What REALLY got my attention? When did I catch the car bug? Probably had to be 1969 after the 1970 models were out - I first laid eyes on the 1970 Cudas & Barracudas. All I can say is they moved me! I was a 12 year-old kid & my parents were school teachers, so I really had no one pushing cars on me, & none of the friend's dads were gearheads, although most of them worked for Ford & a couple worked for GM, but they drove "regular" cars. Yep - it was the styling & sound of the Cudas. I remember seeing new Cudas driving around, & I remember there were a few with shaker hoods - I KNEW those were special - you hardly ever saw them! Also remember seeing the AAR's - those were REALLY special! To me, those seemed like the fastest ones because they looked like they were going 70 standing still. There was a guy in the area with a bug-juice green Hemicuda & I remember seeing (& hearing) it drive down our street several times. I remember it had a shaker hood. It wasn't until years later when I was in high school around 1975-6 that I learned it was a hemi. One of my buddies who lived about a half mile away said it had been his next door neighbors' car & he said "yep - it was a Hemicuda allright!" When I was 12, I was determined to own a 1970 Cuda one day. As each year went by, the dream of owning one kept fading. In July 1976, I looked for a couple months & finally found a nice one & bought it. F-8 green with black interior, 4-speed 340 car, & all original, complete with F&R elastomerics (see attached photo). $1300.00.

There was another guy in the area with a yellow Superbird - I remember seeing that car many times as it was often parked in his driveway - it had to be new or almost new because it was mint. In our area of the rust-belt, ALL of these musclecars started rusting-out when they were only 4-5 years old. There was a guy in the area with a 1969 Trans Am convertible (look up the rarity of that car!), & a guy down the street with a F-8 Green 1969 Dart Swinger 340, guy across the street from him had an ice blue metallic 1967-8 Camaro with a 427 that was BADASS - I remember that car having sidepipes, mags w/50's in the back, traction bars & jacked-up - THAT car sounded like it wanted to eat someone! There was another guy in the neighborhood that had an orange 1970 BOSS '9 Mustang that he still owns, but it is all apart. Gapp & Roush were about 1/4 mile from my house right on Schoolcraft Road & every once in awhile you'd hear them doing a test & tune on Schoolcraft road. By the time we pedaled 5 blocks on our bikes, they would already be back in their building with the doors closed! It was a fun time to be alive for sure, & there were SO many cool cars out there.