[Jeff Lee]

Great story; being that it was parted out, it literally will come back from the dead! I would have paid as much as I could for a car with such a personal history.

I had a '71 Challenger 318 in High School. My first fast car as I added typical bolt-ns to the 318 then built a 340 for it. Painted it black & gold with a T/A hood. First really fast car for me (but no doubt a slug compared to some of these stories), first awesome paint and stance car. Spun a rod (oh, you shouldn't wing it to 7,000 in the driveway?). Parked it and accumulated a 440, roll-bar, Jaz seats; basically building it into a real race car. A friend had to have it and I realized I didn't really have the funds to do the job and I traded it for his '68 Barracuda Formula S 383 / 4-speed car which now had a 440 in it with a Hurst Ram-Rod shifter and a solid puck sintered iron clutch disk. What a treat that was on the street with 3.23 gears! Never took a liking to that car and I don't even remember what I sold it for.

A few years went buy and the Challenger went through a few owners. Then one day I saw in the paper "Parting - '71 Challenger". I called. The guy said it was black and gold and all that was left was the 4.10 center in the 8 3/4". I could have that for $50.00. I arrived and the front looked like it went through a tree. The rear was jacked up with two bumper jacks; one on each rear quarter. I about cried. Didn't say I was the one that built the car as the guy was a real POS. Took the gears out and left.

I had 4 years and a lot of memories in that car and it was somewhat of a trend setter for the day. Only lost two street races in it with that 340 (weighed 3200#'s) and I hung pretty close to their rear bumpers in the process. Learned a lot on that car!

If I found the car today? I'd pay some stupid money, probably like you. But I'm sure it was recycled long ago.

I'm not even going to get into all the cars I've owned because they were short term. But there's a good half-dozen at least that should have been keepers!