What One Car (doesn't have to be a Mopar) Turned You Into A Gearhead?

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ocdart

ocdart

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I've seen similar threads here but, hopefully, this one is just a little different.
What one single car pushed you over the edge? And it doesn't have to be a Mopar because some of us took a bit of time to find our way.

Here's mine:
I was 14 years old and had been building models of ships, planes, and cars for several years. Both my parents worked for the school district and were off for Spring break. The school district had just got a couple of new cars for driver's education use (do they still do that today in public schools?) that needed broken in so we took a little trip over what used to be called "Easter Vacation" and drove up to Sequoia National Park. One day we stopped at the general store in Giant Village and I literally got stopped in my tracks by the cover of the April '63 Hot Rod Magazine. The McMullen Roadster was the feature car on the cover.
That was the very first car magazine I ever bought and the iconic '32 Ford roadster was what did it for me.

View attachment McMullen.jpg

Although I started admiring Mopars and their drag racing accomplishments shortly after, it took me six more years before I finally owned my first Mopar: a very slightly used '69 340 Swinger. I've been infected with Mopar fever ever since, even though I tried to break away for a few years, but relapsed again just before I sold my '83 Hurst Olds that I'd owned for 24 years so I could buy and build a '69 Dart project.

Now, what one car turned you into a certified gearhead?
 
My parents took me to see the John Cusack movie Better off Dead in 1985. I was Fifteen years old, and the '67 rally sport Camaro featured in the movie did it for me. I bought a '68 Firebird a year later, and I've always had some sort of muscle car ever since.

BOD%20Camaro%20after.jpg
 
1971 Plymouth Duster 340/727 Sassy Grass Green, Original Owner car.
 

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Neighbors stunning 67 Chevelle SS. I used to go for rides with Jimmy when I was 5 or 6 years old in that thing......
 
im not sure which car it was that set it off..it was mainly the sound of a roaring thumping sound of a powerful V8 engine is what did it for me...then i just chose which cars i liked the best, which happened to be mopar. dodge darts and plymouth barracudas.

i will always appreciate the 66-67 chevelles and novas. 55-57 chevys as well.
 
Dodge Charger slot car, then Johnny Lightning, then Hot Wheels
 

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My dad drove Chryslers 53,57,63.This is what I knew growing up.In 68 he came home with a new Coronet R/T. Gold with a black bumblebee stripe.Hook, line and sinker..!
 
Darter6 said:
In 68 he came home with a new Coronet R/T. Gold with a black bumblebee stripe.Hook, line and sinker..!
Click to expand...

isnt that something. my dad also bought a 68 coronet R/T B5 blue, white interior, white belt, 426 hemi 4 speed car (i was 1 year old). the next year he bought a pale yellow 69 charger R/T 440/727 white interior stripe delete car both brand new . its in my blood.
 
seeing a lime green 70 road runner in a mopar muscle magazine when i was a teen ......that car had such an impact on me ...i even cut out the pic from the magazine and carried it around in my make-up case....i didnt know much about cars at that point i was only 16 but that lime green 70 roadrunner with the dust trail stripe and rally wheels sure hit me like a ton of bricks
 
From my very first car(s), 57 Chivvies, (about 66-67) I did my own work. While my 57 was a low budget junker, I did manage to score a 327 for it locally. Broke a lot of 3 speeds, tho.

I guess what REALLY launched me into the dark twisty road to the bottom was in the fall of '68, going to Navy Electronics "A" school at Treasure Island, we had a ham club on base, K6NCG

Ironically, the building at that time, on the W end of the Island, facing the Golden Gate and Alcatraz, was also only about a block away from the auto hobby shop!!!

hamshack.JPG


I made a friend in the club, an E-5 going to "B" school, and he had a nice little '65 Chevelle, and had bought a wrecked 67 Camaro. He'd put the 350/ 4speed and Rally wheels off the Camaro into the Chevelle. During our stay at TI, he broke two 10 bolt axles, snapped the input shaft off the 4 speed, and tore up a clutch on an extended weekend (Easter?) up in S Oregon.

Somehow, I was always the "default" mechanic.

HE BECAME the first owner of what was to become my 70 440-6 RR He still holds his original amateur callsign, K7WWA

Later I had a 63 Chev Impala SS 327, and didn't have it long when I traded it privately + cash for my first RR, a 69 383 4 speed. The "Dad" who owned it was unhappy with his kid's driving skills and wanted something "a little more tame."

But when a year? year and half? later, I bought that 70 from my old friend, we REALLY fell off the dark twisty cliff to the bottom of expensive mechanics heaven.

I have no good photos, due to film damage and a house fire. The car, in 73/4 or so, at my parent's home in N Idaho It would have had the 340 swapped into it then

81sruds.jpg
 
Back in the early 70's I saw a Hot Rodding magazine with an artice about a company in wallingford ct Total preformance that was making T buckets. You could get your choice of engine/trans and color for what I believe was $6995. I wanted one in the worst way. Told myself someday I'd have one. Never did. But my second car was a 71 camaro. Also I had some t bucket models I built like this Red Baron.
 

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'54 Plymouth Savoy. It had a 3 speed with overdrive and once in a while the overdrive would quit working and dad would have to pull it and fiddle with it to get it working again. He let me "help" and I thought it was so cool to do that. Uncle Marvin's '58 300D got me hooked on muscle. Blew me away 'cause it was faster than his Harley.
 
i was always interested in cars. but the ones i remember the most when i was old enough to start learning about them was a neighbors lil red express truck and 70 charger.

also remember a yellow 340 dart with cragars that i used to see on my way to school while riding the bus..
 
When i was 7 (1966) the man across the street from us built a 66' Chevelle for a local short track. Hauled it on a open trailer with a 62'/63' Impala wagon. Didn't take but a few outings and it was pretty beat...lol. Never did see him race, but just watching and listening to him load/unload that thing with open exhaust had me hooked on the cammed V8 sound. The first new car i really liked was the new 69' Mach I that was on several mag covers. When another neighbor bought a new 69' Red 440 R/T Charger i was hooked on Mopars. I was so obsessed with it that every place i saw the number 440 or the word Charger in print i would cut it out a paste it on my bedroom wall. Pretty quickly i had half a wall full until Dad had enough of that and made me tear it all down.....lol. My service manager Grandfather saw it and bought a Visable V8 that we put together on weekends for a few months so he could teach me the basics. As far as i remember that's where it started for me.
 
Took me some time but this movie made my hart crank as the kid gets revenge for his brother being killed

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c66P_U2FA10"]The California Kid car chase scene 1974 - YouTube[/ame]
 
I didn't know all the specifics about these cars until later in life, but I remember the cars very well. My uncle lived next door in the 70's ( I was born in 1971 ) and he had a 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T ( blue) with 440/727/Dana 60 with 4.10. I remember that car being so loud and sounded so good. His wife had a 1969 Superbee with a 383/4 speed ( red with white tail stripe). My parents had a 1966 Plymouth Satellite ( white ) with 383/727/8 3/4 with 3.23. My dad had a 1959 Ford truck ( red and white) with a 340/727/8 3/4 ( I still have all of the drivetrain from the truck). I guess sounds of my dad and uncle burning out in front of the house with the mopar powered Ford truck and the Challenger with always be stuck in my head. :burnout:
 
Ihave four Brothers , oldest had a new 68 Super Bee , the next guy had a 69 Road Runner, next had a 67 Coronet R/T , and the next had a 73 340 Duster, and a 69 barracuda coupe 340 S with a 4 speed , and i had just to many .So i think maybe the super bee started it , not to mention my father was a Chrysler Mechanic for many years.
 
before we moved from BC to Alberta (1980-ish), my older brother bought a dark blue 340 4speed '72 Duster. When we moved here in 1981, because of similar interests in cars, he became friends with a guy who had a fully built red '72 Duster, 340, 727, 4.10SG. That car was freakin' gorgeous.



oh yeah, I ended up buying that car about 8 or 10 years later.
oh look, it's down there \/ :D
 
1967 plymouth Satellite, My first car at the age of 14, didnt do much to her, and she sat until a couple months ago(im 20 now) when i traded her for my '72 Swinger. She was rough as a cob but its what got me into learning the history of these cars, and the love of all things Mopar :D

0604121636a.jpg
 
My dad bought a 66 ford galaxy 500 7 liter 428 4speed white with black interior bucket seat and a console. Nice I wish I had that car. Only made 1700 of them.
 
I bought my first car, a huuuuuge 72 Impala for $150 when I was 16. Was a total beater, but it was MINE!. Fixed the rust and the had like 5 different colors of paint and primer on her. But she ran great. Lined up next to my buddy's 72 Buick Apollo (Nova knock off) on the way to a friends house, we hit it and I proceeded to smoke the tires big time, it hooked and the old boat reeled him in by a fender. From that day on I have been obsessed with cars and spinning wrenches.

Pat
 
When I was young my folks had a "65 GTO 389 4 bbl, auto. Started out as dads flashlight holder and it snowballed from there. Was just like this car abeit not as nice, white with read vynl interior and cragar 5 spokes.

White-Pontiac-GTO-1965-18079norm.jpg
 
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