70 Dart Custom GT Package in Crazy Plum
There's a lot to be said for a numbers matching car. It's not about the value (not in a true car person's eye) it's about preserving the car
Sure. But, if you're worried about preserving a 2-barrel 318 A-body in it's original form you're one of the few, and you're going to spend a whole lot more money than the car is going to be worth when your done. We only need so many cars in museums.
Look I'm not discounting preserving examples of these cars, but, there's more than one take on it. I'm all for having some original examples, especially if you can find a real, low-mile survivor. Having a few of those cars around as examples of the original car has value. But, here's the thing. If you're worried about truly preserving a car, you're not driving it. Because frankly these cars, in their original form, are barely safe on the roads today given the speeds and stopping distances that are generally needed to keep from trading paint with modern cars that accelerate, stop and handle much better that are driven by people that take that for granted. So if you want to drive daily, you've got to upgrade and that makes matching numbers moot. Frankly, if everyone preserves these cars in their original from in the very near future you'll only find them in museums. Because unless future generations of drivers see these cars on the road to even know what they are, they will disappear. The skills to even operate these cars are going to disappear (already are). They're already building self driving cars without a way for a driver to control them, that cat's out of the bag.
I used to worry that I would get legislated off the road in my pre-'75 daily drivers because of smog laws. That mileage would get limited somehow and I'd be unable to continue use them as daily transportation like I do, because the big money hot rod organizations don't focus on people daily driving their classics. And only being able to drive to car shows would suck. But I'm not worried about the smog thing anymore, it's fallen a distant second to autonomous driving cars. I think in the near future cars driven by a human operator are going to be on the chopping block, and the upcoming generations aren't going to see it as giving up a part of the
culture.
So, chop them up and drive the crap out of them. Big brakes, big torsion bars, better tires, make them compete with modern while still keeping their souls. Numbers matching is out the window, have fun. Because every kid that sees my car at the gas station might think twice about voting my cars out of existence. I have younger kids come up to my car all the time and ask me what it is, and I try to be happy and explain and show my enthusiasm to try and convey how much fun it is. Museum cars are already dead. They're cars, they're supposed to be
driven. If preservation is the only goal, it'll just end up being a few models in a museum to document how dangerous cars used to be. I'm happy to sacrifice "preserving" some lesser desired models to try to preserve the culture.
So maybe I dunno why a "true car person" is worried about making a museum car out of a plain jane 318 car.