1986 Dodge Omni Miss Liberty

If there is one car I wish I had better pictures of, it is this one. It was white with red and blue pin striping and a decal of the Statue of Liberty on the side. All from the factory that way. From what I understood, it was part of a fleet of Dodge Omnis that were driven in the parade commemorating the completion of the restoration of the Statue of Liberty. I paid $600 for it from a friend who owed more than that on it. This was about 1996 or so. The only work I really ever did on this was plugging up all the emissions hoses that I didn't understand. And this thing did fly. It has a strong 2.2 engine for as light as the car was and it was geared very broadly. Theoretically I figured that it could do 225 before redlining in 5th gear. Of course it could never do that, but it was geared that way.

I drove it out west and it started having carburetor problems in California. I don't know if I picked up some bad gas or what. But it never ran consistently well after that.

I still had the Rabbit while I was driving this car and sold them both about the same time. Now I had a 1979 Ford Econoline 250 cargo van and was heading out to live on the road, selling at flea markets.

1981 VW Rabbit

My '81 Volkswagen Rabbit was not only the biggest hunk of junk that I ever owned but also my most beloved Subclassic. I found it on a dealer's back lot in a little town north of Chicago. Not all cylinders fired but the compression checked out even though low. The shifter linkage was disconnected and the car was "not drivable" and had been sitting for several years. I bought it for $250, went home walked back carrying a battery, put it in, popped the linkage together and drove home... just barely.

I put a new clutch in it, dropping the transmission out on to my chest (which I intended to do), a few new injectors, new shifter linkage and quite a bit more just to get it drivable. After driving it a little, I had to replace one of the track arms. It rusted through and broke completely in two. The car was rusty. You couldn't lift it without bending the frame a little. Gas lines would periodically rust and leak, etc, etc. A few months later a Volkswagen knowledgeable friend of mine adjusted the fuel mixture and timing settings just right and maybe it was just because I was used to driving a Renault Encore, but it seemed like that Rabbit could really move.

I never did much else to it except cover the rust holes with duct tape and drive, drive, drive. The transmission was on its way out and it took a little practice to get the gears to shift without grinding the gears, but I mastered it and the transmission never got any worse the 50,000 miles or so I put on it. Eventually I sold it for $100 to a kid who broke down in town and just needed a car to get back home.

I once drove this car through a couple feet of standing water and drew water into the engine. I pulled it home and could not get the engine to turn over to try to start it. My dad suggested pulling the spark plugs to relieve the pressure. We pulled the plugs and turned the engine over and water shot all over the garage. We kept doing that until it quit. Changed the oil, replace the plugs, it started up and I drove it around until it quit blowing white smoke. Change the oil, replace the plugs... Wow! That thing ran better than ever. Like a new car. I guess it cleaned it out pretty good.

Honda Accord, Renault Encore

When my wife got her driver's license in the summer of 1991, she was blessed with this early 80s Honda Accord hatchback, a true subclassic. I on the other hand drove my mother's old 1982 Pontiac Bonneville.

But notice in the back there, not the Bronco, but the little hatchback in danger of sliding down into the cistern. My first subclassic car: a Renault Encore. I traded the Pontiac for it in the summer of 1994. Interestingly, I got the Pontiac back 5 years later and drove it again for about a year. I had forgotten how smooth of a ride a car like that is. The Bonneville, not the Renault.

Here's another picture of it peeking around the corner of my Brother's Dodge Ram which he was trying to buff into a BMW.


The Renault got 40 miles to the gallon. Period. City, highway, mountains, even with the AC spitting ice chips out. It was my first traveling car. I drove it for about a year and gave it to my little sister when I bought a 1981 Volkswagen Rabbit for $250 from a dealer's back lot in Grayslake, Illinois. She drove it until the wheels fell off, well, until they broke free from the steering rack. My dad and I replaced the entire front end with one from a junkyard and then she drove it some more. Before when it was mine, I broke a torsion bar ramping railroad tracks with a full load of cargo and 2 passengers. I replaced the entire rear end which consisted of 4 bolts and ... Well, that was it. Four bolts.

Qualifications

I've been working out what qualifies a car to be a "subclassic" and I think that I have come up with a very simple definition: a subcompact or compact vehicle sold in the North American market manufactured between 1976 and 1986.
Some examples:


Chevy Chevette


Subaru Brat


Toyota Camry