My dad was definitely my influence!
He was not mechanically inclined, but he liked fast.
His first Pontiac I remember was a '64 GTO. The second was a gold '67 Firebird HO. Then a '69 Custom S Lemans.
The last was my favorite. A Lucy Blue '72 Lemans GT the he had everything he could put on it. Endura nose, 400 4bbl, 4spd., white (parchment) bucket seat interior, largest sway bars available front and back, splitter pipes out behind the wheels. A very hard car to find!
All of these paid for courtesy of the Union Pacific Railroad for his work car. He drove all over the west as a tie & timber inspector. When they decided that they would be buying his cars, the first was a tuna boat. An AMC Ambassador
