"How Many Cars Have YOU Had?”
By Bonnie Mueller
I first tried for my driver’s license when I turned 16. Since Oregon had parallel parking in place as part of the test I failed grandly! I didn’t even get to do the driving part…as soon as they saw I couldn’t get my folks’ 19 ½-foot Ford Ranch Wagon in the 20 foot space they sent me packing. I had to wait a short time before I could re-apply, so this next time I was ready! My dad had helped me by making me back up around and around a potato cellar we had on our property, round and around backwards, learning to control the car and see where I was.
Obviously I have had a love of driving for a long, long time! Jim and I sat down last night and wrote down every vehicle we have owned, 39 in all, and have raced all but 7 of them. Our 39th wedding anniversary is coming up this summer so we equate that to one vehicle for each year of marriage.
So here goes:
1) 1961 Ford Fairlane, my first car after I got my license at 16. Bought and paid for myself. Six cylinder, three on the column. No autocrossing, as I hadn’t seen one yet, but I did a little drag racing with my friends. (Don’t tell)
2) Jim’s 1969 Mustang, his first car he purchased after returning from Vietnam. He owned this car when we started dating in 1972. He started autocrossing with it in May 1972.
3) 1970 Honda SL 175 Motorcycle. I did ride it a little, but it was Jim’s.
4) 1972 Ford Pinto Runabout. My first new car, ordered with white vinyl roof, radio….new in June 1972, started autocrossing with it two weeks later in June 1972, what break-in time??
5) 1972 Ford Courier Pickup, first car we bought together. Yes, we autocrossed and hillclimbed it.
6) 1974 Porsche 914. Sold the Pinto in 1975 and bought this, ran in the first autocrosses ever at the Medford track, took many trophies, lots of fun running in C Stock at that time. Hillclimbed it also.
7) 1977 Honda Civic, drove to Eugene from K. Falls and traded in the Porsche on a brand new Civic. Hated to get rid of the Porsche but we wanted to go road-racing and SCCA had a class called SSC (Showroom Stock C) that we could afford if we had the Civic..so bye bye Porsche with many tears, we went road racing! Loads of fun. We had the bug. Autocrossed and hillclimbed it too of course.
8) 1968 Triumph Spitfire, bought it already built as a road-racing car, Jim primarily raced it in FP while I raced the Civic in SSC, it was always broken, didn’t get too many races out of it before we sold it.
9) 1974 Civic, had so much fun with one why not two? Owned them at the same time, of course autocrossed it too. I think it was faster of the two even though the other was a “CVCC”.
10) 1978 Fiesta “S”, great car. Bought it just to compete better at road-racing with the Rabbits. Great fun, autocrossed and hillclimbed it also.
11) 1980 Red Devil Formula 440, the F440 had a 440 cc snowmobile engine with a centrifugal clutch, very short wheel base, 520lbs. What a blast! Roadraced, autocrossed, and hillclimbed it everywhere we could.
12) 1979 Beautiful black brand spanking new Mercury Capri RS Turbo, these had just come out and we ordered ours with tan interior, special stripes….Jim was messing with it less than a year later in the garage….told me to fire it up and sure enough, we started the engine on fire; melted lots of wiring and stuff under the hood before we put it out….
13) So we got: a 1980 brand new red Mercury Capri Turbo 4. Same car, year newer. autocrossed and hillclimbed.
14) 1982 Mustang GT, beautiful red, FAST. Took it on a “quick trip” to Lake Tahoe in competition…another story later. Autocrossed, hillclimbed. We towed our F440 down to Lord Ellis Hillclimb for the weekend with it, had told our friend Dan McKennie we would let him drive the Capri and we would drive the Formula 440- boy did his eyes bug when he saw the brand new Mustang he would be driving for the first time instead of the Capri in the hillclimb !
15) 1984 Colt Turbo twin stick. A brute! Great hillclimber, autocrosser. Got the record in my class at Lord Ellis Hillclimb!
16) 1985 Bronco II. Tow and family rig only..one we did NOT race.
17) 1986 Dodge GLH Turbo…..probably one of my favorite all time cars we have owned. Many many hillclimbs, autocrosses, eventually sold it to my son Lorin.
18) 1984 Chrysler New Yorker Limo, owned it for a friend to use to rent, never raced it…duh!
19) 1969 Merlyn Formula Ford, purchased it after driving it in the 1987 Keno Hillclimb from our friend Rich Derry. Rich knew what he was doing by offering it to me to share! Took it off of turn 4 on the first ever Larison! Oops, not too much damage..drove it the next day. Set the engine on fire once at Freezeout Hillclimb, learned you can get out without removing the steering wheel – FAST!
20) 1990 Ford Aerostar Van 4wd. Great family van, towed great! Did NOT race.
21) 1984 VanDiemen FF 2000 (formula car) Fantastic fun and fast, Jim still has a record at Larison with it. Autocrossed, hillclimbed it all over. It was the first car we ever towed to Kansas for the Nationals; to Salina in 1993 to run in B Mod. That is where we caught the SCCA “Nationals” bug. Unfortunately the car got totaled in the 1994 Bogus Basin Hillclimb, still can’t bring myself to go back to Bogus Basin. Those things happen.
22) 1971 Corvette LT-1, I think I talked Jim into this one, thought we would want a classic car to restore. He did a great job of restoring it…we autocrossed it, thought we might want to do cruises, nah! Go, not show.
23) 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee, super tow rig, yes; we did autocross it.
24) 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee, did not autocross .
25) 1984 Ralt RT-5 Formula Atlantic. Bought it from an autocrosser in Utah who had won the National Championship with it in B Mod, we never quite attained that…autocrossed and hillclimbed it successfully but we had the engine too built for the tranny and we kept breaking gears, literally. Should have upgraded the gearbox, sold the car instead.
26) 1995 Neon Sport Coupe. Neons were all the rage at that time in autocross. Attended our first ever Pro Solo in Irvine, CA with it, got us hooked on Pro Solo.
27) 1997 Neon ACR, the one to have. One of my favorite cars ever.
28) 1998 Toyota Tacoma pickup. Autocrossed fantastic…put a locker in it, hillclimbed at Larison. Sold it to Lorin and it has been autocrossed & hillclimbed by him too.
29) 2000 Durango RT, great tow rig, did do a “Fast Grass” event with it.
30) 2001 Mustang Cobra, purchased JUST to autocross…sold it with 8000 miles on it after 4 years of autocrossing; grand fun.
31) 2002 Ford Focus SVT, bought brand new in Portland just because we saw an ad as we were traveling thru…love that car. Sold it to my son Sean last year; he runs it in ST.
32) 2003 Ford Focus 2.3, sold the Mustang Cobra, got this and built it for FSP, it has been one of my favorite all time cars. Too much fun!
33) 2004 Nissan Titan, towing only. Great vehicle
34) 2005 Ford Escape, not raced.
35) 1993 Dodge Caravan. Bought only to race…..prepared and competes in 24 Hours of Lemons and Chumpcar Series road-races. Great fun. It has also been hillclimbed and autocrossed with pretty decent times. Ask me about my “Soccer Mom” team, I love to talk about it.
36) 2009 Honda Ruckus motorscooter…..our pit vehicle at Nationals. Fun.
37) 2011 Volvo C-30, ordered it and flew to Sweden last May to pick it up. Got to drive it around for two weeks and then return it to Volvo in Gothenburg, Sweden to ship back home. We love it, it will probably see an autocross or two.
38) & 39) 1983 Dodge Rampage and 1983 Plymouth Scamp pickups. Our current Lemons and Chumpcar projects, will use the Scamp with parts from the Rampage and build a racecar to debut at the July Lemons race in Washington; will also be driving “Cara” our van!!
There you have it…. As you can see we are definitely car crazy!!! See you at the next event, we’ll be driving something.
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