Cars were one of my very first interests. Apparently, I would spend hours in my crib as a toddler looking out the window at the cars driving by. And my favorite toys were Matchbox and Hot Wheels die-cast miniatures. The first cars I was ever a passenger in were my dad's 1962 Corvette and my mom's 1965 Corvair Monza, and while both of these cars were pretty cool, I think my memories of them are mostly from pictures and home movies. By the time I was developing my earliest permanent memories, both cars had been traded in for a 1969 Ford LTD which was a lot less exciting.

Despite being a confirmed "car guy" my entire life, my car history is actually a bit spotty. If I was ever important enough to be a guest on the British car show Top Gear, I would definitely get slammed. Still, I find that less-than-spectacular vehicles often have a certain charm that can be hard to pin down and to articulate to others. Following is a list of all of the cars that I've either owned or driven extensively, along with a description of their positive aspects as well as their quirks.

1977 DATSUN B210

I learned to drive on my dad's old Datsun B210, a brown, two-door hatchback with a 1.4 liter inline 4-cylinder engine and a 4-speed manual transmission. These cars were extremely reliable from a mechanical standpoint, but unfortunately the combination of cheap steel and poor rust-proofing meant that the bodies started to rot almost immediately. And the performance wasn't great either, although the manual transmission helped a little with that. We spent several weeks practicing in the elementary school parking lot at the bottom of our street, and I slowly but surely got the hang of the clutch and the extremely heavy, non-power steering. Once I got my license, I was occasionally allowed to drive it to school, and I actually still remember how thrilling that was.

1979 PONTIAC GRAND PRIX LJ

I inherited a 1979 Pontiac Grand Prix from my uncle when I was still in high school in early 1986 or so, and this was the first car that actually belonged to me. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the real thing, but I did love this car and still remember it like I just drove it to school yesterday. The two-tone silver paint and fake red velour seats were definitely classy with a capital "C." :-) This was also the first car that I ever drove that had a V8 engine, although it was a measly 301 with only 135 horsepower, which coupled with the automatic transmission meant it was pretty much slow as molasses. My friend and I took it out to a deserted rural road when I first got it, and he timed me while I accelerated from zero to sixty MPH several times in a row. The fastest time I was able to get was just over 14 seconds, slow even by eighties standards. Still, it had a decent V8 rumble, was very comfortable with the adjustable electric seats, and overall I think it was a pretty good first car.