I was 19 yrs old, had graduated high school the previous summer. I was working at a machine shop, was saving money for college. My dad and I disagreed on my future. He wanted me to go to a local college for business, and I wanted to go into engineering. My dad had a dealer's license and owned a garage. I had a 1967 Firebird 400 4-spd that I had just replaced the tired 400HO with a 1971 455HO. That's when I found out the difference between round port and D-port. The car was down for a month while I waited for some very expensive headers to arrive that would fit the round ports. I wish I had bought a set of factory round ports exhaust manifolds, but they were pretty pricey at the time. Having the car down wasn't a problem because I had a second car, which I wrecked a few months later. It was a 1968 Torino GT convertible with a 390 4-spd. It went to the great junk yard in the sky around April 1976. A guy ran a stop sign and hit me in the left rear quarter. I got a decent check from the insurance company for it. Around early summer 1974, I bought the car I probably regret selling the most. It was a 1964 Buick Riviera w/dual quad 425 engine. I really liked that car, and I still miss it. the gas mileage was horrible. that's around the same time I graduated to a street motorcycle. I started with a 2-stroke Suzuki GT380. I wanted a little more power, so I sold it and got a widow maker (Kawasaki 750 2-stroke). The bike scared me, it was wobbly at anything over the speed limit. I sold it, and bought a 1974 Suzuki GT-550. I went to college for engineering the following year (1977). I sold the Firebird, parked the Riviera (it was a gas hog), and started driving something more economical for a couple of years.
My dad had a dealer license at the time, which is how I could afford to own multiple cars. I was also working two jobs. I was working at the machine shop during the day, and in the evenings I worked for my dad in his garage. That allowed me to save enough money to pay for my first year of college in cash.
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