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

I'll start... it wasn't a new car it never is. This beauty was on a turntable at a local used car lot! A black 59 Impala coupe' tri-power factory four speed with red interior. I can still see it, I was 14 or 15!

 

i have had many hot rods and customs that wowed me over the years, but the one that sticks out the most i guess was a 25 model t hot rod that had a narrowed 59 chevy trunk and quarters welded on it. the trunk still worked too. it was powered but a small block mopar and painted purple. i hear tell it is still in the houston area but can't find it. of course when i knew the car it was around 1975, i guess i was 14 years old at the time. i guess that is why i always go for the model t's.

 

My dads 69 Road Runner.

 

when I was a freshman in High School my Dad had a stock '52 Ford with 6 cyl / 3 speed. a neighbor, who was a senior, bought it. Then had it painted with a beautiful metallic blue, chrome wheels, custom upholstery done in Tijuana, Mexico and lowered. my first time really seeing a plain Jane transformed into a Cool ride.

 

Hmmmmmn hard to guess. I have been around a lot of very impressive cars since birth. I rode home from the hospital in a nail head powered '41 Willys pickup. I really don't remember but I am sure that it has had some influence on me.

I do remember riding in a Plymouth business coupe when I was really little that the Ol' man had removed the rear shelf and put a seat back there for me and my big sister as well as going for a ride on the ol man's lap in the altered at one point.

Then of course there was the AC Cobra that the shop owned when I was little and the roadster that the ol man drove me to Oregon in.

I really don't know what to say. The car I have always wanted to won is a '33 Bugatti roadster. There used to be one every year at the car show at the Cow Palace when I was little and for some reason it really floated my boat. I even built a model car of it at some point vowing to own one when I grew up.

maybe I should have just picked an easy thread to post on.

 

Easy,it was a 32 Ford 5 window coupe that I bought when I was 12 years old,,that lasted just a few hours until my dad got home from work,then the proverbial sh*t hit the fan.

I guess that's what started my obsession with the Deuce. HRP

 

The neighbor around the block had a bright red '39 Chevy coupe with a tri-power SBC and a stick shift. Red steelies with chrome caps and blackwalls. This was mid to late '80's. Come to think of it, that car owes me alot of money!!! It's responsible for this addiction I have now.

 

The Actual car no longer exists, a 51 Chevy with radiused rear wheel wells and Wide Whites....Black with the name Black Rose on the quarters....but this was the next one I remember.....Centurion9

 

I always had an unfocused interest in old cars of all sorts, but what really hit me was the cover of the first large sized Rod and Custom, especially the black roadster:



I immediately realized that I had found absolute perfection, and that conviction has not left me since.

 

Two hot rods. I don't remember which one was first my first "love."

The Ivo/Rowland T bucket, and the Emperor, the 1929 Ford roadster, AMBR winner about 1961. the Dick Scritchfield roadster was also one of my early "dream" cars.

 

You and me both, Bruce.
I still stare at the shots of those cars and can't deside which I would rather have.
I am also possessed by 55 Chevys. I spent the whole model year down at the dealer sitting in the showroom cars.

 

When your a 15 year old model car nut; just about any (real) racecar will wow you, but this is the car that really made the front of my pants feel funny.
Local Drag racing hero Kenney Goodells' first Barracuda F/C, this is the car that
"set the hook"for me.
Saw it up close on the ramp hauler sitting at a gas station about 1968-69.

 

What was the 1st car that "wowed" you
I suppose there were two. I'd guess the very first was a stock Model A coupe. I just had to have one of those.
But I also remember loving a 1940 Ford coupe. Out of the cars I've seen and owned those are still my two favorites.
A Model A coupe was my first project and I missed the 40 Ford by a year both ways.

As for the comment about riding home from the hospital in a hotrod after being born, we were poor. I had to walk.

 

It was a red 34 Hupmobile coupe, with 34 ford front grille, and fenders. it was a billet queen, in a magazine my mother got me when we moved to San Antonio, But seeing those flowing lines, I was hooked, and couldn't get loose! Sure wish I still had the pics.

 

I remember seeing that car! HRP

 

An older friend of mine had a black '61 Corvette. Thirty over 283 solid lifter cam and a four speed.
After he got the car back together, he took me for a ride bangin' gears like a "mad man"! I was probably 12 at the time, he was 18 or 19.
That was all it took, I was hooked!
KK

 

In print, the first hot rod that caught my eye...and the major inspiration for my current project... was the pre-Roth version of Tweedy Pie

The first classic from print was from a book of classic cars my grandparents gave me...the 1930s Talbot Lago Teardrop coupes

The first real life production car wa a black '59 Plymouth Sport Fury belonging to a friend of my dad's

The first real life hot rod I have no pictures of. It belonged to the son of my dad's boss. It was a cobbled up lowered Model A pick-up, with a bobbed bed, original full rear fenders, and semi-like exhaust stacks behind the cab. Out front was a hoodless flathead V8, and cycle fendered "littles". Looking back now, the thing was probably a death trap, and in theory it could have been the original rat rod. Almost everybody component was from a different car...and a different color. The floor on either side of the exposed transmission and driveshaft was expanded steel mesh. Riding it it was an adventure in holding the door closed, while surrounded by engine roar, unmuffled exhaust noise, squeeks, and rattles. But it was sooooo cool to this then pre-schooler

 

LOL I got the original shift knob out of Roth's original Tweedy Pie on my desk as we speak. I have had it since I was a little kid.

 

My next door neighbor's silver '58 vette with straight axle. Damn. Oh, circa 1969.

 

The Kookie Kar

 

I guess I should have added the girl that 1st wowed you. In my case it was my 9th grade teacher Ms. Beavers (no joke)!

 

I have been wowed by many cars in my early years. Some on TV shows like 77 Sunset Strip. But I guess the very first car that I went wow about was when my uncle who lived next to us in a duplex bought a brand new Mercury 2 door hardtop in 1955. I thought that car was beautiful. I was only 7 but fell in love with it.

 

Fathom green 1969 Z/28 rumbling through the local used car lot. This was probably 1973 or so and I was 14 years old. Hook, line and sinker. Gary

 

only because it was in my garage when i was born.

 

It was Billy Gibbons Eliminator in " Gimme all Your Lovin`"-video from local music program in 80`s.

 

The 'Moonshiner' T-bucket built by Mickey Himsel. At that time it was owned by Jim Noblet in Sonoma Ca. Got to see it restored and again owned by Mickey at the GNRS.

 

LOL There was a girl from the souf in my 4 grade class named vagina. Mrs. Johnston asked her to introduce herself to the class when she transferred in ( probably a good decision on her part) and she said, "My name Bagina" Mrs Johnston said, "Don't you mean Virginia honey?" and she said, "No its Bagina, B(V) A G I N A." We all were told to call her Ginny. Some things are just unforgettable.

I have known a few ladies in my time, not as many as most but a few. I have only been wowed by one and she is still wowing me after all these years.

 

Dads dragster in 1971. Remember climbing in that car like it was yesterday.

 

I was 7 and playing on the school play ground. I heard it before I saw it because the school was built on a really steep hill. Was a new baby blue and white 55 chevy belair hardtop. I stopped what I was doing and just stared while it came down the hill with the glasspacs popping.........slowed and stopped at the stop sign and continued down the hill and out of sight.
I was blown away! Never forgot it and later I owned a 55 belair hardtop. It was painted the most godawful light brown and white and I always wanted to paint it light blue and white.

 

I was a freshman in high school in 1956----I remember Denny Schmidt's 40 Ford ragtop. Gun barrel blue with a white Carson top, stock except for duals and Smitties. It was sold when he went to the service in 1957. I learned of it in Surprise, NE. (no joke) in 1963 and I went right there only to learn I missed it by a week and $300.00. They brought along a battery, a couple of mounted tires and drove it to Seward, NE. I coulda puked. $300.0o effin $$.