Todays youth will never relive the glorious past of being twenty years old in the late 60s out for a thrill car shopping, or day dreaming as most of us participated in. The car lots were full of muscle cars, sales people hawking the lot looking for the easy sale. The local Chevrolet and Pontiac dealers were my favorite playground. The three Yenko Camaros parked in the front row. Yes 1969 was a great mark in time. I expressed interest in a yellow 69 black final roof Chevelle with an iconic raised scoop hood. A quick test drive picking up my girl friend for lunch ( no food, just driving practice ) we headed to the highway. Repeated standing starts melting the rear tires the 375 hp four speed machine was this side of scary . We brought it back bald tires and fuel tank begging for another quart of gas . No sale but one hell of a ride. My wife remembers her head hiting the ceiling at one instance. Who believed in seat belts at this time ?
On to the Pontiac dealer, Back in the lot I spotted a 66 GTO, red black final roof. Checking the engine, three carburetors stared back with a mixing handle in the console. This example must have had a defective transmission. I limped it back minus a gear or two and more noise I had ever heard in a transmission. The salesman stated they would fix it and if I was still interested we could work out a super low price as it had been on the lot for a while. I scanned the rest of the used line up and selected a 64 red Impala, 327, 300 hp, manual transmission. This was the one I went home with. Low mileage, quiet, the big car experience, with enough power to turn those narrow fourteen inch tires at a moments notice. Sadly we left the full size compliment heading to the mid size and used Corvettes. Today the garage is a reminder of the past with a big block midyear, a solid axle fuel injected version, a couple " hard to see out of rear window coupes" and a Belair post sedan. The years have changed but the passion remains in aged classics.