I have a similar story, but with a much darker outcome.
When I was around 14-15, I lived in a medium sized town with not a lot for a young person to do. There was a place with pool tables, pinball, and foosball beside of a small drive in with car hops. Street racing was big in the early 1970s, and the place was on the main drag through town. Cars would circle the drivein, line up a race, then race from the turn-around to a tire shop that was right at 1/8 mile from the turnaround. I was playing foosball with my buddies when I heard it come through. It was a blue 71 Trans Am, automatic with a/c, even had blue interior. The owner had put headers on it, a hotter cam, and changed the gears. The tweaks were done by a well known speed shop. The first time I saw it in action, he raced a guy with a built Nova and destroyed him. I talked to him once, he was probably in his mid-20s at the time.
Fast forward about 15 years. I was junk yarding and went by a guy who I knew that bought junk cars. He had hauled in a Firebird painted in this shade of dark blue with a purple tint to it, complete with a L88 hood. Upon further inspection, I quickly determined it was a 1971 Trans Am. The guy said the tranny was shot, and he was going to put the motor in his truck. I ended up buying the complete car, or what was left of it. The original front end had been damaged and the front sheet metal had been replaced at some point. It was full of bondo, where there wasn't bondo there were a bunch of small dents. Even the rough and trunk had dents, it must have been in a hail storm. When I saw the name and address on the title, I knew it was the car that I had seen cruising town in the early 1970s.
I knew the block code was wrong, but the rest of the engine was correct. It had a 2x4 on it at the time, but the original intake was in the trunk. The tranny wasn't the original, nor was the rear end. I thought about fixing it, in the end I put in in Hemmings (around 1984 or so). Ed Waller out of GA bought the car. I don't know whatever happened to it after Ed got it. I heard he let a lot of his stuff sit near an airport and the jet fuel caused severe rust. Then somebody in upper mid-west bought Ed out. Anyway, if that car is still out there, I had the protect-o-plate at one time.
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