Muscle Car History
 

Hey all,
Sharing what I think is a pretty cool opportunity. My daughter is a Junior at a college in Pa majoring in digital communications and is doing a full video documentary for her major project. She had decided to do her project on my restoration of my 69 Nova L78 and the passion and reasons behind why. After presenting the idea to her professor he loved the idea but felt she could also take the opportunity to do a bigger project as well, so she is doing a documentary on not just my car but the muscle car era, the stories it created then and the hobbyist and enthusiast family is has created 50 years later. He loved the idea of getting the different social stories as well such as the real but sometimes stereotypical but varied stories of young men saving money to buy their first new car just to get drafted etc. (Literally my cars story)

In the next week or two, her and I are road tripping it to go interview the original owner and his family and document on video their memories of the car, go through old pics and discuss those times. We are then going to interview a few guys who have and do still perform restorations (Including mine) and their memories both then and now.

My question for you all is with the opportunity to document these stories…What questions get asked? What angles could she go with this? What really needs to be documented or talked about and preserved with this opportunity? One idea is we get the stuff regarding my car but possibly have guys and girls, both young and old, with their own stories do self video interviews of themselves regarding their cars, memories and stories and it becomes part of a bigger video journal so to speak.

Lol…We all ain’t getting any younger and the chance to preserve this stuff intrigues her.

Thoughts?

Ed

I really think most car guys given the time and opportunity can go on and on about their cars minus asking any specific questions.

Rich

Great project! For the original owner: “Tell me your favorite memory of your car”
Or “Why did you decide to buy this car?”
Or “What other cars did you consider to buy at the time?”
Or “Why did you get the options that you chose?”

If permitted, “tape” record the conversation because the info will be flying and it will be hard to write all down.

Reminds me of my sophomore year in College, did a video in film class with smokey burnouts in the Nova to Aerosmith's Sweet Emotion in the background. That tape must still around somewhere, unfortunately....

I know he had looked at other options then including the Yenkos. I think I'm more excited about this project than my daughter lol. Can't wait to hear the stories and go through the old photos.

She's setting up a few cameras and we will all sit at the kitchen table so she can capture the conversations after asking the questions...curse words and all lol.

History...
 

I think it would great to include some of the cultural and current events aspects that related to the muscle-car era, eg;

-The war in Vietnam...many soldiers returned home and spent their discharge $$ on a high performance car. Our old Marine Corps Nova, now owned by Dan Orland , is a classic example.

-The rock music and 'mod' culture of the late 60's and early 70's was represented in car advertising...Chrysler's stuff was probably the best. The wild colors and graphics on the cars really was a connection to this.

-This was a pretty 'short-lived' era...64-72 by most measures...the environmental awareness of the 60's led to unleaded gas, low compression and high insurance rates...all of these factors helped end the muscle car era.

happy to help further...

-wilma

While I was stationed at Phan Rang in 68' I ordered a 69' W-30 442 -- before I rotated back to Z1, my wife and my brother picked it up at an Bob White Olds in Green Bay, Wi ...

Thats great Ed! She can post questions to the board here and Im sure she will be flooded with answers. Tell her to fire away!

Maybe she can interview someone who claims to have bought a factory 427 Nova, a car so fast he used to put a $100 bill on the dashboard and dared anyone to try to catch it for keeps. :crazy:

You literally made me spit out my coffee lol. I've heard such similar stories over the years. One local 1970 Monte Carlo owner goes to car shows and tells everyone that the factory screwed up when assembling his car and put in a special high HP engine. When suggested he run the engine stamps and casting he says it was just the wrong internals so wouldn't show. Swears his 350 is just too fast to be stock.