Retro, but not retro enough
I had a ‘71 Camaro. I had my buddy do a custom metal flake paint job with front air dam and rear spoiler. Coolest car I ever owed.
Posted by sig94
04/09/2009 at 04:39 PM
There were some nice 70s Camaros around. But there were an awful lot that came with a white vinyl roof, a straight 6, and a 2 speed automatic too. And that’s not even mentioning the ... um ... excessive over-exuberance of the flaming chicken stickers on the Trans-Am, the “high performance” version of the Camaro’s first cousin the Pontiac Firebird.
By 1979 the pony was dead. Base engine was a 90hp 250ci 6 (4 liters), and the big bad Z28 engine was a 175hp 350 (5.7 liter). Why even bother?
It took until the 1985 IROC-Z until you could get an engine with 200hp or more. And that one only came with the automatic transmission.
The 396 was a fun engine. Also had a ‘71 Chevy with a 402 that was a cruising vehicle.
I wish I still had the ‘63 Pontiac Gran Prix that we had when I was a kid. It had a 389 (Dad said it was the small engine...he wanted the 427!) but had an automatic transmission. The Turbo 400 wasn’t out yet and the tranny in that car just couldn’t handle the engine. He broke it once. Dad sold the car before I turned 15 because he didn’t want a teenage boy driving it. Dangit!
Oh darn are you guys bringing back some memories I’d forgotten.
I remember a gold colored chevy that pinned your back to the seat on take off.
BUT ...
You guys are too young to remember the 1955 Pontiac. AHHHHHH WeeeeeeeeeeeeeJust sneeze or blow at the accelerator and there she goes. Look, up in sky ... ha.
I had a slight accident once in once of those beauties. Inside a garage. Brand new.
I had a job a job as a parking jockey among other things, at a Pontiac dealership in home town. I musta been 18. So anyway I had to move a customers car from one bay to the parking area. Damn thing got away from me. Really. I wasn’t gonna race the damn thing inside the garage. So I carefully backed out, turned the wheel and when straight hit the gas. No, I didn’t floor but ok I couldn’t wait to get it outside. Never made it. Touched the gas and ended up in another bay where I’d rammed the thing into some equipment. A few dents but not a crash or anything huge. Broken headlight and lost job though. But I sure did like that car.If I had the money these things are gonna cost, I’d own one. Or a Challenger. Or a ‘Cuda. or one of these new ‘Stangs. I have such fond memories of a ‘68 Torino with a Boss 302, or the ‘64 F85 Rocket 330. And then there was the ‘72 Torino, 429 Super Cobra Ram. Or my old ‘55 Chrysler Imperial with the big Hemi up front and about 100 gallons of “cargo” in the trunk. Sigh. The pure soul of a tuned V8 singing its song balls out between Jacksonville and New Bern…
I was ‘taught’ to drive (while taking standard lessons from the local ‘driving’ school) on a Camaro Z28 with a power clutch. It was brand new, not mine - boyfriend’s and scared the holy heck out of me - but the only clutch since then to give me headaches at all is the VW -down and back reverse - never ever could manage it well.
But you bring back memories - while your parents were out buying VWs mine were into Nash Ramblers - ah yes, the seats could go all the way down so you could sleep in the things - mind you this is from people who could (and did a couple of time) rent an entire floor of a hotel for a night! Then for some damn reason, my mom fell in love with Buicks and that is all we saw except for the one ‘company’ car my dad brought home, a Thunderbird.
I remember my brother’s ‘58 Chevy the thing was built like a tank and the doors were nigh on impossible for a tiny girl like me to manage and with fondness I remember the Triumph 7 that the two sisters shared during their college years - loved that little car. The younger one kept it going until the mechanic laughed and told her it was so rusted out, that if they did the work needed on the engine, the car would just collapse in a puddle of rust dust.
I was done right - first boyfriend was a car guy and so I enjoy the abilities of a well made car and despise the plastic crap with an engine being pushed today.
I saw an MG Midget in the Target parking lot last month - I stopped dead and oh, so slowly walked around the entire car - such a work of beauty. I think my daughter was stunned at my response, did not talk, just drank in the beauty of a well built machine. My bestest friend had an MGB - I loved driving the car even if her hubby was such a dork about their cars (he drove a Chevy wagon of some sort that was diesel - and use to chant for about 10 minutes before anyone left - diesel, don’t forget to put diesel in it - karma got him, he killed the MGB by - yepper you guessed it, putting diesel in it!) - I loved tooling around Lawton OK in that little gem.
That is my kind of dream car - one of the little ‘chick’ cars of foreign origins - of course I’d have to get off my lazy a** to get a job to afford one!
Wardmama, you should try out a couple of the new two seaters. The Honda has plenty of zip and handling, the Mazda Miata is just too cute for words and there are bolt on supercharger kits for it that gives it enough power to be impressive. The Z cars from BMW are potent but not everyone likes the look, and you have to be reasonably tall to drive one. My wife was so in love with the Z3 she went to the dealership with cash in hand, but at 5 foot nothing she simply could not work the pedals and gearshift and still see over the dashboard at the same time.
These days all cars have hydraulic clutches with their manual transmissions. What a joy. Now, if they’d all just install adjustable pedals, seats with height adjustable lumbar support, and telescoping steering wheels, then atypically sized people could enjoy driving them too.
04/10/2009 at 04:10 AM
