As a corduroy-jacketed cargo pants wearing teenager, I decided that my first car would be a brick and that I would keep it indefinitely.
I looked for about six months and found a rust-free W123 coupe with 120k miles; albeit one that was not the most desirable year.
The car is a 300cd, which was special ordered in 1980 for a the wife of a Fortune 500 company founder. It had every option from the factory and cost over $30k new - at the time of purchase it accumulated $30k in maintenance receipts.
I quickly had to learn wrenching to keep the car alive; one year after purchase, I successfully rebuilt the climate control system, reverted back to good ol' R12 freon.
The car itself is riding on a rebuilt front and rear suspension with Bilstein HD shocks and Michelin tires, there is no other car that has the sublime steering & ride feel of a W123.
Being a 1980 model, this 300cd has pot metal automatic windows, no turbo, automatic climate control from hades, iffy automatic transmission, inferior rustproofing, rear windshield that delaminates, among other things.
It would be my dream car if I were to find a European W123 coupe parts car and swap out my automatic transmission, windows and climate control for manuals. Not to mention the ugly USDM bumpers and lights. Until then...
I looked for about six months and found a rust-free W123 coupe with 120k miles; albeit one that was not the most desirable year.
The car is a 300cd, which was special ordered in 1980 for a the wife of a Fortune 500 company founder. It had every option from the factory and cost over $30k new - at the time of purchase it accumulated $30k in maintenance receipts.
I quickly had to learn wrenching to keep the car alive; one year after purchase, I successfully rebuilt the climate control system, reverted back to good ol' R12 freon.
The car itself is riding on a rebuilt front and rear suspension with Bilstein HD shocks and Michelin tires, there is no other car that has the sublime steering & ride feel of a W123.
Being a 1980 model, this 300cd has pot metal automatic windows, no turbo, automatic climate control from hades, iffy automatic transmission, inferior rustproofing, rear windshield that delaminates, among other things.
It would be my dream car if I were to find a European W123 coupe parts car and swap out my automatic transmission, windows and climate control for manuals. Not to mention the ugly USDM bumpers and lights. Until then...
~my car~, of course.
I like that it has recirculating ball steering & leaf springs on the specs page.
@Mr.Fourn: Starting reliably in the wintertime?
@TheAbidingDude: Read the side quarter panels, engine plenum, trunklid, interior dashboard & weep; It's TURBO. (Sticker applied from TURBO K-Car after a repaint)
Consumer confidence? I have TURBO CONFIDENCE and it's always running at full boostu. Attached is a picture of my TURBO Subaru XT.
more like DerpTop™ customs. The Miata is a much better convert.
@Brian DuBois: That would be nice if I had a tachometer, instead I have a giant analog clock.
The poor 240ds don't have one either, with the manual transmission ones you shift when the engine sounds like it's going to explode. The driving experience goes like clackclackclackrghrghrghGAHHHH... *snick-snick* and so forth.
The poor 240ds don't have one either, with the manual transmission ones you shift when the engine sounds like it's going to explode. The driving experience goes like clackclackclackrghrghrghGAHHHH... *snick-snick* and so forth.
I recently raced a Honda S2000 in my 1980 non-turbo 300cd. I forgot to turn off the A/C, so 28 seconds later, I was at 60mph and the S2000 was long gone.
@stoke™, now with more Alcon!: Interior by Atari™
1986 Subaru XT. There must have been a reason that Subaru went with Italian designers for the SVX instead of in-house.
My 1980 300cd has the same color, same wheels... I thought the wheels were a good idea in 2007, I'm sorry guys
Obviously, the 1985 Subaru XT
I like how my 1980 W123 300cd was 20 years behind the times when made (1940's derivative diesel engine, recirculating ball steering, horsehair seat pads, I-can-drive-55 acceleration) or 10 years ahead (Excellent four-wheel disk braking system, Safety designs, bulletproof fuel injection when running on diesel, cold A/C and dash-melting heat)
@Jakuub: a turbo plane
What makes this even better is that the guy on the right is sitting on 5 gallons of gas
1. Will I ever see another one of these, ever?
2. Aircraft/Synthesizer keyboard inspired interior with little calculator buttons everywhere?
3. Does it look like it was made by a bunch of angry Japanese guys who only had sheet metal brakes at their disposal?
4. Digital Dash?
Following this, I have not gone wrong.
Well that's an interesting use of the EA-82T engine. I now know what to do if I crash my Subie.
@Optixtruf: I have a 1986 Turbo with the video game dashboard. It's a pile of AWESOME ideas my good sir!
1. Remove dust from digital dashboard.
2. Insert cleaner cassette tape into tape deck.
3. Replace cleaner tape with Duran Duran "Rio" tape. Installation is the reverse of removal.
