When Did You Drive Your First.....................

I'm going to tell the story of the first time my buddy ever drove a 4 speed car as his story is much more interesting than mine...
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In the late '70s my buddies and I would go to Great Lakes Drag-a-Way practically every weekend to run my first Dart. On the way to the track we always passed a black '70 Dart with the 340 hood. It was sitting with a for sale sign on it, in front of an old farm house.

After passing the car and talking about it for about two years, one of my friends decided that he wanted the car. We went to the farm to find out what the Dart had in it and what they wanted for it. Turned out the car was an original '70 340 4 speed car. It had originally been painted Plum Crazy. The engine was built. It had 12.5:1 compression, mechanical cam, etc...

I don't remember what he paid, but he bought the car that day. Neither of us ever drove a 4 speed car, but he was determined to drive it the 40 miles or so from Kenosha to our place in Northern, Illinois. The car sounded great. You could definitely tell it was a high compression motor with a big lopey cam. He got the car off their property just fine and we made it to the gas station about a mile away.

We filled up and tried to start the car to leave. The battery was stone dead, and of course no one had jumper cables. To make matters worse it started to rain.

Well, we had all heard of bump starting 4 speeds, but no one had ever done it. Didn't seem we had much choice. This was a Sunday in a small WI farm town. No open auto parts stores for who knows how far. We discussed the plan and headed off.

Now it's raining, the car is on worn 60 series tires and a novice at the 4 speed. I give him a push with my Dart. We get up to about 20 or so and he let's out the clutch. The car fired, and he gased it a few times to keep the motor running. He let the clutch out while still giving it gas... the road is wet, the back end went sideways, the car launched off the side of the road, down a ditch, and OVER a young tree. Not that young either... It was big enough that it bowed over under his car not breaking, but putting enough pressure on the underside of the car to lift the front tires off the ground.

He was STUCK, and SCREWED...

Cop comes, laughs, and tells us he's having the car towed to impound. Hell of a first day with a four speed...