Publications
Partners
IMPPs. If those letters mean anything to you, we're already on the same page. If not, enjoy this little story because by the end of it I am sure you're going to relate somewhere along the line about your first car.
The year was 2001.
I was 19-years-old when I bought my first car as a third-year student, and also a permanent employee at my very first 'real' job with a R1800 paycheck - (I was five years old in Grade 1 if you're trying to do the math, and yes, it was still allowed back then).
A German car?
The company where I had applied to do a one-year internship for my journalism studies had decided to keep me on full time. To make this work, I had to be at the office for two to three days a week, attend classes on the others, and then work every single weekend for six months.
I didn't care, I was ecstatic and I no longer had to casual at Woolworths and wear that horrid, nylon red-and-black dress with bare-beige stockings and black court shoes, and earn R6.50 an hour.
Now, my father was an absolute Ford-fanatic in his day. All the cars he had ever owned were those of the Blue Oval brand. So imagine his heartache when I pulled up at home in a German offering. My manager and mentor at the time, Anton Marshall, had offered to sell his Volkswagen Golf Mk2 GTS for R10 000.
Image: Wheels24 / Janine Van der Post
What was your very first car, and what was your favourite memory of it? Email us some old pictures along with your story, and we'll publish it on Wheels24.
Gosh, I am getting goosebumps just thinking about it all over again. He said I could take it home, show my folks, and hear what they had to say. My Dad came outside, tilted his head and took a long drag from his Peter Stuyvesant cigarette - the blue pack, with the white label. All he said was "It's not bad, but it's not a Ford".
We agreed that my parents would loan me the money and I would pay them back in monthly installments.
The rebirth of Lucy
The papers were sorted and the car was mine. She was silver with black wheel arches and body strips. I decided to call her 'Lucy'.
Man, it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. She was my ultimate independence. I no longer had to ask Dad to borrow his red Ford Escort, I could go anywhere I wanted, and best, I could drive myself to work.
I immediately started saving, I had big plans for Lucy, and surprisingly it happened sooner than I expected. First, she got a new set of shoes - 17-inch TSW Apex rims and low profile tyres. Then came the stainless steel 57mm into 63mm exhaust system. And for some unbeknown reason, I fitted the biggest tailpiece you could find to the end of it. Naturally, it broke off a couple of times and I eventually decided to sell it.
Image: Wheels24 / Janine Van der Post
But then came the sound, and ultimately, the evolution of Lucy. Through a friend, I struck gold when I bought a set of 12-inch Pioneer IMPP subwoofers from a taxi driver. They were already nine years old, but those things were die-hard. The real deal.
I had a few friends who owned their audio fitment business, known as A-Bass Audio. This isn't a free plug, but their surname was Abass, and Lucy's nickname eventually became A-Bass because of the massive sticker I had stuck on my rear window. That, and the instant reputation she had embraced as one of the loudest Golf Mk2's in the Northern suburbs. She was linked up to a 1200 StarSound Jackslammer amplifier, along with the requisite 'mids and tweeters'.
My solace
Naturally, I also needed to fit a larger battery under my bonnet to support the massive sound. Back then, buying original CDs was still a thing, along with the CD-flip file holder you'd keep under your seat. Every time I got behind the wheel of my car, swung the ignition, and let her idle on a cold winter's morning while I selected the uitstiek* song of the day, my heart would smile. I'd forget any worries there might have been in the world, driving that car was my solace. Lucy was my happy place, she made the world a better place for me and everyone who drove with her.
She played an incredible role in the foundation of my motoring career. I met some of my closest friends and became a member of the Xtreme Veedubz car club, and Speedqueen aka SQ was born - my nickname in the Cape car culture and motoring forums. We attended every possible local car club event and entered sound off competitions. It sparked my interest to become a judge at 'show and shine' events (beauty pageants for cars) and created life-long bonds with too many people to mention.
Lucy's sound system had an infamous rep. My parents always knew when I was on my way home because they swear they could hear me from 5km away - I know they were just fibs - and there's an uncle in our church who lived a few streets away who would come and tell me on a Sunday morning what time I got home, or asked how the dices (illegal racing - I am not proud, I was young and ignorant) was because he heard my car there. It was always funny.
Lucy came first, always
I washed her myself, often, or I'd take her to the car wash, and pay for extra tyre shine on those low profile 17-inch tyres. Clearly if there was any man in my life at the time, he came a very distant second. Lucy was my pride and joy, and everything else.
I would always have a special song selected which emphasised Lucy's sound system whenever I pulled up at any event or place. A song you could hear down the road before you even saw any vehicle coming on. We called it an uitstiek song.
Even now, 20 years later, when I hear certain songs like Fatman Scoop's Be Faithful, Beyonce's Girls Run the World, The Braxtons', and just so many more, it triggers only happy memories and I still get the biggest smile on my face. And Lucy didn't just make me happy, everyone else admired her and her bangin' bass.
Image: Wheels24 / Janine Van der Post
I had the biggest laugh the other day when my younger cousin left an inaudible voice note as she was crying with laughter. She said the memory just popped up in her mind of how we would choose a song whenever we drove somewhere, and that too this day, she still does the exact same thing so many years later, in her little VW Polo.
Sitting in Lucy with her gentle roar from her massive exhaust, and that deep bass vibrating through your body like you were having an intensive Swedish massage from a burly woman with even more sizable hands, for free, was monumental. Man, it was a glorious time, and damn, it was just so exhilarating. No matter what life threw at me, I'd get in my car and go for a ride down Clarence Drive, or go park off at the beach with my friends on a Sunday afternoon, and everything was just all right with the world.
Without fail, a rush of euphoria just calmed my soul every single time I drove her. My Lucy, may her memories live in my heart forever, and may she rest in peace.
Now known as MrsSpeedQueen aka SQ in her younger years, Janine Van der Post is Wheels24's first female motoring editor. She has been a motoring journalist for the past 18 years and is driven by a passion for cars. She's also a Mom, and a rugby wife.
