Steven Seaweed's
Ten top tenz Lists

10 FAVORITE CARS OF MINE

10.) '60 CORVAIR
Crazy, but I actually owned THREE of these deathtraps. Totally lost it once with this car at the "Fishook" in Santa Cruz, fishtailing all over the place - nasty encounter with motorcycle CHP ensued. Ralph Nader actually has been right about a few things in his life, and Corvairs is one of them. Unsafe at any speed, indeed. This picture was taken around 1971 on a road trip to Canada with my friend, Dave Virello. That's him standing there in Sechelt, British Columbia. Another story, but this car pooped out and I left it up there for good.

9.) '56 CHEVY CARRYALL
I'm still looking for a picture of the real vehicle that I deathmarched to Mexico on a 1967 road trip. School bus yellow, had a way too low rear end (terrible gas mileage), and blew up on the outskirts of Mazatlan. Sold it on the spot for more than I originally paid for it, then hitched a ride back to California with a couple of hippies from Redlands, one of whom was fond of quoting the great Berkeley radical, Mario Savio: "There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part....." Heard that one a hundred times on the way back. I also owned a '56 3/4 ton Chevy Pickup.

8.) '76 BMW 320i

This was my first brand new car. Woo hoo! Leather seats, metallic grey paint, alloy wheels - hey, I had to do something to celebrate the Bicentennial. I was working at my first station, KLRB, Carmel, and commuting daily from the Santa Cruz mountains. Like pretty much every radio station I've worked at, it was an hour commute and I was stylin' in a Beamer! Crashed into the center divide of Hwy 17 on black ice at four in the morning once, and the guy I eventually sold it to smashed my thumb in the door. That only took a year to heal. Great car, though. This picture was taken in front of the oldest house in Sunnyvale, Cranberry Meadows.

7.) '60 AUSTIN HEALY BUGEYE SPRITE
I drove this for a year and-a-half while at San Jose State in the late 60's, mostly with the top down because, being 6'5", I actually looked out over the windshield. Huge fun to drive. Predictable English electrical problems, though. Used to drive it to the Lake and back when I worked weekends at Harrahs.

6.) '65 VW TRANSPORTER
I actually owned three of these things, but the '65 was my favorite. All those windows, huge sunroff, Compleat Idiot repair book in the glovebox, and of course a few tools to fix pretty much anything at anytime, which I did, all the time. This hippiemobile went everywhere with me from '69 to '71 - Yosemite, Colorado, Washington, Mendocino. That picture was taken in the Santa Cruz mountains where the guy on the left, Larry Miller, lived in a teepee. The other guy I forget, and if you look carefully, the driver is wearing an authentic hippie do rag. Who is that guy anyway?

5.) '56 300SL GULLWING MERCEDES
Allright, I never owned this one (my landlord did), but I did get to drive it on occasion and boy was it sweet! Mostly aluminum body, knock-off hubs, drove like a bat out of hell, and those spectacular gullwing doors! Talk about classic. Nowadays they're going for a quarter mil. Yes, that's me in a full beard. Circa 1971.

4.) '59 CONVERTIBLE-D PORSCHE
This was basically my wife's car, but I never let her drive it much, pig that I am. 1958 was the last year they built the legendary Porsche Speedster, and the '59 Convertible D was known as a "Speedster with rollup windows." Like most old Porsches, this one had been beat up a bit, but I whipped it into pretty good shape. Huge fun to drive .... with the top down, of course. In the background are two Karmann Ghia's. On the left was a sweet '57 coupe, and on the right was this one here....

3.) '59 KARMANN GHIA CONVERTIBLE
I've still got this one. Bought it from my brother in the '70's for $300. Only 1,170 convertibles were made that year, and right now it's sitting in my garage with personalized plates that say 59GHCV, which was the designated model # on the original title papers. I rebuilt the engine original 36 hp - you could eat off it, it's that clean. What gorgeous styling and awesome lines. The "Beautiful Beetle," they called it, because, except for the Karmann body, it was pretty much a V-Dub, crashbox transmisssion and all.

2.) '64 1/2 MUSTANG
The very first Mustangs came out in the Spring of 1964. They were actually 1965's, but they called them '64 1/2's, and my dad bought one of the first one's .... for $1,995! Crazy I know, but that was the price of a 3-speed, 6-cylinder basic model. You'll pay at least ten times that right now. It looks a little orange in the picture, but was really a bright fire-engine red and, in the summer of 1964, this baby turned some heads. My brothers and I drove it and I'm happy to report, never wrecked it. (Or I probably wouldn't be writing this today).

1.) '91 VX HONDA
The only reason this car is #1 on my list is because I DROVE IT MORE THAN ANY OTHER - 460,000 miles on the original engine! Awesome commute vehicle. Drove it back and forth to work at KRQR and the Bone for 11 years. My mechanic, Toan from Auto Tec, told me if I took good care of it I should get over 400,000 miles. Thank you. Believe it or not, there was plenty of room for my long ass body and a bike in the back. Very comfortable, great gas mileage, but a little slow in the fast lane. Even got $1,000 for it as a trade-in for my current car, a 2002 Golf TDI, which I also love.