Your Earliest Fast Car Experiences?

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doc540

doc540

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1. Age 14 - rode as a passenger in an ex-Penske, ex-Mecom Corvette Grand Sport, Roadster #001 (then owned by Jerry Hanna). Almost wet myself and was afraid people would see my knees shaking when I climbed out over the side pipes.
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2. Age 15 - drove a '63 Dodge Polara Ramcharger Stage II 426 wedge. Got it crossed up in first gear and could not depress the clutch due to, again, the dreaded leg shake. Drove home in first gear.
(just like this)
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Dad was "the" mechanic at our local Chrysler dealer from the late 60s tbru the 80s. He did a lot of side work, but never built a car for himself. One of his regular side jobs was a dark green Challenger RT. There was a half mile strecheck of road to nowhere that he used as his test drive route. He would air that thing out to ensure it was right. Me and the neighbor kid rode with him and the owner once when we were about 8 yrs old. The neighbor kid was terrified and went home crying. Litterally. When we got back to the house and dad handed the guy his key back, the guy told him he didn't know his car was that fast. Gave dad a big tip and rolled out.
 
When I was about twelve my buddies dad who was an engineer for AMC, had I'm guessing (44 years ago) about a 66 American. He asked if we wanted to go for a ride, he had just shut the hood. He headed toward the road going to the lake. As soon as we passed the tracks, he stopped, put it in first wound it up and dumped the clutch. Rubber through first and second and chirped third. I don't know how fast we hit after fourth but I will never forget it. I was always a car freak, and my dad was always working on cars but not into fast. I do remember dad burying the speedo on our 73 New Yorker, ticked because of it overheating earlier. Didn't overheat and obviously he had fixed the problem.
 
Got to drive a 68 Hemi Roadrunner for about 10 min. when I was 16. The most memorable 10 min. of my automotive life.
 
1977- Brother and I answered an ad in the paper: 69 GTX for sale 440 6 pack, 4spd. When we went to take it out for a drive, the guy's phone rang and he told us to go without him. Big mistake! This was in the summer and it had nearly bald snow tires on the rear! Brother got it up to 80 on the interstate, downshifted and dumped the clutch. Broke the rear tires loose and he was too stupid to get out of it (still is). Pretty damned scary for a little while, don't know how he kept from wrecking it!
btw, we didn't buy it....
p.s. also had a ride that same summer in a Vega station wagon with a 454 conversion. The owner drove this time. It was wild!
 
I am 50 and still have not experienced that "set you back hard in your seat feeling, damn it. Can someone give me a ride ??????
 
At 14 I "borrowed' my moms 350 buick and decided to see if it could bury the speedometer on a new stretch of 4 lane highway they were building.

Very serene at 120 on that freshly poured concrete with no other cars around save for an occasional piece of parked construction equipment flashing by......at least that's how I remember it.
 
Was 10 years old, brother took me for a spin on 290 inbound to Chicago. Cold fall morning. He says, "top down...heat up". Hop in his beast of a 65 Buick GS, big block, 4spd, rag top, red on red. Hammers it on the on-ramp, sideways in 1st, hammers into 2nd fishtails, hammers in 3rd, fishtails, slams it into 4th and winds it out. No idea how fast we were going, but the howling big block, frying tires, wind blowing over me and my brother's grin as he glanced over at me after getting off the loud pedal is an experience I'll never forget. He later sold the GS to our cousin who wrapped it around a tree 3 days after buying it. Bro was sick about it.

I was hooked on muscle cars from that day on.
 
In 1986 my dad bought new Buick Grand National with T-tops (always leaked) was my first experience in a fast car. I was 12 or 13, he kept it for a couple of years. When I was 15 or 16 he bought an 1985 Corvette with the 4+3 transmission, it had some Linkenfelter mods. It was fast and handled real decent.
 
In late grammar school.....maybe 6th grade. My neighbor always had hot American iron. He liked GM stuff. He had a 69 RAM Air III Judge. 400, 4 speed, 4.33 gears. Orange with the purple and yellow stripe package. He used to bust it off, back it out of the carport and down his driveway and park it in the street. That put the tailpipes pointing at my bedroom window. Which I opened with glee every morning to hear the rumble. It was a badass car.........for a Poncho.
 
I had many floating fastback drives and rides. The real thrill was in my buddies 428 cobrajet torino, the frontend started floating at a buck twenty, what made it worst was the gusty side wind howling through the canyon. the claw marks are still on the dash.
 
May 1967 when I got the GTS new from Carl Price Lincoln, Mercury Dodge in Jasper, Alabama my Dad had to leave me up there and wait for them to get it cleaned up and ready for delivery. He had to come home and milk the cows. It was raining that day and I asked the service manager about the break end period. He told me as soon as it quit raining it was ready to go. On the way out of town I was following a car running about 45 mph and when I went out to pass him I hit passing gear and almost swapped ends. I have been in love with it ever since.
 
As I have said when I joined the site .
I came home from the hospital in a 70 moulin rouge 383 auto Air grabber Road Runner my parents ordered from the factory .
My uncle at that time had a 69 383 4 speed Road Runner .
Then my Mom had a 70 RT/SE plumb Crazy 440 4speed challenger .
There was many after that !!
But that's how it all started for me !!
 
Oldest sisters creepy boyfriend had a 351C in a Pinto, called it the "Pintera". JHC, that was a fast car and he was a midget car dirt track driver too so he could drift it before it was popular on the pavement. He scared me that day. Later he rolled a bug and my sister flew out the sunroof. she landed in some thick bushes and got a few scratches but he was banged up bad. She dumped him after that and if he wasnt in the hospital, my Dad would have put him there. My Dad never took me on scary rides. maybe I trusted him, or maybe it was because he had Pontiacs.....Tempest, LeMans and whatever was under a GTO in 66.
 
I grew up with my dad always having something fast or someone building something in our garage but the memory that really sticks in my head was his cousins 67 GTO. 400 worked over with a 4 speed. I was about 7 and they had just finished working on it. Ready to take it for a test spin I climbed in the back. There was an entrance ramp getting on the highway near the house with a walkway overpass about a 1/4 mile up that they used for testing purposes. I remember him dumping the clutch and launching it and being set back in the seat as he rowed through the gears. Not sure how fast we were going when we got to the overpass but it was flat out moving.
My first experience driving a fast car came when I was 15 and one of the guys across the street let me take his 69 Torino 428 CJ a couple of blocks away to pick up a friend. I jumped on it after picking him up and still do not know I kept from hitting the cars parked along both sides of the road. It was after I got back that Jay asked me if I had my license yet it was a blast for sure.
 
My friend invited me to visit his next door neighbor. He just bought a four speed AAR Cuda. I had no idea a car could cause my neck to snap like that. I was probably 11 or 12 at the time.
 
When I was young and stupid I went 160 mhp in BMW. That's the fastest I ever went with anything before or after. I was shaking after that experience.
 
1970, I was 10 and went with my older brother to pick up his new plum crazy challenger, 440/ 4 spd. I loved that car and he would always open it up and go through the gears going out of town. I still remember the sound it made. He would let me sit on the console and shift sometime. Its still one of my favorite cars but ironically I've never owned one.
 
I had a friend who bought a 1970 LS6 Chevelle SS in the early 1980s. It was a 4 speed and he was afraid to ever step on it. One day he came and asked me to drive his car to show him what it had. What a joy that was (I was driving my 1972 Chevelle 350-4 speed in those days). Well needless to say, he was shocked that his car could scare the hell out of him. He was so happy that it had the balls it had, but he still never got on it himself.

My Chevelle had some pretty good power itself. I loved nailing it at a green light and then steering it sideways straight through the intersection (peg leg traction). Looking back on that, I guess that I was fairly immature for doing that, but man was that fun!
 
Bobby Ballong's 68 4spd Pistol Grip Hemi Road Runner, along the corn fields of Mason City Iowa !!!!!
My 6th grade summer, I was hooked !!!!!!!
 
my father had a 68 Cadillac, 2 door, black - not fast off the line - but by God that car would full on fly. Then my uncle had a 72 Toyota Celica GT - he would cook that little chit box up and around some S turn roads around here - scary and funny - he was not afraid to wind that thing up! In 1975 or so, a high school friend had a black 67 GTX 440 -- we we're both idiots, he scared the proverbial crap outta me - once... I never rode in that car again. - which turned out to be the right choice - he crashed it hard later that year.
 
I was eleven, maybe twelve and my parents were avid scuba divers
It seemed each weekend they would be out on a dive, somewhere
They were part of a club and there were usually 2 or 3 dozen other people diving with them

This one particular dive was at the Bodensee in Germany and my parents let me ride back with another diver they knew
A blond girl in her mid 20s driving a champagne colored 911 Porsche
I think the moment that car his the autobahn I hit puberty
 
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