Sweet Dreams And Time Machines
My 1970 GTX, 440-6 bbl. It takes Horsepower to catch horsepower......
(featured on cover of Mar '94 Chrysler Power Magazine)
Remember the day you got your first car.... a Wild Mustang, the Monster SS, the road runner that couldn't be caught, or even the 1962 Simca with the custom spray can paint job and wind deflectors used as spoilers? Have you ever been at a car show and said "I had one just like that!" In school I couldn't afford these, or any car, and Viet Nam loomed just over the horizon for me. I guess I'm still trying to make up for those lost years.
One of my first Cars was in Germany, a 1962 Volkswagen Van, bought for $25.00. Well, it did need an engine you know! Rather than do any preventive maintenance, we'd just drive it till the current engine blew then stuff another into it from an abandoned VW. OH, don't think we didn't take care of it, My friends & I traveled all over Europe in it so we HAD to baby it! That required 3 army bunk mattresses in the back, a pine scented "little Tree" air freshener. and a new paint job every pay day! We'd go to the PX, buy a case of what ever color spray cans were available,3 or 4 cases of beer, We'd go park by the Rhine, refresh ourselves, and then paint the van. It REALLY looked good in Pastel pink & dark blue.
When I left Europe, the van had a 911 engine in it (Don't ask me where it came from!) and in order to allow the tradition to continue, I signed the title and threw it and the keys on the dash. Anyone who knows what happened to it after I left, let me know!
Then comes the day you get your first really killer car and you're ready to take on the world! I had just re-enlisted and had too much money in my pocket. Plans were to buy my buddies '65 396 vette roadster but that was 400 miles away and I was CARLESS! While waiting to be assigned to a unit at the 101st Airborne, I found a Playboy from 1968 that listed the top speeds of cars that year and it said a '68 Plymouth GTX was it! Top speed of 152 mph, beating everything else. COOL, but I didn't know what a GTX was... As luck would have it the Clarksville newspaper listed a '68 GTX for sale, $1200. A short taxi ride and 2 hours later, guess what I was driving?
Continuing the tradition of insanity, we developed the practice of "gettin a beer". 420 miles from Ft Campbell was my hometown of Huntington, WV. We'd climb in the car, see how fast we could get to Huntington and drink one beer at Moletties, then return. Fastest one way trip? 3 hrs, 52 minutes and that was goin thru toll booths at 75 mph and dropping the change, hoping it went into the basket.
Sometimes you just have to get a little crazy. A friend and I went to the Mopar Nationals, which is a gathering of about 30 to 40 thousand people each year. We had brought the Road Runner costume to just hang outside the motel room, but....... A dare, and there I was, running a quarter mile drag strip on foot, in front of 35,000 people ( 90 seconds @ 7 mph. I doubt there was ever a slower pass by a "road runner") . Sheeesh, I gotta admit, they sure enjoyed it, and it seems everywhere I wore the costume that weekend there was a little bubble of joy around. Of course I'll have to say I enjoyed it too.
No matter what it is, as long as it's fast, normally I like it, but this is one machine I just HAD to get rid of. KZ 1000, punched to 1100, 13 to 1 compression, inductive ignition, 4 into one headers, road racing cam that required the head to be milled just to install it, and a few other changes. This bike would not pull a "wheelie", but it would burn the back tire off anytime you cared to try. In fact.. when the snow was on the ground, I would do burnouts across the garage just to get my burning rubber smell fix. Although it doesn't show in the picture, the bike had some lilac mica ghost flames that would glow when the sunlight hit them. Beautiful bike, but MAN was it scary!
These were two cars I built for a friend. Each was a cover car on "Chrysler Power" Magazine, and the red one was voted Cover Car of the year. I really got the big head when the first one hit the cover. Only bad thing is that the friend found that money was more important to him than all the work I put into the cars, and sold each of them before he really got any enjoyment out of them.
And here's the infamous $1500 '64 Corvette, a little after I bought it. What you see assembled on the left is just body panels Duct taped into place. (Who says Duct tape isn't for everything?) The car has progressed GREATLY, and hopefully, it will be on the road the summer of 2002. So far, it's become a narrowed up, 383 stroker powered machine that I've beeen building like I would have if I had the car at 16, the money and the knowledge to do it. Here are a few more "in progress" pics of the car. Once it's finally done, I'll put that pic up.
Pictures taken at the 2008 World of Wheels, Huntington, WV. The first time the car had moved under it's own power in at least 20 years. It may not be stock, it may not be right, it may not be restored, but MAN is it fun!
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