Hot Rods What was the 1st car that "wowed" you

My brother's girlfriend fixed me up with a blind date in high school with Thelma Beaver! I was a skinny tall kid and she was roughly the size of a VW Beetle.
I lied and told her I had to work!

 

My uncle Mike's '57 Ford (the Brown Beast), powered by a 406/4bbl:

Terrorized the streets of Paducah in 1965. My clearest memory of riding in it was him pulling up the floor shift boot so I could watch the street go by underneath.

 

53 Stude champ.Then I got one in 65.

 

Jack Merkels B/GS 39 Willys coupe did it for me, I was hooked forever. It was the first time ever at a drag strip. I went out to Westhampton raceway in 1962 in a new 62 Chevy Impala 4 speed dual quad positraction 409, going to see my friends race the MG I now have. I was in heaven.

Pat

 

this one lived on the far side of my neighborhood growing up. probably saw it for the first time in 7th grade. probably looks familiar to lots of people here.

 

Dad bought me March 1959 Hot Rod. Fell in love with the blue '29 roadster. It's still around, there was a thread on here awhile ago. It's Black with flames with black & red interior. I like the blue & white.

 

Mine was a 57 nomad wagon. Red with white interior & chrome wheels. I was in first grade & a guy down the road had it in his driveway. I would walk past it everyday in the summertime thinking someday!

 

...later about 1975 or 76 I saw this at Lodi or Merced parked outside. I didn't even know what it was but I knew it was the coolest car I had ever seen. this was at a time when old customs were just not seen at shows.

 

My first car was a 1965 Chevelle SS, it had the L79 350 horse 327, Muncie 4 speed,12 bolt rear with 4:10 gears and posi. The owner was a mechanic at Doug McCurdy Chevrolet in Stone Mountain GA. He was the original owner and I had seen the car my whole life sense he lived near by. It was a Silver-Blue color with 15" X 8 1/2" old style Americans with Denmen 9.00 X 15 straight groove tires. As was the style back then it was jacked up about 4"all around with El Camino Springs and ball joint spacers in front and air shocks in back. In !972 I was 16 years old and looking for a hot car. While riding the bus to school one day saw the Chevelle drive by with a for sale sign in the window. I almost jumped out the window of the bus to chase him down!! When Dad got home from work that night I talked him into going to look a the car. The owner only lived a couple of miles away. When we got there I was drooling all over the car. My Dad had his poker face on and did not look to impressed with the car. The car was in the owners driveway and I was looking all over the car as he came out to meet us. He said he had bought a 1970 Olds 442 W30 455 was the reason for selling the Chevelle. He had paper work showing he had just installed a new 350hp 327 long block. And 12 bolt rear end was new. It had new tires and battery. He was asking $1250 so my dad offered $900, I about passed out, The owner looked pissed. I had $600 saved up from working at a gas station after school and my dad had said he would match whatever I had saved. So I asked if we could take it for a drive it seemed to break the tension a little. My dad drove it first, when we got out of the neighborhood he punched the throttle and it revved quickly and broke the tires lose......... He looked at me and said you are going to get I trouble with this car. But I promised him I would be careful with the car.
So he drove it to our house so my mom could see it . When we pulled in the driveway she was watering flowers.I asked her if she liked it and she said yes, it's a very pretty car! My dad just rolled his eyes the 350hp cam had a good lope to it and the headers made it sound even meaner. We went back to the owners house to continue negotiations. My dad and the owner kept going back and forth on the price. My dad said $1000 final offer, the owner said no less than $1050, my heart was beating so hard I could hear it. I blurted out I'll pay the extra $50!!!!!!!!!!!! They both just looked at me and laughed and shook hands on the deal. Driving the Chevelle home and showing it to my gear head buddy's was one of the best days of my life. Raised hell on the street and street raced it and some how never got a ticket.

 

Isn't that Bob Dzemke's Lincoln? I remember seeing it in 1962 at a Morton Grove, Il car show.

 

Though not the first car I went WOW over, I feel the '53/'54 Studebaker Starliner coupe is the most beautiful American post war car...period. Having said that, I would rather own the Starlight coupe variation. The Starlight post variation has additional structural rigidity, and the post makes entry/exit easier with my mobility issues. Plus in my mind it would be less of a sin making changes to the after-thought post variation vs an original hardtop <shrug>

 

Was a t-bucket at a rat rod show my pops took me to when I was a kid. Don't know the year or any details of the car, but I remembered how bitchin of a car that was.

 

The first 'print car' that grabbed my attention at a young age was Roth's Beatnic Bandit and is still one of my favorite customs. The 'in person car' that I'll never forget belonged to a 'older guy' (who must have been all of 19 or 20.. LOL!) who lived a few streets over and was a chopped, raked, full-house-flathead-powered '36 Ford three-window coupe painted an eye-searing BIG flake candy red metalflake. When the sun hit it, it absolutely glowed!

 

An over the top, chromed out T Bucket that was used in a Mother's ad in a 1973 issue of Hot Rod magazine. I didn't even know what a T Bucket was, but I knew I wanted one. Been losing my mind ever since.

 

The custom work by Barris in the early magazines:

 

1967 GTX Hemi ... Need I say more?

 

Couple guy's dated girls on my street- so saw both a 1957 Corvette and a 1957 Thunderbird many week days but always on the week ends-

 

A friend of my brothers had a 49 or 50 ford ,dechromed ,roll and pleat interior,was said to have been painted with 200 bottles of nail polish.Flathead and two carbs ,solenoid doors, set on the ground with loud pipes.He was left handed so he flipped the shift lever over on the left side of the steering wheel.
As far as that other first thing, I called her Rosie Palm and she had 5 sisters. She was a favorite of mine for years.

 

In 1955 my family moved to Hurst. I was in Ms. Gussets history and home room. Across the street was a 32 5 window. That was the car! I later met the guy who owned it. He has now gone but the car is near the same location. His grandson has promised me a picture and to get to see the car. I'll get that done soon. RIP Gayle.

 

first car? an early-model cobra that sat in the showroom at yates-stevens ford in kirkwood, mo. i'd pass there every day as i walked home from school. one night, me and some buddies were walking around town and stopped to talk to a friend working at the gas station, when here comes the cobra with two slightly inebriated salesmen. "could we drive it?" "how's your credit?" "mine's great!" no deal, but he showed what that thing could do when he pulled out of the station! first female infatuation? annette funicello!

 

Sam Hollingsworth 57 Nomad on the cover of the Revell model kit, 1969!

 

I was 14 and my Father's first employee had a new 1960 Chevy Impala ( white with the hounds tooth interior ). It had a 348 and 3 twooos , 4 speed. Rode shotgun with him powershifting. NEAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Tried to figure this one out. Couldn't. But it sure made me remember a lot of cars I hadn't thought about in years. Thanks!

 

For me it was the Junior Stock and Super Stock drag cars of the late 60's/early 70's, especially the Sedan Deliveries. I'd go to the drags, and when the Fuelers and Funny Cars were up, I'd head to the pits to look at the cars I could relate to. There was always to much "show" with the Pro Class cars, big burnouts, backing them up (slowly!), dry hops, and finally staging, all the while with 2 to 4 people helping out with the car. Then it would be over in seconds (?????), after 5 minutes setting it all up. I can't talk about the OT new car I bought and paid cash for when I was 17, and right out of high school, but it was a Dodge of Scat Pack fame. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

Yes Stu. it sure is.....I saw it at an outdoor show in Milwaukee.......I was dumbstruck.........Centurion9

 

O.K., I know this will make me the odd man out on this post, but at 10 years old, in the spring of 1964, I went nuts for the new 1st gen. Mustangs. Then, a few months later, they introduced the fastback model. I had always been kind of a nut for cars in general, but that model really got my attention.

A few years later, in the late '60's, there were car influences everywhere. Two in particular, the Hemi Under Glass exhibition drag car (the engine is in the back seat! How cool is that!!!!!) And a magazine article in some hot rod mag my brother brought home; some rod shop in the bay area needed a shop truck. They bought an older RPU that had been rodded, and did some mechanical updates for reliability. A convertible hot rod pickup? That was a new one on me. K6





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well for me it was a '63 Belvedere. there was a guy down the street from me that had one sitting on his front lawn. it was a full blown hot rod. lettered with the name frog on it with little frog pics on it. i never saw him when i went to school further down the street usually but one Friday night he was working on it. i stood and watched him for a while and then he said "you going to Lions Saturday?" i said "no i didn't have any money". he then said "be at his house by 8 o clock and he would get me in" needless to say i was there the next day. now this car was set up like a drag car. it had a roll bar and one seat. it had a cross ram 4 barrel 413 cid wedge motor and a 4 speed. i don't think he missed pulling the front wheels off the ground at any stops we made. i was holding onto the roll bar and wowed beyond any other experience in my life, including sex!!. i was 14 at the time and have never forgot it and vowed i would get one some day. it took a while but i finally got one. he also got me in for free. he also gave me a ride home at the end of the day. ditto the ride home. i had to wait till the event was over, about 10 o clock. i don't remember his times but to show you how fast it was. the track put a completely stock v860 '40 ford about a hundred feet from the finish lights and he started at the starting lights. they went off and he was gone and at the same time they started the ford. the ford beat him by about a foot. now after that all you could say was "wow"

 

this one, around 1970

 

I was 6 years old 1952. Don Stewarts green 31 ford sedan flathead powered with offie heads and 2 carbs. Later his 32 ford truck with a Oldsmobile mill. I talk to him at car shows to this day and tell him its all his fault I spent all my money on cars. He is in his 80s and still builds cars. He and his buddys still travel up to 200 plus miles to shows. Thank You Don..

 

I was strolling up the driveway of a friend's house to celebrate his birthday. In the driveway was his mother's shiny new 1955 Nomad.
It was an ivory cream color with a copper roof and a cream colored interior.
It totally blew my little 12 year old mind to bits.