One more story,

What I remember was being four or five years old and my Uncle Jerry had a 1966 GTO, I would stand up in the back seat and yell out "Burn out Uncle Jerry" and off we would go past my house (3 houses down). I loved riding in that car! When I was 16 years old my Grandpa (Life time Mopar man) came by the house and said "I found your car" My Dad and I Jumped in his 1967 Plymouth VIP and went to look at this car. On the way there my Grandpa told me and my Dad it was a 1968 GTX, I knew nothing about cars really but I did remember the GTO! I said "Grandpa do you mean a GTO?" He said "NO a Plymouth not a Pontiac!" There was a guy waiting there for us and I saw this Dark Red car that looked pretty mean. My Dad seem excited about the car which was rare to me. My Grandpa asked to drive the car and the guy said sure. All four of us pilled in the car. My grandpa held nothing back, stumped it and off we went, man what a ride.
I was hooked for life! I probably have a couple of my friends telling stories about there buddy having a 1968 GTX in High School that changed the way they thought about cars as well.

I was 10 years old. A local used car lot had a 69 Super Bee, 383 4 speed, B5 Blue with a white stripe, and white bucket seats. My Dad took it for a test drive, and picked up my brother and I, and beat on that car like a rented mule. I can remember sitting at a stop sign, and my Dad hammered on the car in first, and I was trying to pull myself up between the bucket seat, and he power shifted second like Ronnie Sox, and I was slammed into the back seat. That experience is the biggest reason I love manual trans cars.

My Dad didn't buy that Super Bee, but he did find a much nicer one 2 years later, and he still owns it 30+ years later.

I also grew up with a brother that has a 69 Charger, and his buddies have a 69 Road Runner, and a Challenger T/A. They all still have there cars. Back in the day people still had fun with these cars...

I was 14 and my uncle Bob had a 1960 Chrysler New Yorker 2dr hardtop.
413 with the long ram induction and a push button transmission.
This was the first big block car I rode in that made an impression.
He would stand on it from a stop light and the rear tires would just boil.
I can still remember the smell of the tire smoke.
What a time to be alive. Three years later he was in a bit of trouble with some of the boys in blue so he traded the car to me for a 23 channel CB! What a deal.
I drove the car all through college and dated my wife in the car.
The best part of the story is that I still have it! Who says all the good ones get away?

Digger73 (Mike)

I raced a Hodaka 100 at 14, CZ 250 at 16....Don't get me started.

Man I loved dirt bikes too. At 8 I was on a 50cc Bronco, then a 120 Suzuki, then a 250 Kawasaki trials bike, then my big mistake. Thinking I was better than I was a bought a 360 WR Huskivana (bad spelling). Well it rained the first day I had it and on the second day I flipped it over end for end in 5 th gear with me landing on my neck (no damage) to me. The handle bars smashed into the gas tank holding the throttle floored blowing up the engine. Luckily I had the case welded and I rebuilt it. I babied it for a week and while flying down the road about 80 mph with a studded rear tire and he engine locked up. The rearend went hard right then hard left as I pulled it the clutch in. I sold it shortly after that. Lol

First car was a 60 Bug , second was a 64 Dart 273 pushbutton automatic ( moms old car ) used to cruise McKnight Rd in the North Hills area of Pittsburgh ( my home town) first real speed was at an old drag strip near New Castle Pa. and the Ohio border with it ,can`t remember the name but it was back around 1971-72 all these years later still racing a Dart

Ok, let’s hop in the way back machine... I remember my sister coming home from her first job. I was watching “speedracer” she says,” you should have dad bring you up to my work at lunch time. The guys race in front of work on their break.”
My sister worked for Miller brewery. They had a bottling plant on a dead end road that is about 3/4 of a mile long. The guys had some serious hardware for the time. The concrete was almost pure rubber. The street had a finish line painted across it that had been there a long time. After seeing a few races I was hooked. I remember a guy talking to my dad saying, “If you like this, come back after 10:00! He never took me back... he could see it in my eyes.
When i got old enough to ride my bike and stay out later, that is where I was. Over the years, more businesses built up around there. It got to the point where late Saturday night was the only time races would happen, but they were BIG. There would be hundreds of people watching. The air had spiderwebs of VHT all over the place. The police would let it happen. At the time the fastest cars were 10 second 1/4 cars. The two fastest cars were a 69 “302” Camaro, and a 74 Laguna S3. That huge Laguna was the first car I ever saw do a legit tire hanging wheelie on the street. That image is burned into my brain like a branding iron.
I was very close to being a Chevy guy until the night a superbee with a hemi came in and cleaned house on all the GMs. After that night I have been and always will be a mopar fan.

To start out, my dad was under the impression(may still be)that drag racing was boring, required no skill. He won a pro-solo class in the local sports car club 3 years in a row in a bone stock Subaru wagon. So ralleys and going around cones were what interested him. That said, I had no concept of what "fast" was. I knew that I loved Dodge, because I grew up with this car in the barn, and I loved looking at it.

Since I had no concept of speed, although I always dreamed of going fast while reading my brother's subscription to Hot Rod, when I got my first vehicle, I stuck headers, a dual feed Holley and a homemade dual exhaust system on it. It was loud, had a clutch, would burn the tires, and actually could outrun a lot of kids at school. (Probe GT, etc. It was much nicer back then.)

For the longest time I thought it was hot. But around my Jr. year in high school, this Satellite started screaming up the road past my house.


I lusted after that car for a long time. Talked to the owner at a car wash, just as he put it up for sale. Found it in the Auto Trader. Passed it on the way home from school. Finally, I actually called him up and decided to take a look at it.
Well, folks, that's when I figured out I had NO idea what fast was. It set me back in the passenger seat and when he chirped second I knew I was hooked. I know that car ran 13.15 at National Trail in the mid to late '80's with very much '70's tech on and in it. The guy who gave me the ride had shaved a full second off the 1/8 mile time at Pacemakers before he sold it. (Not to me) I was hooked. I was obsessed. I tracked the car.I talked the owner into financing it for me. I finally bought it. It was the first hotrod/muscle car I ever owned. It was the first/only muscle car I ever wrecked. But it left plenty of impact on me.
Wow. That got long.

My first car came from my great-aunt, a 66 Lay Down Rambler 4 door. No speed out of the 6 banger, but lots of sex on the reclining seats. My old man was a Volkswagon freak, so we never had anything approaching hot in the house. A friend in high school borrowed his sister's 383 Challenger one night and took me to the local cruise. Still didn't take hold.
Then after my first deployment, I needed a car, so I answered an ad in the paper. 71 RR, 440, hemi 4 speed, Dana. The ride home with the open headers was like nothing I had ever felt. I babied it on the back roads until it came time to get on the freeway, and I wooded it up the ramp. The hook was set. Learned something on that drive too. First time I ever had to put the fan belt on while on the side of the road!

My oldest brother is a retired Ford design engineer and started out as a test driver at the proving grounds. He took me for a ride in some of the test vehicles when I was really little and I was hooked. He also raced at Detroit Dragway.

My boyfriend (now husband) also took me in his high school Challenger for lots of rides. Of assorted types.

<<< Still have that car (in avatar) 31 years later. He got it when he was 15. I raced it to its first 11 second pass a few years ago.

My Dad was more interested in fuel economy than hp. I remember a couple Studebaker Champions with mighty flat head 6's. That changed though when he bought a 62 Chrysler 300 with a 383 2 bbl. It was fast to me at the time. I bought a 63 300 with the 383 but after getting beat by a Chevelle out came the 383 and in went a 440. The Chevelle never beat me again.
After that I bought a 69 RR 383 4spd. In went a set of headers, a cam, 2 4 bbls. and 3.91 gears. After that car came a 68 Hemi GTX 4spd car. And a 77 Fury police package car, headers, cam. It was FAST.
Finally my old truck, a succession of 440's, a 528 Hemi and now a 605 Hemi. It is SCARY fast.

The first car that impress me with its power in 1962 was a home made roadster that was Olsmobile powered by a 1957 J2 motor, he used a stock 1957 three speed Olds stick shift tranny. The builder/owner has passed on several years ago, RIP Tookie Smith
He used a Ford model A framed that he Z and put a 1949 Olds rear end and rear suspension in with a mode A rear buggy spring axle and a stock modal A front axle and spring with split wish bone. He dug up a 1923 Dodge pickup roadster body out of the desert near 29 Palms, CA and he hand made a sheet metal short pick up bed to finish it.
That car weighed a little over 2300 Lbs. wet without the driver.
That was in 1962 when I was still in high school, he took me for a ride in it and it would fishtail the 8.20x15 recaps every time he would get after it
That ride with that dude hooked me up on speed
I've been hooked ever since
Faster and faster until the world becomes a blur

A friend of mine collects letter series 300's and DeSoto Adventurers. He had a full restored 61'G that was fast for a big car. He also has a 57'C that's been slightly moddified, it hauls the mail. His sleeper is an all original unrestored DeSoto 4dr, factory pink, factory 383 8 bbl. Adventurer powered.

My Son we have a neat little story to tell his kids someday. I bought a 1970 Duster years ago for a street cruiser and for my ex-wife to race. I put together a nice little engine for it and she ended up going 12.20's. She raced up to her 5th month of pregnancy and then hung it up.

Matts Duster 001 by John Cadamore, on Flickr

old duster by John Cadamore, on Flickr


Years later after a second son we ended up getting divorced so I kept the car and several times took the boys for a ride in it. They both continued to go to the track with me but my youngest never got the drag racing bug but Matt who was inside Moms belly can't live without it. I ended up giving him that car and here he is 29 years later.

Untitled by John Cadamore, on Flickr


Now although my youngest son Ethan now 24 never got the drag racing bug and is living and working in an autobody shop in Colorado owns this car and from what I hear they have some get up and go.


Untitled by John Cadamore, on Flickr

Untitled by John Cadamore, on Flickr

My dad worked for Chrysler, but except for the car I was brought home from
in the hospital, after being born ('64 Catalina with a 421 4bbl)..he
never had any "performance" cars. When I was around 12 or 13 a kid down the street from me who was probably 17 at the time, had a B5 blue
'69 Road Runner 383 4spd. this was around the mid 1970's. He would
take me for banzi rides in that Plymouth, and that's how I got hooked on
Mopars....

I was raised around a 340 '71 Roadrunner, and when I turned 16 I was able to take it down Quaker City Dragstrip, I was hooked!
My first car was a '69 383 Coronet, my Dad actually started building it for me when I was 14.

First buzz was Watkins Glen. Was in my mom's belly. That's where she said I got my buzz.
Buzz killer was my friends GSXR750. Borrowed it and proceeded to go 260 KPH down a 2 way street on the strips with a posted speed limit of 50KPH. Was tucked in behind the wind screen and decided to sit up straight. My moron move made me go into a speed wobble and almost crashed. This was during lunchtime traffic!!!!!
Drove it back to my place at 20 KPH and gave it back to my friend.
Never got on a motorcycle again.
Matt

Was your '69 mini-tubbed or did you stuff that much rubber under the stock wheelwells?

It was stuffed. And it rubbed a little lol. That was a LONG time ago.

It looks really good. Centerlines and all. I think I'll need to go to a six pack hood and a taller intake to get the full potential out of my engine. I see you got lured away by the lightness of a-bodies, though. Lol.