I am not that old(40) unless you listen to my kids. And the first car I bought wasn't exactly what anyone thinks of as a high performace machine.
Once upon a time, in a cold harsh land known as Salem NH, there lived a boy whos parents insisted that his first job was school, academics, and since I liked baseball, parttime jobs weren't really in the cards. My neibhors across the street had parttime jobs, and in retrospect a rat box of a 1970 camaro 4 speed, guy at the top of the hill had a 69 camaro that seemed to change colors each season, doing burnout and leaving dual strips of rubber for 100 plus feet was what I gravitated towards.....but alas no ride, just got to use my mothers honda wagon(nice driver) and my fathers 80 mustang(a #@R32 6 cylnder no less).
As 16 year old was told if he could get 1400 on his SAT's, he could have the car of his choice....Even with lots of practice, I couldn't get north of 1300 on a great day(verbal was the weakness), so my dad got to keep his $.....Not to worry, I have since compensated, and now have a lot of vehicles(I loose track sometimes) 70 RT/SE challenger stocker(slow....read legal heads!), 72 challenger 4speed 440...maybe future GT, fast enough for HR, if I swap in the 727, 78 Lil Red Express(440 with nitrous), and a dakota pilot truck(stock eliminator), a 93 Ramcharger, a 93 d350 50K mile truck, a 96 f450 powerstroke rollback, a couple of trailers and a 08 4runner since I couldn't find anything domestic I could stomach for the $ back in feb.
Back to the tale,
I went to college, and used my summer earning for clothes, snowboards, and a great Specalized Mountain Bike(the ride), the parents gave me a 82 civic hatchback halfway through the freshman year, heater sucked, and I drove it till it gave out on the big hill right outside fort devens on route 2(I was in ROTC and on my way to the base)
Which brings us to my first car I purchased. Being low on money, with $100 a month coming in from the Army, I found a 72K mile 77 Honda Civic in Quincy for $500.
This car became known as the "racing honda". Knowing a bit about honda's, I set off to the trusty B+D(I think) junkyard in Shirley Mass, home of the $25 dollar special.....All you can push, carry or drag over the line..........
So, first up was out with the pusy 12" wheels, found a 83 Accord, ripped the hood off of it, tied a rope, and put put the 4 13 inch wheels on it, took the sweet wood steering wheel, and shifter knob, every carb I could get in the honda aisle,
Painted the rims, got some 175-70-13's BFG from Bj's, and the car was transformed from lame driver to snowbeast, and stoplight king(As a note, later I learned that honda civics from that era were and maybe still are iceracing cars of choice due to their weight distribution)
As the months and years went on, I ripped out every piece of trim, door panels, everything in search of excess weight, tailpipe, muffler, it was so quite at idle, cops couldn't tell....slip on the muffler for inspection, then off it goes, first summer, I made the brutal mistake of removing all the exterior trim, filling it in with bondo, and having it painted black....at Earl Shribe.in dorchester....I think it was $199....decent paint, bad choice by me.
I drove the car everywhere, raced it at Englishtown on a trip with my roommates to NY then Stratton mountain for snowboarding, Blew up the motor when the timing belt broke, swapped out the motor from a wealthy gent who had just rebuild his motor and tranny, he had a non driving parts car and I am not kidding a 24 foot truck full of spare parts motors, trans, etc.....only downside was buy it all or nothing..$500 for it all..Rode my trusty bike out 50 miles and drove car #1 home. Put the spare parts under a porch in a house in Needham(likely still there) swapped the engine and trans front of my house, drove it for a year, sold it to my brother who put a header and a glasspack on it when he went to college in Waterville Maine, got the car back from him, and drove it every day to work for a couple of years till the CV joint died yet again, and with major rust issues(Driver, sometime passenger would get hit with water from the rear wheelwells.....should have left the trim in!, I sent a perfect running car to Wings auto.
To this day, I can change a honda carb in likely 10 minutes or less(10mm), know that you have no more than 4 seconds to shut off the engine when your overhead cammed honda motor breaks a timing belt, I broke more over the years, 1237 CC's with taller tires, a bit of weight removed, means a top speed of 92MPH, with impecable handling(was competitive on the highway with traffic against 5.0's of the day), 77 civics have suspect electrical systems(changed the starter maybe 20 times), never had a radio that worked, but it was my first ride, fondly remembered, would buy a rustfree one if I could find one,
And it was my first car....even have the photo of it staging at E-town.
Basically, the car was like the modern day Mini.
If only I could find a rustfree 77 civic.
First up....out with the
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobby Zlatkin
I'm a bit older than most of you, so my first car/hotrod was a '47 Chev. coupe. 216 cu.in. six.
The old man down the street that owned it wanted $175 for it, firm. My dad would only let me go $150
for it and wouldn't let me get it (my money from a $.50 hr. plus tips bag boy job). So, I gave the old guy $25 on the sly and my dad thought I got it for the $150 (Good job negotiating son).
I took it to the drags {Amelia Earthart Field in Hialeah (Miami), FL}. That was in late 1956. My first time running the 1/4 mile. Best time; 69 mph. No ET clocks back then.
Then I started to "soup it up". That's what we called it back then. First a set of Fenton cast iron headers
with straight through mufflers. Sounded like an airplane. My neighbor said when I came winding down the street it would mess his television up. Don't know if this was true or not.
Next a set of Fenton high lift intake rocker arms. Then a Mallory dual point conversion for the stock distributor and a Mallory coil. The coil was no good when it got hot and I ended up taking it off. Nothing I bought was new, everything used. Lastly, an Offenhouser manifold with two, one barrel Rochester carbs. Originally came with a single barrel Carter carb. This was over the period of about 1 1/2 years as the money would permit.
The dual carbs really made a big difference and by the time I finished with that car my best times were up to 74 MPH. Felt like it was flying. The only 8 cyl. cars I ever beat with it were stock Ford flathead V8's.
Never beat any overhead valve V8's.
But, I enjoyed working on and racing that car as much as any car I've ever had.
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