I was at the Car-Craft Summer Nationals over the weekend, doing what has evolved into one of my favorite live broadcasts of the NARN broadcast year.
There were a lot of fun cars. If you grew up in North Dakota in the seventies and eighties, the Nova was the semi-official state muscle car:
It was light, overpowered, and fairly inexpensive – three things that appealed to North Dakota gearheads.
(North Dakota gearheads were famous for one modification that, near as I can tell, was pretty local (although I’m sure it was more widespread and less local than I realize); they’d wash out the windshield washer tank, run the hose back to the cup holder on the driveshaft hump between the front seats, and fill it with Southern Comfort or Brass Monkey or some other, er, “durable” spirit. Want a bump? Hit the washer – provided you had a cup in the cup holder…)
Ditto the Chevelle; one of my friends in high school had one of these. I used to dream about one of ’em…:
But for me, the sentimental fave was this one; a black ’73 Malibu. This was my first car.
Well, no – not this exact car. Mine was a northern Minnesota farm car I bought my junior year of college for $125 and a case of beer. It was black, sort of – it had so much salt damage that the driver’s side door panel flapped in the breeze like a bird’s wing when you got over 60 miles per hour. A chunk of the floor on the driver’s side was corroded away.
But it had a 350, and it flew. It was the car that brought me to the Twin Cities – and I used to drive home to visit keeping it around 70ish in MInnesota, and around 85 in ND. I could make it from the 694 River Bridge to the Jamestown exit – 335 miles – in around four and a half hours on the road (not counting the fuel stop I had to make in Fergus Falls; it wouldn’t get to Fargo on one tank).
And when it finally conked out, I dreamed about keeping it, and learning how to fix up and hot-rod cars, and doing something like what you see above.
But I was 23 and making $6 an hour at Hubbard Broadcasting and needed money, so I sold it for $50 to a guy who wrecked it a week later and ran away when the police came.
If there’s a car heaven, my old Monte Carlo is there, and looks a lot like this.
Yea, I hear ya’ Mitch! Felt the same way about my 68 Mustang GT that I bought from my cousin while I was stationed in IL. As was common any of Ford’s sportier cars of that era that came from the factory with a 390 engine, the one that came in mine was blown. They were powerful, but originally slated as a truck engine, they had a long stroke, but that’s another story. Anyway, my cousin dropped in a 302, stuck in a mild cam, topped it with an Edelbrock low rise intake manifold and a Holley 600 carb, then some and Hedman headers with dual Cherry Bombs, backed up by the venerable Ford T-10 toploader 4 speed. It was black with a gold C stripe and had the usual fender rust through behind the rear wheels. He also replaced the factory hood, with a fiberglass version with a functional ram air set up. It sounded wicked, even at idle and ran like a scalded dog! I think that it got like 10 miles per gallon, increasing to about 12 in the winter. When I was stationed in Grand Forks, I came home to the cities about once a month. Because I was young and bulletproof, I would occasionally draft 18 wheelers to get a few extra miles, (until the drivers got ticked off and tapped their brakes), but I still had to make a fuel stop in Fergus. That said, I sold that car to my kid brother, who restored it, found a 390 that came out of a 1968 Mustang GT at a swap meet and it is a sweet ride for him. Every now and then, he let’s me take it for a spin!
I had a 69 Olds Delta 88 with a 350 Olds Rocket and Turbo-Hydra-Matic transmission, also sort-of black. Outstanding car for driving without lights on side roads to avoid cops while driving drunk. Or so I’ve heard.
I had a ’73 Delta ’88. It had a giant motor, a 454 I think. It had the handling and fuel economy of a naval task force. On one terrible winter day the radiator froze up and I got that engine so hot it seized up. You could smell the cork in the head gaskets smoking.
I went back the next day when it was warmer, filled up the radiator, turned the ignition and it started right up. What a machine!
I always said I was born 20 years too late. I sadly missed the 60s-70s muscle car era when you could get away with stuff (car parts and driving antics) you can’t get away with now.
Oh the stories my Dad has. He had a string of muscle cars thru the 60s and early 70s; including, according to lots of people, the pinnacle of easily accessible musclecars: A 70 SS454 LS-6 Chevelle. He bought it new and had to sell it after 6 months. Too many tickets, couldn’t afford the insurance.
There were other “higher level” muscle cars like the Shelby Cobra, the 70 ZL-1 Vette, and various COPO and Yenko Chevelles, Novas and Camaros, but those were all either rare and hard to come by, or very expensive.
Amusingly, he says the LS-6 is no comparison to his current 72 Chevelle sleeper (with a blown 383 stroker). “The 72 is in a whole other league compared to the 70”
I always love the “sleeper” grade of street machines, otherwise low end, small, underpowered cars that have been beefed-up to take on the obvious models; GTOs GTXs’ GSs, etc., etc..
Used to love the old Chevy II. Wasn’t that one the forerunner to the Nova? They used to clean up quite nicely with some HP addition …