First Cars and Musclecars

[Beavis]

My first car was a pile of junk.

I bought it with two or three months of paper route money and was PROUD to own it.

It had something we called....potential.

That was over 30 years ago, and I worked it every day in my spare time.

My Dad poured his extra time, money, and talent into my project for it to become a great car [unbeknownst to me this was major bonding experience] and we eventually sold the car for a profit after I graduated from high school.

Here's the difference.

Nowadays most kids don't want to know how stuff works on their cars, and most parents don't either.

Given the fact these kids really don't know much of anything about cars, it doesn't matter much. They still don't want to drive some un-cool, (old), fixed up car!

When my son turned 16 he already appreciated the nice cars I've owned. So because of his good grades [and saving his own money] he ended up with a very nice used low mileage 2008 Saturn Aura XR.

It was a little more than I wanted to spend, but since he was such a good student I gave in and he ended up with more options than you'd expect for a sixteen year old, plus a damn good powertrain! (the General rated the 3.6 at 265HP but was later rated at 300HP in the Cadillacs a few years after).

I'm talking about a kid who claimed not to be looking for anything sporty, who wasn't a car oriented kid, who had no list of things to meet his "basic" requirements.....that suddenly changed his tune.

We started looking for cars and all of a sudden <span style="text-decoration: underline">he had to have </span>such items as a V6 engine - check, dual exhaust - check, fog lights -check, 18&quot; wheels -check, heated leather seats -check, sunroof -check, really good factory stereo -check, and the list went on and on....

Here's the bottom line, some kids may not (say) or seem interested in modern cars, but in fact they really are. We ended up buying the best car in our price range that hit all of his hot buttons (sort of like 1970's Dad giving into the muscle car era crazed kid I guess).

I know my kid's not into muscle cars like his father, but he does have some passion for his car and he thinks is pretty cool. Getting back to the original point, the times have obviously changed with our kids....but the same priorities we had in our 80's high school days are still alive today. We just wanted to drive something cool, within our price range, that got respect, and wasn't going to get us laughed at.

Thirty-plus years later, whitewalls still suck..........but four-doors are now finally considered okay in school.

[Diamond_Don]

My first car - 1966 Acadian SD (Nova)! Bought it in 1973 for $1400, it was a 283 4 speed. After 8 months I decided &quot;not enough power&quot; and went to look at another Nova. The owner told me he beat a Corvette in a street race. HMMMhhh, a Nova that out runs a Corvette! Say no more, I just had to buy his 1970 Nova 396, which I did for a steep $3000!

[bigjake]

'51 Chevy, that I was given. Grandfather bought a new '61 Biscayne, and I inherited the old stovebolt. Couldn't stand the color or the 216 cu. in. 6. So I made it what I wanted.



[img]https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics/usergals/2016/02/full-7154-39727-1962_pontiac_catalina_buckets.[/img]

[Mr70]

1972 SS Chevelle.
Man I'd love to get this one back.Sold it to a 16 year old kid in 1984.
Saw it in a junkyard here years later.He wrapped it around a telephone pole. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/frown.gif[/img]

[bbbentley]

Hard to know where to start 'cause the topic is 1st cars &amp; muscle cars. I will start off by saying that no one in my family liked or understood cars, at least in the sense that I did. My dad 'liked' cars, but in the way of just looking at cars and washing them and driving them. He had several sports cars growing up. It is a shame his mother drove an idea into dad that basically told him he was too good to do manual labor or get dirt under his nails. Dad liked to drive M-Benzs and Cadillacs.
Now, dad did subscribe to Hemming's M.N. and that is where I got an interest in cars, I was about 14. I decided then that I wanted a Ford Model A coupe, 1930 to be specific. I had maybe 1 or 2 hundred dollars and I found a few in the $600-$900 range. Dad refused to help in any way to facilitate the purchase. I finally found an old car, just not a Model A. It was a 46 DeSoto coupe for $25. The car was in a barn and the mice had ravaged the interior and the engine was stuck. Dad did pay the tow bill to get it home. Dad figured this was just a phase and I would get discouraged and give up this silly idea of working on cars. I got advice from the local garage to fill the cylinders with trans fluid and 2 cycle oil 50/50. I would get off the school bus everyday, throw down my books, and run over to the car jumping up on it's broad fenders where I had a rope that I would put on the fan blade and pull with all I had in hopes that the engine would free up. I can't remember how long this ritual went on, but one day as I tried, to my amazement, the engine turned over and, with the help of a neighbor, I got it running! This catapulted my passion and interest and desire to learn all I could about cars.
Now, driving age, my dad supplied a car he felt was safe, translated slow like in M-B Diesel slow. While it was good to have 'wheels' as a teen, I started to notice cars that other guys had at my school. Some were loud and jacked up with shiny wheels. I said to myself, I must get a car like that. I did not care, at that time if the car was fast, I just wanted a 'cool' looking car. I persuaded dad into letting my brother have the M-B and get me a different car. Dad's insurance man's son had a 69 Cutlass...6 cylinder. I worked at a tire store and all my jobs were at gas stations or anywhere that I could learn the mechanics of a car. The Cutlass, I jacked it up via Hi-Jackers, painted the rear end yellow, put wide tires and rims on the rear and, lastly, cut off the brand new exhaust and put on a Cherry Bomb which really sounds sick on a straight 6. I trashed the Super Turbine 300 with neutral dumps attempting to lay rubber (dad did not know this). Lastly, some guys at our local gas station, who took me under their wing, told me that a 66 GTO that gad been T-boned hard was towed in. They said the GTO drivetrain would bolt right into the Olds. I start to prepare pulling an engine by sizing up the old barn's timbers and climbing up to that beam with dad's log chain. When dad found out my plans he sold the car.
Summer came and I was now 17. I worked two jobs that summer. I don't know what caught my eye, the Cragars or the muscular look, but I had to have car that I saw down the street at another gas station. $600 later and I was driving my 1st V8 car, a 67 SS Chevelle 396. I loved that car more than any person at the time. I 'cut my teeth' on this car doing engine mods. First headers, then an intake and carb and finally a cam. Not a big deal today, but back then it might as well have been brain surgery I was performing 'cause I had never been into an engine and I was scared that it would not go back together right...but it did and, again, pushed me on to learn and do more. My folks had other plans as they disapproved of my car. They sent me off to Military school. Upon Graduation I went right back to my cars now buying 2 69 Camaros. Here is THE Chevelle.
If you look close, in the back ground is the Robin Egg blue Cutlass.

[EZ Nova]

Umm, first car. I was born in February 1966. When I was 16, I actually bought a 1970 440+6 B5 blue 'Cuda, 4sp and Dana with 4:10's. I bought in in March of 1982 from a guy who worked on oil rigs. He went out west and would store the car on his farm till May. Well May came and he wasn't back. So another car I was looking at came up for sale. 1968 GTX Conv. 440 4sp and 4:10 Dana as well. It was a bit more then the Cuda back then @3800.00 and I could get it THAT DAY. So I bought the GTX. Street-racing in the summer of 1982 as a 16 yr old kid and the 3rd fastest car around, maybe 2nd as I never got a chance to run for #2. The fastest car back then, 1973 454 'Vette WITH nitrous, put 3 lenghts on my one Friday night. Went on to win the corvette day the next day running in the 11's. Actally won some money with the 'Vette running up in Toronto Westin/Finch in those days. Even caught the eye of Longo's Challenger one night, but I knew better then to run him for $$$.