1983 Volvo 242 Turbo “Annaluna”

Owned 1999-2000.

You’ll quickly begin to notice a trend here, wherein I have cars but don’t keep them for very long, and in many cases don’t do all that much with them.  There are two reasons for this: first, I try not to sit on a project that I’m not doing anything with, and second, I think that sometimes a car finds its way into my hands mostly so that I can get it to its next owner.  Perhaps, in some way, I’m trying to atone for failing with the MG.

Annaluna was the first of my wayward cars.  I found her at a used car lot/junkyard in South Austin, stuck far to the side of the lot.  240 Turbo coupes are rare, and she was cheap, so I took her home and worked on getting her to run properly.  This never really happened.  From all evidence the turbo was blown, which meant a very expensive repair that I couldn’t afford, so I put her up on eBay.  The gentleman who came to purchase her took out an Allen wrench and twisted something on the fuel injection system–and Annaluna’s idle immediately smoothed out.

I didn’t feel badly.  This guy clearly deserved the car more than I did, and he paid me what I paid for her.  I was just the middleman, who got her from the junker-lot to eBay for him to find.  I’m okay with that.