Motorcycles got me into tinkering with engines. Bought a Honda Super 90 with money I had saved from several years of delivering daily and Sunday newspapers starting at age 12. I got the bike 30 days before I was old enough to get a license on a learner's permit. Rode the bike on the permit and took my car driving test in a friend's '62 Impala on the last day of learner's permit expiration day and passed and went right back to riding the bike. Went with a neighbor friend to Pittsburgh International Dragway (PID) on my S90 and him on his Triumph 650 Bonneville and got talked into drag racing my S90, the first time I ever raced. Easily won my class and ended up as runner up in top eliminator and had to carry the trophies home stuffed in my jacket. Bought a performance camshaft and valve springs and a performance straight through exhaust pipe with a “snuff-or-not” when needed and installed them myself in the driveway, and the game was on. (Those two events may have been the start?) Bought a bigger bike a 305 Scrambler, did the engine and exhaust mods too and did a lot of street racing and some more track races too. Got a good job in the steel related industry at age 18 and it was time for me to buy a car. First new car I wanted was a '69 Dodge Dart 383 GTS so I bought every car magazine that had anything on the GTS I could find and went into the local Dodge dealership and picked up the new Dart brochure. Reading one magazine I run across a side article that Chrysler was going to come out with a 440 Dart and Barracuda so I start to find a Dodge dealer that has or knows any info on the 440 Darts. No one knows anything about it and I get laughed out of my local Dodge dealership by two sales guys that thought I was just some crazy kid thinking they were going to put a 440 in a compact car. My mom knew there was something wrong when I came home that day and asked what was up, told her about looking at a Dart but not about the 440 or the 383 engine or GTS and she asked why I was looking at a “Compact” car with one older sister that needed rides to work as she had no car and five other sisters and brothers (7-kids in the family) that also needed rides too? I then decided to buy and order a new ’69 383 Road Runner at the home town Plymouth dealer and the clincher was my dad knew the owners and sales and service guys. Sat down in early spring of ’69 and ordered a RM23 hardtop, 383, with 3.91 Suregrip (told dad it was for winter driving, snow and hills in southwestern PA you know, but really I was going to continue street and strip racing), Air grabber, black interior, F5, bucket seats and console (to eliminate or regulate one of the siblings to the rear), hood stripes, A01 light package and power steering for my mom, and yes that is true. Mom drove the car many times and she could put down rubber at a moment’s request by any or all of the kids. I have to say looking back 30w had to be in my blood from my dad and mom. Dad was a master sergeant in the army in WWII and a half-track driver, also in motor pool , a great mechanic and decorated for retrieving heavy armor military equipment from behind enemy lines. Mom was very sports active, a great skier, swimmer and a gymnast. She used to drive her brother’ sports car like a champ. When I started racing motorcycles my mom was my most enthusiastic supporter and even went to one of my racing events in Austria. She passed away in ’14 at ’94 and she still could have put down some rubber in my GTX if any one of us would have asked her to. Oh and BTW remember that 440 Dart GTS earlier in this rambling, well funny thing there was a Moparts member and good friend (local) that years ago we were talking dirt bikes on here and I was ribbing him about getting a REAL dirt bike like one that a company that I work for makes. He calls me and tells me that there is no way he could afford one……but maybe we could do a trade or maybe I would want to buy his Mopar. I asked what is it and he says “A ’69 M-code 440 DART GTS”. I said “No way, what color?” Yep he’s got a 450 and eventually a 625 and a few other bikes from me and I Have a ’69 440 GTS in the color I wanted to order it in GREEN with a black interior. FULL CIRCLE , life is strange sometimes but odd and strange are sometimes a great thing

(my mom cheering me on in Austria, I was part of a team representing the U.S.A, in an international 6-Day long 1,200 mile off road endurance race, miss you mom)

This thread got me so curious that I went and dug into the attic and found the very first trophy that I won on my Super 90 at Pittsburgh International Dragway. It ran an embarrassing high 19's (19.80 or there about ?) but actually that wasn't so bad as another competitor came over to where we were pitting and ask my friend who was racing the 90? He then wished me luck for the remaining day and said "you know you're only 4 tenths off the national 100cc class record". He said "I know this because I own the record on a Bridgestone 100 (2-stroke). I never got any closer than that 4-tenths but did easily win the class and runner up in top eliminator as mentioned. I'm sure this is the class winning trophy from the mid-'60's from PID I mean how long would they use a late '50's Mopar looking car on top of a trophy and hand it out to a motorcycle class winner.

I would say three things got me into the hobby, and specifically Mopars 1) Hot Rod magazine 2)model kits 3)my dad's hatred for GM products.
Back story, my grandpa on my mom's side owned a cab company in Mansfield, Ohio. In 1966 he bought a bunch of new cabs. I don't know the number, but half were '66 Belvederes and the other half were '66 Chebbies of the same size, I'm not sure which model. The Plymouths were finicky to start in the cold, so grandpa complained about that. But when dad worked for him, he would go to the junkyard every Saturday morning and try to buy steering columns and other stuff that would wear out/break on the GMs.
Now, back to me. I grew up looking at 3 Mopars from a young age. A '66 Coronet 440 ratop(he still has), a '74 Dodge Crestwood wagon with a 400 in it and a '76 3/4 ton pickup, also with a 400.(Incidentally, dad hated the 400. Both of them) Dad used the truck to haul mowers around when he sold Gravelys. It was silver and I just loved riding in it. Around my impressionable years, my brother started getting Hot Rod magazine, while I was reading Off Road. While I was already a Dodge/Plymouth guy(I didn't know what a Mopar was) there was an article called "If it Don't Go, Clone it" about putting good stuff in lesser models. On the second page was a '68 Road Runner with Cragar Super Sports on it. I was really hooked then. I would read those magazines over and over, especially when they included Mopars. Which wasn't often. About the time I caught the bug, our neighbor had bought a '78 Aspen R/T, and it began running up past the house at a rapid pace on a regular basis. So now I loved a Road Runner and had a thing for Aspens. He put a 340 in that car with a 727 and someone called it a "quick change rear end", which I'm assuming was an 8.75, then spun a bearing and it sat and deteriorated until I lost track of it 15 years ago.
I started building more model kits, and when I bought the blue A12 model kit, that was when I forgot about the Road Runner and knew I needed a Super Bee. I scoured Auto Traders, Old Car traders, Wheeler Dealers and anything I could pick up to find a Bee I could afford. Which unless it was free, I couldn't. I didn't get Off Road anymore, but I started getting Mopar magazines. Then I saw a Year One ad with a Bee in it with the N-96 hood. Ever since then I have wanted a B5 Bee with the N-96 hood.

As far as working on things, all my youthful memories were of running around to junkyards to keep cars running and tractor junkyards to work on dad's Ford 800 or looking at Gravelys. I was always helping work on stuff, and when I was 5 or 6 dad took a Gravely 424 in trade and I helped dad and my brother restore it. I can't honestly say I did that much, but I'm sure he pointed me at bolts and told me to remove them, and I helped assemble and gopher. So I've been wrenching and working on things for a long time. Hopefully I'll get good at it pretty soon.

I started helping out on Demolition Derby Cars for Team 7 at Santa Fe Speedway (The Locomotives) in the 80's. My best Friend's brother owned the team. I stuck around for a few years but life took me in a different direction. Loved it out there.

That's where I began my obsession with Mopar. So many C-Bodies.........

Yeah, he was always the cool uncle to me. He used to drive the Cheetah from near San Diego to Laguna Seca for the Monterey Historics...Now, that's cool...