What was 'that car' ?

[thedude327]

Great thread !!! Back when I was a kid , we had a neighbor who raced stock cars, not professionally, but a weekend racer. I always wandered over to watch and see what he was doing on his cars. Later as I got older, I started fixing lawnmowers and small engines. I grew up around dirt bikes and minibikes and they always needed fixing too, if you wanted to ride anyways.......lol.........so that kind of started me down the path of working on cars.

I have to agree with those who say that the sound of a good exhaust used to get my attention because is still does today. Nowadays you can put the whole package together and by that I mean you can have all the great classic looks of the older cars, but with the performance and handling of a modern car. These are good times to be into cars.

Paul

[Hdesign]

Born with this terrible affliction and have been "suffering" ever since!

Some of my earliest memories were of cars I loved so I can't really pinpoint one in particular. Since my dad was a GM for a Chevy dealer, I can only assume it was a Vette or a Camaro.

One car I do remember was a triple black 69 Camaro RS at the dealership one day while we were visiting him at work. It was out in the wash bay I think and my dad let me sit in it. Wow, I was hooked!

I later found out that the car caught fire because of the dealership owner's son. The happy ending is that a guy in town bought it and restored it. Now I see it every year at the Boston World of Wheels show (next week actually). I still stop and stare at it.

[DOOM]

B I G R E D When I finally saw it at SEMA this year it was like seeing a rock star !!!!!!! I took a million pics


Mario

[Nvrenuf]

Ever since I was a lil kid. My mom says it was weird cause I could name cars just from seeing their front end driving towards us on the road. Then Junior High thru High School... My best friend's Dad bought him a 66 Nova. they built it 3 times through our high school years. They dragged me around to all the car shows, etc. Then it hit the cover of Hot Rod mag. I thought that was the ultimate! My dad would not let me spend a dime on a car, ie "money pit". So i just drove my old nissan truck and dreamed. Now I'm living the dream

[ironworks]

I have been into cars since I can remember, I used to build anything out of legos. I remember going to the dirt track races and then coming home to build a tube chassis and body for a late model dirt car. I used to go to the drag boat races and then I built a dually and flatbottom boat with a trailer. I had a ton of legos. I did not play with anything else.

Then In high school my first car was piece of junk 66 volvo that I had for a short period of time before I got a 67 chevy truck that got me pulled over once a week for like 14 weeks straight. We used to cruise " Chester" the local cruise spot on friday and saturday nights. Then about 11pm it was off to the street races. There used to be this 67 Chevelle that was red and ran like 12 second passes, I remember when I thought that was fast. It was like seeing a super hott girl everytime you saw the car, you were just quiet and watched it go by......

I have and will always be a huge magazine reader, I can remember reading a Street Rodder magazine talking about Boyd Coddingtons shop, back in the hay day. Before he went to jail, back when anybody who is anybody worked there, Jesse James, Alan Budnik, Chip Foose, Lil john, Steve Davis, and there were a ton more. Those guys did everything and they did it like no other. They had huge resources to do what ever, Boyd had Boyds wheels and they did cars like Cadzilla, Smoothster, Boydsters ( in steel ), He did a tangarine roadster with that had rear mounted northstar, They built the Boyd Aire 57 chevy. I remember thinking I want to build stuff like that some day. I went to my first AMBR show in 92 when it was still in Oakland. These are the things that made me what to continue to build and design just like when I was a kid with Legos.

[Beegs]

Originally Posted by tom_a

For me it was not any one car, rather it was my Dad. I grew up around them. I am pretty sure I was the only 5 year old dropped off at my school in a 1941 Ford Coupe, cragers and with 283 Chevy complete with a cross ram and no hood Me and my brother would always run to the window when we heard a rumble looking to see what he had bartered or traded for. My mom just came to accept it. He passed about four years ago, but even through my adult life he would show up at my house with something. It's funny even at 38 years old now ,every time I hear a rumble coming down my street I still catch myself thinking to look for Dad

Tom...great story, brought a tear to my eye.

The car for me was a 76 camaro. A local family bought it brand new, the daughter had it first then the older brother, they always kept it mint. I watched "Mike" take the 305 out and freshen it up with a cam, headers, intake, Cragar SS wheels etc...I was always hanging around like a s**t fly asking questions.
Well I ended up buying that car with 36K original miles and drove it hard! It was my daily driver thru HS and when I started making some decent money the car ended up Ferrari red with a BB 454, built trans, 3:73 posi etc... it was a great car. I sold it many moons later to fund a V8 s10 project of all things.

It's funny...my Dad is a great guy with some great qualities but I remember growing up, he was never interested in cars and actually discouraged me at every step of the way. Not in a bad way but one example in particular sticks out:

When I got the Camaro, I ran it with the 305 for a year so and decided to build a 350 for it. After all... I had been reading every car magazine for years, I was practically ASE certified! I remember going through the whole deal: machine shop, getting the parts, assembly etc..well I finally get the thing put together, all dressed up on the engine stand. I had a smile from ear to ear. You know what my Father says? "It looks good, leave it on the stand, it will never run" Looking back on it, it makes me laugh.

I put the motor in, got everything right except the timing and I had a few plug wires crossed. My father said: "see". LOL He felt bad for me and called a friend of his. His buddy was a great guy, came right over and straightened the thing out. It ran like a champ.

When the 454 build came along, can you guess what my father said? LOL

[Ummgawa]

My Dad and his brothers. They were all GM employees in the Muscle car Hayday. My Uncle Noah was the COPO cage man for 17 years in the Lakewood GM plant. My other two uncles worked the assembly line.

Every family reunion was filled with massive burn outs from the bad ass cars (Chevelles from 1966 to 1971), GTO's and 442's. All the bad A Body cars produced at that particular plant.

My Dad had a "Real Job" as my other Uncles used to call it working for the government. So he had a wicked dual Quad 63 Riviera, 425 nail head fully loaded rocket, Black with Silver Leather interior, 2+2, every option known to man at that time. That car would boil the meats on demand with the air running. My Dad kept that car immaculant (The Marine in him).

I basically had no choice in the matter. Oh and, by the way, the only Bad ride with an automatic was my Dad's Riviera. All my Uncles were sworn 4 speed drivers (I guess thats where I get it).

My Uncle Gordon drove a Ram Air 4, 4 speed 1970 Judge convertible in Orbit Orange. A very High Dollar Car now. He ran the total piss out of that car but took great care of it. Other Uncle had a 70 LS6 4 speed convertible. I have some pictures somewhere of our family reunion with both of those cars in the picture. A half a million dollars in two cars. Just amazing and who knew.

I felt it then. Those were special times and special cars. I have a great COPO 66 chevelle story if I have a little time to write it. My Uncle still has the paperwork. 427 in a 66 Chevelle. Rock Crusher, 4:56. No air/radio/dumdum, rubber floor mats, no back seat. From the factory."Tin can with a giant motor" as my Uncle put it. Got my very first, dang near pissed my pants, white knuckle ride in that car. Remember, my Dad's sisters husband was the COPO man at the Lakewood Plant.

By the way that's where "IT" started. I have been working on , driving, trading and basically living the life since I was 6. My Dad is and always has been a car guy. We are real tight so we went to every car show when I was a kid. Oh, and when each year rolled around, we'd go to the dealerships and drive all the new bad ass offerings. Heck in Atlanta, there was a dealership on every corner.He and I did this every year from 1965 to 1972. My very fondest memories. My dad speed shifting 4 speeds when we'd "Test Drive" the new offerings.

great thread Scott.

[mdprovee]

Ok this going to sound bad, but......

The car that started it for me was the Mach 5 from Speed Racer. I would race home from school to catch the episode. Always wanted to be race car driver like Speed. All the things that car did were cool to me. Once I got older I had friends accross the street were into cars, so that is how I got started inbto real cars.

My first car was a 67 camaro, which my parents gave to me for my 16th B-day. They had bought it new in 67 and handed it down to me. On my B-day I went down to get my license and when I passed the test, they gave me a set of keys. My dad always helped me change or modify something, just saying, "it ran fine before you started changing things." That was 27 years ago and I still have it today. Should be completed within the next month or so, and I fully plan to have my parents there when I pick it up.

[Stuart Adams]

Always have loved the muscle cars growing up. But my disease was cemented when, in high school, my best friends dad bought my friend a 1970 LS6 Chevelle. The dad didn't really know how BAD it was. Man we kicked more butt and got more booty in that car. He blew it up about a year later and then his dad bought him a 1970 LS5 El Camino.

Those were the days.

[JamesJ]

When I was around 15, so 15 years ago a friend of ours (race car fabricator) was building a full tube Mustang 5.0 body style full out car to compete in the open road races, the car was going to have a carbon fiber body, twin turbos, the front glass was laid back, every thing was going to be custom but still look normal, and thats when I said i need something like this....

Thats why my car will not be very custom looking....