Tough break man ,
I know it’s difficult, but not get too attached to these things. I loved my old Supra, Not only was it my first car, but it was my dream car. I had wanted an A70 since I was damn near 7 years old, and spent every single day of my early teens obsessing over them, waiting for that day I could call myself a supra owner.
Then that day eventually came, July 24th 2007, when I became the owner of a Black 1988 NA/Auto. No one was going to tell me that every single panel bar the front side passenger wing had rust on it, and that in the grand scheme of things, it was one slow POS, but to this day I still reckon it’s the quickest car I’ve driven, and I’ve driven cars that would murder the supra on paper.
Granted, I broke more stuff than I fixed and managed to do some really stupid, idiotic things with it that I won’t dare mention, but it was all a learning experience and all in the name of love.
I had always promised the car a complete top down rebuild to get the ready for the summer of 08. I saved up all my money and in the early part of 08 I was waiting for a sizeable garage to start the work in, until a post from IJ got me thinking. While I can’t remember what the exact post was, it was something along the lines of ‘It’s just metal’.
I ended up selling my car in hope of getting a smoking deal on a Black Manual TT GA70, the sensible option opposed to a full restoration on my MA70. Unfortunately The seller messed around and stuck the car on ebay and got 4 times what he had agreed to sell the car to me for. Fair enough, he was well within his rights to do so, although it did leave me with no supra, and a rather large hole in my heart that I’ve yet to fill, even with large German sedans.
It’s sad because I don’t think I’ll ever feel the way I felt about my old supra, that I’ll never again feel that sweet feeling of sheer joy when I finally managed to fix something, that I’ll ever have that awful feeling in the pit of my stomach when something had gone wrong or the tears that were shed when something went really wrong, or most importantly, that indescribable emotion you get when you open up the throttle on a clean stretch of road, when you hear that straight six waking up as it inches up the rev range and feel that gentle push in the kidneys as the needle on that left hand gauge starts moving towards dizzy new heights. It’s the constant search for that emotion unites us all as a community.
What I’m trying to get at is this – No matter how you put it, getting rid of this car and buying a rust free shell with a strong healthy motor is the sensible thing to do, but that’s not saying it’s the ‘right’ thing to do. If you’ve truly ‘fallen in love’, have the time, space, energy and pocketbook to stomach the work that the car deserves, then do it.
Sadly I didn’t, but I sold my car to someone who did. It’s now fully restored, and ready to face the summer of 08. A summer that we’ll unfortunately never get to share…
I know it’s difficult, but not get too attached to these things. I loved my old Supra, Not only was it my first car, but it was my dream car. I had wanted an A70 since I was damn near 7 years old, and spent every single day of my early teens obsessing over them, waiting for that day I could call myself a supra owner.
Then that day eventually came, July 24th 2007, when I became the owner of a Black 1988 NA/Auto. No one was going to tell me that every single panel bar the front side passenger wing had rust on it, and that in the grand scheme of things, it was one slow POS, but to this day I still reckon it’s the quickest car I’ve driven, and I’ve driven cars that would murder the supra on paper.
Granted, I broke more stuff than I fixed and managed to do some really stupid, idiotic things with it that I won’t dare mention, but it was all a learning experience and all in the name of love.
I had always promised the car a complete top down rebuild to get the ready for the summer of 08. I saved up all my money and in the early part of 08 I was waiting for a sizeable garage to start the work in, until a post from IJ got me thinking. While I can’t remember what the exact post was, it was something along the lines of ‘It’s just metal’.
I ended up selling my car in hope of getting a smoking deal on a Black Manual TT GA70, the sensible option opposed to a full restoration on my MA70. Unfortunately The seller messed around and stuck the car on ebay and got 4 times what he had agreed to sell the car to me for. Fair enough, he was well within his rights to do so, although it did leave me with no supra, and a rather large hole in my heart that I’ve yet to fill, even with large German sedans.
It’s sad because I don’t think I’ll ever feel the way I felt about my old supra, that I’ll never again feel that sweet feeling of sheer joy when I finally managed to fix something, that I’ll ever have that awful feeling in the pit of my stomach when something had gone wrong or the tears that were shed when something went really wrong, or most importantly, that indescribable emotion you get when you open up the throttle on a clean stretch of road, when you hear that straight six waking up as it inches up the rev range and feel that gentle push in the kidneys as the needle on that left hand gauge starts moving towards dizzy new heights. It’s the constant search for that emotion unites us all as a community.
What I’m trying to get at is this – No matter how you put it, getting rid of this car and buying a rust free shell with a strong healthy motor is the sensible thing to do, but that’s not saying it’s the ‘right’ thing to do. If you’ve truly ‘fallen in love’, have the time, space, energy and pocketbook to stomach the work that the car deserves, then do it.
Sadly I didn’t, but I sold my car to someone who did. It’s now fully restored, and ready to face the summer of 08. A summer that we’ll unfortunately never get to share…
