Hmmm... the fever was a delayed reaction. I was 3 yrs old when Gramma brought home a 71 Lemans. I used to sleep on the rear package tray and mess with grampa by turning up the AM radio to full blast before he would start the car up. In 1975 Gramps slid the car in some gravel and kissed the front right into a car. Not too bad, fiberglass nose cracked, and punched the fender in a little. They couldn't get squat on the trade in so it went into the garage to be my first car. When 1984 rolled around, I was a spoiled kid who instead of appreciating the car, wished that it was a 70 SS chevelle because the peer group was CHEVY and no one had ever heard of a Lemans. After hearing the story from Gramps that the only reason it was a 71 Lemans instead of a 71 GTO was because Gramma HATED the hood scoops I started learning a little bit about GTO's. Fame started to grow as my 350 2BBL with the powerglide lunched on my friends 78 camaro, the other guys 72 chevelle, and the 3rd guys 75 monte carlo. Now comes 1986. My carless friend will not let up trying to buy my Lemans. He thinks it's the coolest car out there. I refuse to sell it (and still have it), but I agree to aid him in his quest to find one. On the way to work after school one day, we drive past this orange Lemansish looking car. We stop by after work and see the GTO letters on the fenders. Car looks stupid being orange, but it's got a cool wing on the back. (remember, this is 1986, NO cars had wings back then). Anyways, we look inside the interior and see that it's a 4 speed car. We both laugh about "The Judge" thing on the dashboard. Neither of us had ever heard of one and thought it was just some more bad taste on the owners part besides painting the car orange. (there were no stripes on the car). My friend had never driven a stick before, but I'd driven my mom's Dodge Omni manual so my friend talks me into taking the car for a test drive for him. The owner hands me the keys and my friend and I get in. The guy just says: "take it easy, it's quick". I start the car up and we're deafened by the open manifolds -- there's NO exhaust system on the car. Clutch is WAY stiff compared to that Omni.....So my first attempt at leaving spins the tires. I see the guy shaking his head. A few streets over, I go through the gears in the car and my friend and me are crapping our pants -- NEVER been in a car that moved out like that! We come back and he drops the deposit on it without even haggling. Pick up the car the next day and take it back to his house. Next day at school, he trys to sell me the car. His mom is PISSED about that rattle-trap POS with no exhaust on it for $1400. That night he brings the car by and I'm considering a trade for my 71. Problem is, my 71 is solid, new cragars, new paint and that GTO definitely needs work, no exhaust, bondo trap, shredded interior. No way I'll go even swap even if it was a GTO. We start discussing possible addition of money to the deal, then out of the blue my Mom suggests I just buy the car outright and she'll loan me the money. (This is my mom we're talking about -- she HATES cars as anything other than a necessity). I got the car, and unfortunately the resto never happened -- it's still sitting in my garage, completely stripped into boxes in my cellar. 20 yrs gone by, NEXT year for sure! There's always some other project in front of it for some reason. So far I've escaped the temptation of selling it as the ebay numbers keep climbing. I went from plain jane Lemans to The Judge in one step. I didn't even know what a Judge WAS when we got it. I still remember the guy "Proving it was a Judge because the last "7" in the vin code of 24237!! (I did a PHS back when it was free and it really is a Judge (w/ THM400 option -- no stick from the factory) I only drove that car a week back in 1986. It got stripped for paint, and the paint shop wouldn't hang the repro quarters on it because of how bad the quality was. They threw it back in primer and gave the car back to me. At that point, every year it got taken apart a little more, until now it's ALL in boxes. So was this catching the fever or a slow viral infection that completely converted the host body into a Pontiac cyborg?
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