Jalopnik
I was born fairly close to the Mexican border. To put it in perspective, I moved north to get to Houston and up until recently Austin was the furthest north I'd ever lived. Now I live in Chicago. Chicago is great, but Chicago is freaking cold. Unnecessarily cold. I was out shooting photos last night and most didn't come out because my hand was shaking too much. Today, it warmed up to the 20s. I need summer. I need summer now. I need all of you to tell me what your ultimate summer car is. I need stories of warmth and beaches and barbecues. Stat.
What car makes you dream of summer? For me it has to be my father's old Subaru Brat, which served its purpose as a beach car/truck until it was determined that it wasn't the ideal car for a growing family. Somehow, the ideal car for a growing family was an Isuzu Impulse. Go figure.
Comments
Nothing says fun like rear-facing seats in the bed of a suba'mino. Especially with the "ski grip" grab handles.
Well, maybe except for a VW thing.
If Subaru were to offer a new brat with comfy seats in the back, would that be legal nowadays?
Summer car: Honda CRX SI
Wow, that's a hard one. I live in LA so I can pretty much drive top-down, buck-naked anytime I want.
I guess my ideal Summer vehicle would be a nice Triumph Bonneville. Or maybe a BMW R60.
Not exactly a car, but my motorcycle. It's parked in the alley behind my apartment, and is probably covered in a foot of snow (and it doesn't run). I dream of not waiting for the bus in freezing temperatures.
On an automotive front, the late-model Subaru Legacy wagon (with the giant sunroof), seemed like a great road trip car. I'd love to take one of those, pick a point on the compass and keep driving that direction until I don't feel like it anymore.
I always come back to it...
Early Z31 300ZX with the tops off... Awww jeah!
Though if you are just driving short distances, a jeep with the tops and doors off is pretty awesome... for long trips I would rather kill myself... I drove cross country and back in a 4-cyl wrangler... I had to drop to 3rd driving through Colorado... though on a long downhill outside of Vegas I managed to get the needle pointing due south... scary... very scary.
My M3. Just another six weeks or so until I can take it out of storage...fucking Minnesota winters...
Anything that reduces swamp-ass, so basically anything without leather. I don't really care.
I live in Alabama. 8 months of the year, we go outside, work in the yard, play sports, have barbecues. Then for 4 months, we sit inside and complain.
the only summer car we had - '89 Jetta GLI that we'd run down to the beach in Rhode Island.... going about 90mph with 5 dudes in the car, all the windows down, blazing the entire way down. ahhhhhh youth.
and this was just last summer!
'72 Monte Carlo Custom.
We rolled in that like a Cadillac.
Bright Red and black rag top.
Far far back it was exactly like this one, W always used it when we went to the tourist dence island of Öland, recently it is the Porsche 944 with black very hot leather interior and no AC.
Nothing makes me dream of summer more than my miata.
The Jeep Wrangler comes pretty close, though, for all the trips to the beach in one in high school.
A Cadillac with a Dead Head sticker on it.
Taking the idea from Top Gear, the perfect summer car would be taking the roof off a Renault Espace, but instead of faffing around with a soft top, install chromed roll-over bars, a decent sound system and more stylish seats, spruce up the interior, jack up the suspension, put on big knobbly off-roading tyres on nice looking wheels and you've got yourself a stylish faux-beach buggy that has room for seven that can go cruising on the beach front.
Or an MX-5 and an empty twisty B-road through the Yorkshire Dales.
@cyclopticgaze:
Don't look back
You can never look back
A Jeep TJ with the doors and roof taken off, 4" lift and 35" BFG ATs.
Chyeah!
Fox Mustangs with T-tops. F-bodies with T-tops. MR2's with T-tops. Nissan Z's with T-tops...
I think there is a pattern there somewhere...
My sweet ass Camaro w/ T-Tops ofcourse.... yee-haw!
@ØmÆgä ßrÅff: Second the Wrangler. Nothing says summer like like driving on the beach (or anywhere) in a topless/doorless Wrangler.
A close second would be any Detroit muscle from the late 60s early 70s. They usually only come out in New England for a few months of the year during summer. So by default, I see one and think summer...and ultimately thoughts of when the next local car show is come to mind.
My old Goat with the windows all down, 8-track blaring Led Zeppelin and cruisin' up and down Collins Avenue on Miami Beach - long before South Beach became "South Beach." I can go along with the Dead Head sticker, too.
I'll be happy when I can put my summer tires back on and am not in danger of nearly fishtailing to my death due to an absentmindedly fast entrance to an ice covered off ramp...
I think a Boxter S would be the perfect summer car.
There can only be one...
My First Summer Car, and every time I think of summer, I think of this car:
Serves ya right for leavin' Tejas. Suffer. You know you deserve it.
I forgot how fugly that corvetee summer vette was...ewww. Who the hell would want to steal that?
<----
I live in England.
So, same car as every other month of the year.
That's actually the first post-'67 Vette I've ever seen that I liked...
I'm with JB Jeep on the musclecar thing, except I would amend the statement to "a few WEEKS or the year" for summah in Maine.
t-top formula firebird
A beige Citroen 2CV the canvas roof the ugliest shade of orange I'd ever seen. And now whenever I see a 2CV I can't but think of the better parts of summer.
I was seventeen and had just moved out (Long ugly story) and found myself taking up residence on floor of a friends apartment in Pori. I had to spend that whole day inside, dead of summer when the weather is utterly divine in Finland, on account of some summer bug I'd caught. I'm not certain if it was the fever or the boredom (student friend; no tv, no computer and the radio was broken) but I ended up sitting on the abnormally large window sill and watching what was happening on the street below. For one day I watched the 2CV and the owner (a pretty young lady with red hair) as they went about what I would judge to be an exceedingly hectic day judging from the number of times she went off in that car.
I remember it clear as day too, in the morning she rolled up the canvas top and went off and I really thought that'd be the last of it, barely thirty minutes later she was back with breakfast. At one poin the cloud cover thickened over the city and there was a brief drizzle and she rushed out with barefeet to get that canvas top back up. I know I fell asleep between bits where she was off because I'd wake up and the car would be back, it was utterly fascinating.
I know that seems a bit stalker like, but with the fever and the lack of entertainment it really was as interesting as any movie. Anyway, a few days later I was feeling better so I went down, summoning up what courage I had, and talked to her. Greeting someone for the first time by telling them you were watching them for a day? Not so good. She laughed about it though.
I asked her out for coffee and she agreed. We went to a place she liked in her 2CV - it smelled like apples on the inside even with the roof rolled up - and ended up talking for a long time over many cups.
I'm a lot older now, she's got a new car, and we're still pretty good friends. Funny how stuff like that works out.
(Damn long-winded and sappy - but hell I figure I might as well tell it.)
Summer seems like an impossible dream in MN today, but my 74 Alfa Spider waits patiently. No radio, but that's what Italian twin cams and straight pipes are for...
Boston Whaler
You poor bastard. Humans weren't meant to live that far north.
My high school buddy had a K-car that we hooned into oblivion the summer between junior and senior year. The nice thing about K-cars is you didn't feel guilty if you hurt them.
@POLAЯ: the nose of the Corvette Summer vette looks like the nose of a Proboscis Monkey...
[en.wikipedia.org]
two ugly "vettes" in two days - [jalopnik.com] - i am canceling my subscription :o)
A Jeep with no doors and a bikini top. If you've ever ridden long distances in the summer in a Jeep with no top, you know you need the shade.
@UDMAN: I have learned that posting life-sized
pictures of things upsets the Hamster!!!!!!1!!1!!
I'm also trapped in the frozen tundra of the Midwest (Metro Detroit). As soon as the temperature exceeds 50 degrees F, I'll be rolling in my Capri. Top down with a drooling dog in the back seat.
Large american late sixties or seventies convertible. My brother in law had a sweet 72 Chevy Caprice, small block, green! on white, top didn't work, and cheap JC Penny tires that squealed proper. Great summer cruiser.
@Tocsin: Awesome story, man- really. COTD?
@GreenMeanie:
I hear ya on your Alfa. My 87 Alfa Spider is waiting for the warm days, then off to Cape Cod.
For me it's pulling the top off my Bronco and headin to the beach.
Born in Phoenix, lived in SoCal since age 1... Matt, Chicago's climate would kill me (I visited there once in early April and there was still snow and freezing temperatures).
My problem is I love dark colors, they show off the chrome so nicely, but they are a poor choice in L.A. due to hot weather. My navy blue '88 Continental was bad enough, but the blue velour seats weren't too bad.
I bought my '97 E320 to replace it, black paint and black leather seating. Like stepping into a blast furnance if parked in an uncovered lot...! White or silver is so much more paractical in the southwest, but I never seem to follow that course...
+another1 for the doorless Jeep with bikini top crowd.
TR-6.
MGB because During those hot summers, I used to work at an MGB/British Roadster restoration shop doing the dirty work.Very classic and fun cars. Oh the smell of oil, spot welds and bondo! I can hear that 4 banger putter as i watch the hood shake a little, oh those were the days.
Any convertible once the top can stay down all day, its officialy summer.
On another note, Chet, you sure it was a Monte Carlo?
How about a Chevelle or Malibu?
The 89 4Runner I had. That thing was fantastically fun with the top off, AND it was light enough topless to do some serious burnouts, oddly enough.
@Tocsin: Sappy...? Not a bit. Stories like that give us all insight to the human condition. Well done and touching!
Gotta go with my Jeep.
I usually run the soft-top with no windows. Topless is cool for like 10 minutes, then you start to roast alive and burn yourself on anything you touch.
But yeah, today's rainy weather excepted, SoCal FTW. Serious winter attire consists of wearing a long-sleeve shirt under your sweatshirt.
Nothin' says summer loke going up for some loops & rolls in my Spezio TuHoler ...
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@Smitty: Dammit ... linkee no workee.