Car Porn

Not mine, was at a Cadillac test drive event and chatted with the owner, has an LS swap and Jeep Axles. really cool rig.

 

Dodge Interceptor from a largely unknown movie The Wraith, so many memories.

 

$62K. It went to $53K. Small town auction, he should throw it in one of the bigger ones.

 

One of his other Chevelles. A 1967 SS427 auto he restored. I know they didn’t come with 427’s but supposedly this one was dealer installed. Either way a gorgeous resto.

 

Seems we are on a Grand Am holiday lately.

 

This is hard for me. I love C1, C2 & C3 body lines so much and true to its originality. But, these body lines and mechanics crave to be modernized. It’s a love hate relationship with me.

Remember, there are only so many of these vehicles left and so many that are still original. Should we alter them all for future generations to enjoy, or should we keep as many as possible original to what they are for future generations to understand what they were? This goes not just for old Vettes but old muscle cars and classics in general.

 

I get it... I've seen some really nice restomods. GTO with an LS, Early Dodge with a late model Hemi, and updated suspensions and other bells and whistles. Nice cars... but not original by any stretch. The ones that kill me are the ones that are tubbed and caged and made into drag queens, taking a 60K Camaro and turning it into a 30K quarter miler. The death of a really nice car.

I had a friend back in the day that noticed how it was only the hot cars getting used at the drag strip, and how those cars never came back from that dark side. He built a crappy Opel coupe that beat them all and he had nothing in it other than the drive train. A solid body and horsepower from hell, and he didn't wreck a nice car to do it. I had to admire that.

 

Speaking of which. A 1972 Datsun 240 Z with an LS motor swap. Bad ass fun car but original, not so much. I built a 1972 240Z using the original straight 6 motor to race specs. My buddy had the same car at the same time with Chevy V8 350 conversion. To this day I’d still rather have the original motor build.

This was at the recent auction I hit the other day.






LS motor swap.

 

looking good! check your inbox, been trying to contact you about your 99 for sale

 

Funny you posted this. At the auction was a 1977 Dodge Ram “Macho Edition” which is also the truck you posted.

Here’s the difference, they came with an optional 440 but someone prior to this owner added a Six Pack setup. Now this is bad ass. Something the factory should have done.

The fender call out should be Six Pack for Dodge. 6bbl was Plymouths designation for that setup.

 

True but tens to hundreds of thousands were made for a consumer market as economically as possible. Very few were actually special from the factory/dealer, or have what I've heard called "provenance" i.e. Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Vega 5B. I get that that is an airplane but does every/any racecar driver and all 50 BO29's as important to human history? Is there a 426 super sport 2nd gen Barracuda, the Bullit Mustang, or Buzz Aldrin's Corvette in the Smithsonian? My point is that they were all made to enjoy and worth what the market will bare. I like seeing them in their native habitat. I've never been to Pebble Beach or a Barrett/Jackson event....

To Travlr's point, racing made those cars popular right? Manufacturers spent much time and money back then just to sell more production cars. It seems like a weird symbiotic relationship that made some of us want to be that person racing those cars too I guess. Who knew they'd be worth $60k someday?

 

Yup... in their day the best Detroit built were $4500 cars, new off the factory floor, and eventually $500 or less used. And yes, we beat them into the ground without any thought of their future value. But I've seen people today intentionally look for a pristine, solid body, original car... just to cut it up and make it into something that destroys value... when they could have just as easily found a junker and been money ahead with a smaller investment in body work and paint, and had the same result. It was sad that back in the day we had so little respect for our very cool iron, but today it's insane to look for something just to destroy it.

On the other hand... it's also sad when a car is taken off the road to sit in storage forever because it has become too valuable to drive.

 

Which was my point of my comment “I have a love hate relationship” with altering them. I love to see them altered and enjoyed but I also hate it. What can I say, I have issues, I’ll get over them.

 

totally agree with this. If its gonna be a project drag car why not pick one up thats a junk instead of a messing up a pristine car thats all original. That does not make any sense. Although I myself prefer keeping a car as original as possible I also enjoy seeing these other old school cars get modified to a certain extent. Yea the value of the car drops once things start getting changed but the amount of work and dedication that goes into some of these projects (that are done the right way) deserve some credit. Ive never been a big fan of american muscle cars thats why I post a lot of japenese car photos as thats my cup of tea but Im a car enthusiast and I love cars in general.