My 1st ride was a red '62 Poncho Catalina with a 389cid engine when I was just a soph. $175. In that era that was enough that I needed a loan to make it mine! Needed a little body work which a friend did. After adding a 4bbl carb. and dual exhaust it gave me less than 10 miles to the gallon; Spent all my money working at the full service gas station on it and gas. Gas was about $ .37/gal! Sold it less than a year later for some $4xx to buy my next ride: '63 sky blue Chevy Impala SS. 327cid. for some $5xx. Had a mechanic friend who was older than me who also had the same car except he had a 3spd and mine was an auto on the floor. His fiance' was not friendly on that transmission so we agreed to have him switch trannys and a few other parts to the agreement of both of us. Blew out the rear end on a back road trying to see how much rubber I could burn. Also, my heavy foot caused me to get a speeding ticket , burn out a clutch, and roll it over on its side on a wet back road on a late Friday nite chasing a Dodge Super Bee! Sold that one, also, for a profit upon receiving the ticket (lost my license until graduation night) about semester break of my senior year. Enlisted in the USN at that time due to being pissed about the ticket thingy and the parents of a much younger squeeze put the kibash on our relationship. Would not enter the military until August after graduation. While waiting to get my license back and working yet at the gas station among other part time jobs I came across one of the two cars I've always wanted; a '55 Chevy! The other being a ''57 Chev). A friend of mine drove me up to Port Washington to look at it and I brought it home w/o a driver's license...Working at the garage is always great for fixing up your own cars and I targeted graduation nite for having the heavy Chevy ready to roll. Another friend of mine painted it a Ford white as it was just primered upon purchase. A 350cid/350 horse 3spd on the floor. I told my mother that this would be the car I would be killed in. Not what a mother wants to here. Well, to finished this post off I can say somehow I survived graduation night without the local police force ticketing me for many unauthorized moving violations. Redundant, I know. I managed to stay alive that summer working a few part time jobs including the garage and finally entering the Navy in August, leaving behind four lady friends. I had my father sell it shortly after I joined the USN. The rest is, as they say, history.