How was it in the 60s-80s?

Graduated high school and buddy and I jumped in a tired old Healey(bn7- for the healey fans) and drove the edge of the USA. The top was almost non existant and sewn together with a seam like a baseball. Had some help from locals for tires, run out of gas, dip in Hwy 1 that we bottomed out and took the whole exhaust off. 11 oclock at night,A guy was working on his chevy II in his driveway- we walked up dragging the exhaust and asked if he had a welder to weld up our exhaust. A few joints, a couple beers and we were fixed and on our way. Far out man! We love California.
A year later my buddy had moved to BC to be an RCMP. He flew home on a Thursday, we pulled an old 67 chev out from behind the shop, dropped a used 327/275hp motor in it and Friday night we headed for Hope BC with a dune buggy flat towed behind. Drove straight out. Lots of times we could see air under all four tires on the buggy. No sweat man. LOL- no weed either.

Took my dads 71 Monaco with a bumper mount hitch and car trailer and we ran down to Harrisburg PA and picked up a 39 Desoto. We drove straight thru the night and my dad was home for work the next morning.

Picked up a 1980 GTI from the showroom, loaded our stuff up and ran 25 hrs straight to Florida.Knew exactly how far it was because there were no miles on the odometer before we left.

Bought a 1991 Dodge 1/2 ton with air and pretty much used it for running south to pick up mileaged out rust free 'Dubs to bring home 2 at a time and marry to our low mileage rusted out hulks. Two guys, 2700-3200 miles in a weekend. Regular cab bench seat- no Recaros!!

I left out the street racing on purpose but I will tell one story.
Bought a 3 yr old T/A panther pink. Took my dad out for a ride and had to show him how the Six Pack kicked in. Went by a cop running radar in the bushes with my back tires loose in 3rd gear(f60 15 polyglas just had no grip). By the time I got home there was one cop blocking the road and the Radar cop trying to catch up to us. I thought my dad was going to ruin my white buckets. Ended up with a $40 speeding ticket and my mother taking pictures from the front porch. How would the cops handle that today?

Just like today- we did what we thought we could get away with and the car breaking down was never a worry.