Tuesday, October 13, 2009

VIDEO: Crashing through snowbanks, '70s Civic style




Shot in 2000 or 2001, here I am piloting a 1979 Civic 1200 through snowbanks in Menomonie, WI, home of the University of Wisconsin - Stout, where I attended college.

See, back in 2000, my roommate Scott and I bought this '79 Civic for $350 off of a dude in Eau Claire, WI. We got it solely as a winter beater—and it was awesome.

It had 145/80/12 tires, a two-speed Hondamatic transmission, and 1980s Nissan Sentra bumpers welded on front and rear. To that, we added a rattle-can "New Holland Yellow" paint job, a new muffler (just a glasspack, really), an "I Love Mullets" bumper sticker, and some Walmart trailer lights mounted up front for fog lights.

This little car was beast in the snow. Traction was never an issue, since it didn't have enough power to spin the tires—the power-sucking Hondamatic transmission helped with that, too. The narrow 145mm tires cut through snow like two pizza cutters going through a pepperoni with extra cheese. Plus, it had an awesome heater, a great rear defroster, and it was as reliable as the sun rises and sets (that is, after we put a new battery in it).

4 comments:

xBeerd said...

Best Story Ever!

2gt8rthan4 said...

You cannot mention that car unless you also mention how you found the grill!

Andy Lilienthal said...

What Kevin is referring to is the fact that when we bought the car, it had a chicken wire grille. However, there was an old abandoned shed in a ravine near our old college house. "xBeerd" and Kevin (who were both roommates) wanted to see what was in the shack, and I was never interested. Well, one day they went down there, went in the shed, and found ... a grille to a 1979 Honda Civic 1200. It bolted right up. How strange is that?

xBeerd said...

HA! i forgot about that!

-scott