The New, Newer Project: Part Tres...

[cook_dw]

Luckily there were no 68 big block Camaros to pick from so you got my vote.. lol [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]

[njsteve]

Nice of HMM to plan it that way! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]

[69biscayne]

Voted! You have the 1968 Dodge Super Bee Hemi Right???????????

[napa68]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: 69biscayne</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Voted! You have the 1968 Dodge Super Bee Hemi Right??????????? </div></div>

LOL [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/haha.gif[/img]

[njsteve]

Well, we brought the car to the 2016 MCACN for Vintage Certification and a family reunion with the original owners Enrico &quot;Rick&quot; Stein and his wonderful wife Lenora Stein. They took their first vacation in eleven years to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary by reuniting with their old SD455 that they bought new and sold in 1986. To say they were excited would be the understatement of the year. The both got extremely verklempt when they first laid eyes on the car from across the room at MCACN. They stopped in their tracks with tears in their eyes. I had made up a little anniversary card for them with their &quot;then and now&quot; photos and placed it on the radiator support for them to see it when they got close to the car for the first time in 30 years since they sold it.

Here's the framed anniversary card:



And the happy couple:

[njsteve]

And yes, both of them are still well over six feet tall. Here are the Steins replicating their first photos when the car was delivered back in 1973:

Note the height of the guys just behind them, for scale!





I have to say that the two of them are the nicest couple of folks you'd ever want to meet. Rick and Lenora hung out with the car for all of Saturday and then Rick took over the solo guard duty on Sunday. At 80 plus years of age, Rick has more energy than four twenty year olds. He was holding court the entire weekend discussing everything he knew about all sorts of musclecar topics, not just his old SD455. (he has a photographic memory). It was fun hearing the stories like how he lived just a mile or so from Joel Rosen's shop back in the heyday of Motion Performance. He also knew Donna May Mims from his road racing days in the 1960's.

When I say he has a photographic memory I am not exaggerating. Steve Shauger (Paceme) was awesome when he presented the Steins with their own duplicate plaque with the SD455's award on it. Rick thanked Steve and then examined the plaque for only a second and blurts out: &quot;Hey, you got a typo in the VIN!&quot; We were all flabbergasted - Does anyone else out there think that when they are 80+ years old, that they will be able to remember the VIN of a car they owned 42 years earlier? Steve promptly printed him out a corrected copy and gave him a Vintage Certification Team offical shirt.

Rick and Lenora were also rather amazed at all the spectators who would come up and wish them a Happy Anniversary as they walked by. They were deeply touched. An as an added bonus, Rick was also photographed and interviewed by a number of media people including Kevin Oeste of V8-TV.

[njsteve]

As for the car, the SD455 was awarded its Legend status with total of 2893.4 out of a possible 3007.7 points. If my math is correct, that is a 96.2% score. I have not been able to see the score sheets yet so I don't know what needs to be addressed for the future but I think that is pretty respectable for a first attempt.


Hopefully the presence of Rick and Lenora counted for an extra credit point or two in the tabulations. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

[earntaz]

Now that is too cool ... enjoy that ride ... TAZ

[markinnaples]

Great story and a great couple. Just really good car hobby stuff.

[Xplantdad]

Amazingly cool...Wow!