1974 Stingray, 4 speed, L82 350 with a few tweeks. Silver T-top car with an 8 track (with casette adapter!!) and chevy rallys. Needed a new rear bumper, the urethane was all spiderwebbed and the t-tops leaked, so the passenger side footwell was always full of water. Fastest car at my High School at the time. I never lost a race in that car (yes, I know street racing is dumb, but so was I). A buddy had a 64 Impala, another had a Cutlass with a Rocket 350. There was a 70 Chevelle convertible and a few other 80's "muscle" cars. There was a guy whose cousin had a 10 second Nova, but that doesn't count, he was 10 years older!! My shop teacher used to go on and on about his 67 Camaro, but he'd never race me. He didn't want to get walked by a student.
69 camaro 73 chevelle laguna 76 trans am 76 formula 400 4spd 65 chevy 1/2 swb 55 chevy gasser style staight axle ladder bars 4spd 69 ss nova 78 swb gmc stepside with factory 454 Yes ,these are just the high school cars.There are a bunch that I bought and resold to finance the rest that are not listed. How about bikes? 76 yamaha 650 twin 80 sportster 1000 z1900
1968 Dodge Charger. 318 Light green, with dark green roof, bought it for 900 bucks off a teacher in my high school 1969 Triumph 650..basket case..finished in the winter before graduation
1967 Barracuda Notchback and I still have it! It was pretty rough but i spent alot of time workin on it. I have owned it almost 15 years and have no plans of ever getting rid of her! This is "The Crimson Ghost" a couple years ago. Still not finished, but are they ever!
It was 1975, I inherited the family 1964 Cadillac Sedan Deville, 429ci, Jetaway Hydramatic. Stripped it to bare metal, and went with Platinum Pearl, over Arctic White. All hand-rubbed laquer.............. (Tried to find a good pic of a white one, but this will do)
so did everyone have cool rides back then - or is it that we NOW consider all these cars cool? I drove a 1968 Dodge Coronet 4 door - STILL the fastest car I have ever owned
In 1990 at 15 I bought a lime green '69 Ford Falcon coupe that was ordered new with the 302/C4/8" Traction-Lok and stripped of everything else. Got a white '73 Nova 2-door that summer from Dad (he was always buying stuff super cheap or free, getting it running, and getting bored with it) with the indestructible 250/Powerglide, that one's still running around somewhere. In 1992 I bought another Nova, a '74 SS (if you want to call it that), black with silver tape stripes. In 1993, the year I graduated, I stumbled upon and snapped up a '79 Ford LTD with the Police Interceptor package, that car had a bad attitude. Dad gave my youngest sister 2 Datsun 260Zs in 2001 when she was in high school.
Mine was a '70 Bonneville 455 wagon. Laugh if you must, but it was much faster than it looked! The 455 was such a torque monster that I ended up breaking both motor mounts! My Dad was underneath it when he says, "What the hell have you been doing with this thing?!!!!" and tosses out one of the motor mounts, broken into three pieces! The other only came out in two..... guess I wasn't trying hard enough! While there were a lot of faster cars at my school, mine was probably one of the biggest (lol!) sleepers..... just ask the guy with the brand new '77 Z/28 who couldn't shake that big blue longroof!
I bought a '69 GTO in 1976 for $700 when I was fifteen years old and a freshman in high school. It wasn't the baddest ass car in school but pretty close. From age 15-18 my license was suspended more time than it was valid. 350HP 400 with a pair of glass-paks, carosel red paint, Keystone classics with air-shocks jacked up in the back to make room for the N-50s. Just like me, it was pretty cool then, but maybe not so much today. Tossed 3 rods out the side of the block racing a Camaro one night, put in a junkyard 350 and then sold it to get a '73 Cutlass Supreme.
I wonder how many people, who read your post, picked up on the phrase "'69 Ford Falcon". That was the last year the Falcon name was used (so far) and by that time, was actually a stipper version of the Torino. ***AFAIK, that's actually kind of a rare car.*** Not too many '69 Ford's based on the Torino chassis were actual Falcon's. I've only ever seen one in my life. It was also a coupe, but dirt brown. That was in 1988. If you still have that car, take good care of it. 6narow
Why do I sudenly hear Aerosmith playing "Sweet Emotion" in my head? Man, if that isn't a classic 70's "High School Hot Rod" you just described! N-50's (really? N's? I thought those were "van only" tires?), "Hi-Jackers" (remember the rabbit emblem?), glass packs (who didn't want a pair of those!), and those wheels. Man, I tell ya, its a dirty rotten shame that Western/Keystone went TU and the Classic became a piece of history. Nicest looking mag wheel anyone ever made. A friend had a '66 Mustang w/ Pony interior and he shod that car with Keystone Classic's. Sweet. I really miss those wheels...that's a part of my youth, right there. ...or did Cragar bring these back? eek: forgive me for being out of the loop) 6narow
I'm driving my 54 Plymouth to school, even when it's gonna snow I"m driving that bitch to school Always nice to see a real car when you walk outside instead of a bunch of rice burners.
66 Pontiac Bonneville 2 door HT, 389-4 with a TH400 and 3.08 posi. Still have it but it hasn't been on the road in years.
I'm so embarassed.... 72 Porsche 914 with a fiberglass widebody kit and a turbo'd 1915 VW. At least it was free...
I had a few cars, actually. The car I had the day I got my license was a '66 VW Type III fastback, white with red interior, bought off the original owner. First car I blew up, too, after the oil filter bolt backed out and lost all of the oil - at 70 mph! Blew that engine into next week! Generally, when I was between cars, my dad had a '54 Willys CJ-3B that he let me drive, mostly because the top end on that was about 50 mph and he did not have to worry about me racing it or speeding! I had a few neat cars in high school. After the VW, came a Baja Bug that turned out to be a real POS. Had a '65 C10 pickup after that, then a '66 Mustang coupe with a 289 and three speed. Next was a '68 Impala SS 327 fastback that I bought at a used car lot for a hundred bucks. Drove that for a bit, then traded to a friend for a '66 Bonneville convertible with a 389, Tri-Power and factory air - yes, that was all factory original - and red with red interior and white top! Had a couple more Mustangs, then a '66 Belvedere I ex-cop car that was painted a goofy lime green (not the Mopar color, goofier yet!). Last high school car I had was a '67 Biscayne 4-door with 283, PG, carpet, radio, and little else!
Wrecked my dads car racing a wildcat in the rain 2 weeks after I got my license, and lost my insurance, (plus my dad just wouldn't let me drive again) so I drove one of these, Harley 250 sprint, summer and winter. We'd get a snow day off because roads were so bad the buses couldn't run, so I'd jump on it and slip and slide 20 miles to my girlfriends house. And after I got there and thawed out, we'd both slip and slide some more.
1951 Buick Roadmaster my senior year. Rusted out floors, flames after i got it, and the straight 8 with straight pipes. Sold it after i graduated this year
riding shot gun in my brother 66 Chevy Malibu 4dr hardtop ! argh then my own 71 Dodge Dart 2dr(slant 6 power !)
In High School, I got to drive my dad's 70 Buick LeSabre with a 455 and a 4 BBL. Compared to the 180 to 200 horsepower no torque wimpy '80 and '81 TransAms, Firebirds and Camaros, even the Mustangs of the day were slow slow slow by comparison. It had AM/FM and a tilt steering wheel. When you switched from AM to FM, the numbers on the dial would change. I still think that's pretty neat. His was Maroon with a black vinyl top. or Mom's 1975 Buick Estate Wagon (this one is a '76). 455 4 BBL with about 170 smog choked horsepower in a 3 ton car. My FIRST car was when I was 19. Paid $200 for it. The whole right side was smashed / sideswiped but it beat the pants off the '81 and '82 Firebirds, Camaro's and Trans Ams that the rich kids had in high school. Even though mine was a 2 bbl 350 Rocket. It wasn't this one (I found this one on eBay) because mine was a dark green.
In 1972 I got my first car, a 53 Pontiac, flathead straight 8. Did pick up an edmunds dual carb intake for it(never used it). By senior year, I was driving a 64 T-Bird, and working on a 66 Dodge Coronet 500 convertible 383 4-speed, got it together in time to do a burnout in front of the school on graduation day. When I got it, it was in pieces, luckily I worked at a garage. Still have the Coronet.
1969 Mustang fastback, around 1981-82. Dad and I fixed it up, had a Mach 1 interior and Shelby taillights. My first change to it when I got it was to put a 4 speed in it. He painted it and striped it. It wasn't a Mach 1 but he painted the Mach 1 stripes on it and put my name in the spot where Mach 1 was supposed to be. Never could get away with anything in that car! 2nd picture is at Little River in the late '80s, after the new had worn off and several engine builds later, focus had changed from looking good to going fast.
Here's Dad's (one of) high school car, circa '55-'56. 1936 Ford Cabriolet with '40 Deluxe front sheetmetal, a '40 dash with a standard cluster, '39 banjo wheel, later flathead, juice brakes, solid wheels. Bought it off a farm outside Rockdale, Texas, for $75.
The Jalopy Journal
