Quote:
Jason: Don't feel too bad about not buying a Hemi way back when. I was smart enough to know better too, when in 1969 my cousin offered to sell me his hot rodded '63 split window Vette. It was only a 283 at the time of the offer, but it was a 4 speed and of course that was way cool when you're 16. (I was.) But my 1.65 an hour grocery job and the fact that my Dad wouldn't lend me the money killed that deal.
Oh, how much? $1400 dollars.......
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Bowtie,
It's funny you use that as an example, because though you probably don't know it, that's the car I race today. I could have NEVER afford to buy this car now, but I was lucky enough to have had a dad that bought the car in 1964, and kept it. It's not much of an original '63 Corvette anymore (the body and trim parts, and even the body has been cut), but I do still have MOST of the original parts for it (the drivetrain was blown up or sold LONG ago). The funny thing is, I'm not sure the original parts are really worth anything to me, because if I were to ever put the car back on the street, I would not put it back to all original. The car would be a Pro Street car, and even then, I'm not sure I wouldn't just go buy replica parts from Eckler's for the stuff that I did want to put back on the car.
There is a downside to owning this car, and it's that I can't sell it. Not that I would want to, but I would LOVE to build a purpose-built race car, but I can't afford to do so without selling what I have. If my dad never sold the car for the 27 years he owned it, I'm certainly not going to tarnish the family name by doing so!
What's weird is what just struck home with me...I've now "owned" the car for 16 years since my dad passed away. It's hard to believe that the car has been in my care for that long, and that in 10 years I will have had it in my possession just as long as my dad did. But, I've never really considered myself the owner of this car. It's my dad's car, and I'm just borrowing it until he tells me I can't use it anymore.
Jason Oldfield
S/G & S/ST 1838