I am not exactly sure what was the first mopar influence was, but I am pretty sure I came home from being born in dad's 65 Satellite. He still has it today. So that may be it. My older brother has always had cool cars as well as his friends. All brands, though when he bought his first mopar a 70 v code road runner, I fell in love with the body style. 4 years later I am looking for my first car and we looked for old mopars. 68 formula s 340/4 spd, 68 road runner, 65 coronet convertible, 72 barracuda. I ended up with a 71 Satellite with a 318/904. Painted it like a road runner and have never had second thought about which cars to drive. Next car was my 69 340/4 spd Swinger. Still have that one and more. Only problem with loving mopars is I want at least one of each!

Beep

Sox & Martin,what else is there but a Cuda`.?
LUST at 1st sight.

In 2006 I sold a 74 Duster I had, on my way to the bank for deposit, I stop by a friend's and saw this car......and bought it.

Put a 360 injected magnum in it, then a 408, and race the car since then........and been poor too ! loll

Guess this one chose me !!

At the Track

The Kuda I had was a survivor w/ original paint and I couldn't mod it or beat it. So I sold it, and moved into a big block A body which always interested me. 5 years later and I'm still happy.

in 1991 before i got out of the navy my friend overheated his 76 dusters 6 banger for the last time and it would not start. 175 bucks later and 20 years i still love it.

first off let me say great post ron.growing up my dad raced fords.68 mustang,390 four speed car.i went with him almost every time he raced.people always ask me why i dont have fords.well if i didnt have my 64 and 65 dodges i would have a 64 fairlane 427 four speed car.back then the max wedge and hemi cars were the top dogs. i remember watching them beat up on all the other brands in stock and super stock.i was hooked at a early age on 62-65 b-body cars.in my eyes they are the first true muscle cars.

I was stationed in Elizabeth City, NC in early 1970. A guy on the base there had a 61 or 61 Valiant 4 door that he'd put a 413 in. The car looked stock on the outside. It was a nightmare to work on and he himself would admit it handled terribly, but the concept had me hooked. That was my ultimate vision of a drag car.

A year and a half later I saw this one sitting in a parking lot for sale in the San Francisco bay area and I had to have the car. The purchase even broke up my engagement to my sweetheart back home (who it turned out was living with some burn out draft dodger anyway)

Different, yes: crude, yes: practical, hell no. I still have it. Learned a lot racing it. It hasn't turned a wheel in 20 years I'm sorry to say. I really want to get it going for one of these nostalgia events around the country.

born and bred... Dad has worked for Chrysler since '68 and started racing in '65. I started in a challenger in '90 which I still have and Dad and I built the 'cuda in '92. Guess it's just our thing.

Riding in my brothers new 71 Road Runner for the
first time at the age of 5 was all I needed to
know. The family photo books from 1969 to 1974
was loaded with Road Runners, Challangers, Cudas,
Darts, GTX's and so on!!!

My excuse?

I went to high school with Ehrenberg.

I had a real nice 383 Super Bee as a teenager..... got my clock cleaned by more 340 Dusters than I care to admit. That was my first lesson in hp vs weight. Years later when I decided to have a full on race car, I remembered my lesson.

I miss having a street car though. If I get another one it will be a B body, hopefully a Charger, because I can fit my wife and kids in it.

I could write an encyclopedia...

In the fall of ‘56, my father switched from Dynaflow Buicks to a ‘57 Chrysler (Hemi / T-flite). He wasn’t a car guy but his mind was blown!

I grew up in a middle-class apartment-house NYC neighborhood. All the guys were “jocks”. I needed to know how stuff worked, so I started to hang out on the wrong side of the “tracks” (actually, the Horace Harding Expressway) with the Italian kids who grew up in houses with driveways and even garages! They introduced me to pizza and Italian ices.

Two guys in particular were my real mentors, taught me wrench-twisting and took me to Westhampton drag strip. Louis Macari drove a stick Corsair Monza, and Joseph Brancaccio drove a worked I-6 full-size Ford. I, thanks to dad’s ‘57, was already a Mopar guy. (Then he bought a ‘62, and the real fun started....)

But I digress. Neither of the guys would teach me how to drive stick (it woulda had to be one of their cars!) But I was determined. In ‘62, I turned 18 and saved up a few bucks. I saw a ‘60 Valiant 4-door (dull silver V-200, 170, three-on-the-floor) advertised in the paper at a dealer in Queens. I took the subway over and checked it out, and wound up leaving a deposit.

Friday after work, I again took mass transit to the dealer, and completed the purchase. The salesman walked me out to the car to give me a quick explanation of the “features” (AM radio, heater...). When he was done, I casually said “oh, by the way, can you show me how to drive stick...?” After he came down from the ceiling, he did give me a reasonably decent explanation of the concepts, and drove around the block once with me riding shotgun. With that under my belt, I pulled out into Friday afternoon NYC rush hour traffic. I stalled exactly once.

I went home, showed my parents, and gulped down some food, then headed out to hone my M.T. skills. By 10PM I was ready.

I pulled into White Castle. As expected, Louie and Joe were hanging out with their cars. When they saw my “old man’s” silver 4-door Valiant, they laughed their butts off. By 10:30, however, they were all over the little A-body’s engine compartment. “How can that thing be so fast....?” To say that I cleaned their clocks would be an understatement. And we knew some cool twisty roads out in Nassau county, and the ultimate: Storm King Highway up in Orange county. The Valiant absolutely ran away and hid from the Ford and Chevy on those roads.

49 years later, and I’m still discovering countless ways why Mopars are #1! I should write that book....

Rick

Let's see... I'm 16 years old and looking for a first car with my Dad in 1983. It comes down to a cherry (driven only on Sundays by a little old lady) '57 chevy with a straight 6... or a '73 Cuda small block V8 car. My Dad is talking about restoring the chevy with the 6, or there is the Cuda. I chose the V8 Cuda.



In '96 I came across a deal on the Challenger drag car and decided to take it a different direction than the previous owner. I actually took out a loan on my fiance's car to buy the Challenger. It was idle for a long time before I started working on my vision... it still has a ways to go.

I stole my car from my dad
That is actually somewhat true. When dad went on permanent disability because of his back; I took over the driving and soon after took over the financing of the car as well. Its been in the family since 1986.
On a side note, I actually found a trophy that I won in high school eliminator in 1990. Wanna take a guess what car I was driving??

I bought my first car from my aunt for $175 when I was 14 years old. It was a 1967 Coronet 440 4-door with 318, 727, and 8-3/4". My aunt was the only person I knew who drove Mopars. She bought a '76 Aspen after selling me her Coronet.
Then when I was around 16 or 17, I bought a 1973 Snowfighter power wagon truck for $1,000. I dropped in a mildly built 360 and it was a great truck.
At the time, my family had a '73 Mercury Montego, a '76 Chevy van, and later a '80 Pontiac Citation. The mercury was falling apart, and the Citation was totally gutless. The van ran well, till it threw a rod, plus I did a bunch of fleet service on chevy stuff and changed out many nylon timing sets. Anyhow, by comparison to the other vehicles I had access to the Dodges were great.
The '71 Charger 500, originally a 383-4bbl, was my first 2-door car. Bought it for $550. I actually went to look at a '73 Charger that was for sale for $150, but it was sold when I got there, and drove past the '71 charger on the way back home.
It was sitting on the street with flat tires, but no for sale sign. I stopped and asked if they wanted to sell it, and they said sure

Been around Mopars all my life. Paid $900 for this
72 Charger R/T back in high school.
It was blowin' oil out the carb, I hitchiked all summer while rebuilding the 340magnum!
And you can see Mom's 69 Valient in the garage!
Once it's in your blood in never leaves.
Oh and the hot lil' blonde has been my wife for 26 years now!!

Although my car is chevy powered Mopes are still my fav, the fast ones anyway.
I must say most Mopar dudes are a VERY strange bunch...
Why I chose what I have? It was different, within my budget, and within a days drive for me to purchase.
Oh, and I really liked it too!!
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My sister dated and later married a street racer back in the 60's my Mother would not let my sister go on a date without taking me I was 5 or 6 My now Brother in Law would race his Road Runner or What ever Mopar he had at the time with me in the back seat, He was a legend back then. I have owned a 69 Newport 440, a Little Red Express, Shelby GLHS, and currently race a 68 Barracuda R3 W8 car best time 9.00 at 149 MPH but not interested in any of the Mopar crap out now.