Welcome to the garage. This is the place to find all my exciting and not-so-exciting car information and stories. I've always been fascinated with cars from a very early age, but I'm not at all mechanically inclined. I just like to drive. I was a volunteer for the Carmanah Forestry Society in the early 1990's, a member of the Bravo Charlie CB Radio enthusiasts club, and most recently, a driver for the Jack Bell VanPool Foundation.
The Jack Bell Foundation is a non-profit society that assists long-distance commuters with getting to work. Commuters share a vehicle provided by Jack Bell and each pays a monthly fare. Jack Bell pays for the vehicle, gas, insurance and maintenance. Commuters share the driving and maintenance responsibilities, and share the costs of parking if necessary. The vehicles available are cars (Chev Cavalier/Pontiac Sunfire) that seat 4 people, and vans (Chevy Astro/GMC Safari) that seat 8 people - and full-size 14 passenger vans. There are over 30 pools operating on Vancouver Island currently. For a 250km commute, the van fare is about $160 per month, car fare is about $200 per month. Here's a picture of the car our pool used to drive, Car #6. We now have a year 2000 GMC Safari van, #148.
I'm a fan of Dodge, Ford and Toyota cars mostly, but I can find something to like about almost any car, even the most humble beaters. So if you want to write about your Chevette, Pinto, or even your Lada, I won't be offended. I've even owned a couple of Ford Pinto's myself, and really they weren't that bad. (Certainly, they never blew up, or I wouldn't be here.)
Technical Pages
These pages contain detailed information about "projects" that I've been involved in with cars - my good friend Stephane is a great mechanic and car enthusiast and has explained a great deal about cars to me - still I have trouble actually doing the fixing myself. I'm better at asking him to fix it and handing him the tools. Still, if you have a car like one of these, you may find our notes helpful. I've found technical manuals sadly lacking in detailed information - especially the nuances of specific model years...
- 1971 FORD TORINO PROJECT
- 1975 PLYMOUTH FURY PROJECT
- 1982 TOYOTA CRESSIDA PROJECT
- 1995 TAURUS PROJECT (future updates)
Stephane my mechanical friend has gotten another car. He scrapped the Fury but if you want info about his daily driver, a Pontiac Phoenix, click the link below...
I also intend to promote exchange of information about obscure cars that I'm aware of. One such is the Toyota Corona Mark II, an overlooked classic if ever there was one. Stephane had one of these about 10 years ago and unfortunately it failed a safety inspection, and, lacking funds to fix the muffler and the e-brake (the reasons it failed), it had to go to the scrap heap. Fortunately he kept the owner's manual, because there are very few (if any) resources about this car on the Internet. I did find a page about the earlier, mid-60's form of this car, but the 1971 model year was one of the best (in my opinion). Before 1971, the styling was somewhat plain, if not downright ugly - and after 1971, they went to the "shaver" nose style until the more modern Corona was introduced sometime around 1980. The modern car was essentially a rear-drive counterpart of Toyota Camry and was dropped around 1986.
1971 TOYOTA CORONA MARK II - Pictures from owners manual. (if anyone has an actual photo of one of these I'd love to add it to my page. E-mail me a scan if you have the technology.)
Personal Auto History
This is a list of the cars I've owned over the last several years - here, you'll find pictures, some stories, and other information as I find the time to add it to this web publication.
Automotive Links
FORD TORINO PAGE
TOYOTA MOTOR CO.
