[kookykrispy]

back in '98-99 I lived in Santa Fe. My buddy Carlos had a 69 firebird 400 that I thought was really cool. I had my first subscription to Car Craft and I wanted some poncho muscle of my own. I scored a base model 67 tempest post out of the local thrifty nickle paper for $300. It ran ok with the ohc-6 and had plenty of "whiskey dents" as the previous owner jokingly called them. I thought it was a pretty cool ride. Anyways, I hammered out the dents & bondo'd them up and rattle-canned the tempest black. The car was starting to really look cool after I scored a set of cragars for it for $100, again from the local want ads. It was fun to cruise, especially on the highway and I made a few upgrades to the car like new shocks and rebuilt brakes.

Almost immediately I was lusting for more power. Gasonline was under a buck a gallon and I wanted major cubes. I keep my eye constantly on the newspaper for a deal on a pontiac v8 until I found it: A wrecked 70 catalina that still ran and drove. I scored it for $200. The front end was smashed up from hitting a deer. I threw the crumpled hood away. I had saved up some money for some speed parts and made my order to summit racing. My buddy carlos helped me swap on the edelbrock performer and a 4 barrel carb, along with a new cam and an HEI we'd scored in the local junkyard. We did all this with the 400 still in the big cat. It ran great and really woke that car up.

I cruised the big cat around Santa Fe like that for about a couple weeks... hauling my buddies around and throwing down big one-wheel burnouts wherever seemed cool to do them. They were building a new home depot so I decided to break in the parking lot with a nice big smokey.

I had moved into a house with a big garage with my friends by then. On a saturday, my buddy's were there to help me pull the motor. I drove around the block one last time in the big cat, stopped at the stop sign accross the street and smoked em up one last time. This was the final hour of glory for the big Catalina. I pulled it into the driveway with the tire still smoldering and yanked the engine.

The 400 installed easily in the tempest. I'd scored headers from summit, got the motor mounts from a 4 door lemans in the junkyard, along with power brakes and a few other items.

A muncie 4 speed was in my hands for $400 from the local swap meet, along with a new clutch hooked up from my buddy Chris that worked at Napa. I hole in the floor for the hurst shifter was easy with the sawzall.

Eventually the car got a 12 bolt posi with 4.10's. The tempest was a street terror for a little while in Santa Fe.

Those were the good 'ol days!!!

[4spdTA]

1st Pontiac was a 66 2+2. Bought it when I was 15 for $250 and drove it home!