The one that got away.

[Dave@Moon]

Everybody's got a story about the one that got away, be it girl, fish or car. We'll limit ourselves to cars for this discussion.<P>What was the most valuable/rare/interesting/collectible/etc. car that you or someone you know let slip through your/their fingers?<p>[ 05-15-2002: Message edited by: Dave@Moon ]

[Dave@Moon]

Here's the best story I have...<P>A friend of mine in the "Car Counsel" of the vintage car race I used to work for was talking to me about the cars he'd had. He races and restore vintage British cars today. <P>He was very proud that the first new car he'd bought was a 1971 Boss 351 Mustang. He casually mentioned that he'd traded in his college car, a used 1965 Chevy blah-blah-blah...., on it.<P>I didn't quite hear that, so I asked him to repeat it. <P>He said it again. I couldn't believe it. I began to describe the car he named back to him. A hardtop, black over red (a guess, most were), 396 big block, nicely trimmed and top line interior but with simple/unadorned taillights from the base series, 160 mph speedometer.<P>He was floored. How'd I know that. <P>He'd traded in a 1965 prototype Chevelle SS396 Z-16! They made only 201 of them late in 1965, largely for evaluation/promotional purposes. They sell for ungodly amounts of money today, and are probably among the most sought-after GM cars ever built.<P>I had to tell him. I tried very hard not to hurt his feelings.<P>He doesn't like to talk to me very much any more. <p>[ 05-15-2002: Message edited by: Dave@Moon ]

[Guest]

In 1960 I was working at a GM Dealership. My daily driver was a 1930 Pontiac. The sales manager came to see me with a deal. They had had a 1917 Chev touring with a V8 traded in. I could have it for $200.00. Hey man I was cool then. I drove a Pontiac who on earth would want a Chev? I turned the offer down. Alas and alack, regrets regrets, woe is me.<BR>Happy hobbying.

[Guest]

I had the chance to buy a 1963 split window corvette for $2000 in 1976. 327 with 375 hp newly rebuilt. 69 chevy blue metallic paint job. Not factory but cherry from nose to tail pipes. I was 18 and there was no way I could swing the deal. Besides Dairyland Insurance and I were good friends. I was paying 2 grand a year just to drive to work. I can't imagine telling them I was driving a vette! Wonder what it's worth today???

[Guest 40LUV]

In the summer of 1976, there was a '57 Chevy Convertible advertised in the classifieds for $1,000. I went and looked at it and wanted to buy it. It had a white top, dull original black paint and 327/4 speed. I was a college student living at home and already had an old car in the family one car garage. My parents nixed the deal. Hope I never do something that cruel to my kids.

[Guest]

Around 1980 I sold a 1955 chevy sedan delivery. Even though it didn't have the original drivetrain, I would love to have it back. At 18 years of age I didn't have the respect or cash flow needed to do it justice.It was black with flames, had a 66 impala 327-365hp v-8, 4-speed and a limited slip rear-end. I believe it ended up in cape cod somewhere. Oh well, you snooze-you loose!<BR>Sold it for $1000., the 2.02 "fuelie" heads would bring more than that today!!<BR> <p>[ 05-16-2002: Message edited by: 54 Oldsman ]

[Guest]

Aaaarrrgggg!!!!!.......<BR>Every time I think about it I wanna hit myself upside the head with a deadblow hammer!!!!<P>1922 Daniels 7 pass Phaeton, made what I THOUGHT was a verbal agreement with the guy to return in one week with 30% deposit paying the rest in installments for six months, I was 19 at the time and didn't know much about human nature.<BR>The guy sold me out for $6,000.00 more than we had agreed upon.<BR>The memory of it still remains but perhaps the experience had a salutary effect on me since a neigborhood kid wanted a beat up '51 Chrysler sedan I used as a beater, I gave it to him, granted it was not a Daniels but the look on the kid's face when he drove that car made all the difference to me.<BR>Karma worked it's magic with the Daniels owner who sold me out, drank himself to death after his wife left him for a pizza shop owner and my friends and I would have pizza pies from the same shop delivered to the s.o.b.'s house!

[Bill Stoneberg]

I found a Mercedes 190 SL in a barn in pieces. All of it was there. The owner basically wanted his horse stall back so offered it to me for $100 bucks if I would just haul it away. I turned around and sold it for $ 200 bucks and was happy.<BR>I wish I would have kept it.

[1937hd45]

L.I.Stellite, That is one class act! Did you send along a bottle of Jack Daniel's to speed things up?

[Guest]

I was sixteen or so and looking around for my first car. A local old car collector had a 32 Cadillac touring car, twelve or sixteen cylinder, I don't remember. That wasn't for sale but he also had a 34 Packard twelve with some engine problem, maybe a broken rod or something. The rest of the car was in very good condition; it had an unusual sloped back coupe body, not square like you'd expect a 34 car to be. This was 1966 and he wanted $1000. If I sold my entire model car collection and my little brother, I could have scraped up the money. My dad was leery of the engine problem and I passed it up. Later that summer I found a 48 Ford Super Deluxe convertible in a barn in nice shape. I bought it for $60, joined the Navy and sold it for $85.

[Guest]

By the way, I'm sure that Packard was not one of the few aerodynamic coupes. It was many years later that I saw a photo of one of those, and it was not that. This car had a sloping back roof section and a similarly sloping trunk, with a sort of depression between the two surfaces, like those modern Chrysler sedans styled to look like a fifties Jag sedan. It was reminiscent of a later thirties coupe, although it was to my juvenile eye not a re-body or butcher job. The design looked coherent, as if whoever built/designed it knew what they were doing. My dad thought it may have been coach-built or a custom of some kind but he couldn't elaborate as he hadn't studied these car's history. He was more of a Model A guy. The Packard was painted sort of a brownish gold or tan. In addition to the duff engine, I guess we were queered by the unfamiliar bodywork, so passed on it.

[Guest EMF-Owner]

Back When I was first married, 1988 or so, I came across an add for a 1912??? Detroit Electric for $700.00. I called about it and the owner says it needed all new wood, but everything was there. I wish I had bought that one, but he also had a 1907 Cadilac One Cylinder with a Victoria (Tulip) touring body he was selling for $8000.00. The car was original and ran well. My reasoning for not buying it was not having anyplace to store it. I wish I had bought it and figured out the storage later. Probably never get another chance at a car like either of these at I a price I can afford. $8000.00 was a lot of money then and still is to me today, but I would pay it for a 1 cylinder Cadillac touring.

[Guest leadfoot]

Sitting in my easy chair in the early '70s, I used to scan the car ads in the Wisconsin State Journal every Sunday. One was for a 1913 Studebaker SD4 to settle an estate in the Madison area. I thought seriously about it and planned to check it out, but never got around to taking action.<P>Spin the dial forward to about 1978, I'm living in New Jersey. Still looking at Sunday car ads and I spoted a 1913 Studebaker for sale in Bernardsville, just over the hill from our house. So I made an appointment to look at what turned out to be an extremely well kept original brass touring with less than 10K miles.<P>The owner was clearly an antiuqes collector/dealer. He said that he remembered seeing me at estate sales he used to attend in Wisconsin. Yup, the Stude was the Madison car. We negotiated back and forth, but I never got him to a price that made any economic sense. So I lost the 1913 SD4 again.<p>[ 05-17-2002: Message edited by: leadfoot ]

[caf]

Back in the late fifties I found a really nice Cord 812 convertable in a repair shop in Berkeley Ca. It was black with a white top , had a supercharger and the outside exhaust pipes. It had the neat preselector gearshift which I can't recall the name of, anyway they wanted 2500 for it but it might as well been 25,000 to me at that time. I think of it often.

[Jim Bollman]

The two I regret the most. <P>In 1968 while finishing up college I needed to upgrade from the 62 Metropolitan I was driving to something I could use post college to move to a different part of the country. My dad was helping me look and I had it narrowed down to a 63 Studebaker Avanti or a 66 Mustang same money. My Dad says why would I want another out of production car to find parts for, buy the Ford. I did and foolishly didn't keep it. <P>At the time my Dad had a 36 Packard 110 2 door sedan. All original licensed and pretty nice. After I was only in my new after college job for a year still living in an apartment and feeling poor my Dad sold the Packard for $600 because he was tired of paying for an extra garage to store it and I didn't have the cash to buy it. Probably my only chance to own a Packard even if it was only a 110.<P>Jim...

[1937hd45]

Back in the early 1970's I was into four cylinder Ford speed equipment and pre 1940 race cars. I told everyone I met in hopes of finding more parts or leads. One day a fellow delivered a machine to the shop I worked at, and said he had a two man "Miller" race car in the back woods of his property. I went over and it was a two man car, what was left of it. Not a Miller but a nicely made aluminum cowl section, with a badly modified and battered aluminum tail. The frame rails that someone practiced welding on were is sad shape. I tried to trace its history back to 1939, I was told it raced at the Worlds Fair with the ARCA, the predecessor to the SCCA. I don't know why but I sold it. Two years later the fellow sold it back to me. I tried to find out some more about the cars racing history before the 1950's SCCA hill climbs it was in. I sold it a second time, and it was restored, and sold again. When the book came out on the history of the ARCA "American Road Racing the 1930's" by Joel E.Finn, I looked at a copy, THERE IT WAS! leading the pack at the 1939 Worlds Fair race!<p>[ 05-16-2002: Message edited by: 1937hd45 ]

[Centurion]

My three great automotive regrets all appeared on the scene while I was a poor college student during the early to mid 1970's. All of these cars were priced right, but only one was within my grasp.<P>First to tempt me was the fine, original '55 Packard Patrician sedan owned by my 8th grade math teacher. He had first seen this exact car new on the showroom floor of the Los Angeles Packard dealership. He was fortunate to acquire the car in 1959, and by 1972, he was ready to sell it to me for $75. It needed a battery and evidently shimmied at about 40-mph, but it was complete, straight, rust-free and the interior was beautiful. My folks nixed the deal as an impractical choice for my first car. I always wish I had gone for it. The individual who did buy it never did anything with. The car sat outside to deteriorate, the windows were shot out, and the magnificent Packard eventually became a worthless hulk.<P>Second up was the '54 Buick Skylark convertible (production 836) with original continental kit offered for $2,500 in 1974. The car was for sale in Eastern Washington state. I corresponded with the owner, and was assured that one could jump in the Skylark and confidently drive it to New York City. This one kept me awake at night, but the $2,500 might as well have been $250,000.<P>Third up was the 1958 Buick Limited convertible (production 839) offered for $3,000 in my college town (Salem, Oregon) during the fall of 1975. This was a very fine original silver example, and the owner was losing his storage space. Okay, the Flight Pitch Dynaflow transmission required a little attention, but how I wish I had that car now!

[Guest Skyking]

It was 1962 and I had just turned 16. My uncle was selling his 55 Chevy convertible for $150.00. He had bought the car new. It was red & white and had the powerpack V8. My father wouldn't let me buy it, so my friend bought the car. He kept it for 2 years and sold it to another friend. To this day, that second friend still owns the car.........

[Guest]

In 1982, I "bought" a 1929 Packard coupe. Right before work, I stopped by the ladies house but she wasn't home. I put my certified check for $11,000 in her mailbox and went to work. Right after work, I went over to see someone else loading the Packard onto a trailer. She hadn't picked up her mail and my check was still there. Her reply: "Well, he's got it now. What can I do?" What could I do? Guess he's STILL got it!