Target sighted:

[dcn]

On the way home tonight a guy in a first gen brown 4WD pulled up beside me on a 4-lane road and waved. I was doing about 5 over (should have known better from previous postings e other members), and he came outta nowhere, which means he must have seen my car way ahead and got into it in order to catch up. So not only does he know what he drives, he was determined to catch up and say hello. Woot to that!

It turns out we live sorta close, once he passed me I ended up driving past his apartment on my normal route home. It would have looked like I was following him for a bit and I didn't want to look like (more of) a freak, so I hung back a bit..

Anyways I'm going to stop over there if I'm off on Fri and tuck a note under his wiper. That oughta finish weirding him out. Who knows, we may have another Canadian member East of Ontario soon. That'd be cool, well for me at least. Plus my car was grimey, I'd like him to see photos of it in cleeeean mode.



This episode reminds me; I think it's been discussed before, but do you guys find that the Terc owners you see only have maybe a 50/50 shot of actually noticing you and thinking it's cool to see another Tercel? This guy and the dude who I met head on on a country road once are the only 2 I ca think of off the top of my head. I could see that guy punching his wife in the shoulder and pointing at me from about 300 feet away. Which makes me wonder what he was steering with.

[simon84]

I'd say it's only a few percent of tercel drivers I see that actually look. And mine's bright orange, hard to miss. Most of them are rust buckets out here so many tercel owners are probably just hanging on with theirs maybe.
The best sighting I had was when I saw an army green tercel coming the other way down the transcanada highway just outside the mountains. When we passed we were both checking each others tercels out.
And I passed another tercel today on the highway and they did actually look over.

[dcn]

LOL, the bright orange and hard to miss comment had me laughing! I was in Banff in 04, we walked around the tourist shopping area and ate at Tony Roma's, wonder if we came close to seeing your car. That would have been exciting for my brother and I.

[GTSSportCoupe]

There are probably into the low 100's of tercel 4wd's in my area. No one looks or waves. But when they sell, they ask quite a bit for them, so they must appreciate the cars (maybe because so many are still rust free here). I really need to get me one of those rust free ones...but then again, I'd feel bad going on logging roads and offroad if I had a nice one.

[Iain]

The first T4WD have seen in my area was last night, pulled over by a cop. LOL Come to think of it, the car could have been a 2WD, I was not close enough to tell at night.

'till last night i have never seen a Tercel wagon in London...sad really....

Because my car is so rare, i get all kinds of looks all of the time- almost as much as my last show car! Well, its not the same kind of look of appreciation but, a look of confusion really...like they are trying to figure out what kind of car it is. I always get the big thumbs up from guys in 4Runners though, especially on the trails!

[scotisha]

There is a guy up here in Grande Prairie who always waves at me when we see each other (I wave back too). He has a tercel the same colour as mine but it has black bottom trim, blue leds in the grill, and way more rust. He also has a horn that makes a funny jingle when it sounds (I think it is the same sound as the Dukes of Hazzard horn ). I can't wait to get my stickers so he can check out this site.

I see lots of tercels up here. I guess they are easy to pick out because everyone else has a giant jacked-up truck. Most of the tercels are pretty rusted up and don't look to be in great shape.

I will love the day that I see a orange tercel that someone has put some work/love into!

[brianp]

There are quite a few Tercels in my area, I probably see 2 or 3 each day, parked or driving. It's funny, most of the people driving them seem like they are elderly people! (No offense to you all. ) I occasionally wave, but alot of times, I don't think they even see me. The other day, I passed a tercel on a trailer pulled by a pickup on 99W. I was wondering if it was one of you guys, getting a new one.

[jammin1911]

The first T4WD have seen in my area was last night, pulled over by a cop. LOL Come to think of it, the car could have been a 2WD, I was not close enough to tell at night.

'till last night i have never seen a Tercel wagon in London...sad really....

Because my car is so rare, i get all kinds of looks all of the time- almost as much as my last show car! Well, its not the same kind of look of appreciation but, a look of confusion really...like they are trying to figure out what kind of car it is. I always get the big thumbs up from guys in 4Runners though, especially on the trails!

You might see another on Saturday night!

Considering going to a buddies party that he's having haha....

[Iain]

The first T4WD have seen in my area was last night, pulled over by a cop. LOL Come to think of it, the car could have been a 2WD, I was not close enough to tell at night.

'till last night i have never seen a Tercel wagon in London...sad really....

Because my car is so rare, i get all kinds of looks all of the time- almost as much as my last show car! Well, its not the same kind of look of appreciation but, a look of confusion really...like they are trying to figure out what kind of car it is. I always get the big thumbs up from guys in 4Runners though, especially on the trails!

You might see another on Saturday night!

Considering going to a buddies party that he's having haha....

I'll keep an eye out for ya!

[Mickey_D]

Considering there's only 5 T4WD's in all of Minnesota and one's in my driveway, one's in a wrecking yard, and one's at a shop awaiting on the owner deciding if he wants to bother putting a new drivetrain in it (was towing it behind his motorhome and left it in 1st when hooking up), the fourth's in Duluth (about 200-300 miles away and the fifth is down in the twin cities (about 300-400 miles away) I don't really get to see too many others (namely NONE)

[Typrus]

I have 3. I know someone with an 83 up on Craigslist due to a dead tranny (depressing, it was an early 83!) I know several other people with them as well.
They are everywhere around here. Mostly rusty. I'd say I have some of the best condition Tercs in my area.

My best sighting? A camo-painted Terc with a big cargo-box on the roof sitting outside of a local gas station/ watering hole. I left a note under the wiper. Guess what happened? kamiphloj joined up I was quite pleased. If for nothing else, adding another mind to the resource pool.
I try to get more members as often as I can.

[kamiphloj]

I'm real glad you did.You know,I wasn;t on the internet and didn;t have a computer till you did that.I got hooked up to be here.
Your Tercs are cherry.Mine is a rat safari car.
Don't you love 'em? Curious,my car was made Dec 82.What is different about an early 83?
I bought it from a pretty blonde vet student with 134000 miles for $400.
The front end had taken a hit(fenders,hood,radiator) The clutch wouldn't pull 3rd.Still,134000 meant lo miles.It was red.I found red body parts at Blakes.A sponge bath with Bon Ami cut the paint to shiny and it looked good.Then the hit and run smeared the RR fender across the rear deck and spun it sideways into my pickup,caving in the LR door.
Turned it ugly.Camo was an easy way out.

I am going to make an appeal.You all can do whatever you want with your cars.Have fun.
Sometimes,though,it doesn't hurt to think about keeping the breed alive.
Radical alterations and trannie busting horsepower make me think of the '34 Ford Victorias that got chopped into local dirt track stock cars.
.Its a bit sad there are so few in Minnesota. Kamiphloj

[Mattel]

There's 2 red (same as mine) T4wd's within 300meters of where I live. Neither are in as good condition and I know of about 2 more within 1kilometer. Most people round here don't need there car in the week as we are a km from the CBD so a lot of people have an old car for the weekend only. I'm not sure if there interested in there cars as much as me though. I will go and put some flyers out soon though.(I still want some stickers). the only people I know with cars all surf 3 of those have bought 89 onwards AE95 4wd corollas from my advice (all also red) and love them.
Although probably not as much as this guy



http://www.turbocorolla.com/cars/larsc.htm


some of my mates are getting into subaru foresters and liberty's now which seem to be a great purchase although pricey still.

[ARCHINSTL]

I am going to make an appeal.You all can do whatever you want with your cars.Have fun.
Sometimes,though,it doesn't hurt to think about keeping the breed alive.
Radical alterations and trannie busting horsepower make me think of the '34 Ford Victorias that got chopped into local dirt track stock cars.

Sometimes, I almost feel like I'm like one of those guys flying the ultralight, shepherding the whooping cranes along...OK, so I'm using hyperbole and anthropomorphism here, but you get the idea.

And you know, they are really still quite practical cars as well. The practicality (OK, and offbeat appearance as well) is why I bought one in late '82. And they are still practical, even today - although there is now only me and no wife/small kids. And - not the least in importance - they are easy to work on with a minimum of tools and ingenuity.

And mentioning pre/post War Fords - they survived a bit longer in the dirt/stock car circuit instead of going directly to the junkyard as did the Chevies and Plymouths because they were plentiful, cheap, they had the V8, and also had durable solid front axles. Many in good shape were also ripped apart for the axles to go under trailers. When I was a kid, there was a local company that professionally fabricated trailers using Ford axles; there was even a dual-axle version available.
What with the WWII scrap drives, the dirt/stock car usage, and the axle desirability, it still surprises me that so many still survived...
Tom M.