It's hard to remember exactly what year my next import, a red Volkswagen convertible was, but I remember all the fun I had with it. The heater wasn't anything to brag about, but it really went through the snow well. It had an "automatic stick shift" that you could use either way. In the summer you could put the top down, put it low gear, sit on the head rest and steer with your feet.

My brother Steve owned a dark green mid 1970's Mazda RX4 coupe. This thing was a rocket! The 4 cylinder rotary engine and 5 speed would accelerate dramatically at any speed. Detroit would have been wise to adopt the Wankel rotary engine for many of it's cars in the 80's. This was the next family car to go to South Padre Island, Texas when he moved to Brownsville for the fishing.

My only experience with front wheel drive was when I owned a silver 1971 Audi LS 100 just like the one pictured. It had a nice interior and a sunroof, which I liked as much as a convertible top. It drove great and plowed through snow. I once scared the snot out of Geo on a snowy country road with it. But again, repairs were expensive, replacing a CV joint was like $300 and when the engine gave out I decided it was too expensive.

Sue and I worked at the same company for many years and only needed one car. When that ended I needed a cheap runabout and a few hundred dollars bought a red mid 1980's Toyota Corolla with a 4 cylinder and 4 speed. After teaching my daughter to drive in it, she took it over and drove it for a couple years. She once drove it until the brake pads fused to the rotors and wouldn't go forward. That was an expensive lesson ( expensive for me ).

Sometime during the 1970's, my dad moved from Pittsburgh to Atlanta. He and I drove the two cars while everyone else flew. Driving his mid 60's white Mercedes Benz sedan was great. The trip took us through some great mountain scenery and the Benz had a lot of power.

On one occasion I was visiting my friend Jeff, while he owned an green Alfa Romeo like the one pictured. Naturally, we went cruisin' in the countryside. That night by the light of the moon, I wound that car up to over 100mph on a twisting valley road that probably had a 45mph speed limit. The Alfa was easy to handle at that speed.

What would your teenage years be without "cruisin' the borough" for chicks with several of your friends? And what better way than in a VW bus? We took turns driving my friend David's gray VW around town and out in the countryside. There was always room for any girls we met and what happened in the bus stayed on the bus.

Yes, that's a Ford blue oval badge. Anglia, was one of Ford's British automobile brands between 1939 and 1967. It's a favorite for building interesting drag racers. This body is probably from the 1940's to early 50's. With a V8 engine they're very fast but the narrow, short wheel base makes the a handfull at the race track.

Probably the most iconic race car is the Shelby Cobra. The Cobra began in the 1960's as a British car body built by AC Cars and fitted with a Ford 289 engine. Later models had larger Ford engines and began dominating racing in 1963. They were never big sellers at the dealerships and Carroll Shelby stopped building them for several decades. Original cars bring millions of dollars at auction today and there are dozens of companies making replicas.

More import photos and info coming...