Father's Day is Sunday, and we're marking the occasion with a series of stories we're calling Dadlopnik, honoring our fathers and their cars. We're starting off with your stories of the dadmobiles that made you a car person.
This is Answers of the Day — a feature where we take the best ten responses from the previous day's Question of the Day and shine it up to show off. It's by you and for you, the Jalopnik readers. Enjoy!
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Photo Credit: Jeroene020
10. Citroen DS
Suggested By: owen-magnetic
The Story: "Growing up, we had a string of predicable family cars, but our first dog was a mutt he named Peugeot. We had two 2CVs and a DS wagon. He sold both 2CVs after a guy ran a red light and clipped him; he didn't think they were good cars to tote your kids around in. But the DS was both my sister's and my daily driver when we came of driving age, so that's the source of my auto-related francophilia.
He also did some hooning in his time, flipping a car while driving on a frozen lake, but he never told me about those high-jinx when I was young."
9.) Volkswagen Type 2 Bus
Suggested By: Dirt Pirate
The Story: "Out of all the cars my dad has owned... the favorite of mine would have to be his Type 2 VW Bus.
As I grew older, I began to enjoy the VW scene and began attending a few shows. I brought my dad along, as he would always bring up his old bus whenever I mentioned Volkswagen. At one of the shows we attended, we were meandering around when, all of a sudden, my dad stopped. I turned back, and there he was, pointing at a Sierra Yellow Type 2. "This," he said, "is exactly what I had". He walked around the bus, admiring everything, for a good 20 minutes. I'd never seen my dad react like that to any form of automobile, but it made me smile."
Photo credit: Dirt Pirate
8. Porsche 911 Targa
Suggested By: superJoy
The Story: "Dad always talked about how the 911 leaked oil everywhere and his mechanic told him it wasn't worth fixing. There's still a stain on the garage floor from its perennial leakage. He put pictures of various Porsches in our bedrooms when we were kids. I slept under a red 911 slantnose for the first ten years of my life. He doesn't own a Porsche any more, but I suspect he'll buy one when he retires. I think I'd better buy one too, you know, for my kids."
Photo credit: TheAirCooledGuys.com
7. Jaguar E-Type
Suggested By: McMike
The Story: "I love cars, I work on my own cars, I feel like a failure if I have to rely on someone else to fix my problems, I'm cheap so I can buy nice things when I want to, and when I sit in [Dad's E-Type] Jag today, it smells like it's 1978 all over again, when he and I had our first secret.
Which was to not tell mom about that speeding ticket.
Thanks, Dad."
Photo credit: Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto
6. 1990s Toyota Pickup
Suggested By: UnlimitedRevs
The Story: "Since 1993, he's been driving a Toyota pickup truck. It's still his daily driver today. Bare bones, five-speed stick, crank windows, no passenger mirror — and my dad bargained for A/C and a radio for no extra cost! That little truck has never broken down, never had a single mechanical problem. It's hauled everything without a whimper.
It wasn't the prettiest thing on the road, although we did take care of it, and now people regularly leave notes under the wipers asking to buy it. It gave me an appreciation and love for simple, utilitarian cars and trucks, and it taught me how to be content and humble with what I had.
The old Toyota had such an effect on me that my first car that I've bought with my own money (this year) is a Toyota Tacoma single-cab stripper with crank windows and a five-speed stick. The radio and A/C came standard this time...
Like father, like son, I guess. Thanks, Dad."
Photo credit: stateshirt, flickr
5. 1987 Subaru GL-10 XT Turbo
Suggested By: necoro47
The Story: "Dad bought a 1987 Subaru XT Turbo (GL-10!). It was the one car on our block that got all the looks. The huge TURBO! decals along the side showed the world it was not to be trifled with.
It taught me the joy of owning something weird, unusual, and altogether quirky. Defining characteristics of Dad, and, I now realize, of me, too.
Dad taught me to drive in this car when I was maybe 14, on back roads leading home, and he grinned when I got confident enough to let the turbo spool up. This probably led to the premature death of the clutch, but he didn't seem to mind. He passed on a few years later, and the car was given to me. At this point, it taught me the value of regular maintenance — a lesson my father had apparently not learned. The hydraulic lifters stuck on one side, gummed up with sludged engine oil. It sounded like a can of ball bearings being kicked down the stairs. But it held together most of the way through college, despite me putting it into a 540-degree spin on black ice in heavy traffic. Four-wheel-drive couldn't keep it straight, but it did pull me out of the ditch.
It got donated for a tax write-off once it was clear that the accumulated engine damage wasn't worth it. In retrospect... it would have been worth it.
Thanks, Dad."
4. 1967 Mini
Suggested By: AustinMiniMan
The Story: "When I was around five or seven or something, I was out in the garage with my dad while he was working on our '67 Mini. I was always a little creeped out when in the garage at that point in my life, because in the corner were a Sprite and a Midget, both in rough shape and seriously creepy-looking. Anyway, something happened with the Mini, and it caught fire. Of course, in my mind, all that meant was "RUN!" I ran about a block and then heard Dad calling that it was okay."
Photo credit: karazyman, flickr
3. Subaru Legacy Wagon
Suggested By: LeadfootYT
The Story: "My dad drives a Subaru Legacy wagon. Not that that is particularly exciting, but it does have an interesting feature: hand controls. Because he was paralyzed in a snowboarding accident a few years ago, he drives with a pull-down-to-accelerate, push-forward-to-brake system that, connected to the pedals, lets him use the car like anyone else.
How did it change my life? At the risk of sounding cheesy, very much so. For me, its mostly the realization of how much a simple contraption — essentialyl two metal rods and a hinge — can do for independence."
2. 1968 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser
Suggested By: ChurchofRealism
The Story: "Back when I was about five or six years old, my dad had a used '68 Olds Vista Cruiser, blue with fake wood paneling. We were getting ready to go somewhere and it wouldn't start, so Dad's under the hood messing with it. He yells at my mom to turn it over, and then the blue beast backfires through the carb and a huge fireball spews out that roasts his eyebrows off. Needless to say, I was scared shitless to go anywhere near the dragon car after that. They had to sell it a few months later because, as they tell it, I would get hysterical if we had to go anywhere in it."
Photo credit: GM Skywagon Club
1. Ford Falcon
Suggested By: rianocerous
The Story: "My dad died 5 years ago. He was only 58.
My whole life, he was sick. He didn't get out of bed some days, and when he did, he was in constant pain. The only thing he always liked to do was drive. We had a largeish family (five kids), so from the time I came along (I was fourth), we always had station wagons. My dad was raised a Ford guy, so they were mostly Fords or Mercurys. At one time in the late '90s, my dad owned a '63 falcon for about three months. He bought it with money he didn't have and then had to sell it shortly later. He was pretty proud of it while he had it though, and even helped teach me to drive in it.
In his married life, my dad only owned one vehicle new — a 1973 Ford F100. He loved the truck; it was his baby. It sat at my mom's house until two years ago, when the city finally hassled us about it not being registered. For some stupid reason, I wasn't thinking clearly, and we sold it for $150 for parts. The day after, I realized HOW STUPID that was, and I've been regretting it ever since. Weeks later, I called the guy we sold it to SEVERAL times, and he never returned my calls. I went by his house, but no one would answer. I would have bought it back for several times what he paid us for.
I'm still looking for a '73 F-100. Someday, I'll get one and restore it, and drive it around thinking of Dad."
Photo credit: rianocerous