Retro car dreams

[Paul]

I keep having dreams of the retro cars I once owned.  The dreams work out something like this: I realize that my parents have kept an old car of mine in their 3 car garage.  I visit them, and the car is in perfect shape.  I drive it, and am thrilled about it.

Often, this dream revolves around the 1990 Nissan Micra I once owned.  Last night, I dreamed of the 1981 Mazda GLC I learned to drive on and drove when I first got my license.  It got snowed in, so I had to shovel it out.

Here's some random pics for reference:

Imagine this, in orange.  That was my Mazda GLC (I'll find some real pictures later):



Here's a picture of the actual 1990 Nissan Micra I owned; you can see how awesome it looked:



That last picture is exactly how it looks in my dream; all shiny and new.

[RobertB]

     Heh, I don't dream about specific cars.  I dream about what happens in a car.  I've had several of the same dream in all these years.  In the dream, I'm driving some generic large car, and then for some reason, the car goes into a 360 spin.  Nothing bad ever happens in the spin, i.e., no accident happens.  I'm safe and sound, even after the spin.

                 Truly,
                 Robert Bernardo
                 Fresno Commodore User Group
                 http://videocam.net.au/fcug
                 July 24-25 Commodore Vegas Expo 2010 - http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

[Paul]

I've done that once before.  It was in an '86 Mazda 626.  The thing looked like Knight Rider, with a 5 speed stick shift, 2L engine, digital dash, and an excellent stereo system with a 9 band equalizer and joystick speaker control.  Wouldn't you know it, I don't think I have a single picture of that car, which is a shame.  I would do a retro restoration on one just for the interior alone.  I was driving down 2 lane blacktop with a fresh dusting of snow, making it difficult to see the center line.  I was young and inexperienced.  I took the passenger side tire over the edge, overcompensated when I pulled it back on, and went into a spin.  Ended up on the other side of the road, facing in the opposite direction, completely unharmed.  Watching the world move across the windshield like that was surreal.

I'm sad to say that car went prematurely.  The coolant leaked out of the engine, which warped the head.  I bought a junkyard engine for it, and decided to let my cousin, the budding mechanic, do it.  He hacked the wiring harness, which was over an inch thick, in half.  After that, he abandoned the job, and the cost of getting that job done was prohibitively expensive after he did that. 

[Paul]

I found a picture of an '86, like mine, but mine was dark blue with the moonroof:



Yes, mine had the damn HEADLIGHT WASHERS, if you can believe it!  It also had a button to change the suspension from sport mode to touring mode.  It was unbelievable the options that came on this car.

Living in the snow belt, I can't tell you how helpful those headlight washers were in the wintertime for washing off the salt spray that always clouds and dims headlights.

[Paul]

Found a picture of the instrument cluster...