People who love money own and drive classic cars

I think it partly depends on what you are happy with in the old car. If stock performance, might be easy. Want gears, acceleration, mpg, AC and comfortable cruising at 70? Not so sure anymore.

Just me, but I couldn’t be happy with a /6 car as a daily. Been there, did fine but I need a V8. A more door is fine. But comparable braking, acceleration, comfort (AC) and mpg start to make it a project and tougher to figure out if a good used 6M Challenger might the better deal. I want to drive performance everyday but performance costs money. Trick is figuring out where to spend it.

Back in the late 80’s when I was getting into cars and graduating HS, it wasn’t too tough to find a decent Duster or similar for cheap. And with a little sweat equity and parts, build something that was equal or better than the new car offerings of the time. Not so anymore. Even if you give up on the rust free offerings and settle on something that is only ok for $6500, figure a fair amount of money to get it to run with a new car. Just a guess but maybe $6500 for a T56 swap, $2000 for a good rear axle and $5800 for the 375hp 408 from Blueprint with another $2000 for miscellaneous like headers, carb, etc. By then the bill is up to $20.8k and the car is faster than a late model Challenger with a 5.7. But it wouldn’t be as comfortable with no AC, cruise control, upgraded seats, etc.

Step it down some though. Maybe start with a $2k shell that is structurally solid but needs quarters. Maybe use a solid 5.9 out of a Ram for $750, then a cam, intake, carb, headers for $1500? Instead of a T56, use an A833OD so only $2500 for that? The last piece is the an 8.25 or maybe an 8.8 so maybe $1000 or less? With that it would be $7750, so figure $9k to put the car on the road. That would make for a fun driver, probably all I would need. But don’t think it would be as fast as a 5.7 Challenger. Add an AC kit, cruise control and upgrade the interior and it would probably still be cheaper than a Challenger, but it wouldn’t be it’s equal. Don’t care about keeping up with the Challenger or the comfort? Then you are probably ahead. Want to be a little more even and it gets more expensive.

In the end, seems like it comes down to what the individual wants.