[455rebel]

This happened around 1973-1973.
Me and 2 other 15 year olds were camping in the back field
Of their land. Pitched the tent, made camp around 5pm.
Decided we would walk to town (10 miles away) .
The railroad track ran right through the farm so we followed the tracks.
Must have took 2-3 hours to get anywhere near town. Stopped at
The first little store we came too (about 8miles from where we started),
Got a coke and some chips, one of my buddies ran into a friend in a 68-69
Firebird and he said we could cruise around with him. In the summer in the
70s saturday night crushing got busy around 9 pm. We cruised the 1.5 mile strip a few times and pulled into a local drive in. Talked to some other
Cruisers a while then a 68-69 B body dodge pulled in and started talking
To us. Some of the crowd was already trying to get a run set up, they
We're trying to get my firebird driver to race the dodge, he said no
That the dodge would just blow him away and it would not even be a race.
Now the dodge had a 383 ,4-speed, and a reputation of being stout.
The bird was a OHC -6 , 4-speed I did not even know at 15 their was anything but a v-8 ,so I thought it would not even be a race either.
About a hour went by and they started trying to get up a race again,
This time he agreed, no money just for fun.
We had a dead end 4-lane that no one was on after 10 pm where we raced.
We got their and the dodge driver opened his hood and started
Messing with something, 5-10 min later he came over and said
He had benn running on the primary's and was hooking the
Secondary's back up and dropped the clip, so all he had was the front
half of a thermoquad, and did not want to race.
After a lot of ribbing from he crowd he agreed to race.
Now the bird had the driver and all 3 of us with him, the dodge had
driver and passenger only.
Arm drop, we're off, my first ride along street race, heart about pound
Out of my chest, the dodge pulls us off the line, hit second
He ant pulling us no more, hit 3rd, we started catching him,
By finish we were a half car ahead of that dodge.
Dodge driver after the race is totally pissed off, not at us but at his car.
Lots learned that night.
Never bet on a sure thing.
Nerver attempt to walk 10 miles when u don't have too.
And after I got a car, never miss a sat night cruise.
Ps-Pontiac engineers must have been on top of it in the 60-70s,
Even their six was badd ass.
I have never owned or even wanted a hot rod 6 ,but now
I do respect them.
My life was never to be the same after that sat night cruise and race.

[FireJudge]

I am the youngest of 5 boys and was born in 62. First of many ride a longs was in the early 70's. My brothers 69 Charger against a 68 400 Firebird. They were friends from church. They raced twice and the firebird won them both but it was less than a 1/2 of a car.
First as a driver was my 71 Firebird against my brothers 66 olds 442. We raced weekly but I never beat him. My 1st win. I was working at a gas station and always left my Firebird sitting out by the highway. This kid from the next town up with a 68 Chevelle would always stop in and harass me. I was working around 8:00pm one night when he was in town for the county fair. He had put a tunnel ram with 2X4's. He told me he would be waiting for me when I got off at 9:00. I locked the door and there he was. I told him we would run for $20. He agreed and out to the 31 bypass we went. The arm dropped and I was off and I heard from his was spitting a sputtering. I won by a couple buss lengths. He bitched and moaned and wanted to run again. I said another $20 and he agreed. The result was the exact same. THe next time I saw the car the Tunnel Ram was off the car.

[ged2227]

I had always loved the looks of the 1970 GTO. Since I was 14, I had dreamed of owning one. Around 1988, I was looking through The Want Ad (for those of you from New England, remember the Want Ad?? ) and found a 1970 GTO for sale in Riverside (Providence), Rhode Island for $1000/ b.o. So, I had my brother and father go down with me (as I was 15), on a VERY COLD November night to look at the GTO. We were NOT in the greatest of neighborhoods…. The house was more like a shack with plywood ‘outcroppings’ for additional room. I remember going to the bathroom and seeing rusting car parts in the bathtub. In disbelief, I looked up at the ceiling…only to be greeted with an excellent skylight… Which turned out to be a non existant roof (!!!).
The GTO was a red/red/ black vinyl top car. The original 400 was gone- replaced with a 350. The endura was cracked, scratched up, crooked. Both sides of the car were dented in, rotted, patched, then rotted AGAIN. Rear bumper was rotted. I remember the interior having CLOTH bucket seats from a Monte Carlo. When I asked where the originals were, the owner stated ‘about 3 blocks down, on the corner, under the street light’.. LOL. Sure enough, they were there. Of course, I bought the car for $800…
Once my brother and I loaded the seats, we promptly attached a plate from another car and off we went, with my father in the ‘chase car’. Of course, we were FLYING down 95 to 146. Every time we came to a stop sign on the side roads, my brother would light up the single track….
This was the car I learned how to turn wrenches on.. I promptly removed the nose, the interior, etc. Then I put it all back on…only to take it off again, and so on.
The summer after I got her home, a friend of mine wanted me to help him with his 76 Camaro. Being daily driverless at the time, I threw a MILK CRATE on the floor of the GTO and drove it to his house. At that time, it had NO EXHAUST, wasn’t tuned, had leaking trans lines, no interior, no windshield, no rear brakes and no DRIVERS SIDE FLOOR! As I’m driving, sand was flying up and hitting me in the face!!!
As I pulled up, he’s just standing there is disbelief… ‘Dude, I could hear you coming 5 minutes before you got here!!!’
The car ended up getting partially parted out (the nose- fenders, endura, hood, etc) I sold for $300, I scrapped the rest of the car- TH400, disc brakes, clean interior!!) and crushed… 

[FireJudge]

I bought my 71 Formula 455 H.O. Firebird in late 79. It took me untill 1982 to realize the 455 was gone and I had a 350. It still ran pretty good.