My Cars

Welcome to the My Cars section of Chrutil's domain.

During my years on this planet I've had a few different cars, there is a clear trend going towards more and more horse powers for each new car, Naturally I thought that after the C5 Corvette and its 345 hp monster power, I thought perhaps it would be hard to continue the trend.
Well guess again. In comes the Dodge Magnum SRT-8 and its 425 hp 6.1 Liter HEMI V8...

Here's an all-inclusive list of my cars through the years.

1985 - ???? " Volkswagen Van, 1973

I owned one third of this 1600 kg, 55 hp monster together with my pals Ingvar & Fredde. Don't recall all the details about it, but my curiosity has awakened so I'll ask some friends with better memory for details than I have, so stay tuned. This picture is taken before we painted it. Aluminum metallic with extra multi-colored spray paint if I remember it correctly.

1990 - 1993 : Volvo 480 ES, 1987

This car was a pretty nice little bucket. With 109 hp it was underpowered, but it stuck to the road like a licked stamp.

1993-1996 : Volvo 740 GL, 1989

Ok, I was playing it safe. This car is a big sucker, but it still handles ok for a car this size, mostly because it is so predictable. I was driving this guy through Swedish winter and Swiss alps - and that with regular summer tires - "never" had a problem with it. Cranked up this sucker to 210 km/h on the Autobahn once. The car was overloaded, as we were moving from Sweden to Switzerland and had the car packed with stuff. I drove from Kiel to Neuchatel in 10 hours. Not bad. I had to get rid of it or I would have had to register it in Switzerland, which would mean spending money on it. I liked this car enough to sell it to my parents (and that says more about the car, than my parents). Oh yeah - 117 hp.

1996 - 1996 : Toyota MR/2, 1991

Memories, sweet memories. I bought this one while living in Switzerland. Four hours after buying this car I got my first speeding ticket ever. This was a cool black little t-top (targa) two-seater with 175 hp and mid-engine. I really liked this car, and drove it around Europe (and even back to Sweden at one point). Unfortunately, I only got to keep it for 8 months, as I got an offer I couldn't refuse - to move to sunny California (ok, foggy bay area). Oh well. Lost quite a bit of money on it, but it sure was a fun car.

1997 - 2002 : Mitsubishi 3000 GT SL, 1991

This blue/green (teal) pearl was an extraordinary fun car to drive. Earned my second speeding ticket doing a lousy 71 mph on a 55 road in the middle of nowhere. I got it up to 140 once, cruising down to Vegas from San Francisco.
Unfortunately I also blew a rear tire in about 110 mph, and after a nice recover we were stuck in the middle of nowhere, where we waited, waited and waited until a tow truck came to rescue us. (can't beat AAA). After spending a couple of hours in a place called Coalinga or something like that, none of us felt like driving another 7 hours to get to Vegas so we turned around and headed back home. Nice day trip though. Except for Coalinga. I'm amazed places like that exist. Not to mention the people there. There is a cow farm, or whatever it is, with around four billion cows somewhere around that area. We could smell them. We actually didn't have a clue what it was that smelled, until we drove back in the evening and came across this "sea of cows". We laughed all the way home. Anyway, this car had 218 horses under the hood. With 245/50 tires all way around and a 3.0 Liter V6, it moved ok when pushing it. It's also a cop magnet. March 2000 update - I just came back from my second traffic school (comedy, my ass) due to this car (an even lousier 44mph on a 30 road this time).
January 2002: It was getting up there, so I traded this sweet thing for something better...

January 2002 - September 2005 : Chevrolet Corvette C5, 1997

5.7 Liter V8
345 hp @ 5600 rpm
350 ft-lbs @ 4400 rpm

Tires:
Front: P245/45ZR17
Rear: P275/40ZR18

0-60mph: 4.8 sec

June 2004 - October 2006 : Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, 1971

Highlander Was Wrong!
There Can Be More Than One ! ! !

By October 2006 I no longer have any of my Corvettes, but I will always remember them fondly.

December 2004 - Current : Mini Cooper S Convertible, 2005

This is actually my wife's car, but since we bought it after we were married it sort of counts as my car as well so here we go.
This car was too cute to resist so that when Mini announced that they were coming out with the Mini Cooper in Convertible we simply couldn't resist.

Marie insisted on the convertible and I insisted on the 'S' model. It's a killer combo.

168 hp @ 6000 rpm
6 Speed Manual

September 2006 - Current : Dodge Magnum SRT-8, 2006

	6.1 Liter V8 HEMI 425 hp (Although probably more like 435 hp with the Mopar aftermarket cold air intake) 420 ft-lbs @ 4800 rpm Wheels: Front: P245/R20 Rear: P255/r20 0-60mph: Low 5s Yeah... I kid you not - They put a 6.1 Liter HEMI in a station wagon. And I got one. Muahahahaha.