Your new musclecar

[Travis Miller]

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.)

[Jeff Lee]

Originally Posted by Travis Miller

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.)

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...?!?

[Dwight Southerland]

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.

[Irv Johns]

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

[BobUnkefer]

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

[GUMP]

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

[John Leichtamer Jr]

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

[Doug McCue]

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

[Jeff Lee]

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!

[Myron Piatek]

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.