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It just occurred to me that one of my minor dream cars is a 62-64 Studebaker Hawk GT. The best of them are beautiful cars that look 15 years newer than their era, are rare enough to draw a crowd and are still quite affordable (other than the very rare R3 supercharged models).
I used to drive past a neighbor who must have had six or seven in his yard.
Well, I would suggest the E30 M3, I guess I would though. I have had a great ownership experience, although I am not certain about how a 6'4" guy would fit in one - Germans as a whole run to being big tall people, so most German cars tend to work well for most big/tall guys. It's newer than your preferred age range, but, I'll throw its hat into the ring anyway. Would be a hoot on the Colorado roads I remember, up in the mountains. Any maintenance you don't want to DIY, I would think most good independent foreign car shops would be glad to service it, and would not have any trouble doing things right.
With your considering up to 1975 MY vehicles - I would point out that 73 and 74 were not much as vintage years for any car I know of.
Vintage Corvettes in your preferred age range are always good choices, up till the 80's when you pop the hood on a 'vette and a same year Chevy pickup - you are essentially looking at the same engine.
As to reliability - if you put a solid-state ignition in the cars that came with points, and then use only no-ethanol gas, and try to drive it at least monthly - I know in Colorado that won't happen in the dead of winter, but, anyway, avoid having it sit for months on end - in my experience older cars can be essentially just as reliable as newer ones. My main daily drivers right now are a 95 Cougar 4.6, and an 82 Scirocco. Both run like new cars. Maintenance.
Well, perhaps one of the least bad of a bad lot. That said, I personally don't feel any need to preserve MY 73 and 74 vehicles "bone stock" the way I would most other years. That Ford 302 responds quite well to all sorts of hop-up tricks, the Mustang II body is not that heavy, and from what I have read can be made to handle OK at least. No doubt a Richmond Gear 6 speed can be installed if the factory 4 speed does not do it for you.
Mentioning this, something I see a lot and am not that fond of, is where someone massively uprated the power plant in an older car, maybe even something from the '40's, but did no or little upgrade work on the chassis and/or brakes. You will sooner or later really want "whoa" that's equal to your "giddyap".
Well, I mentioned it as the silliest, if not the worst of a fairly bad lot.
Gad, I hated the "they can't get out of their own way so let's cover them in plastic doo-dads" era.
Quote:
Mentioning this, something I see a lot and am not that fond of, is where someone massively uprated the power plant in an older car, maybe even something from the '40's, but did no or little upgrade work on the chassis and/or brakes. You will sooner or later really want "whoa" that's equal to your "giddyap".
Oh, yeah. Or worse, replaces iffy OEM suspension and brakes with, not true upgrades, but the kind of retro-tech you put on a T-bucket.
Reading threads to current, seems to me it's perhaps narrowed to a 1980s 1) 450, or 560SL Mercedes. 2). 1980s BMW 325i convertible (I owned one of these, red w/fawn interior and black top) 3) Old Porsche 911, various years.
1) Mercedes 450, 560SL
They drove like tanks and were about as well-built, whatever they call that bodystyle generation that was only replaced in 1991. Boring, not real fast, real solid, looks classy, convertible, couple I found in CarGurus about $20K? Seems like a winner to me and you can be seen driving it, too. Favorite car of suburban dentists and Hollywood has-beens with cigarettes in long holders driving down Sunset in W. Hollywood. I researched these thoroughly back in 1995, as I recall...
...because 560SL was a finalist when I instead bought my 1989 BMW 325i convertible.
Those models are pretty solid. Amusingly enough, I'm looking at the follow-on 500SL from c. 1991, new body style that looks 1/10th as classy. $5-10K at most, the phrase "massive depreciation" comes to mind, those being $80K cars in 1991 dollars. As I recall, that's about the time there was a seriously nasty little turn in how Mercedes was building them, but who knows? That the previous generation are 2-3x as costly implies a bit of collectability, but I'd think hard on that anyway and pay the premium.
CarGurus has a 1998 SL 600, with the V12, in Azure Blue Metallic, for twenty grand. Appears immaculate. Hard and soft top included, and it sure looks boss w/top down. Now THAT would be a whoopdie car, if it has records and passes a real close inspection. Seriously, if I had more room in my garage for a craptastic, fascinatingly fun car plus lived in a climate that supported it, I'd probably run out and buy that just for giggles. "No, no, and no" in my case.
2) BMW 325i Convertible
My soon-to-be bought 1989 passed a mechanic's check w/100K miles and ran like a top. Owned that car 7 years, second longest to-date. I threw money at it at about 150K to keep it tip-top (about $3300), but other than that those were solid for me and many others. Quality: BMW did the same damn thing as Mercedes, the quality changes from my 1989 325i (solid platform, engines typically warped the heads at 225K or so but otherwise fine) and my 1996 E39 540i was immense.
3) Porsche 911 from that era
No idea if these are becoming collectible, the 964 series mostly, but based on used prices I'd say "it depends!". Turbos, convertibles, and 993 generation-anything are crazy money. I wouldn't hesitate much to buy a well-sorted SC or various others from that era, if the 911 floats your boat. They are weird cars and handle like nobody's business in the snow due to the rear engine. Some are AWD. I've flung my AWD, C4 GTS around the local autocross and had a great time. 911s are not everyone's cup of tea, but the enthusiasts keep prices on ALL of them high.
When mine is paid off in 2021, I'm either going to run it into the ground over the next X years or sell it and find a craptastic whoopdie like that SL 600 at 1/4 the price. We shall see.
Such a nice answer. The dust has settled on a very modest home sale and I am looking with "cash in hand" now. Currently favoring the 450 and 560 that you so eloquently recommended.
What are you looking for?
Two door sport/muscle car
4 door lead sled
Two door aircraft carrrier?
67-70/71 Mustang fastback. The Mach 1 are gaining popularity now also. And some have the creature comforts. I prefer the 69 fastback myself. For a land barge I would take a Lincoln Continental with suicide doors 460 and build that thing with turbos or supercharger.
I really like the 1967-1970 Mustangs. They are definitely collectible. The more garden variety 289/302 cubic inch V8 has enough power, it's lighter on the front end for better handling and is fairly small and easy to work around in the engine bay, plus mpgs will be reasonable. Not worth quite as much to resell but cheaper to purchase than the bigger/higher performance motors and I think for most purposes it's the ideal motor for the reasons given earlier. A 1970 Mustang was my first car :-)
Personally I wouldn't want to highly modify it to some weird creation, or bring it up to impeccable factory original status either... but just to have everything looking good and functioning well and reliably, plus upgrade the chassis, brakes, wheels and tires modestly for flatter cornering and safer spirited driving.... stuff like higher rate front and rear swaybars, koni/bilstein shocks, front disks if it doesn't have them already and some nice classic looking alloy rims and Michelin street tires.
Last edited by OutdoorLover; 07-14-2019 at 08:43 AM..
1964 Chevy Impala. Not converted to a low rider, a traditional ‘64 that had power steering as an option back in the day.
Good luck
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