DFB
Well-known member
- Aug 12, 2019
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- #2,661
Stepping back in time for this post..............................
The very first car I ever drove was my fathers EB II Falcon GLi wagon in about 2000. That Falcon was well worn out by that stage, so I guess he felt safe letting me loose in the thing. I would drive that car around the workshop yard, getting all of the teenage boy stuff out of my system before getting my learners permit. I remember having a VERY close call with an steel I-beam, I had the thing sideways then panicked and slammed on the brakes to miss the beam by something like 5mm. THAT right there was the moment I knew I could do damage to a car and myself by being stupid. I fear so many young drivers never get that out of their system before they get a licence.
In addition to driving around the work yard, Dad would take me waaaay out of town onto the gravel back roads, then swap seats. This is how I learnt to drive before even getting a learner permit. In addition to the old Falcon, I would drive a 1993 Mitsubishi Triton, also on the company fleet. Well, this is that very vehicle, still rattling around and still owned by the company......................
This car was bought brand new in 1993 and replaced an 80's Triton. This model continued in production until the mid 2000's. Actually, they bought another Triton to replace this one. You might think the paint looks ok for such an age, but its been repainted a few times, the tray and racking was also built by the company.
This was the first car I got to experience a manual transmission. Let me paint a picture here..................no power steering, no power brakes, no assisted clutch. Yeah, the steering was a bastard, but the lack of assistance on the clutch made it suuuper easy to feel the bite point. In fact, it probably ruined me for other cars because I quickly got the hang of how to drive a manual in this old thing.
At the same time, Mum had a first gen Subaru Forrester, in manual because Dad didn't want to pay for the automatic. Side note, he did pay the extra money to have a dealer fitted CD player, which in 1997 was quite fancy. But what an absolute bastard of car that was, the clutch gave no feedback at all and tended to engage right at the top of the travel. I've driven other manual Subaru's and they were the same. Even with decades of manual driving experience, I can still easily stall a Subaru. Dad loved that Subaru for some reason, it became his daily driver for a while too. I hated it, mainly due to having to ride in the back of it with ZERO leg room and a rock-hard seat. Compared to the Falcon Wagon with its long wheelbase and super comfortable rear seats, the Forrester was not a family car in my opinion. Combined with the gutless 2.0 engine, I never liked it...................and thrashed the guts out of it whenever no one was looking.
Back to the Triton, I have great memories driving that old thing. Let's be clear here, in no way is it an exciting thing to pilot. The steering was brutal, the engine made a lot of noise but didn't really produce anything meaningful. The gearbox was sloppy, the brakes needed to be stood on to pull the vehicle up. But for a teenage boy, my god it was FUN! You could pretty much drive the thing flat out everywhere and not break the speed limit. We'd also take it camping, where a mate and I would take turns driving it to collect firewood. On one Easter camping trip, some fool even thought it would be good to use the tray to launch fireworks off..................which ended up putting burn marks on the roof, highly illegal but a legendary story.
I also used this vehicle to start my business. At the time, Dad had been daily driving this vehicle, so I would swap my Fairmont for the Triton, do my mowing run, then swap back. Even my sister learnt to drive in this car.
The interior shot reveals a relatively low 283,000 km, but trust me, its lived a HARD life. I should know, I thrashed the guts out of it for quite a while. However, the bulk of its life has been spent delivering building materials, steel, concreate, gas bottles.................you name it. The seat has been retrimmed a few times as well, and take note of those handles on the door, those are used to manually wind the windows down......................
(Oh, and I think this vehicle has had a roll of duct tape in it for its whole life! )
The engine is super rattly now, but to be truthful, it always was. For whatever reason, the business continued to pay rego and insurance on this thing, I guess it still comes in handy................but I suspect there is a little sentimentality going on as well.
So there you have it. I might have a few flash cars now, but this car is part of my driving genesis. Seeing it again this morning brought back a lot of good memories.
The very first car I ever drove was my fathers EB II Falcon GLi wagon in about 2000. That Falcon was well worn out by that stage, so I guess he felt safe letting me loose in the thing. I would drive that car around the workshop yard, getting all of the teenage boy stuff out of my system before getting my learners permit. I remember having a VERY close call with an steel I-beam, I had the thing sideways then panicked and slammed on the brakes to miss the beam by something like 5mm. THAT right there was the moment I knew I could do damage to a car and myself by being stupid. I fear so many young drivers never get that out of their system before they get a licence.
In addition to driving around the work yard, Dad would take me waaaay out of town onto the gravel back roads, then swap seats. This is how I learnt to drive before even getting a learner permit. In addition to the old Falcon, I would drive a 1993 Mitsubishi Triton, also on the company fleet. Well, this is that very vehicle, still rattling around and still owned by the company......................
This car was bought brand new in 1993 and replaced an 80's Triton. This model continued in production until the mid 2000's. Actually, they bought another Triton to replace this one. You might think the paint looks ok for such an age, but its been repainted a few times, the tray and racking was also built by the company.
This was the first car I got to experience a manual transmission. Let me paint a picture here..................no power steering, no power brakes, no assisted clutch. Yeah, the steering was a bastard, but the lack of assistance on the clutch made it suuuper easy to feel the bite point. In fact, it probably ruined me for other cars because I quickly got the hang of how to drive a manual in this old thing.
At the same time, Mum had a first gen Subaru Forrester, in manual because Dad didn't want to pay for the automatic. Side note, he did pay the extra money to have a dealer fitted CD player, which in 1997 was quite fancy. But what an absolute bastard of car that was, the clutch gave no feedback at all and tended to engage right at the top of the travel. I've driven other manual Subaru's and they were the same. Even with decades of manual driving experience, I can still easily stall a Subaru. Dad loved that Subaru for some reason, it became his daily driver for a while too. I hated it, mainly due to having to ride in the back of it with ZERO leg room and a rock-hard seat. Compared to the Falcon Wagon with its long wheelbase and super comfortable rear seats, the Forrester was not a family car in my opinion. Combined with the gutless 2.0 engine, I never liked it...................and thrashed the guts out of it whenever no one was looking.
Back to the Triton, I have great memories driving that old thing. Let's be clear here, in no way is it an exciting thing to pilot. The steering was brutal, the engine made a lot of noise but didn't really produce anything meaningful. The gearbox was sloppy, the brakes needed to be stood on to pull the vehicle up. But for a teenage boy, my god it was FUN! You could pretty much drive the thing flat out everywhere and not break the speed limit. We'd also take it camping, where a mate and I would take turns driving it to collect firewood. On one Easter camping trip, some fool even thought it would be good to use the tray to launch fireworks off..................which ended up putting burn marks on the roof, highly illegal but a legendary story.
I also used this vehicle to start my business. At the time, Dad had been daily driving this vehicle, so I would swap my Fairmont for the Triton, do my mowing run, then swap back. Even my sister learnt to drive in this car.
The interior shot reveals a relatively low 283,000 km, but trust me, its lived a HARD life. I should know, I thrashed the guts out of it for quite a while. However, the bulk of its life has been spent delivering building materials, steel, concreate, gas bottles.................you name it. The seat has been retrimmed a few times as well, and take note of those handles on the door, those are used to manually wind the windows down......................
(Oh, and I think this vehicle has had a roll of duct tape in it for its whole life!
)The engine is super rattly now, but to be truthful, it always was. For whatever reason, the business continued to pay rego and insurance on this thing, I guess it still comes in handy................but I suspect there is a little sentimentality going on as well.
So there you have it. I might have a few flash cars now, but this car is part of my driving genesis. Seeing it again this morning brought back a lot of good memories.
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