Muscle Car Memories (Cars I Sold and Wish I Still Had)

The term "muscle car" generally refers to high performance automobiles from the 60's and early 70's. Many muscle cars started life as a small or mid-size standard car into which a large high-performance engine was installed as well as special equipment such as front and rear spoilers, and sometimes including special graphics. They were designed to be sold at an affordable price for street use, and, of course, for drag racing.

According to a June 1967 issue of Road Test magazine, a muscle car is "exactly what the name implies. It is a product of the American car industry adhering to the hot rodder's philosophy of taking a small car and putting a BIG engine in it... The muscle car is Charles Atlas kicking sand in the face of the 98 hp weakling."

Wikipedia's Entry on the Muscle Car

This car was a 1957 Chevy Bel Air 2-door hardtop that was white with a grey interior. I bought it in 1972.

Even though I loved my Goat more than any other car I have ever owned, THIS car is truly the one I was stupid to sell.

It came from the factory with a 283 "Fuelie" and even had the "Fuel Injection" script on the side of the car.

When I bought it, the "fuelie" was long gone. It had a 1963 327 V-8 with a 3 on the floor. Man, it was fast.

One day at a drive-in I met a guy who had a brand new 1972 Camaro Z-28. He wanted to drive my car and I his, so we swapped cars for about 30 minutes. I enjoyed driving his Z-28, and he enjoyed driving my '57.

A highlight (and lowlight) of owning this car was a race between me and a '63 Impala with a 283 4-barrel in early 1973. I blew his doors off, but I also blew 3rd gear when I missed a shift.

The following week I had to drive 1-1/2 hours home from college in second gear because 3rd was gone. A new transmission was only one of MANY thing I had to replace on this car.

Not too long after the "race" I decided to sell the '57 because I was sick of fixing it all the time and I had the opportunity to buy the aforementioned '68 Torino, my "date" car.

WHAT AN IDIOT!!! That '57 is worth the price of a house today!!

See this cool design on T-shirts, shoes, mouse pad & more!

1957 Chevy Bel Air
See more 1957 chevy bel air T-Shirts

This car was a 1967 Camaro that was red with a black interior. I bought it in 1976.

It had a 327 V-8 with a 2-speed powerglide transmission.

When I bought it, it was a little rough.

Did I say a little rough? Well, I bought it in the winter and it was covered with snow and ice.

After driving it off the lot I took it to a car wash to clean the snow off of it, and as they power-washed the car before entering the car wash, the freshly applied red paint started coming off with the snow.

The power wash was revealing at least two coats of red paint, each a different shade, with an underlying coat of green that the car was painted at the factory.

The attendant said "I'm blowing off your paint!" but, me being the cool calm collected guy I am, I said, "That's no problem, I'm going to repaint it anyway." It was not true but HEY, what are you going to do?

I drove that Camaro with its "multi-tone" paint, but enjoyed it, especially when summer came because it had air conditioning.

One day when I was in front of a store waiting to pick up my wife, my air conditioner seemed to be working just fine. Just as a little old lady walked in front of the car one of the AC hoses blew with a huge "BANG! SSSSSSSSSSSSS". She jumped right out of her support hose. I was scared she was going to die.

Anyway, shortly thereafter I traded the Camaro off on a brand new 1977 Chevy Vega. When I traded it in, the dealer said, "You really got the cream out of this one." I told you it was rough!

I look at restored 1967 Camaros today and think of what could have been.

This car was a 1968 Ford Torino 2-door hardtop that was "Sea Foam" green with a black interior. I bought it in 1973.

It had a 302 V-8 engine with a C-4 three speed automatic transmission.

 

I affectionately called this car "Mean Green" and I really liked it.

I bought it because it had a bench seat, power steering and an automatic transmission. It was a "date" car.

It was in really good shape when I bought it and I took really good care of it until one day in early 1975 when I slid on some ice and smashed into another car. It was pretty crunched up.

Shortly thereafter I traded it in on the 1973 Firebird I already mentioned.

This car had beautiful lines that look good even today!
 

This car was a 1969 Pontiac GTO that was dark green with a black interior. I bought it in 1975.

MAN how I LOVED this car!!!

It had a 350 horse power 400 CID engine with a 4-speed manual transmission. It had manual steering, manual drum brakes and a competition clutch. This was a MAN'S car, no doubt.

That 400 engine had so much torque that I could slowly let out the clutch at idle speed in 4th gear and the car would drive away and the engine would not die.

It was in pretty good shape until I was driving to a city about 50 miles away for a job interview and a dog ran out in front of me. When I hit the clutch I lost oil pressure and spun a main bearing. I had to rebuild the engine.

Before I rebuilt the engine I had "Cherry Bomb" mufflers on the car, and when I rebuilt the engine I installed a factory exhaust system. You know what, the factory system sounded better than the glasspacks did. Pontiac really knows how to make sweet sounding exhaust systems.

At that time I was commuting about 40 miles each way to work and at 9 MPG on premium gas I just couldn't afford to drive it to work, so I had to drive the aforementioned 1977 Vega.

My wife tried to drive the GTO to school, but it took both feet for her to push in the clutch, and she could hardly steer it so, needless to say, she did NOT like driving it.

In 1978 I sold the GTO and bought a 1973 Oldsmobile Cutlass with an automatic transmission and power steering so my wife could drive it easily.

To this day, when I think of "the one that got away," I think of my '69 Goat.

Man how I LOVED this Car!!!

This car was a 1973 Firebird Formula 350 that was silver with a black interior. I bought it in 1975.

It had the fake hood scoops and the deck spoiler normal for a Formula Firebird.

Unfortunately this was not a great car. I had a lot of problems with it.

To start with it had a 350 V-8 engine that seemed to put out about 35 horsepower. It had a 2-barrel carburetor that was only about 1-1/2" in diameter and that, along with all the smog stuff, made this car a gutless wonder when you stepped on the throttle.

But... it had the sweetest set of exhaust pipes you ever heard. Driving it around with the windows down was a treat because... man, did it sound great!

Unfortunately, I had to drive it with the windows down a lot because in the six or so months I owned this car, the air conditioner went out twice, the first time on my honeymoon! Also, we had two flat tires on our honeymoon. This was not the best choice for a road trip.

Even though it was a bit of a lemon, I still wish I had this car.