I grew up in a car town(mostly Chevy and Ford autoworkers from Cleveland) and there were a lot of muscle cars in my neighborhood. I first started noticing cars in the mid to late 60's when I heard open headers on the drag cars on my street. One was a 68 Barracuda with a 426 HEMI not sure if it was an original though he did work at the Chrysler/Plymouth dealer in town. My older sister had a boyfriend with an M/P 67 Camaro that got me hooked on stick car racing. It was a high-winding 290" small block with a Doug Nash 5-speed and he would leave the line at 8000 on the rear bumper and man that left a lasting impression on a 10 year old boy. After that I started drawing cars doing wheel stands and I couldn't get enough of going to the legendary Dragway 42 and Thompson strips.
We also had a local celebrity named Lou Sattelmaier with an injected 426 HEMI in a 32 Ford coupe with Zoomies and I was in love with that car.

Gus