Quote:
Originally Posted by Efthreeoh
Last weekend I went to Charlotte to check on what I thought was a gem of a find from my automotive youth. A car from the early 1970s and a model that I owned as a young man, even as late as 1989. This 51-year-old example was supposed to be just 37,000 miles used, bought by a older man from the original owner and put away in storage somewhere around 1996. The intent was for the old man to do some repairs and drive it. Health kept him from those plans. Anyway, the car ended up on Autotrader Classics. I found it. It was within 300 miles driving distance, so I made a weekend roadtrip of it to check the car out.
It drove like an absolute pig. Having lots of seat time in this particular model of automobile, I found it unbelievable that back in the day I found it light and dynamic to drive, and reasonably powered. The car in Charlotte drove completely unlike as I remembered.
But this is not the first time I've looked at an apparently fine, preserved example of a car from my younger days and found it drove like a pig, completely different than I remember. It's happened with a 1985 Fiero 2M4 and a 1976 BMW 2002.
So, the question to the group; has anyone else experienced this same phenomenon? Or have I just had the bad luck of finding two poor examples of old cars from my youth that actually did drive well back in the day? Is this just a function of driving mostly BMWs for the past 35 years and being calibrated to Bavaria's finest?
And God forbid, what happens if an E30 comes my way?
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I currently have an E30 and an E65. To be fair, my E30 is far from stock but with all of the BMWs I've owned, and there's been a few, I have yet to own one that made me think "this thing drives better than the red car...". The only car that I'd say came close was an E82 128i M Sport I had. I once had an F30 alongside the E30, that car was thirty years newer but comparatively felt like a freaking Buick and was quickly dispatched. I think the key is finding a good example.