, and her air conditioner doesn't work. But she keeps rolling along.

You're not at all alone in being sentimentally attached to your vehicle. I love Baby so much, and I miss Zippy terribly. Take care of Bombfire, and may you have a long, happy, loving relationship with your Z car.

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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

QuasiMondo

If you sell it, you'll regret it. Trust me. Not a moment goes by where I don't miss my li'l CRX. Start checking craigslist for long term parking places, and don't some storage places have bays big enough to put a car in? If you can find that, drive it in, put it on jackstands, and have a nice surprise waiting for you in 2017.

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Cameron originally envisioned the Terminator as a small, unremarkable man, giving it the ability to blend in more easily. As a result, his first choice for the part was Lance Henriksen. O. J. Simpson was on the shortlist but Cameron did not think that such a nice guy could be a ruthless killer.

-From the Collector's Edition DVD of The Terminator

Cynthetiq

nice ride that bombfire...

my father had a 280Z 2+2 (I don't recall the year) since he needed to haul the 4 of us around. It was the car that had a vanity plate of our nicknames for both me and my sister. I remember that car well too for the same reasons, it had an 8 track tape player in it. I recall all the cars my parents purchased and the dealerships they purchased them from as a child. I mostly recall it because I remember sitting in the dealership for the whole process.

anyways, nice ride.

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newtx

Find a way to store and keep the Z. Too many memories and way too cool a car to part with. Since it is legally an antique car the emmisions won't be a problem.

shakran

Look, get an apartment with a garage/carport option, and put the car in there. Put your daily driver in the parking space assigned to you. Or rent a mini storage garage. Do whatever it takes to hold on to that car because you'll never get another like it, and you'll regret forever having sold it. I currently have 4 cars that people really regret selling to me, and they're mad that I won't give them back. Don't make the same mistake they made

pig

uber,

i'd hold on to it until you're sure you don't want it, and then i'd probably still hold on it. if you need to, i'd think about leaving on the east coast when you take off for l.a. and check around to get a feel for where you might stash it out there. find something out there that will work as a storage option, then move it out on your first break with a little cross country drive.

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