'95 Mazda "WayCool" Miata

 'WayCool' was my '95 M Edition Mazda Miata convertible. Color: merlot. I'd wanted a Miata since they came out in 1990, but "you know who" always said that it would be impractical. In 1994, we were transferred to Charlotte, NC, from Texas. We shopped for a country property, and my beloved said I could get a horse. But the house we bought near Lake Wylie had no room for a horse, so I continued to dream of a Miata. I had 3 clippings on the refrigerator of the new 95 M Edition--what a beauty!

Jimmy Dean Touts a Death Trap. Does "state fair" even rhyme with "Corvair"?

'33 "Party (urp!) Hardy" Packard

In the late '40s, my father chipped in with some teenage friends to buy a monstrously huge black 1933 Packard. He says it only lasted a few years, but while it did, they rotated who got to use it to go out on dates, or they all piled into it to go to dances in West Philadelphia. Its prime use, however, was transporting the whole gang from West Philly to the South Jersey shore on weekends. With little cash, they'd take turns sleeping in the car, the rest sleeping under the boardwalk. Meals were scavenged from a cousin's hotdog stand. On one trip, they managed to scrounge enough cash for liquor for their weekly pilgrimage downashore. My uncle apparently had way too much and announced he was going to be sick. Unfortunately, he was in the exact middle of five guys sharing the back seat and couldn't reach the window. His solution: He opened the tiny ashtray in back of the front seat facing him and gushed away. -- Mike B., Media, Pennsylvania

Haunting song, "driving home" video