[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.