My grandpa bought it at an auction for $1000 about 15 years ago. Not sure exactly when. I must have been 1, 2, maybe 3 years old at the time. The engine blew (from what I can tell, it was one apex or one side seal gone bad) and my dad found a junkyard engine and (he's very proud of this) put it in, in about 8 hours. After that, it sat in a barn for 15 or so years, until we pulled it back out (various reasons, mostly because I wanted to learn how to drive a manual). It's been nothing but trouble, but fun trouble. First it was a fuel pump, then my clutch started slipping (you might get a kick out of what the pressure plate looked like!), and this summer it was a dozen different coolant problems. Not to mention that my second gear synchro is a little worn out, and sometimes 5th makes a weird noise when you put it in. All in all, it's the most fun I ever had driving a car. (Not a high bar when the competition is a Corolla, a 2.3 fusion with a slippy auto, and a deathtrap Jeep that got 12 MPG)