Cars That Got Away

-

SpeedThrills

FABO Gold Member
FABO Gold Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2008
Messages
2,561
Reaction score
1,410
Location
Very South Jersey
I just found photos of cars I had that got away. Mostly because who knew what they'd be worth.

The Demon was mostly stock. A body man where I worked at the time helped me replace panels and he got it all straight. He wasn't known for paintwork, so he had me bring someone else in to spray it. I learned to color sand and polish on that one. Owned it 84-87ish.

The Dart was an original 340 GTS 4 spd car. I bought it with no engine or trans. It was already pretty well modified. The previous owner had a 440 4 spd in it. I put a 440 six pac and 727 in it. I never finished it completely. But it was the fastest car I had ever driven to that point. Owned it about 83-85ish.

The Challenger is the one I'd love to have back. I had more fun with that car than any other. R/T, 383, 4 spd., 3.91 gears and nothing else. No PS, no PB, no console. AM radio, that was it. The genius that I was (1981), I put a 727 in it, and a bunch of bracket racing stuff, too. It burned when the fuel pressure overcame the needle and seat. Fire extinguisher didn't quite put it out, and I stood there and watched it burn until the fire truck came. Sold the engine to a friend, sold the body in the local "Tradin' Times". The front end is high in the pic because the heads were off it at the time. Owned it about 78-82.

340 Demon 2.jpg


340 Demon 1.jpg


69 Dart.jpg


70 Challenger.jpg
 
Last edited:
We all learn how not to do stuff when we are young. I burnt a 68 charger to the ground in 78 trying to cyphen "free" gas from my dads dump truck. I also had to sit there and watch as it burned waiting for fire dept. They got there in like 8 minutes but as I now know, gas burns fast. haha
 
How bout the cars I passed on cause I couldn’t pull the trigger?

69 Road Runner plain Jane 383 auto 45 years ago.

68 TX9 GTS big block auto 3 years ago. The guy just wanted too much for the work it needed. This one haunts me.
 
I see the Pa tags & inspection stickers. I live in Fairless Hills, Pa. but always lived close to where I am now. I had 3 specific Mopars I wish I still had. The first was a Top Banana Yellow 71 383 auto. NON R/T Challenger with A/C. I got it from the original lady owner, garage kept, under 63,000 miles, & VERY nice condition. Sold it in 1989 for $3500 bucks for a new D150. Then I had a 74 Duster 360, 4 speed car, original, Ralley Red with white bucket seat interior, (no fold down back seat though) also in very nice shape. Found out 10 years later that they were a very rare. Car ran awesome & was very quick, Ran a traction limited time at Atco of 14.22 back in 1993 I think. sold that for $3500 bucks. Last one I wish I kept believe it or not, was a black 1995 Dakota Sport. Ordered it new with the 5.2 V8, regular cab 2wd, 5 speed trans. & 3.91 limited slip rear, power everything, & that ran a 14.79 at Atco, pretty much bone stock. Sold that for 10 grand but don't recall why, but anyway, I think all of us older folk, wish we knew back then what we know now.
 
Missed out: 63 Dodge max wedge, three speed manual trans on the floor. 1967. Price was $700. I was only sixteen, couldn't afford it myself, and couldn't talk Dad into buying it.

Missed out again: 68 Barracuda fastback, factory 383 four speed car with a 440 swapped into it. It was only a couple of years old. I went with Dad to look at it. Seller's brother had taken it out the night before and wiped out a rod bearing. Could have had that one for $500, but I was in college, and broke, and Dad wouldn't bite.

(He did buy a low mileage Hemi Charger a few months later, though, and I still have that one.)

In November of 1981, I traded a really nice 73 Duster 340, rust free, accident free, original red paint with black stripe and black interior, automatic on column, PS, PDB and A/C on my first new car - a 1982 Charger 2.2. What a stupid trade that was. I sold the Charger 2.2 in 87 and bought a 67 slant six Barracuda coupe that was my daily driver for years, and more reliable than that Charger 2.2 ever was. Still have the Barracuda, but it's 360 powered now.
 
In 1963, I was 17 and found a 58 Plymouth Fury with a 350 bbc and pb trans. Used car dealer wanted $150.00 !!! I couldn't afford it.
Later in 64 as I was about to go into Navy, next door neighbor had a bone stock 55 Crysler 300 he wanted $200.00 for it. It had wire wheels and leather interior and ran great. But I no where or the money to store it while I was active duty. My folks (Dad) was Army still and was ordered to France. So family couldn't store it.
My Dad had a 57 Chr windsor that he took to france ,but had to leave it when they came back to states.
 
13 years back there was a early 60’s cop car on Ebay, 2 door 361 4 barrel with minor body damage. Stupid low miles, stuffed in a dry shed for over 50 years. Incredibly awesome shape besides the body damage. Under 3 grand. Let that one get away as well.
 
An Edsel for $2000.00 in the 80s

A 67 ish lincoln continental (suicide doors) 1500.00 also in the 80s

68 mustang rust free so cal car. Bought it, but decided to "restore" it, after taking it apart, getting some work done on it and storing all the parts for 10 years in a paid rental unit sold off the parts and cut the body up to small chunks and scrapped it. What a shame. It was a driver with oem paint 289 or 302 (???) Front discs, perfect interior etc.:(:(:(:(:(
 
I'd like to have all my old Mopars back (well maybe there is one that I don't)
Selling seemed to be the right thing to do at the time. Then sellers remorse sets in and "What in the heck was I thinking ?"
 
This one...I tried to buy it back about 2 years ago but...no go..

i8040.jpg


i8043.jpg
 
1958 LaDawri Conquest

9D68D2C6-063D-4182-BAC5-2A56AF6636B0.jpeg


8E6EBDE0-0EAB-4239-BFC3-852E8233E117.jpeg


CDC586DA-754B-4589-BFFC-3A162F332C3F.jpeg


I stumbled upon this LaDawri Conquest in a storage building at the local Moose lodge last summer. The photos are not the same one I had, the car in the photo is just a shell, mine was a complete street legal car that I owned in the summer of 1972. I traded a nice hopped up VW Beetle with a Paxton Super Charger for it. The Conquest had a Plymouth 440 with a Torqueflite Transmission and a Dana rear axel. I remember the drive shaft being about a foot long. The car was on a 1958 Ford frame, drum brakes at all corners, light and fast. Push the go pedal at 30 MPH and it would break the rear tires loose. Just crazy for a 20 year old as I was in 1972 to drive. I was in college then, off for the summer, working at a local factory making UAW wages as a summer fill in, which was really good money. September came around and I sold the Conquest and went back to school. Maybe that is why I am still alive today, but I do wish I had kept it, man that car was fast.

1957 LaDawri Conquest - conceptcarz.com
 
Last edited:
one of the cars I missed on was a Blue/Blue/Blue leather 2dr 70? imperial. It was as big as an aircraft carrier, and super straight. It waa about 15yo, & had been parked in a wood single car garage, that was close to falling down around it. I caught a slight glimpse of it one day, when I was driving down the alley. I asked the owner what he wanted for it, and we agreed on like $500. When I came by the next day, he wanted $100 more, so I said I'd come back the next day with like $600. You guessed it, next day he wanted another hun, so I told him to stick it.
Another car I missed on was a blue 64 dart gt convertible. Beautiful car, parked on the street in front of a fairly big, old apt bldg. I drove by it on the way to work for like 5yrs. And then one day it was gone, and didn't reappear for several more years. It was starting to look a little worse for wear, and so I started to leave notes on it asking if it was for sale. Never got a call. It disappeared again, and I drove around the neighborhood looking for it. I found it parked in the alley behind the apt bldg, and I got out to look it over more closely, and it was full of beer bottles, & cans like a foot deep. I gave it one more try, leaving a note begging for him to sell it to me before it's too late, but I never got the call. If I ever get a 64 dart gt convertible, I'd paint it and trim it just like that one. Prettiest one I've ever seen.
 
The one that got away that I really missed was my ‘68 GTS 340 4 speed car. 2nd owner. Bought is as a 21 year old.
88B0AAE2-437F-4BB2-BC43-A774F9EACDFC.jpeg


The day I brought it home. Had cragers installed and came with stock wheels and covers.

A096CC2E-E011-449F-A8AC-F557A4A5E624.jpeg


1995 all stock but needing a restoration. Sold the car in 1997 at the “suggestion “ of my ex wife.

A5077AF7-2D62-4481-A4F7-1C260A421FAE.jpeg


Last year it came back home. It’s great to have it home.

Cliff Ramsdell
 
In times of financial discomfort in the early 2000s I sold 71 and 72 Demons shamefully cheap. I dont wanna talk about it.
 
I see the Pa tags & inspection stickers. I live in Fairless Hills, Pa. but always lived close to where I am now. I had 3 specific Mopars I wish I still had. The first was a Top Banana Yellow 71 383 auto. NON R/T Challenger with A/C. I got it from the original lady owner, garage kept, under 63,000 miles, & VERY nice condition. Sold it in 1989 for $3500 bucks for a new D150. Then I had a 74 Duster 360, 4 speed car, original, Ralley Red with white bucket seat interior, (no fold down back seat though) also in very nice shape. Found out 10 years later that they were a very rare. Car ran awesome & was very quick, Ran a traction limited time at Atco of 14.22 back in 1993 I think. sold that for $3500 bucks. Last one I wish I kept believe it or not, was a black 1995 Dakota Sport. Ordered it new with the 5.2 V8, regular cab 2wd, 5 speed trans. & 3.91 limited slip rear, power everything, & that ran a 14.79 at Atco, pretty much bone stock. Sold that for 10 grand but don't recall why, but anyway, I think all of us older folk, wish we knew back then what we know now.
I used to live in Phila.
I wanted one of those Dakota's too! Same set up, I may have ordered an automatic, because I would've bracket raced it. But in my heart, I knew I wanted a stick. Would've been a sleeper on the street.
 
71 Demon 340 4 speed bought new AND STILL HAVE IT 50 YEARS LATER HA HA
I have kept the 87 5.0 LX Mustang I ordered in Feb. 87. It was my daily (Totally stock, it ran 13.90's in good air.) for 5 years, became the family back up, with stock everything except the motor. Would run 12's and go anywhere. It's now a toy that would be hard to live with every day, but it runs 11.40's.
I have probably kept it because of all the others that I sold. It doesn't have the same personal meaning as the others, but I've had it for 34 years!
 
Last edited:
My '69 Plymouth Satellite had the same color combination as the Road Runner in the attached picture. It was my grandmother's car that I purchased in my senior year of high school ('78 graduate). I added headers and Cragar SS wheels with ProTrac tires to it.

69 Satellite.jpg


NEVER should have sold that one!
 
Here’s a few cars I’ve had and passed along. Some I wish I’d kept and did more with, but they come and go, and I find I can’t keep them all!

9FCB23E4-41F9-4007-BB1F-2F288B3ECE75.jpeg


94AA9FE0-71F6-4450-8CC9-1E4855B2AE79.jpeg


EBDCB41B-A57F-400C-8584-8EF9F6F42803.jpeg


F43F6C0B-6C98-4F00-AF25-D9AA475D4CDB.jpeg


780025B7-B18E-4EA5-9E6F-5985A8DCB325.jpeg


0686A16A-E295-48B2-B9FE-06FE726632F1.jpeg


558D6C23-BD37-4175-87EF-0E86A0EF819B.jpeg


2F1C84E4-EEAD-4EE6-95A5-519B026730CE.jpeg
 
I probably should’ve made more of an effort to buy this one too, but it was a little bigger project than I wanted to take on. Very low mileage, but has been sitting forever.

F13B0380-8901-41F4-B59A-76F408DF80FA.jpeg


9CB31350-8018-4121-9629-B35EEF883F0A.jpeg
 
-
Back
Top