As you may have deduced from my previous posts, I'm a pretty hardcore car guy. I have been ever since I was a tot. I was mesmerized at my neighbor's loud, trembling '68 Chevelle with the giant hood scoop, my friend's brother's '56 Chevy, and the guy who cruised past my street a few times every summer with a wild T-bucket.
Needless to say, I've had a huge cache of rides myself over the years. Some were slow and built to comfortably cruise around town. Some, like the VW Beetles, were cheap and fun and built just to daily drive with a little quirky style. But some were built to brutalize the streets and tear up the dragstrip. Here are a few of the latter ones:
In my younger teen years, I used to do odd jobs for neighbors - mowing lawns and such. One such neighbor was a drunk with a thick German accent. Nice guy, paid me well, and had this '71 Chevy Vega wagon sitting under a tarp for years. He transplanted a 327 from a Corvette into it and took it drag racing, but those days were long past him, so there it sat. I constantly asked about it, to which he replied, "I gonna get it runnin' again one-a-dees days!"
Well, one day when I pestered him about it, probably for the 100th time, he says, "Tell you what - you go bring me case of Beck's bottles - none-a dat shit in da can! I give you dat ol' ting!" So, I ran home to my mom, and - at 14 years old - I somehow convinced her to go buy me a case of beer to trade for a race car.
This one I got in a swap for - believe it or not - a cheesy 80s mini truck! It was a bone-stock grandma's 1967 Pontiac Tempest with a 326 that smoked like hell when it was running, but I rebuilt the engine and added a Crower cam, fenderwell headers, and Tri-Power intake off a friend's toasted 389. It was cheap, quick, and looked tough as nails.
I also got this AMC Gremlin in a swap - this time for a '72 Chevy Monte Carlo. It had a 304 V8 with a 4-speed, but eventually I tossed in a built 360 that came in a rotted shit-heap Jeep that some guy sold me for $250 because the township was fining him for parking his junk on his front lawn. The 360 made the little Gremlin brutally quick, and I ran mid 11s with it throughout the summer of '89.
This was my high school car, my beloved orange '71 Plymouth Duster, the fastest car I ever owned. I worked 3 different part-time jobs, and put every dollar I had into it. It had a 360 with offset-ground crank and .030-over 340 pistons, netting 380 cubic inches. I used to take it to the "street night" drags at Englishtown Raceway (RIP) where I ran a best time of 10.38. Really, it was WAY too hairy for a kid to own, but that didn't stop me.
I have many more which I'll share in later posts.
What's your favorite old car you used to own?
