Your new musclecar - Page 3

Bobby DiDomenico · 09-07-2008, 09:14 PM

My dad took me with him and he test drove a blue and silver 1971 Boss 351 at the local Ford dealer. I was suprised he was really going to get it and drive it to work. That is until his insurance agent gave him the rate quote, the insurance company wanted twice more for that one car then they had been paying for two cars. And that was with NO kids driving! He didn't get it, ma said food was more important.

I've always wondered what happened to it.

BillK · 09-07-2008, 09:20 PM

Travis,

Bought my 71 Chevelle "Heavy Chevy" new in Aug of 71. Drove it to Boston to visit relatives when it had about 600 miles on it. Made its first drag strip runs at New England Dragway on Sept 1 1971, still have the time slips and ... still have the car !

Jim Blankenship · 09-07-2008, 09:58 PM

never had a new car till late in life but i did have a jimmy bridges teched, gerald livingston tuned 63 ply vallent aka mom's car. then i did get a 1967 impala 283 4 speed, bench seat , after 7-8 sagana trans got a " rock crusher" then gerald had a 427 that just happened to " FIT " became a daily driver that went low 11's at riverside drag strip just west of nashville. few other 57's a 67 camaro then got wise and built a race car rest is history jim

John Dinkel · 09-07-2008, 10:19 PM

After spending a year in Viet Nam and reading any hot rod magazines I could get a hold of, I decided that I would buy a GTX when I got home.
Went to the dealer I worked for in high school and ordered a green 68 GTX. The next day he said you got to get a 69 because the 68 model was done.
A couple days later he told me there was a green one in Lansing, do you want it? The rest was history and I still have it today.

bill dedman · 09-07-2008, 10:34 PM

Myron,

Steve's car was in a cover shot on one of the Mopar magazines about ten years ago, but I don't recall seeing an article about it. It"s blue, with a fair amount of graphics down the side.

If you want, I can email you a photo of it; just send an email to Billdedman@hotmail.com, and I'll send the photo by return mail.

Bill

gymracer01 · 09-07-2008, 10:59 PM

Travis, don't know how I missed this thread. Anyway, I do have a story of my first new car. It was a 1966 Chevy II SS L79 that I order and took delivery of in Jan 1966 in Campbellsville, KY.
I bought it because of the drivetrain. I had learned of the 350hp 327 from a friend in Gainsville GA that had bougth a 65 Chevelle with that setup. He was fast and out running everything on the street at the time, yes GTOs too. I wanted to buy a base 2 dr Chevelle with that engine for 66. My boss called a friend at Cunningham-Kelly Chevrolet in Hartsville TN as they were selling a lot of hot Chevrolets at the time. He told us that the engine was going to be in the 66 Chevy II and that would be a hot setup. Since the Nova was light anyway I got carried away and went for the SS and Hardtop, sometimes wish I had stuck to the post idea. I had a 3.73 posi and put better tires on it right away. I took it to GA in Feb. 66 and with only recurving the distributor and a little work on the secondary side of the carburetor, it went 13.10 on some recapped slicks. I won A/S the first time out. I never really raced it on the street much because of the braking and handling. I moved back to Campbellsville in the fall of 66 and the old Campbellsville dragstrip was still there but they just left the gate open and we would go in and race without the cops bothering us. I spent many a night there racing. I lost only a hand full of races. They were bringing cars from E-town and Lousville to try to beat me. After the first 1,000 miles on the car I had changed the cam to the 375hp solid lifter cam and done a few other tweaks to it to be able to out run the rest of the Chevy IIs. It was not really fast by today standards, but 12.50s in 66 with a street driven car would win you a bunch of races if you could drive it. I've own a couple since, but nothing like that FIRST ONE!
JIm N.

Travis Miller · 09-08-2008, 12:14 AM

In Jan 1966 I bought a ’63 Galaxie 500 with a 406. The car was pretty fast for an 18 year old kid. The addition of slicks, exhaust cutouts, and a gear allowed me to win a few trophies. I eventually put a 427 low-riser in the car. Of course the 390 emblems on the front fenders fooled quite a few on the street. And I did a lot of street racing back then. That was until I got a job teching Stock and S/S at a local outlaw dragstrip in 1969. Went to work at the local NHRA track, Ohio Valley Raceway in 1970 and the rest is Stock and S/S history.

Travis

(Disclaimer: Opinions expressed by me on this forum are exactly that, my opinions.)

ROCKETWORKS · 09-08-2008, 09:54 AM

My first taste of the musclecar era was when my brother and i talked my mom into trading the family station wagon in in 1966 for a 66 impala ss 396, we imedietly proceeded to break it in properly at the local dragstrip..Coles county, Charleston, Il. Then we went car shopping for my brother,hit all the dealership,s test drove every thing, a shelby- hertz gt-350 mustang ,tri-power gto 67 ss396 chevelle, settled on a 67 442 sedan on the showroom floor 400 4 spd. white with black top, what a screamer !!!!!!!! Next came a 69 gto ordered in with the ram-air 4 motor. 433 gear .duel-gate shifter ect. Was standing there when they dropped it of at the dealer, what a sound when they fired that up and rolled it of the truck, we had a plan, rolled it strait into the body shop and it got the Royal-Bobcat paint scheme, the rear spoiler ect. before it hit the street. That was one bad-*** car on the street !!! That car got me through high school and one year of college. Traded it (like a dumb- ***** ) But kept the Ram Air IV motor for a 72 buick GS ran it in pure stock , added the exhaust cut-outs and sticky M & H tires and had a blast ..... then came the wife and kids and a new chevelle statoin wagon, sold the buick but couldn,t stand it bought it back later and still have it....... The rest is history .

John Mason · 09-08-2008, 11:03 AM

Late 1968 we ordered a 1969 375/396 auto Nova from Wallace Chevy in N.J. for SS/DA then found out GM was going to offer a 69 427 Camaro that ran the same class. We tried to cancel the order but the car was already built, so we arranged for a friend to buy it for the street, then ordered 2 COPO 427 Camaros, 1 brown stick and a black auto. We never had much luck with the stick but ran the auto for a few years with some success.
I believe the stick was around $3600 and the auto $100 or so more. A little less than a killer trans costs today.

55 Chevy · 09-08-2008, 11:34 AM

I got my first "musclecar" two years before I was able to get my driver's license. My older brother had an original rust free 56 Chevy just sitting around & he needed $300.00 for some reason so I bought it.
At fourteen first thing I did was put it on jack stands, lay on my back for quite some time & proceed to give the underside a good cleaning & paint job. My brother then added a freshly built up 265 & just happened to have an original 2x4 barrel setup which he installed too. Transmission became a Muncie 3 speed, added a 4.56 posi unit, a fresh original two tone paint job & a set of Cragar S/S's. Interior remained original. At seventeen I went crusin' the strip we had in our town of 4,000. The car probably had a bit to much power for me at the time but thankfully for the low gears I never did get a speeding ticket, only a few stunting citations.
After driving it a few years I put it in storage for nearly twenty. Pulled it out in 2005 & am driving it again with the 225 horse option intact. Since I kept it mostly original there was not a lot to do to restore it. Gone are the 4.56's in favour of 3.08's & it is also considerably quieter. Since the interior material is now available I bought the cloth from Cars Inc. & had a friend stitch in the new stuff keeping the original vinyl intact.
I have now owned it for 34 years.Future plans call for an original 265 & a bit of freshening to make it more road friendly.

09-07-2008, 09:14 PM	#21
Bobby DiDomenico Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 923 Likes: 101 Liked 101 Times in 52 Posts	Re: Your new musclecar My dad took me with him and he test drove a blue and silver 1971 Boss 351 at the local Ford dealer. I was suprised he was really going to get it and drive it to work. That is until his insurance agent gave him the rate quote, the insurance company wanted twice more for that one car then they had been paying for two cars. And that was with NO kids driving! He didn't get it, ma said food was more important. I've always wondered what happened to it.

09-07-2008, 09:20 PM	#22
BillK Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Waldorf Md Posts: 230 Likes: 12 Liked 30 Times in 17 Posts	Re: Your new musclecar Travis, Bought my 71 Chevelle "Heavy Chevy" new in Aug of 71. Drove it to Boston to visit relatives when it had about 600 miles on it. Made its first drag strip runs at New England Dragway on Sept 1 1971, still have the time slips and ... still have the car ! __________________ Bill Koustenis

09-07-2008, 09:58 PM	#23
Jim Blankenship Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: nashville tn Posts: 149 Likes: 0 Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Your new musclecar never had a new car till late in life but i did have a jimmy bridges teched, gerald livingston tuned 63 ply vallent aka mom's car. then i did get a 1967 impala 283 4 speed, bench seat , after 7-8 sagana trans got a " rock crusher" then gerald had a 427 that just happened to " FIT " became a daily driver that went low 11's at riverside drag strip just west of nashville. few other 57's a 67 camaro then got wise and built a race car rest is history jim __________________ Jim Blankenship 3086 STK

09-07-2008, 10:19 PM	#24
John Dinkel Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Pinckney, Michigan Posts: 507 Likes: 399 Liked 263 Times in 68 Posts	Re: Your new musclecar After spending a year in Viet Nam and reading any hot rod magazines I could get a hold of, I decided that I would buy a GTX when I got home. Went to the dealer I worked for in high school and ordered a green 68 GTX. The next day he said you got to get a 69 because the 68 model was done. A couple days later he told me there was a green one in Lansing, do you want it? The rest was history and I still have it today. __________________ John Dinkel 3295 STK

09-07-2008, 10:34 PM	#25
bill dedman VIP Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Conway, AR Posts: 1,739 Likes: 0 Liked 6 Times in 4 Posts	Re: Your new musclecar Myron, Steve's car was in a cover shot on one of the Mopar magazines about ten years ago, but I don't recall seeing an article about it. It"s blue, with a fair amount of graphics down the side. If you want, I can email you a photo of it; just send an email to Billdedman@hotmail.com, and I'll send the photo by return mail. Bill __________________ Bill Last edited by bill dedman; 09-08-2008 at 12:06 AM.

09-07-2008, 10:59 PM	#26
gymracer01 Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Middle Tennesse Posts: 46 Likes: 0 Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Your new musclecar Travis, don't know how I missed this thread. Anyway, I do have a story of my first new car. It was a 1966 Chevy II SS L79 that I order and took delivery of in Jan 1966 in Campbellsville, KY. I bought it because of the drivetrain. I had learned of the 350hp 327 from a friend in Gainsville GA that had bougth a 65 Chevelle with that setup. He was fast and out running everything on the street at the time, yes GTOs too. I wanted to buy a base 2 dr Chevelle with that engine for 66. My boss called a friend at Cunningham-Kelly Chevrolet in Hartsville TN as they were selling a lot of hot Chevrolets at the time. He told us that the engine was going to be in the 66 Chevy II and that would be a hot setup. Since the Nova was light anyway I got carried away and went for the SS and Hardtop, sometimes wish I had stuck to the post idea. I had a 3.73 posi and put better tires on it right away. I took it to GA in Feb. 66 and with only recurving the distributor and a little work on the secondary side of the carburetor, it went 13.10 on some recapped slicks. I won A/S the first time out. I never really raced it on the street much because of the braking and handling. I moved back to Campbellsville in the fall of 66 and the old Campbellsville dragstrip was still there but they just left the gate open and we would go in and race without the cops bothering us. I spent many a night there racing. I lost only a hand full of races. They were bringing cars from E-town and Lousville to try to beat me. After the first 1,000 miles on the car I had changed the cam to the 375hp solid lifter cam and done a few other tweaks to it to be able to out run the rest of the Chevy IIs. It was not really fast by today standards, but 12.50s in 66 with a street driven car would win you a bunch of races if you could drive it. I've own a couple since, but nothing like that FIRST ONE! JIm N.

09-08-2008, 12:14 AM	#27
Travis Miller Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 478 Likes: 1 Liked 276 Times in 27 Posts	Re: Your new musclecar In Jan 1966 I bought a ’63 Galaxie 500 with a 406. The car was pretty fast for an 18 year old kid. The addition of slicks, exhaust cutouts, and a gear allowed me to win a few trophies. I eventually put a 427 low-riser in the car. Of course the 390 emblems on the front fenders fooled quite a few on the street. And I did a lot of street racing back then. That was until I got a job teching Stock and S/S at a local outlaw dragstrip in 1969. Went to work at the local NHRA track, Ohio Valley Raceway in 1970 and the rest is Stock and S/S history. Travis (Disclaimer: Opinions expressed by me on this forum are exactly that, my opinions.)

09-08-2008, 09:54 AM	#28
ROCKETWORKS Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 102 Likes: 0 Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Your new musclecar My first taste of the musclecar era was when my brother and i talked my mom into trading the family station wagon in in 1966 for a 66 impala ss 396, we imedietly proceeded to break it in properly at the local dragstrip..Coles county, Charleston, Il. Then we went car shopping for my brother,hit all the dealership,s test drove every thing, a shelby- hertz gt-350 mustang ,tri-power gto 67 ss396 chevelle, settled on a 67 442 sedan on the showroom floor 400 4 spd. white with black top, what a screamer !!!!!!!! Next came a 69 gto ordered in with the ram-air 4 motor. 433 gear .duel-gate shifter ect. Was standing there when they dropped it of at the dealer, what a sound when they fired that up and rolled it of the truck, we had a plan, rolled it strait into the body shop and it got the Royal-Bobcat paint scheme, the rear spoiler ect. before it hit the street. That was one bad-* car on the street !!! That car got me through high school and one year of college. Traded it (like a dumb- *** ) But kept the Ram Air IV motor for a 72 buick GS ran it in pure stock , added the exhaust cut-outs and sticky M & H tires and had a blast ..... then came the wife and kids and a new chevelle statoin wagon, sold the buick but couldn,t stand it bought it back later and still have it....... The rest is history .

09-08-2008, 11:03 AM	#29
John Mason Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 147 Likes: 0 Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Your new musclecar Late 1968 we ordered a 1969 375/396 auto Nova from Wallace Chevy in N.J. for SS/DA then found out GM was going to offer a 69 427 Camaro that ran the same class. We tried to cancel the order but the car was already built, so we arranged for a friend to buy it for the street, then ordered 2 COPO 427 Camaros, 1 brown stick and a black auto. We never had much luck with the stick but ran the auto for a few years with some success. I believe the stick was around $3600 and the auto $100 or so more. A little less than a killer trans costs today. __________________ John Mason 7743 SS

09-08-2008, 11:34 AM	#30
55 Chevy Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Calgary,Alberta area Posts: 227 Likes: 23 Liked 14 Times in 13 Posts	Re: Your new musclecar I got my first "musclecar" two years before I was able to get my driver's license. My older brother had an original rust free 56 Chevy just sitting around & he needed $300.00 for some reason so I bought it. At fourteen first thing I did was put it on jack stands, lay on my back for quite some time & proceed to give the underside a good cleaning & paint job. My brother then added a freshly built up 265 & just happened to have an original 2x4 barrel setup which he installed too. Transmission became a Muncie 3 speed, added a 4.56 posi unit, a fresh original two tone paint job & a set of Cragar S/S's. Interior remained original. At seventeen I went crusin' the strip we had in our town of 4,000. The car probably had a bit to much power for me at the time but thankfully for the low gears I never did get a speeding ticket, only a few stunting citations. After driving it a few years I put it in storage for nearly twenty. Pulled it out in 2005 & am driving it again with the 225 horse option intact. Since I kept it mostly original there was not a lot to do to restore it. Gone are the 4.56's in favour of 3.08's & it is also considerably quieter. Since the interior material is now available I bought the cloth from Cars Inc. & had a friend stitch in the new stuff keeping the original vinyl intact. I have now owned it for 34 years.Future plans call for an original 265 & a bit of freshening to make it more road friendly.