what was the car that turned you into a car guy?

[FETorino]

Originally Posted by Ron in SoCal

Pretty sure Rob will have some snappy Furd come back.

I think I've told this story before on here. My neighbors had a 69 Corvette and better yet their sons friend bought an Orange 71 Pantera brand new (story is it was with inheritance $$ the kid was young). In 71 I as 7 and just stared at those cars every time they were outside. When I was in high school the guy next door had a Tiger when I had an Alpine.

My grandpa was a carpenter and my day an MIT grad and engineer so taking stuff apart or building things has always bee just what you do.

I read all Herb Adams stuff and followed his recipe for building a road race style car instead of a drag car. He developed Ponitacs so I bought a 69 Firebird. My best friend had a 79 Camaro, a slug that handled pretty good from the factory. We raced a lot of guys on a twisty country road. I was never impressed with his Chevy but another pair of brothers in my neighborhood were Ford guys who built engines in their garage. They loved 427 side oilers.

I always wanted an iconic 60s/70s american sports car. A Cobra, a Pantera, a Tiger or the holy grail a GT40 or yea even a Corvette. I just liked Fords hot rod approach to LeMans and SCCA with Shelby and the history behind it.

One day at Tustin Thunder I saw a guy Jim ?? from Texas I think just thrashing on a green and gold GT40. On the straights he was just puling hard on everyone else out there. The inevitable happened and I fell in love with the sound of a sideoiler as it demonstrated it's hp advantage.

And as I have admitted already I bought and still own a 69 Corvette even though it is an inferior brand.