I no longer have any need for a WINTER BEATER so tp speak


BUT, I would have no issues driving some kind of front wheel drive car for such.

I used to think of anything prior to 1974 as vintage.

NOW, I think that has moved to mid/late 80s sad to say.

Eventually, the plan would be to swap in a 4.0 and the overdrive auto.... but for now, the 258/Torqueflite will do nicely. But, I think Holley has come out with a Sniper-style TBI setup that will mate to the BBD flange. Mostly for the Jeep people, but I've got a friend in Wa. State who did the swap on his SX/4 and said it worked very nicely.

I'm no stranger to the BBD. Lovely little carb if you ask me. My Swinger was a Super-Six with the BBD and I winter drove it for the better part of a decade.

My Gremlin has a Carter WCD and one winter it got so cold, the throttle shaft was stuck tight. I had to set the choke by hand to start the car. Sat there for 10 minutes idling before I had a usable throttle.
That was also the day the car tried to kill me.

There's a guy on the Canadian Poncho forum who has been winter driving his '67 Beaumont for years:

https://canadianponcho.activeboard....inter-cars-here-is-my-story-67-beaumont/

https://canadianponcho.activeboard.com/t67376231/winter-dirt-on-my-67-beaumont/

Used to see a really really nice blue 69 Sport Satellite running round town here, during middle of winter - finally one day was able to chat with the guy - "It's my car, I love it, and if it rusts, I will fix it" . . . ok. Also used to be a guy with a Ferrari GTB (??) - Magnum PI car, that used to drive it in winter . . . always would wonder why ?!?!?!?!?!

In our state to qualify for "historic" plates a car must be at least 25 years old.

That's 1998 (soon to be 1999) boys....

WOW, I have a historic.... ready for it..... neon.

I do have another 05 neon for a winter car since where im at we have mostly cold and light snow or heavy wet in the late winters but salt and mag are used a good bit. So I only need my 4x4 truck mostly to plow my driveway.

I have no problem sporting the neon in the winter, great heater and still semi modern vs older and a great heater, good mpg since im very rural... and at the end of the day if something happens to it.... well its just a neon.

I think an ideal winter car would be a well kept and cared for early OBD2 vehicle- before the tech became insane. A nice elderly owned mid/late 1990s to early 2000s 4cyl or V6. Ford Crown Vic/Marauder with the pushrod V8.

I watch local municipal auctions and it's surprising how much money Crown Vics sell for. They definitely have a strong following.

The last pushrod V8 in those cars was in 1990. They switched to the 4.6 SOHC motor in 1991 for the 1992 model year.

Middle East Uber drivers are who's buying them all up.

Here in florida Cleetus has the market cornered on CVs, somehow I think he has an agreement to buy any cvpi that goes for sale.

I have had quite a few winter drizen classics. A few 66 b bodies, some 70-71 c bodies and a 67 300. It was rather enjoyable for the most part. I stopped driving old cars in the winter 3-4 years ago. Between parts availability, other drivers and the diminishing supply of decent drivers it was an easy decision.

There is a nice 67 coronet 4 door for a good price within a few hundeed miles. While it is very tempting features the 3 speed wipers, pitiful charging system and leaky weather stripping have deterred me. Delay wipers, modern charging systems and a sealed up cabin have spoiled me. These items are often found on higherline cars however in my experience the luxury features rarely work. Old grease gets hard along with nylon clips creating issues with the window operation. Fwiw I don't look at post 76 cars as classic. The cars of the late 70's-early 90s are "earlt modern" in my mind. Antiques cars fall into the 64ish back era. to me because of the many left over design characteristics from the 50's (galactic looking cars with huge, smooth v8s).

My current winter daily is a 93 w250 12v. All of the gimmicks work, its sealed up and the wipers work at more than 3 speeds. That said I can see the writing on the wall now that it's 20 years old. 16" tires are grtting hard to find, OEM body panels are getting expensive/scarce etc. In ten years it will probably get replaced with a 08-18 Ram 2500 24v.


Between guilt and practicality I am a forced into being a fair weather classic car guy. This is justified by putting stroker big blocks in everything with the general understanding that they should not be messed with on wet roads.

I miss my muscle car winter beaters!

We had one here that was auctioned off last fall. A former police patrol turned traffic control car. A guy from Alaska flew in and drove it back home.

Many years back I always bought a winter beater. But they were beaters, not something from down South. My every day driver was a 65 Satellite and I was NOT going to drive that in the crap during winters. (Still have the Satellite!)

As has already been mentioned here, it's easy to get spoiled with more current vehicle features. Then looking at new car prices I decided it best to try and make my 2008 vintage vehicle last a bit more. Bought an 88 5th Avenue 4 years ago for $1200. It had about 90K on it. Figured if it lasted me two years it didn't owe me anything. The darn thing is still running and it doesn't bother me a bit to take it out on the worst of days. Always starts, engine doesn't burn a drop of oil and the transmission is one of the best shifting automatics I've ever owned. The grand kids love to rid in it and even call it grandpa's beater.

More than once I've thought of pulling the engine/trans for another project car, but just can't bring myself to do it. Once in a while I'll look at rust free stuff out of state and figure I could just drive the Chrysler there, close the deal, scrap the Chrysler and drive the new prize home. I just know I'd get there and not be able to bring myself to scrap the Chrysler.

A couple years ago I would see this 69 Charger on my way into work in the mornings. We would follow the same route for 5 miles or so. I'd run into him a couple times a week, all winter. It didn't matter if it was a snowstorm or not.It looked to be a solid car being fixed up with new quarters. And it was a four speed.I think the plates were from somewhere in the midwest and not here in MA. I always wondered what would make this guy drive this all winter.

This is a nice driver. It does have a set of steelies for winter.

Don't see very many of these around here and they fetch muscle car prices but this one is rusting away on the road.