A Picture That Would Make 81X11 Cry

Found this while digging thru some old photos tonight. Wheres your wash bucket man? There is two weeks of road salt and 1500 miles on that car

and this'll make him smile,.

What is this "salt" you speak of?

Stingroo wrote:

What is this "salt" you speak of?

For you its something you put on the rim of a margarita glass. For me, its the death rattle of any car on the road

Ouch! I think I can hear that poor Lumina rusting through that picture. Salt belong on french fries and margarita glasses, not cars. PLEASE go to the car wash!!!

And yes Nick, I miss my X-11, and all my Citations...well except mayby for the orange 4cyl.... X-cars were junk but X-11's were funny junk.

81X11 wrote:

Ouch! I think I can hear that poor Lumina rusting through that picture. Salt belong on french fries and margarita glasses, not cars. PLEASE go to the car wash!!!

Sadly, that car has been gone for 3 years. Shoulda never traded it in. Even with all the salt there was not one spot of rust on that thing. Ran like a champ too. And for the record, I washed it like two days later after my friends wrote "wash me" and "what color am I?" all over it

first car I ever drove on a public road was a red 1980 v-6 four door. I was 14 and my buddy wanted alone time with his girl (was his mom's car, no less) I pull out of the corner by the house and a deputy is RIGHT behind me. I drive as steady as I can and he turns off after a couple of blocks. With confidence in my new found lawlessness, I cranked up the stereo and was off to Mickey Ds. I was alot more careful about who I pulled out in front of on the return trip, lol.

LOL Awesome. I only drove underage once. It was fun but I'm glad I don't have to deal with that anymore.

My first underage drive was at 13 or 14.We camped out just about every weekend at a permanent site that we had rented for years.There was a small
airfield that bordered the campgrounds border and they had a small convienence store that sold gas and essentials and it was about 2 miles from the
campsite.I could ride my motorcycle to the store in the woods or drive our 65 galaxie 500 wagon on the primary road.At first dad would only let me drive
to the store with him and once I proved myself I bet I put 20 miles a weekend on that wagon every weekend.I could get that wagon up to about 60 on the way to that store but only when I was alone due to tattletale younger siblings.We need to start a post with our earliest wagon memories both good
and bad.
Take Care
Jim Gordon

1980 X-cars were terrible. The rear wheels locked under light braking and the emission controls were horrible. They started selling X-cars in 1979 but all were called 80's. They were voted Car of the Year, made the covers of all the magazines, and were the best selling car in the USA. And then the recalls and lawsuits started....they improved yearly after that, but the public had been burned and by 1986 they were all gone.

I actually got my first X-car at age 15, pumping Amoco gas in Bernardsville New Jersey. Had a regualar customer that drove a baby doo-doo brown '83 4dr. One day he showed up in a new Plymouth Sundance his company gave him. I asked about the Citation, he said it was sitting in his driveway and he was going to have it towed away. He offered it to me for $50. My first automotive purchase. It was a V6/automatic car, and had been the guy's commuter since new.

I of course didn't have a license, so my Mom drove my Dad and I to get it. My Dad was pissed, he knew X-cars were junk and I bought it without talking to him first, but a deal was a deal.

The car was filthy, had a cracked exhaust manifold bolt so it was loud, and driving it home we discovered it had no working heat or a/c, if you floored it to pass the tranmission would fall into neutral instead of passing gear, and the power steering would come and go at will....kindy scary manhandling around a corner and then BANG the power steering would kick in and you'd be heading for the ditch.

When I got the car home I gave it a bath...which didn't help much. The paint had checked all along to top in typical 80's GM fashion, the lower doors were rusting and it had dents here and there, the plasti-chrome on the grill and headlight trim had all peeled off, and the tires were rotten.

That night I went out with some friends and came home to find my father SCRUBBING the entire interior...vaccume, Armour All, and glass cleaner at his side. see where I get it from??? The car was an upper-level CS model, and had cloth bucket seats, carpet on the door panels, pull straps and such, and it cleaned up well.

Between getting the car and getting my license I put Celebrity Eurosport wheels on it, a good Alpine stereo and 4 speakers, a CB (pre cell phone remember), and fixed as much mechanically as I could.

I did learn a lot with that car....like the fact that the rear seat folded flat to the cargo area and was more than long enough for a sleeping bag...which would have been a useful feature if most girls weren't repulsed by the car itself...ha!

When I was 17 I found a really special silver '83 X-11 for $500. It was a former SCCA racer, special ordered with no a/c, no p/s, radio delete, and the uplevel cloth interior because it was lighter weight than the base vinyl seats! It has the 4-spd and HO V6, and it was the fastest X-car I ever had.

I had a lot of the goofy things over the years. It's funny how our first cars effect us. if I'd never bought that brown 4dr Citation I doubt I ever would have even looked at an X-11 model.

Even though it's TECHNICALLY my 3rd car, I consider the wagon my first. My girlfriend is already afraid that there will always be one in the house (there probably will be )

My first underage drive was at a salvage yard in Rutland Vermont. My best friends father was a professor at Drew University, and one of his former students opened that salvage yard. They kept in touch, and he knew what a car nut my friend was.

I got to go up there twice, had a ball both times. The yard was shaped like a doughnut, trees in the center and cars all around the edges, and a perfect round "racetrack" road in the middle. The yard was closed on Sundays, and we were let loose to "drive".

The yard car the first time was an old Subaru 4WD station wagon.....and a stick to boot. We were 13, and it was a crash course in standard transmission usage! Such fun barreling through the mud and slush, it was COLD, that Subie was a rusty POS, but man you could not stick it...but I could sure STALL it, and grind it's poor gears!

The next trip up the yard car was a mid 70's Plymouth Fury sedan, looked like a cop car and had a big engine. We were 14, and we WAILED that rusty thing around the yard. Great fun! Good memories.

I hate to say it but my 8 year old has "driven" a lot already, both on the hunting ranch and on the beach down at Padre Island...in my lap of course. He started the Suburban at the age of 6....he's had a 4-wheeler since he was 5 so he had the basics. You can drive for MILES down the beaches of North Padre Island. As long as you stay off the dunes you are not likely to get stuck, and it's a great place to let the kids drive. I think his favorite trip was when we took my Firebird and he sat on my lap and we drove WAYY down the beach. I let his press the gas and brake and he had a ball...so did I. Being a parent is fun. ; )

This last trip we took the '86 Caprice and my friends son and daughter got to sit on my lap and run up and down the beach. Can't beat drifting a taxi cab in the sand with a car load of laughing kiddos...ha! They had a ball.

In the not-to-distant future I'll be needing to lock the car keys up!!

Love those last pics with the kids driving on your lap...my Dad used to let me do that in our 1976 Malibu Wagon! Still remember doing that to this day.

Yep they love it and hope it gives them good memories. Dunes on one side and water on the other. I remember doing that with my Dad as a kid. Fun stuff!