They say you never forget your first. No matter if they are referring to your initial timid steps into carnal knowledge, lawful or otherwise, or the car that spelled your first freedom, it’s an experience that makes a lasting impression. Not wanting to even think about your first spastic stabs at sex, today we’re going to stick with your first cars, and whether you’d ever want to get it back. For many of us, that first car was many moons ago, and in my case – let’s see, 22 cars  – in the past. Of course, those of you still on your first car will just have to sit this one out. As I noted, my first car passed through my life long ago, like brown bagged PBJs for lunch and my Commodore Vic 20. Still, I remember it vividly. It was a 1961 Chevy Corvair 700 turtle top, in a metallic merlot. The three-speed stick needed to be buried into the split bench seat to catch two of the gears, and the engine was so weak due to a busted valve spring that it didn’t even make the 4 mile trip home when I bought it. Not that it mattered much, I was all of fourteen at the time. I managed, through the help of a very kind soul and fellow Corvair admirer, to get the car back running, and the experience served as my initiation into understanding how cars work, and not fearing taking them apart. In that aspect, it was a very important car in my life. But I don’t know if I’d want to have it back today. There are other cars I have owned, a buttercup MGB-GT and a rough but lovable Morris Minor Traveller among them, that I would dearly like to reclaim, but that Corvair, I just don’t know. The strange thing is, I don’t even have any pictures of it. How about you, was your first car as personally epochal as mine, and further, would you buy it back today? Image source: [automobilesdeluxe]