Do Only Old Guys Drive Sports Cars? (sell, engine, drivers)

[Steve Bagu]

In 1959-60 was working in a night crew with a young (married) guy that owned (making current payments) on a late model vette. In the morning he found the car gone from the pkg lot...called the police to report it stolen who then found out it had been REPO'D over night.

Being REPO'D when the payments are currect is a NO NO. The fellow worker SUED the finance company and collected the car back with the title and some CASH to boot.

So young people do drive sport cars (abeit) making the timely payments.

As to my early post re full dress HOGS (HD)...the Hells Angels all ride Harlys and every so often see a NICE clean looking Harly being ridden by a middle age man...bald not sure as they wore a helmet...occasionally a female riding on the back.

Have a neighbor here in Baja that have a his & hers harlys. They are middle aged and ride together coming and going.

Steve

[Merc63]

Originally Posted by Steve Bagu

Heavens...someone got their jock strap too tight. Owning those four cars all at one time and PAID 4? on $7 an hr...math does not look kosher in my book. Something is missing in the equation.

Did you not read the part where my cars paid for my cars? I started out with a couple free cars that I rebuilt and customized and sold to buy the next round. And the "profits" paid for the next round AND the repairs to them to bring them up to the condition you see them. I've owned over a hundred cars in the last 30+ years, and only 3 were financed (they were new). I've had over 30 custom air cooled VWs, and the income from a job never paid for a single one: they paid for themselves. Theyd start like this for free or for at least under $100:



And after a couple weeks of evenings after work, they'd look like this:



After they were done (though sometimes people would find out I was working on another one and come to request a color and the like and buy them before they were finished and had me finish them) I'd drive them for a few months and sell them for $2500-3500. because of how cheap they were, there'd often be a few of them in progress at any given time, along with other kinds of cars that I wanted to stick around for a while (especially if instead of cash, someone gave me something interesting in trade, like a 912 or 914). So I wa able to have cool sports cars bought from a fund that was filled by toy cars that essentially cost me nothing but a few hours of what would have been TV watching time.


This one, for example, started out as a $100 shell that I scrounged glass and an engine for, cleaned it up using the car fund and part from the various VW parts cars I had (when you start working on air cooled bugs, people start giving you parts they have laying around. One free VW Bug can turn into 10 and parts...). Had about $1000 into it total:





Ended up getting $6k for the finished car. Which is part of what paid for the red 911.

I was in the VW business (owner) for 28 yrs and am familiar with the whlse costs of parts and also with the early Porsche 356/912/914 and yes the 911.

Am not questioning anyones statements but only made a comment that a majority of people do not have CASH for a $20k-30k sports car and thus are making payments.

Where do you get the idea than any of these cars cost, or were even worth $20-30k? That red 911 was purchased needing paint and some electrical work for $3k, using the "profits" from the sale of a previous car (a Ferrari Daytona Spider replica I built), that in turn had been built from a wrecked Corvette and the profits from two previous VW Beetles and a classic 912. Other than the purchase price, I used $1k of the profits I had left over in the car fund account (which was made up entirely of what I made off the custom cars, and only used to build the next round). The 911 sold after a couple years for $9500, which is how I paid cash for the '74 911, which I bought as shown for $8k. I had that car for 2 years and sold it for $10k. The RX7 was a car I got in trade for an S-10 Blazer that I had got for free needing paint. I had about $200 in paint into it and traded it for the RX7 straight up (the RX7 was faded stock silver at the time). I used money from the car fund to build it up, as well (I only had about $2500 into it, including the engine swap and suspension work).



became this:



only taking a couple hundred out of the car fund for paint supplies, and the engine conversion bits (a buddy was swapping his small block for a big block in his drag car, so I bought the old engine for $500 and I fabbed up all the mounts for $20):



I was working in the parts department of an RV shop at the time, not making a lot of money, but was still able to afford this. Wy? Becaeuse as a car enthusaist, even a poor one, I took the steps necessary to be able to enjoy fun cars within my budget by learning how to fix them myself, and realise that you don't have to always use NEW parts in OLD cars.

hell, I even gave away the plans for the mounts I fabbed: http://home.comcast.net/~cvetters3/mounts.jpg


The Datsun? Again, it started out as a $100 truck that I spent a week on to prep it for a show:





With stuff just laying around the garage (leftovers from other projects, so no cost).

A couple from back in the day:



The MG was got in trade for a Pinto I had picked up for free, and used as a race car for a couple years. I traded the MG off for the Fiat (the first of three of those I've had).

even now, my "fun" cars pay for themselves.

This car cost $100:





The parts car (and boxes of parts) were free:



A little welding and paintwork:











And the end result was this:



A sports car that cost me almost nothing. Now I'm on to my next:



Found it like this a couple years ago:



rolled it into the garage to paint it:





I'll probably keep the MGB for a couple years and unload it at a profit to help in the completion of my '63 Mercury Comet convertible.

[Steve Bagu]

Okay we now are aware of the $7 hr has nothing to do with the acquistion of your sport etc cars. Nothing like full exposure for a person to completely understand a post.

Great...your a body/paint man. That explains the puzzle.

Me...I'm an engine man. We all have our basic specialities be what it may be.

Yes...I did read the trade up factor but was not sure of the meaning...now we know.

Steve

[LaoTzuMindFu]

Originally Posted by CAVA1990

Seems whenever you see a cool classic or even more recent European convertible such as a Porsche, Alfa, or Ferrari, it's usually some grey haired dude over 50 behind the wheel. Same for Corvettes and other American classics. Apparently younger people don't really care about them. Is this a generational thing?

Where I live, I see a lot of younger to middle aged (20s-40s) guys driving the Ferrari's and Porsches. Also, a lot of "soccer moms" driving the Porsche Cayennes but its like to drive a Corvette you HAVE to be an older 50 plus year old grey haired white dude.

I've always noticed this, where I live. 99.99% of the Corvette drivers are older grey haired white dudes (usually with mustaches) The .01% is that acctress chick Angelyne who drives around in her pink Corvette.

[Mathguy]

Originally Posted by LaoTzuMindFu

Where I live, I see a lot of younger to middle aged (20s-40s) guys driving the Ferrari's and Porsches. Also, a lot of "soccer moms" driving the Porsche Cayennes but its like to drive a Corvette you HAVE to be an older 50 plus year old grey haired white dude.

I've always noticed this, where I live. 99.99% of the Corvette drivers are older grey haired white dudes (usually with mustaches) The .01% is that acctress chick Angelyne who drives around in her pink Corvette.

I have gone to the local corvette rallys, charity drives etc. and I was probably one of maybe 5-6 people there <50 and there were maybe 3 of us <40 out of around 50 people.

<shrug>

You will probably see more younger guys driving corvettes in a couple years especially as the price tags of the C6Z06 keep falling. Then again, many of them were suckled at the teat of the fast and the furious genre and so have an affinity for the foreign cars just like the older generations grew up loving vettes etc.

Personally, I wasn't that big of a vette fan but am quite practical so when I went shopping for a sportscar in my price range it was a no brainer.

[sonarrat]

Originally Posted by Merc63

Did you not read the part where my cars paid for my cars? I started out with a couple free cars that I rebuilt and customized and sold to buy the next round. And the "profits" paid for the next round AND the repairs to them to bring them up to the condition you see them. I've owned over a hundred cars in the last 30+ years, and only 3 were financed (they were new)........

So you get old beaters, slap a fresh coat of paint on them, and sell people a gigantic rolling problem that has been decomposing for years? Wonderful, I'll have to watch it if I see an old car looks just -too- nice..

[NSX]

Originally Posted by LaoTzuMindFu

Where I live, I see a lot of younger to middle aged (20s-40s) guys driving the Ferrari's and Porsches. Also, a lot of "soccer moms" driving the Porsche Cayennes but its like to drive a Corvette you HAVE to be an older 50 plus year old grey haired white dude.

I've always noticed this, where I live. 99.99% of the Corvette drivers are older grey haired white dudes (usually with mustaches) The .01% is that acctress chick Angelyne who drives around in her pink Corvette.

LOL, You might want to check your stats bud. 99.99%? I don't think so. That means only 1 in 10,000 do not fit that category which I find hard to believe. I'm a Z06 owner and last time I checked, I was 28 years old, no white hair and no mustache

Check out any of the Corvette forums and you'll find a large % of younger guys who are 'Vette enthusiasts. Yes, you some owners who fit that description...but you will find that with any mid level sports car. SL500, 911, Corvette, Viper, etc..

[What me worry?]

As an early 50s graying, not white, haired clean shaven man I appreciate the classics but when I spotted the re-issue of the Mustang Mach 1 I was smitten. It was at the time (2003) "the fastest normally aspirated Mustang ever built at the Ford factories" according to the automotive press. All that and leather, cruise, A/C and modern fuel injected trouble free motoring, what's not to like?
The sticker was a hair over $39K Cdn but with the year end discounts I was out the door for under the sticker and with $22K financed at 0% for 5 years. Now I have a paid for modern classic.
I imagine that years of earning a good credit rating, having enough disposable income and a good driving record to avoid punitive insurance rates all made it easier to obtain the car of my dreams.

[mayorofnyc]

Funny people mention the money issue with younger folks. I'm 23, but I'm seeing A LOT of people in my age group (21-30) driving around in G35 coupes, Civic SI's, 335s, CLKs, & Chargers. The older folks in my neck of the woods tend to drive the Vettes, Camaros, Stangs, 300s, & especially the CTS caddy's...those are huge here with the 40+ crowd...and I don't blame em one bit! I guess it just depends on what city your in as car cultures differ in different areas of the country. I'm in NYC btw for those that care.

[JohnZ963]

I don't think I've ever seen anyone under 50 driving a newer Corvette, but I see younger people driving equally expensive BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes quite often.