Who had the coolest car in school?

graduated in early 70s, there was a guy who had a 70 Superbee,which had the rear end under the leaf springs for that sky high look, and a tunnel ram. He'd do burnouts past the voc. ed building,and we would go to the windows and watch, and that pissed the teachers off. And then there was the rich girl whose daddy bought her a 71 Toronado.The skinny kid with the 66 Comet Caliente, and of course me with my 65 Impala 4 door 283 didnt raise a eyebrow.

 

It started out before I was sixteen. I had 46 Ford coupe, I worked for a guy that worked on the coupe for me. It was rusted out in the trunk, I used a torch and cut the trunk floor out right over the gas tank (dumb kid) I lucked out but got talking too about that. We nosed and deck it, put 49 taillights with a flare in the fenders to match the lights. Frenched headlights and paint it med. blue. Then I got my driver license and total it two weeks later. Then there was a 49 Ford coupe with hopped up Merc flathead that was lowed front and back. I didn't like that body style then. But wish I had it now. The thing I did like is that it would take the speedometer back to 0 in second and over,that is how I sold it, a kid I took for ride said if it would do that he would buy it. I don't remember but I think about $ 500. Then I got 54 Merc, didn't keep it long. My folk had 55 Ford crown vic they got new and was going buy a new car so the Merc got traded in and I made payments on the 55. It got nosed and deck and a set of flipper hubcaps.I was a Junior then. When I was a senior in 1961, I got a 47 Merc coupe with rearend out for $75. The wreaked 46 was still out back so there was my rearend. Then I had two cars. I got set of used alum. heads, dual carb intake and a set of headers for the 47 Merc, that flathead sure run but did not last long as the heads had been shaved down. I headed for town after I got it going. 20 miles, it blew the sparkplugs out of the heads and broke all the piston down the side, lesson learned on used heads. I have been long winded but thats way it was for cars and high school.

 

This shot had to have been late 73 early 74, my flathead powered 53 F-100 on the right (I'm on the far right) and my buddy's 50's Chevy (he still owns the car! Randy is sitting on the fender). The F-100 had been the service truck for my Dad's Amoco gas station, as long as I showed up for work on time, and worked when I was supposed to, I got to drive the truck where ever I wanted. Randy worked for the phone company washing and gassing the trucks every night. We had transportation and money in our pockets, pretty good life for high school boys. LOL.

 

Not me. In fact, I may have had the most uncool cars. In 1984, we were poor farmers. I was also very shy and didn't have a lot of things figured out back then that seems to have been so obvious to most of my classmates.



Car #1. Her name was, "Pet." Although a good friend, I couldn't tie her up all day at school like they did in the Westerns. She was mostly an on-farm vehicle, although I did occasionally ride her about 5 miles to the general store where the roads crossed. I usually got a fudge-cycle and she would get some tootsie rolls.


Car#2. I attempted to weld together a 3 wheel bicycle similar to this picture, which I pulled off of Google (as are all the other pictures in this post. I didn't take any pictures).



I had read that streamlined recumbent bikes could obtain speeds of 50 to 60 mph. I didn't know that was only for short bursts of maximum effort. I thought i could pedal it that fast the entire 30 miles into town. In my mind, I imagined it turning out something like this:



In reality, it was made from scraps of steel square-bar from Dad's steel pile beside the shop. It was pretty heavy and crude. Once i realized how impractical it really was, I ended up using it as a downhill racer or "summer sled." We lived in the boot-hills of the Ozark mountains. There was a pretty tall, steep hill leading to our house. I would slide around the corner on the gravel at the bottom. It's a wonder I'm alive.

After cutting quite a few truckloads of firewood and selling it in town, my Dad took me to an auction and I finally got a real car. It was a Duster with a leaning tower of power.



After a few repairs, I was on the road. I could finally go anywhere I chose, whenever I chose! I couldn't stop grinning for weeks!

It would only do a burnout if you revved the engine and slammed it into drive while on a gravel road. But that didn't stop me from sliding around corners like Mario Andretti. Its a wonder I'm alive and didn't hurt anyone.

Although there were better cars, and mine was not anything outstanding in comparison, it was my freedom. That made it the best car at school.

Sorry it was an unHAMBy car. Can we count the horse as pre-1960's transportation? (I never could get more than one horsepower out of her.)

 

I thought I was cool. 1988 I was the only kid around that wanted a car like this. My first car at 15yr. 1957 chevy two door hard top bel-air sport couple.350 350 trans. headers and glass packs. got pulled over all the time with my mom in the car cruising town with learners permit. lol Still have the car

 

Each of these cars belonged to somebody in my high school, 1956-57:



flathead powered


channeled with full fenders


Cadillac powered


mine


mine, later

 

biggest regret of high school: thinking a 4.3 S10 would be cool then showing up to school with impala SSs and mustang GTs everywhere.

 

There were only 2 of us in my high school graduating class in 77' ( 32 senior graduating students) who drove the ''old'' cars...... I thought I was the coolest in my 41' Ford pickup, and my buddy Simon, who drove a 55' Chev pickup was next....we hung out together most of the time, while everyone else was into muscle cars!...we were the outcasts, but we honestly thought we were the coolest in my little school (golf hat optional...lol)!.....pic is from May, 77'

 

1966, 1st car, 1940 ford coupe, 56 olds 324 engine, 39 trans. Always think about it!

 

Don't know about the coolest but I thought I had it go'n on.
First photo as purchased.

1970 (ish).
Second car 283/T10, 411's.

 

Friend Joe's 64 AC Cobra. Mondello Heads, Crane cam etc. Fun fun fun on the street and autocross. He generously allowed me to put several hundred miles on it.

 

View attachment 3351848 Our school had the fastest bus!!

 

Hello,
Back in 1960-62, I had a 1958 Chevy Impala that was the coolest car at my old high school. That is until I also bought a 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery in my senior year for $360. Reprint from the 1962 LONG BEACH POLYTECHNIC HIGH SCHOOL’S “HIGH LIFE” NEWSPAPER:

L.B.POLY HIGH LIFE NEWSPAPER FEATURES A 1958 CHEVROLET IMPALA COUPE OWNED BY SENIOR, JUNJI NAKAMURA

Featured in this week’s school newspaper is, senior, Junji Nakamura’s classic 1958 black Chevy Impala. This Chevy has a stock 348 cubic inch engine with three Rochester carburetors for a total horsepower of 280 h.p. It has three chrome air cleaners and a pair of Moon alloy breathers on the chrome valve covers. This stock engine is connected to a “beefed up” C & O stick hydramatic transmission. It also has 4:56 positraction gears in the rear for superior traction off of the line. The exhaust was slightly modified with straight through tube mufflers for better performance.

The car’s interior is completely stock except for a Sun tachometer on the dash and seat upholstery in clear plastic seat covers. Junji’s black impala was timed at 98.86 m.p.h. in the quarter mile with an elapsed time (E.T.) of 14.68 sec. He is currently undefeated in the stock car drag races locally. He is to be congratulated on taking such fine care of this classic beauty.
Not original photos from the high school newspaper. Hard to scan 54 year old relics…


I was heavily involved in drag racing until 1960, when we had our drag strip accident with our 40 Willys. Then, it was keeping the race car feeling by making our street cars the coolest in our stomping grounds. The 58 Chevy had a stock motor until spring, 1962 when we put in a Racer Brown Cam plus solid lifters. Now, it was equal in HP to those higher hp 348 cars from 60-61, but still was a stock car to most. In 1962, the Impala was the fastest and one of the nicest cars at my school. But, I was getting into surfing and the reception at the surf hot spots with my board stuck in the back of the 58 Chevy Impala was not the most endearing. (If I took the board out and cruised to the same beach towns in the 58 Chevy, it was accepted, but put the board sticking out of the trunk to go surfing…well that was not good.)
The 40 Ford sedan delivery took precedence in the local cruises until the girls did not want to go out on dates smelling like burning oil from the Flathead motor that burned more oil than gas. Everything I tried to stop the leak without tearing out the whole motor and starting over was tried, but there was too much fun to be had just driving the heck out of this cool cruiser. I did drive the 58 Impala when the word went out that people were looking for some hot racers at our local hangout.

But, by the time the graduation came around, I had to sell the 40 delivery and concentrate on the 58 Impala for my reliable daily driver to the local college. Besides, my main passenger to college was this girl that I had known all through high school and she did ride in my delivery, but liked my Impala better. We traded off driving to college in our cars…my Impala and her small, Renault Dauphine 4 door. So, in fairness to my pocketbook and friendships, the delivery had to go…awwww…

But what about surfing? I now went surfing in my brother’s VW van to be cool at the beach and look like all of the other radical surfers in VW vans. Almost every beach parking lot looked like a VW van convention, so we fit right in the local scene.
Cool cars in high school to cool cars at the beach…great times to be a teenager…

Jnaki

 

My first car, '53 Mainline w/ rebuilt Flathead from Sears. '54 DeSoto grille, '56 Olds tailights, '56 Ford wheel covers, de-chromed hood and deck. Bought it in early 1966 for $35.

 

By my Senior year (1968) I was driving this. Still, I had far from the "coolest" car in school.

 

Douglass mufflers!!!! They were the $hit.. They were called the Super Sport. They had a spring down the middle but it was stretched open with steel packing inside.. They soulded great!!