I am sitting in a long hauler bus and it is 7 am. I woke up an our earlier and in three and half hours I will see, lets hope so, my next car. If it appears to be as advertised, it will be another four hours drive back. A perfect way to spend a saturday.
The red MX-5, which this blog originally was about, was sold one year ago. I had it for over ten years and it basically was nothing but a pleasure. Sure, we had some downhills too, but really there was nothing wrong with that car. And boy oh boy, that 8500 rpm redlining 173 bhp naturally aspirating four banger was pure ear candy. Despite all of that somehow my thoughts began to shift towards older vehicles, perhaps ones with a hint of historical value and 70's flowing body lines.
So why has it taken a year to get to this point? I went to see and test drive a couple of candidates during the summer while last winter was spent with other activities. Two BMW 1502s fell into 70's category. BMW's driver oriented reputation compensated the lack of flow in the body styling. The better example was in very good condition but unfortunately the lack of use was clearly felt in the ride quality. A couple of Datsun 180B's were on offer too. The better one was in original condition, reasonably priced and to no one's surprise was sold in couple hours. The other one, which was in SSS trim, revealed to be in poor condition. Most of the bits and pieces were there but the corrosion was wide spread and the paint was - well, a money pit with a capital p.
I even explored the early 80's super car option. Early Porsche 928s were very tempting in many ways. The better samples are expensive for a reason and vice versa. I drove one 928S with automatic transmission. It had over 200 thousand klicks on the odo and six or more owners. How should I put it? In the kind of condition a Porsche 928 deserves to be, that car would have been a wonderful piece of German engineering. But that one was not. And I was not going to be the one who spends a fortune to bring it to the original glory.
So here I am sitting in a bus with three more hours to go. Will that 42 years old, low mileage, four seater, two door sedan win my heart? Most likely yes, but nothing is sure until it is sure.
