Your new musclecar
 

Lets hear some stories about musclecars that you bought brand new, almost new, or slightly used back in the day. Did you order the car or was it just sitting on the lot? Did you buy it to race or just because you liked the styling? Did you ever street race it or was it only raced on the track? Come on and share the old days with us.

This subject is a part of history of a bygone day that we can share with each other and the younger car guys who were not around then.


Travis

(Disclaimer: Opinions expressed by me on this forum are exactly that, my opinions.)

Re: Your new musclecar
 

Well I sorta missed the prime muscle car days, drivers license in 1976. But, there was still fun times to be had. There were still muscle cars on a used car lot. And some of those salespeople would just throw you the keys and tell you not to wreck it! And I got real lucky in 1983 when a new car salesman threw me the keys on a new Mustang GT with a stick! I came home with my buddy holding on the grab bars for dear life as I pitched it sideways coming into the cul-de-sac. My dad came out and my buddy said "no offense Mr. Lee but your son's one crazy driver!" My dad grabbed the keys, side-stepped the clutch at 5K and my buddy said "oh, I see now..."
And what about those rental cars with sticks...?!?:D

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I bought a "leftover" '69 Camaro in Mar 1970 that had been special ordered for a couple who never completed the deal. It was a Nassau Blue SS 396-325hp, four-speed, 3.07 positrac, no spoilers, ZL-2 fresh air hood, console w/gauges, AM-FM radio, Strato bucket seats (optional interior), disc brakes (required option on all '69 SS cars). The car later ran 14.11 as a "pure" stocker on Goodyear G70 Polyglass tires. The only mods I ever did was to smoke over the carb and distributor, adjust the valves and do a little exhaust work. A friend of mine and I drove it to the Springnationals in Columbus in 1972 and averaged 77 mph and got 16.1 mpg. One of the best cars I ever owned.

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Well it happened one fine winter day in 1963 while I was hanging around at V.V.Cooke Chevrolet in Louisville Ky.Someone told me that 6 blocks from there at Broadway Chevrolet they had a special aluminum front end car there. I went down to the dealer that fine day and on the back lot with the sticker still on the window sat a Palamar Red Z-11. I went inside and they let me test drive it. I loved the raw stock HP and told them I would give 3600.00 and put their name on the car, they declined putting their name on the car from a liability stand point but said I could have it for the 3600.00 I paid a deposit signed the contract and headed off to get a cosigner , I was 19 years old and that was not the legal age then. My mother went back and had it put in her name and I was off to the races..To BE CONTINUED

Irvin Johns

Re: Your new musclecar
 

18 years old picked up a 1966 Chevy II SS 327 4 spd from the 3rd owner, lt blue metallic with blue buckets, it was my street & strip car, won a few bracket races my freshman year of college, helped out with those educational expenses. Sold it off :-(....... to get a jump start on my sophomore year.
The new owner wrapped it a round a tree a month after I signed the title....sad, sad day,,,, driver was ok, car was a total loss. To this day I have a soft spot for any 66-67 Deuce.

Unk

Re: Your new musclecar
 

I was way too young to buy a new car in the muscle car era, but in 1995 I put in an order for a new Formula. It's only option is AC-delete. It has 186 original miles and has always been raced in Stock. I guess all of the stories of guys racing new GTOs right off the lot had an impact on me.

Daren

Re: Your new musclecar
 

1969

BURKHART MOTORS Waynesburg Ohio Walked in, there set a new bright red(orange) Dart Swinger 340 4speed ofcourse. radio, posi the only options on it. Paid $2650.00 out the door.A few changes had to be made.Yank the engine do a piston & cam swap,set of hooker headers, out back a set of slapper bars & 4.56 gears. Low 12 sec street car ,not to bad for the late 60s early 70s.Did alot of street racing had a real good win/lose ratio.

Hammer

PS I'm a chevy guy

Re: Your new musclecar
 

I just went out to the local chevy dealer and ordered a l-88 427 camaro. I thought the ZL-1 was too pricey then $4900.00 plus shipping. The L-88 was a better price, however the sales man had to do some digging to figure out the opions I thought I wanted. Total price was $3900.00

Re: Your new musclecar
 

My only new muscle car was a '94 25th Anniversary T/A. I always wanted to buy a new car and do a sideways burnout off the lot. Finally got my wish. It was a spectacular burnout on a car with 7.2 miles on the odometer! Car ran 13.95 with nothing but a Borla cat-back.
I have a friend that just inherited $40K and wants to buy a new muscle car. Once the 6-speed Challengers, Camaro's and the new 5.0L Mustang come out we're going to have a lot of fun test driving some new hot cars! :)

Re: Your new musclecar
 

My 10 year older brother had a couple of '65 GTO/Lemans' over the years that he always stuffed a later model 400 RA engine in. He took me to some street races, drive-ins and junkyards a coupe of times. That planted the seed.

My dad, knowing about my brothers urge to go fast and tickets, told me that he would help me get a car if it didn't have an engine bigger than the 383 he had in his 1965 Polara, which was a 383 2 barrel. Well, I got lucky! While my dad was a smart jack-of-all trades handyman, he wasn't particularly up on auto mechanics. One day I found a good deal on a used '72 Challenger Rallye. Yes, it had a smaller engine - a 340 4 barrel/auto/3.23 open rear! Rallye Red, black vinyl top, side strobe stripes & black interior. Red wasn't my favorite color, but I wasn't going to complain. Bit by bit, I was fixing it up with wider tires, Holley carb, headers, etc. But after some close calls, tickets, almost being banned from driving it to school because of local complaints and me ending up in a canal once, I finally wised up and decided that if I was going to go fast, it would be legally at the track. First year out in 1978 at Orlando Speed World, I won the Street class track championship running 14's and went on to win many more in other classes, including Div. 2 Pro ET in 1980 while Lex Dudas was director. Got to go to Ontario, California with 2 other division class winners from Orlando. That was actually the first year NHRA had an ET World Champ, but then shelved the concept till many years later. (At the Division 2 banquet, I got my pic taken with Miss Winston, Tina Gayle (C.H.I.P.S. and a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader). I'm still mad that I never got to have or even see a copy!)

By 1985, the car was literally worn out, especially after being cut-up, lightened, etc. After stripping it, I shed tear after hauling it off to a scrap yard. Too bad I didn't know then what I know now.

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I never had the money fpr a new car during the era of musclecars, but, I have a true story about someone who did. His name is Steve Clukey, and he lives in Maine. Every month when he got paid, he sent money home (from Viet Nam) to his Dad. When he'd accumulated enough, his Dad drove to the local Mopar emporium and bought Steve a shiny new "70 Duster 340 4-speed car.

When Steve got home from the "war," he took the new car to the strip, with disappointing results (low 15''s)

He saw it as a challenge. In the 38 years that followed, Steve never quit making "improvements" to the output of that 340. He has added aftermarket heads, cam, headers, a stroker crank, high-compression pistons, aluminum rods, and a Holley Dominator carb. The car is still all steel (MIGHT have a 'glass hood; dunno), but is totally stock appearing,but for a hood scoop. Runs a Dana 60 and a Hemi 4-speed.

I don't think it's ever been driven on the street.

Thirty-eight years of "improvements" to this small block (now, 383 cid) now yields consistent mid-9-second e.t.s (best of 9.43, @ 143 mph) and I think that's fast, considering he's done nothing to lighten the car and uses NO power adder.

He has run the car in IHRA Super Stock,(at Epping) but usually races it at Winterport jn the brackets.

Some folks don"t consider the 340 Duster a true musclecar, but I think this one qualifies, at least, now.

Re: Your new musclecar
 

Bill, Did he have the car in a magazine article many years ago? That all sounds very familiar.

Re: Your new musclecar
 

I Ioved Pontiacs and drooled over GTO's when they came out. I never had the money in those days but recall going to a dealer that I wound up working at years later as a "flatrater" and negotiated for a new '66 GTO that sat on the showroom floor. It was red with a vinyl top and was a Tri-Power 4-speed....price was $2950. I begged my father to co-sign a loan for that car but he said no and that was the right decision since I was just a dumb kid at the time. I priced many new cars and worked on and drove some that would be worth a fortune today from Z-28's to a 396/375 Camaro, a 289/271 Mustang GT and many GTO's and included a Yenko Deuce and Boss 302 Mustang........I did buy a real nice used '67 GTO that I wish I owned today as it had many options and was a great driver for my then wife.......I sold it to a NY Yankee's picther......Damn I wish I had that car today!

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Got a call from a racer named Larry Abbott in 1971 from Kelly Chry-Ply in Marietta, GA. Said a 70 Hemi Cuda Convert was just traded in. My soon to be racing partner and I went up and $2400 later we had an original Hemi Cuda Convert. It was on the street about 5 months including in my college homecoming parade. Then it was off to Barnett Race Cars in Norcross, GA for a build. 13.60 atb 100+ mph on skinny polyglas tires before the build. Fast as 10.87 after setting the National record at 11.17. That was back when a college student and a guy working in a tire store could field a record holder.
It was all black, leather, power windows and a rim blow horn. 1 of 9 automatics. 14 total.

Re: Your new musclecar
 

back in my younger day 7 yrs old i remember going to the plymouth dealer with my dad when he bought his 68 ply. barracuda oh ye 426 hemi it was the car at the us nat. this year that had arlen valke on it they had the paper work on the car stating my dad bought it brand new .

Re: Your new musclecar
 

Ok i was not around then but the first car i ever dumped the clutch on was my dads 62 max wedge i was 7 years old and that is all it took it has been fast cars and faster women ever since

Re: Your new musclecar
 

I guess it was not considered a musle car at the time but I ordered a 69 Nova SS 300 HP 350 with turbo 350. the car was butternut yellow, bench seat column shift no carpet and dog dish hub caps. I ordered a 4:10 12 bolt posi but it came with a 3:55. It took 3 mo. to arive and I know the salesman hated to see me coming to check on it. One mo. after it came in it had a 4:10 gear, a set of Jardine headers and a Crane cam that Travis would have frowned on.
I drove the car to the track and could win class & do pretty good in jr. stock unless some of the bad boys towed in. I won one sunday and the guy I beat informed me that if I came back I would take it back in peices.. Well I didnt have a trailer and I belived him so I bought a pair of large combustion heads and a Lunati plus area cam and ran it as a 255 horse. The car ran 4 tenths of a 13.09 national record legally.
Well the first child came along and the trans went away so I lemped in to the dealer and traded it for a 71 chevelle 307. It is amazing what they are doing with the 255 HP combo today.
Jim

Re: Your new musclecar
 

My father bought a new '69 Road Runner 383-335 4 speed new and I got my license shortly thereafter..........
what an adventure that became! We are still talking about it!
Then I bought a '69 Camaro SS 350-300 4 speed (I was banned from the Road Runner) and promptly replaced the 350 with a 427, more stories! That was followed by a 428 CJ Mustang (I didn't discriminate). Then a '63 Max Wedge Savoy and finally a '64 Max Wedge Belvedere (A/SA). I then got married, had 2 kids and sold everything to devote my life to my family and career. I still dream about resuming my addiction to speed. I envy you guys every day.

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My first new car. I bought it late 63 for my daily driver and weekend G/SA. At the time I was living in Chicago, so I took the car over to Rudys Custom Exhaust in Berwyn and they made a set of hedders for it.
Skip's was the favorite Cruise through for the Chicagoland Hot Rod set.
At the 65 Indy nats, I got beat second round of class by my hero "Big Daddy Mathews" and that bad *** Buick.
The Comet was a keeper, but when I saw the 66 Fairlane GTA, it was time to trade.
I still have the 63 Falcon Sprint that my Dad bought new the summer of 63, but when I die, Dave will probably put it on Ebay.

Re: Your new musclecar
 

In Sept. 1972 I picked up a gorgeous 69 Z/28 from the original owner who took very good care of it. It was Burnished Brown with the White stripes, front and rear spoilers, Endura Bumper, standard grille,full console interior and of course the 302/4speed/ 12bolt-3.73 rearend combo. The first thing I bought for it was a set of Cragar S/S mags and Goodyear Polyglass GTs to dress it up a little. I'd had 4 speed cars before,but this thing shifted very nicely. Theres nothing like taking your buddys for a ride and getting sideways in all four gears. I took it to Puyallup Raceway Park (R.I.P.) in ' 73 and went 14.80s which was'nt bad for then but I wanted to go quicker. I got really good at changing clutches in that car. In ' 74 I had a friend with a 5 Litre hydroplane that needed a new block, so I sold him my DZ 302 block(I did'nt say I was smart!), and put together an 11to1 355 with the Z heads(492s) and a Crower cam and a Torker/ 600 Holley system which went 13.98 still on the Polyglass tires.For 1975 I planned to get some slicks, traction bars and a cowl hood, but I deffinately needed some headers, so I got a set of Hookers for it, put them on at my parents house and on the way to the muffler shop to get my 2 1/2 in. Turbos, with open headres I got T-boned at an unmarked intersection by an oriental woman in a Datsun who spoke no English, but thats another story. Anyway the body shop did a great job of fixing it, I got it back just before Christmas and they told me to bring it back after New Years to get the stripes on after the paint had "cured". I did so and on Fri.Jan 5th got it back and life was good,,,until Wed.Jan 10th when the car was stolen from my work and was found 7 months later and there was'nt enough left to bring home it was so trashed. I'd already settled with the insurance company, getting the usual screw job.
Its the one car I wish I could have back,but I never bought another one. I still had those origianl date coded Rally Wheels in the Cragar boxes until a couple years ago when my son bought a 72 Chevelle and we put them on his car.
Danny Durham

Re: Your new musclecar
 

My dad took me with him and he test drove a blue and silver 1971 Boss 351 at the local Ford dealer. I was suprised he was really going to get it and drive it to work. That is until his insurance agent gave him the rate quote, the insurance company wanted twice more for that one car then they had been paying for two cars. And that was with NO kids driving! He didn't get it, ma said food was more important.

I've always wondered what happened to it.

Re: Your new musclecar
 

Travis,

Bought my 71 Chevelle "Heavy Chevy" new in Aug of 71. Drove it to Boston to visit relatives when it had about 600 miles on it. Made its first drag strip runs at New England Dragway on Sept 1 1971, still have the time slips and ... still have the car !

Re: Your new musclecar
 

never had a new car till late in life but i did have a jimmy bridges teched, gerald livingston tuned 63 ply vallent aka mom's car. then i did get a 1967 impala 283 4 speed, bench seat , after 7-8 sagana trans got a " rock crusher" then gerald had a 427 that just happened to " FIT " became a daily driver that went low 11's at riverside drag strip just west of nashville. few other 57's a 67 camaro then got wise and built a race car rest is history jim

Re: Your new musclecar
 

After spending a year in Viet Nam and reading any hot rod magazines I could get a hold of, I decided that I would buy a GTX when I got home.
Went to the dealer I worked for in high school and ordered a green 68 GTX. The next day he said you got to get a 69 because the 68 model was done.
A couple days later he told me there was a green one in Lansing, do you want it? The rest was history and I still have it today.

Re: Your new musclecar
 

Myron,

Steve's car was in a cover shot on one of the Mopar magazines about ten years ago, but I don't recall seeing an article about it. It"s blue, with a fair amount of graphics down the side.

If you want, I can email you a photo of it; just send an email to Billdedman@hotmail.com, and I'll send the photo by return mail.

Bill

Re: Your new musclecar
 

Travis, don't know how I missed this thread. Anyway, I do have a story of my first new car. It was a 1966 Chevy II SS L79 that I order and took delivery of in Jan 1966 in Campbellsville, KY.
I bought it because of the drivetrain. I had learned of the 350hp 327 from a friend in Gainsville GA that had bougth a 65 Chevelle with that setup. He was fast and out running everything on the street at the time, yes GTOs too. I wanted to buy a base 2 dr Chevelle with that engine for 66. My boss called a friend at Cunningham-Kelly Chevrolet in Hartsville TN as they were selling a lot of hot Chevrolets at the time. He told us that the engine was going to be in the 66 Chevy II and that would be a hot setup. Since the Nova was light anyway I got carried away and went for the SS and Hardtop, sometimes wish I had stuck to the post idea. I had a 3.73 posi and put better tires on it right away. I took it to GA in Feb. 66 and with only recurving the distributor and a little work on the secondary side of the carburetor, it went 13.10 on some recapped slicks. I won A/S the first time out. I never really raced it on the street much because of the braking and handling. I moved back to Campbellsville in the fall of 66 and the old Campbellsville dragstrip was still there but they just left the gate open and we would go in and race without the cops bothering us. I spent many a night there racing. I lost only a hand full of races. They were bringing cars from E-town and Lousville to try to beat me. After the first 1,000 miles on the car I had changed the cam to the 375hp solid lifter cam and done a few other tweaks to it to be able to out run the rest of the Chevy IIs. It was not really fast by today standards, but 12.50s in 66 with a street driven car would win you a bunch of races if you could drive it. I've own a couple since, but nothing like that FIRST ONE!
JIm N.

Re: Your new musclecar
 

In Jan 1966 I bought a ’63 Galaxie 500 with a 406. The car was pretty fast for an 18 year old kid. The addition of slicks, exhaust cutouts, and a gear allowed me to win a few trophies. I eventually put a 427 low-riser in the car. Of course the 390 emblems on the front fenders fooled quite a few on the street. And I did a lot of street racing back then. That was until I got a job teching Stock and S/S at a local outlaw dragstrip in 1969. Went to work at the local NHRA track, Ohio Valley Raceway in 1970 and the rest is Stock and S/S history.


Travis

(Disclaimer: Opinions expressed by me on this forum are exactly that, my opinions.)

Re: Your new musclecar
 

My first taste of the musclecar era was when my brother and i talked my mom into trading the family station wagon in in 1966 for a 66 impala ss 396, we imedietly proceeded to break it in properly at the local dragstrip..Coles county, Charleston, Il. Then we went car shopping for my brother,hit all the dealership,s test drove every thing, a shelby- hertz gt-350 mustang ,tri-power gto 67 ss396 chevelle, settled on a 67 442 sedan on the showroom floor 400 4 spd. white with black top, what a screamer !!!!!!!! Next came a 69 gto ordered in with the ram-air 4 motor. 433 gear .duel-gate shifter ect. Was standing there when they dropped it of at the dealer, what a sound when they fired that up and rolled it of the truck, we had a plan, rolled it strait into the body shop and it got the Royal-Bobcat paint scheme, the rear spoiler ect. before it hit the street. That was one bad-*** car on the street !!! That car got me through high school and one year of college. Traded it (like a dumb- ***** ) But kept the Ram Air IV motor for a 72 buick GS ran it in pure stock , added the exhaust cut-outs and sticky M & H tires and had a blast ..... then came the wife and kids and a new chevelle statoin wagon, sold the buick but couldn,t stand it bought it back later and still have it....... The rest is history .

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Late 1968 we ordered a 1969 375/396 auto Nova from Wallace Chevy in N.J. for SS/DA then found out GM was going to offer a 69 427 Camaro that ran the same class. We tried to cancel the order but the car was already built, so we arranged for a friend to buy it for the street, then ordered 2 COPO 427 Camaros, 1 brown stick and a black auto. We never had much luck with the stick but ran the auto for a few years with some success.
I believe the stick was around $3600 and the auto $100 or so more. A little less than a killer trans costs today.

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I got my first "musclecar" two years before I was able to get my driver's license. My older brother had an original rust free 56 Chevy just sitting around & he needed $300.00 for some reason so I bought it.
At fourteen first thing I did was put it on jack stands, lay on my back for quite some time & proceed to give the underside a good cleaning & paint job. My brother then added a freshly built up 265 & just happened to have an original 2x4 barrel setup which he installed too. Transmission became a Muncie 3 speed, added a 4.56 posi unit, a fresh original two tone paint job & a set of Cragar S/S's. Interior remained original. At seventeen I went crusin' the strip we had in our town of 4,000. The car probably had a bit to much power for me at the time but thankfully for the low gears I never did get a speeding ticket, only a few stunting citations.
After driving it a few years I put it in storage for nearly twenty. Pulled it out in 2005 & am driving it again with the 225 horse option intact. Since I kept it mostly original there was not a lot to do to restore it. Gone are the 4.56's in favour of 3.08's & it is also considerably quieter. Since the interior material is now available I bought the cloth from Cars Inc. & had a friend stitch in the new stuff keeping the original vinyl intact.
I have now owned it for 34 years.Future plans call for an original 265 & a bit of freshening to make it more road friendly.

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As a relative "youngster" (51 years old) I was unable to buy a "real" performance car new, but I`ve had a few "used" ones. In high school I had a blue 65 Valiant 2 dr hardtop with a 273 4 barrel "Commando"& 4 speed. Followed by a 1970 Mustang fastback 351C 4barrel auto Shaker hood in 1976(14.7`@96 mph stock, with 3.25 open diff), a 66 Fairlane 390 GTA in 77 (12.62@110 with 428CJ heads, bigger hyd cam and 4.56 gears with slicks),from 1979 until 1987 I owned 3 different 69-70 Mach 1 with 428Cobra Jets (the 69 auto ran 13.5@102 mph almost bone stock, the 70 4 speed ran 12.5@111 with open headers, slicks, 4.30 gears etc). Followed by 2 1969 Fairlane /Torino fastback 428CJ`s. Although I didn`t have the opprotunity to buy cars like this new, having a decent paying job in the 70`s meant LOTs of late 60`s musclecars werer available for pretty cheap, often under $2000 would get you a 6 year old Boss 302 Mustang or Z/28, Hemi cars were not a whole lot more, and my god, 383 Road Runners and 340 Dusters and Darts were EVERYWHERE for $800. to $1500. for a really nice one. Good times indeed.

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after i graduated from high school in 1970 of course i wanted a muscle car. at the time i was driving a 1966 impala ss 327 glide not a muscle car. there was for sale a 1966 ltd 2 dr with 390 and a four speed original 427 car that i had to have. i was informed by my dad that he wouldn't cosign the note for me. i sold my cows to him and he didnt need to cosign for me. car was a slug. went into the army june 1971. in november while stationed at fort benning. went by a car lot and there was a 1967 fairlane gt 390 4 speed that wasnt a slug. it went 14.76 with street tires, and as they say the rest is history.

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My first new car was a 1965 Plymouth Belvedere 2 that I ordered special after my dad would not co-sign for anything with a 4-speed. Man I wanted a new G.T.O. but the 2 speed auto trans really sucked. Little did he know that back then the mopar torque flite was as good as it gets for racing....lol. I special ordered it with a 426 street wedge (WAY over rated) engine and 3.91 rear end gears. All it had extra was an AM radio, tented windows, and plastic centers on the seats. After installing M/T headers and M/T 7 inch cheater slicks I won around 12-15 class trophies at Aquasco and Capitol raceway in B/SA at that time (I still have most of them in my garage) and a DRAG TIMES Jr. stock "runner up" trophy to the Kurtz & Calderhead '57 F.I. sedan delivery (with 4-speed hydro trans and Jenkins Comp. engine) at Aquasco, Md. back then just before I was drafted in the Army and gave it to my dad to trade in on a 1966 Pontiac GP for himself (didnt think I would make it back). After that Army tour was over I stayed with a bunch of Corvettes and a new 1968 Z-28. I raced them all and won a couple of times at Ohio Valley Raceway with a 66 Corvette in E/SP class while stationed at Fort Knox, Ky. Those were the days watching guys like Bob Glidden race his 2 428 CJ's (convt.and fastback) and Herb McCandless in a new hemi dart at U.S 60 and Ohio Valley. S/S and Jr. stock racing at its best.

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In December 1970, I bought my 1969 Z/28 with 10k miles on it, from a friend of mine for $1350. I have street raced it, set records with it and still to this day enjoy it.
One night I was up at Burger King in Bethpage, L. I. N.Y. and there was a 1969 big block chevelle with NOS on street tires looking for a race. I told the guy that I have a 1969 Camaro with small slicks (at that time I was holding the record for E/S) and a small block. He agreed to give me the break, needless to say, he knew he was done when I left with the wheels up. We raced for only $100, but back then it was alot of money.
On another night I was going to race John Nobile the pro stock racer on the street, he had a Chevelle at the time. I was in the middle of doing my burn out when the cop pulled behind my car, my friends waving to me to turn the car off, that's when I noticed the cop. I shut the car off and got out like nothing was happening, took off my helmet and started pushing the car by hand. The cop told me not to get too far because he want to talk to me. Well we told him what was up and he said he'd let us get the race over with until his sargent showed up. The cops let us hook are cars up (flat towing) and get out of there.
Those where fun days, you knew that the street cars that you were going to race to be at best mid 11 cars.
Casey Miles
248H E/S because of 4 hp

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My brother, Neal, bought a 68 Z-28 from a guy who had just received his draft notice. I remember his name was Eddie Moore, and I heard he made it back OK. Eddie had only owned the car 6 months, but made good use of the time, adding Cragar SS wheels, Hooker Headers and Lakewood traction bars.

Neal also only owned it for six months. He worked for The Phone Company (there was only one at the time) as a splicer. One day he was down in a manhole in Southwest Philadelphia, and when he came up for lunch, the car was gone.

When the car was recovered, the engine, transmission and wheels were gone. The police didn’t find, Neal found out where it was when he started getting parking tickets. The insurance company took it for salvage.

Oh yeah, a few weeks after the remains of the car were hauled away, Neal got his draft notice too. I would say this car was jinxed, but then again, Eddie and Neal are both alive and well.

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Darn Tony.....Thats almost my story except I was back from the Nam before I had a Z-28 and it too was stolen and stripped. I also worked for the "Phone Factory" and came back to the parking lot after work and poof....my Z-28 was gone. They found it 5 days later minus engine, trans, wheels and tires, but who ever got it didnt get a "virgin". I flat run the snot out of that thing before they got it.

Re: Your new musclecar
 

Back in October 1968, while in my senior year of high school, I talked my mother into signing for me and I purchased a new 1969 Dodge Dart GT- Sport. At that time not many GT-Sports were around, due to the 340 Swingers being a lot cheaper! My car was a 340 4 speed with 3:91 gears and was red with black vinyl top and interior. I naturally had to race the car and competed in G/ Pure Stock.(No brackets back then) The car ran 13.80's all day and I won way more than I lost. In the early 70's I had a 340 Super Stock engine built and ran SS/I for a while, but could not compete with the 350/295 Camaros. I still have the original window sticker and invoice for the "Red Dart" but the car is Long Gone.

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I was born too late for the musclecar era, but when I turned 16 in the fall of '89, dad bought me a '71 Duster 225 /6. After buying the car and putting new brakes on it, along with some bondo and spraybombs, he had about $800 in it. I got my driver's license the following summer, and had it for 16 days before my first race. It ran in the 19's. I managed to win a couple of races, and the following winter, we rebuilt the motor with a one-step hotter than stock cam. Ran mid 18's for the most part. 1991 was my first full year of racing, where I won 11 races to capture the trophy class championship.

http://www.staginglight.com/images/dd1stwin.jpg

Dad took the car over several years later, and put a small block in it, while he built a '74 Duster 360 strictly for racing for me to drive. In 1998, I was footbraking the '74 Duster in Super/Pro, so I ran most of the season in Heavy Eliminator (Footbrake class) with the '71 Duster, running mid 14's, and won my third straight Heavy ET Championship. Dad got it into the 13's in street legal trim before parking it. It's still sitting at home, and I've been eyeing it up as a candidate for my crate motor drivetrain... :rolleyes:

Re: Your new musclecar
 

I bought a new 1958 Impala late in 58 for 2800 dollars. It was a 280 HP 3-2bl motor with a 3 spd stick. All my buddies ragged on me for buying a car with a truck motor .

Re: Your new musclecar
 

In 1960 my Dad, brother and I were at Riverside Int'l Speedway and saw the parade of Chevies. They had the prototype of the stingray in the parade. I told my Dad if they ever built that car I would buy one. A couple of years later GM announced the 1963 Stingray would be out in late '62. I went to the biggest Chevy dealers in so cal and ordered a stingray from each of 3 dealers and told them I would but the first one that showed up. A couple of mionths later a buddy who worked at one of the dealers where I ordered called and told me Ernie Hofman Chevrolet just got in a Stingray that wasn't sold. My Dad and I were at the dealership the next morning at 7:30 waiting for them to open. About 6 people lined up behind us. When the door opened we walked in and I put $100 bill under the wiper. An hour later and a loan of a couple of grand from Dad, and I was the proud owner of a Sierra Gold roadster with a 340 hp 327, 4 speed and am radio, $4848.00 out the door. It wasn't the fuelie split window I ordered but it was the first stingray on the streets of so cal. As it turned out with a little work it was faster than most of the fuelies that came out. I raced it for a year, set a couple of track records, and won a lot of trophies. Then Gas Rhonda showed up one day with a new Cobra. I could not beat that Cobra. My dominance in A/Sports was over.
About 6 months after I got my Vette, my mother bought my Dad a '63 honduras red Impalla SS with a 409 and a 4 speed. She figured if I had a new car Dad deserved one too. He had his a lot longer than I did.
If I only knew then what I know now.