What was your first car?
First car or first Mopar? Here's the answer to both:
First car was a '64 Olds F85 bought in '66 for $1600 when I graduated from high school. 330cid V8 and 2-speed auto. Thought is was cool 'cause it was different from all my friends bowties. Couldn't do much to it 'cause of college so changes were limited to baby moons and beauty rings (remember those?), a 4-track Muntz (God, I'm getting old!) in the glove compartment, tricked out the stock AM radio with rear speakers and a 'revurb' (I know that's gonna get questions).
First Mopar was a '69 340 Swinger purchased used in November '69 for $2500 from a kid going into the Navy. Been married a whole 4 months and my (at the time) wife had just been in an accident with the Olds on her way to work and we decided we needed a second car. Played on the SoCal streets with that car for a bit then started the typical mods: headers, intake, Holley, cam, gears. It ended up running a fairly radical cam, Edelbrock Tarantula intake, 850 Holley DP, Ray Alley (Engine Masters) built reverse-pattern manual shift 727, 4.89 gears (bought from Gale Banks at his original little shop in San Gabriel). Did my share of street racing (don't tell anybody) on Whittier Blvd., got nabbed by the cops once (interesting story). Also raced brackets at OCIR and Irwindale (good ol' days).
Sure wish I still had that car. But the memory of it is why I'm currently in 'build-mode' on my 'new' '69 Dart. Can't escape from the Mopar bug once it bites!
:burnout:
