Featured Classifieds: Hi-Timers Club Car

When I was a kid, I’d randomly flip open the local Midland, Texas Thrifty Nickel to a page and then tell myself I could have any car on that page. Seems like I would always end up choosing between a Chrysler LeBaron and a Dodge Stealth, so I’d open to another page and try again. Eventually, because I lived in an oil rich town, I’d end up with something cool like a Calloway Corvette or a Saleen Mustang or something along those lines.

I’m now 43 years old and I still do the same shit. I don’t think anyone prints the Thrifty Nickel anymore, but just about every morning I open the HAMB classifieds and tell myself I can pick one car from the first page. This morning, I picked the Hi-Timer’s Club Car.

Owning a car like this is kind of difficult. Mainly, because you gotta have the room. Realistically, you can only run a vintage race car a couple of times a year and the rest of that time, you gotta have the space to display it to really enjoy owning it.

BUT, if you do have that space and you do have the passion for maintaining this kind of history, this is a damned good example for a reasonable amount of money. Hell, I’ve seen people blow well over seven grand on a neon sign and (apologies to all of the neon collectors out there) this thing is way cooler than anything that could be hung on a wall.

What would I do? Easy… Leave it absolutely alone cosmetically, build a mild SBC for power, and then get the rest of the mechanicals just functional enough to allow for safe blasts down the quarter mile in Joplin once a year. The rest of the time, it would sit in a corner somewhere good and visible so that I could sit in it, make motor noises, and enjoy the history it represents.

Check it out.