Charles Wirth
03-26-2006, 02:07 PM
Back in the mid 80's Social Security had just paid off death benifits from my father who was in drug and law enforcement. I was fifteen years old, knew very little about cars and lived in the woods in central Florida.
Besides buying my new computer I was out to buy a good used car and there was this heavy chevy sitting in a fenced yard a few miles away. The house was for sale and the had grass growing up around it. I could see that it was a nice Chevelle with race tires on it and an impressive hood scoop.
I looked at a few beaters in the $2000 range and almost ended up with a 79 Camaro.
I called the number on the for sale sign and they said I could have for what the previous tenant owed in rent and to move the car out of there quickly. The amount was $250. I had cash to them that day and pulled the car home. I noticed the car had a roll cage and nice induction hood so I knew the car was well worth the money even if I had to put money into it to get running.
Im 15 years old and trying to figure out how to open the hood. I could see the front end was chopped up and hood pins in odd locations behind the front wheel and inches from the wind shield. The whole front end tilted foward to expose a 1967 427cid Chevy big block with offenhouser competition tunnel ram and a pair of Holley dominator 1150 double pumpers.
The engine was pristine, had Accel cap and coil. The headers were custom powder coated and ended at the collector just behind the fire wall. The radiator was a shiney polished aluminum six row.
The rest of the car was in equil condition, aftermarket bucket seats, dual side view mirrors were also new. The console was original as was the dash in perfect condition. The hurst shifter had a trigger to release the safty neutral lock out.
I picked up a new battery and a can of gas and she fired right up. I had people gathering around as I gunned the engine in my front yard. With little encouragement from my friends I took it for a test ride on the side street and left a black path about 200ft long and when she set back down in the front end it pushed the shocks out the bottom of the a fram arms destryoing them. That was the first of many sets of shocks I killed on that car.
After pulling back in the driveway, two cop (one was an HP) cars pull up and make their laps around the car and came up to me asking if it was my car and I said yea. The HP made me an offer of $10k for the car on the spot and I declined. He let me know the car belonged to a drag racer who was a mechanic for Big Daddy Don Gartlits. He knew the car before it was ever completed.
The Engine was out of a special 67 corvette and labled "427 Mystry Motor" High performance was cast in the heads between the roller rockers and high performance was cast in the back of the block.
I drove the car to school for a few years, it cost $20 bucks to go five miles round trip. My foot was on the floor most of the way. I never installed mufflers and it terrorized the streets of my old home town. They knew I was coming.
Oddly, I was never able to get the title, nor did I have valid license plate or insurance. The high school thought they could put up big speed bumps (they hit my ladder bars) and I went back on a weekend to mow them over.
From all the excessive romping on the gas and slamming the front end down the ball joints eventually broke. I was on a highway in the middle of nowhere and a sherrif stopped to give me a ride home, he had my car towed to my house and the top driver never charged.
I wound up parting the car out, trading the engine for a 68 Camaro RS with built 350cid engine from a machinest/racer who wanted my parts bad. Most of the parts went into the Camaro.
Besides buying my new computer I was out to buy a good used car and there was this heavy chevy sitting in a fenced yard a few miles away. The house was for sale and the had grass growing up around it. I could see that it was a nice Chevelle with race tires on it and an impressive hood scoop.
I looked at a few beaters in the $2000 range and almost ended up with a 79 Camaro.
I called the number on the for sale sign and they said I could have for what the previous tenant owed in rent and to move the car out of there quickly. The amount was $250. I had cash to them that day and pulled the car home. I noticed the car had a roll cage and nice induction hood so I knew the car was well worth the money even if I had to put money into it to get running.
Im 15 years old and trying to figure out how to open the hood. I could see the front end was chopped up and hood pins in odd locations behind the front wheel and inches from the wind shield. The whole front end tilted foward to expose a 1967 427cid Chevy big block with offenhouser competition tunnel ram and a pair of Holley dominator 1150 double pumpers.
The engine was pristine, had Accel cap and coil. The headers were custom powder coated and ended at the collector just behind the fire wall. The radiator was a shiney polished aluminum six row.
The rest of the car was in equil condition, aftermarket bucket seats, dual side view mirrors were also new. The console was original as was the dash in perfect condition. The hurst shifter had a trigger to release the safty neutral lock out.
I picked up a new battery and a can of gas and she fired right up. I had people gathering around as I gunned the engine in my front yard. With little encouragement from my friends I took it for a test ride on the side street and left a black path about 200ft long and when she set back down in the front end it pushed the shocks out the bottom of the a fram arms destryoing them. That was the first of many sets of shocks I killed on that car.
After pulling back in the driveway, two cop (one was an HP) cars pull up and make their laps around the car and came up to me asking if it was my car and I said yea. The HP made me an offer of $10k for the car on the spot and I declined. He let me know the car belonged to a drag racer who was a mechanic for Big Daddy Don Gartlits. He knew the car before it was ever completed.
The Engine was out of a special 67 corvette and labled "427 Mystry Motor" High performance was cast in the heads between the roller rockers and high performance was cast in the back of the block.
I drove the car to school for a few years, it cost $20 bucks to go five miles round trip. My foot was on the floor most of the way. I never installed mufflers and it terrorized the streets of my old home town. They knew I was coming.
Oddly, I was never able to get the title, nor did I have valid license plate or insurance. The high school thought they could put up big speed bumps (they hit my ladder bars) and I went back on a weekend to mow them over.
From all the excessive romping on the gas and slamming the front end down the ball joints eventually broke. I was on a highway in the middle of nowhere and a sherrif stopped to give me a ride home, he had my car towed to my house and the top driver never charged.
I wound up parting the car out, trading the engine for a 68 Camaro RS with built 350cid engine from a machinest/racer who wanted my parts bad. Most of the parts went into the Camaro.