I started driving with a permit and my folks when I turned 15. We had a VW bus 4 on the floor and a '70 Nova 3 on the tree. My dad taught me to drive stick in the cemeteries next to our house. I took out a shrub first time out!
Anyhow, I got pretty good, took driver's ed, passed with a waiver (no driving test required) and had my license at 16 plus a month and a day (stupid Indiana laws back then). I got to drive either of my folks' cars pretty much any time I wanted, but I had to pay for insurance and gas. The first vehicle I actually owned was a Yamaha DT250 Enduro exactly like this one below when I turned 18. Bought it from my brother-in-law for a few hundred bucks.
Drove it for about a year and realized I wanted a street bike, so I sold that and bought a '77 Yamaha RD400. :thumbsup:
Eventually I purchased my father's '70 Nova when it died on him with about 140,000 miles. That was my first car. I think I was 18 or 19. It had the 3 on the tree, and a 230 straight 6 with blown head gasket. I stripped it down, had it bored out .60 over, balanced, put in some stupid cam, 4 barrel and headers, and promptly blew up the 3spd.
So I put in a 4 spd with a floor shifter. It still had bench seats. So I had to keep the seat all the way back or I couldn't use 2nd or 4th gears! :laughing: Car was stupid fast after that. It would do 112 pretty quickly. Anyhow, it eventually rusted to the ground and the springs rotted off the frames. It was time for it to go. My mom and I walked up to it in the driveway and we pulled the back bumper off with our hands! We used a torch, and cut it up and put it out with the trash... not the bumper, the entire car! I moved the engine to a '71 Toyota Landcruiser, where it still sits today, in storage, waiting a revival. I also saved the Nova's hood. Its sentimental.
