As it happens, this happened 40 years ago last month. I was best man at my brother's wedding. An usher was a good friend of my brother's. He had a 69 Vette, 427 with 3 dueces. We took off chasing the bride and groom down the hiway. Mind you, I was only 15 and didnt even have my license yet, but within a month I would finally have it. He hit that Vette in the a$$ an I couldnt believe what I was experiencing. The sounds, the feeling of extreme acceleration: I had a grin stuck on my face for 15 minutes. Never caught my brother tho...not sure why since he was in a 327 Impala. I'll take that memory to my grave.
Not my first but most impressive. Around a 60 Pontiac Ventura 2 door post. Engine by a famous Ohio speed shop and he built most Pontiac Nascar Engines and this was a full Naccar Pontiac with trips, 4 speed and a 2.79 rear for a trip to Fla. Any way, after too many beers the owner disqualified himself and asked me to drive it in a challenge match with a Vette. We ran a 15mph roll for a mile. I had no preparation on the cars handling except to know it was extreme. We nailed it at the 15 roll and it pulled the left front tire off and the car into the shoulder. Good thing I was in the right lane! I fought it back onto the pavement and got back into it. Now I was about 3 lengths behind. shifted at 5800 1-2 at about 80MPH and was making up the 3 lengths, 2-3 was at around 115MPH and I was beside and pulling the Vette hard 3-4 was 130 and the race was won! The Vette shut down early before the mile. What a ride! :3gears:
We have that in common, then! Not just my first ride, but also my first to DRIVE: 1969, 427/435, ported heads, roller cam, hooker sidemounts with no muffler inserts. 4 speed, 4:11 gears. Devon
I was conceived in a '56 Chevy, does that count? p :laugh: :spank: Ok, ok... the first I remember was in 1970 in our '69 Mach I. It was less than a year old and I was seven. The bug bit me hard and never let go. This pic isn't ours, I can't find it right now but it's identical.
My first ride in a real muscle car was just after I graduated from HS/Ford school,,,, I did a tune up on a 61 Galaxy, ''factory light weight'' car that a buddy of mine from school had bought .... it had aluminum bumpers,no sound deadner at all, fiberglass front fenders, hood, deck lid, rubber floor mat, plexi-glass side windows and back glass, no window cranks, just straps like a seat belt strap with a snap for half way up , or all the way up... no radio and no heater... the car had a 405 horse 406 with 3 duces,Borg Warner T-10 4 speed trans, 4.11 gear,,,, low restriction muffler system,,,, after I got the job done and was road testing it, I took my mom to lunch in it....scared her to death....:laugh: :laugh:
The summer of 1970, a few months before I turned 16 a couple friends and I, after swimming at the local swimming hole, discovered that we needed a ride home so one my buddies walked to the nearest phone and called his 19 year old cousin whom I had never met because they had just moved to our area. He showed up in a `62 Impala SS 409, 4 speed convertible!!! I'll never forget that ride. Even more memorable than the car was when we got to his house I met his little sister, who was my age and soon to be starting school in my class. She was a most beautiful girl I had ever seen. Three years later were married and I still feel that way everyday I look at her. Anyway, back to the car. For years my dream car was a `62 Impala SS convertible but the closest I ever came was a hardtop with a 327. Her brother went into the Navy that year and left that car sitting next to one of the corn cribs where it sat for years. He ended up stationed in Pensacola where he liked it so much he never moved back home. Years later I asked him what ever happened to that car. He didn't know but he expected that eventually his folks had it towed away for junk :ball:
That's a hard one since so many of the cars we lust after were just cars when I was a kid. By the mid 70's a 1960's or early 70's muscle car was cheap. In the early to mid 60's my dad use to get a new car every other year (till about the third kid came around). He use to buy things like a 66 Impala SS convertible for a driver. After so having four kids, the new cars were gone but he still had cars like a 55 ford, and a 59 El Camino. I can remember as a kid telling my dad to burn out in his Chevelle wagon all the time. All my friends parents had cars that I would love to have today!
Sometime in the early 70's, a friend of my Mom's took me for a ride in a 1970 type Corvette. All I remember is burning my leg on the side pipe when I got out. Much more memorable. Circa 1980. My friend talked a neighbor into taking us for a ride in this '71 GS455. Warmed over '70 455" / Muncie 4spd / Hurst shifter with a T handle / Chevelle 12 bolt posi with ladder bars / Cragars / 60's. You know the drill. He got so sideways we almost hit a passing van. The moan of air being sucked into those scoops and through the Q-Jet was incredible. We stopped at a store for a cold drink. The driver's hand was still shaking when he got the change from the cashier. I'll never forget that day. That neighbor driving the GS is still one of my best friends 30 years later. He's all Chevy now. ou:
Don't know if it qualifies as a muscle car, but it was one of the fastest rides I ever had ! :shock: It was a '62 Ford Galaxie with a 406 engine, 3 2bbls, and of course a standard transmission. That car would chirp the wheels in any gear, and it didn't take too much effort to pin the needle. I also remember the time I had the opportunity to 'borrow' a friends '69 396 Beaumont, a Canadian Pontiac cousin of the Chevell - that thing would just turn sideways when you lit the rear tires, and you really had to know how to handle all that power, or it would get you into a lot of trouble in a very short hurry ! :eek2: . . . ahhhhhhhhhh, the good ole days ! :3gears:
Eenie Meenie, Miney Mo . . . Okay, I'll SKIP the 1949 Merc Lead Sled my neighbor built and tell about this guy EJ Meents from Boyer Iowa. We were in the USAF, rookies - all in out first year, late 1964. Denver had a 9:1 ratio of young women to young men.... Stewardess school, Denver Women's College, Fitzsimmons Army Hospital (Ike's heart attack hospital). Us guys were all dying for a ride to pick up girls. I arrived at the barracks one Saturday AM after an all day Friday KP duty, overnite to finoish pots-n-pans. EJ comes up the stairs with a grin he could hardly get thru the hallway. His Dad had sold 7 head of cattle and sent him $2,500 to buy a car. He went to the Ford dealer and paid cash for a 63 1/2 Galaxie Fire Engine Red with White Interior and White top. :TU: . Three Ninety Automatic slushbox, bucket seats and a full console. Power Convertible top - ooohhhhh. . . :bglasses: . We piled about 6 guys into this thing and ran down to Central Park - there were 20 gals walking arond that car and EJ for an hour or so. He got himself hooked up. On the way back to Aurora, Lowry AFB, he hit 100 mph in a 30 or 35 mph zone. Got his first ticket. :error: . So much for untempered muscle. :Smarty: . RipRohring :Comp:
When I was in Boy Scouts, our scoutmaster had a 61 Ford F100 stepside with a 390 from a Thunderbird in it. At 120 mph plus, on recaps, it was scary fun. My older brother had a 400sb Monte Carlo--it hooked me on the Q-jet moan (Wuh-wawww). A high school friend had a 71 Camaro with a built sbc that was really cool, too. I knew what torque was--the first two family cars I remember were a 69 and 76 Electra-both four door hts. Dad's 67 Barracuda was really cool, but until we drug the muffler off coming back from a pistol shooting trip on an old Forest Service road, I didn't think it sounded right. The 70 Chevy stepside truck with a 307 and 3 on the tree was kinda fun. but all of this was just serving to whet my appetite. At UGA in about 1989, while driving a fun but not so fast 64 Skylark convertible, I met Nick Sloop and soon got my first stiff musclecar drink...a 1968 GS400 vert with a 455, MT headers, 390 rear gears, wow---what a f***king combo--killer torque, tire smoke and noise for days, and top down wind/air/noise to heighten the experience. The university had "peace campers" occupying north campus during the first Gulf war, and I and several friends were out on a beer run on a cold, late night and we said "let's wake up the no blood for oil group!" A wide open throttle pass down the steet beside them was commenced, and it was glorious! I quickly realized it wasn't quite glorious enough, because I had started from a roll in drive I was already in second. Manually dropping it to first raised the nose another half-foot and upped the decibels-both engine and tire sourced-Holy downshift-sideways-yeehah-wohoo was that fun! And I have been hooked ever since. And I think every GS I own will have MTs on it.
When I was just a baby I would be real fussy about sleeping according to my parents so they said that they would take me for a ride in my dads 74 GS and it would put me to sleep.
My first ride was my 1967 Dodge R/T bought it at 17 years old for $1,650 had 21,000 miles it was like New 440 auto never knew such power a Punk and a Muscle car Raced a 1970 stage-1 on lakeshore Blvd in Euclid Ohio stayed neck and neck I had 3 people in my car he had 2 as my buddys cousin was banging her head on my roof and flying off my console going over the little hills going past the side streets I was laughing so hard that I think the Buick got me by a bumper till this day she still won't talk to me Love those Muscle cars.
I may have told these stories before... 72 Chevelle with 402 and auto on console, jacked up in the rear with big meats and a loud exhaust. I worked for a gas station at the time and we took it out for joyrides after closing one Saturday night. It was the station owner's nephew's. The car was mean looking and sounded bad, and I was about 17 yrs old... never drove anything faster than my 63 Chevy II with a straight 6 before. I remember the combination of the excitement of driving and the manual brakes made my leg shake when I tried to slow it down. My buddy ended up losing it on a clover-leaf on-ramp and sliding backwards down in a gully. We got in BIG trouble. I don't know if this counts... but it was probably faster than the Chevelle. I drove an 86 Porsche 928 5 speed that someone had hopped up when I was 19. (I worked for a Porsche dealership at the time) It had some cam upgrade in it with a lumpy idle and a custom exhaust... it was a V8 so it sounded pretty good and had a lot of grunt. I had just mounted new tires and was taking it on a shake-down run (gotta test the wheel balance, you know). I stopped for a school bus that was dropping off a bunch of high school kids and when I could go, I hit it hard... spun in two gears and got rubber in third... left a heck of a nice mark and some of that nice rubber smoke... That was a really unique car! I don't think I ever saw or heard another hopped up 928 like it. What a great job for a 19 year old!
My first ride in a fast car was an 86 Turbo-T WH1 I bought during my senior year in High School. I thought it was fast as hell. I never experienced torque like that before despite the thing misfiring like a bastard... Sold that car and bought my 87 GN a few months later. That car was fast as hell. I remember the seller telling me he had sold it to someone else. He had lied because of my father had found out about my intentions and interviened. I ened up with it anyway. I have never drove or been in anything faster than this car. I distintcly remember racing a Vette on rte 295 one night....I had the the aftermarket 145mph speedo buried.... In my mind a musclecar is from the 60s or 70s...the GN was just a fast car in my mind. My first ride in a 'true' musclecar was when I was in college. A friend of mine had a red 70 chevelle. One night he brought myself and a few friends to the movie theatre downtown. He never ' got on it' but I thought it was the coolest car moment of my life. Cruising the streets of Boston riding shotgun in a 70 Chevelle. The looks from the pedestrians were priceless! I couldn't get over the aura that surrounded the car. The bodylines of the passenger window. Everything was just so badass!! Now I have my own A-body...a Buick at that!
Test drove a 65 GTO convertible, 4 speed tri-power, from Jarman Pontiac in Baltimore. The salesman went along and was looking a little pale as I ran it thru the gears on Jones Falls Expressway. The difference in the monthly payment on the GTO and the Corvair Monza I ended up buying seemed like all the money in the world back then! John :beer
Hell Yeah! My first is due January 2011 and we WILL be making the trip home from the hospital in the Stage1. My girl is all for it but says I always drive it too fast and I have to promise to take it easy. That's going to hard.
I don't really remember what the first muscle car I rode in was, it's been way too long ago. It might have been a friend of mine in high school that had a 69 Camaro SS 396 4spd, or another friend with a 68-72 Nova. My grandfather had a 68 Mercury ex state trooper car with a 428, still wish I had been able to get that car when I turned 16, but I think my parents were aware of it too and it was traded off before I could get it. The first muscle car I remember driving was a 73 Challenger 340 at the local tech school, or a 73 Mustang 302 a friend loaned me. I do remember learning how to drive a manual trans in a 66 Impala with a 327 4spd a neighbor of mine had and helped him work on during the high school years. The first really fast muscle car I drove is my 87 Buick Regal Turbo T, it was the first muscle car my daughter rode in also. We brought her home from the hospital in it when she was born, just one of the reasons I'll be keeping it a long time.
