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O.T. - Any you car dudes see.....


Tom Adams

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I once owned a 1969 Dodge Super Bee with a 426 Hemi and a 4-speed--metallic green with a black vinyl bench seat interior. I bought it from Joe Black, nephew of Keith Black in 1975--it was pretty much stock except for the dual-quad intake with two AFBs--I think the factory set-up was single carb by 1969 but I could be wrong. Sold it in 1979 for $5500 (I think). Wonder what it would have brought at the auction? $75,000? More? Geesh . .

It looked similar to this one:

1969 Dodge Super Bee, front view.

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When I was a kid back in '73, the Johovah Witnesse's down the block had a'69 Superbee, 440 six pac, Hemi orange, six pac fiberglass hood, buckets, pistol-grip shifter, loaded.

There was some punk kid neighbors who lived next to them, who rebuilt vettes, austin healeys, etc...They all had nice rides, 70 road runner, '66 goat, a couple vettes, etc..

They ruled the street until the ol'Tom pulled out the Super Bee to go get some Mad Dog. They all would just pull over and park. Tom would fire up the Bee, and posi-track sideways all the way up the street, L-50's churnin' smoke. We had some tolerant neighbors.

The only other rig that impressed in those days was a '67 vette roadster, with the tri-power 427.

I shoulda jumped on a GTO when I had the chance.......

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On 2/1/2005 4:04:32 PM Allan Songer wrote:

I once owned a 1969 Dodge Super Bee with a 426 Hemi and a 4-speed--metallic green with a black vinyl bench seat interior. I bought it from Joe Black, nephew of Kieth Black in 1975. Sold it in 1979 for $5500 (I think). Wonder what it would have brought at the auction? $75,000? More? Geesh . .

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Allan,

Bet you wish you had that one back huh?

They only made 103 Super Bees that year with the Hemi and of those only 38 were 4-speeds!

Gotta love those old Mopar musclecars.

In the early 80s there was a guy in my town who used to buy & sell old musclecars (not collect mind you-he drove the hell outta 'em) and if you could name it he owned it at one time or another..

Hemi 'cudas/Challengers/Road Runners/Super Bees/Duster 340s

Olds W-30s/W-31s/Rally 350s

Amc AMXs/Javelins

Buick GS/GSXs

Numerous Vettes

The smell of burning rubber as the car was sideways is still vivid in my head.

God...I sure miss those days!

Jeff

PS: The street Hemi came with the 2 Carter AFBs set-up from 66-71.

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One of 38? I had NO idea they were that rare! I guess it's no wonder they sell for so much these days.

The Super Bee wasn't even my favorite. I owned a 1964 Studebaker Commander (Lark) with a factory Paxton blown 289 and a T-10 4-speed. We bored it out .090 over and had some special heads and an intake from Granatelli that were developed for the Bonneville Stuedbaker Avantis that went 200 mph and a special cam from Edelbrock from the same project! The StudebakerV8 had THE toughest factory parts I have ever seen--the rods and crank were forged and it had gear driven cam. WE ran a Dana 44 4.09 posi with factory traction bars. It looked liked Grandma's car and I could WALK AWAY from 427 Chevelles. It turned mid elevens at the track with slicks. That Lark made more than one jaw drop. This is the one I wish I would have kept--the ULTIMATE sleeper.

Mine looked EXACTLY like this one--same red color.

64stude.jpg
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I had a 1975 Ford Grenada four speed column shift with a straight six...talk about gutless! Drank gas like it was going out of style. When I'd romp on the gas pedal, the AC unit would shut off completely to give me just that little bit more oomph! There was so much free-play in the steering wheel you could turn the wheel from 11 o'clock to 1 o'clock and the car would still remain going straight without even the slightest hint you just turned the wheel!7.gif

ford grenada.jpg

Mine was similar but blue and without the nasty vinyl roof. A poor man's Lincoln!14.gif

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I'm getting all teary eyed about my old muscle cars. Here is my 1960 Lark race car. It had a 259 cubic inch Stude V8 with custom dome top pistons (11:1) and a homemade tunnel ram. Once dialed in it ran mid twelves!! Really tweaked some of the Chevy boys having their *** handed to them by a puny little 259 Studebaker!!!

download.asp?mode=download&fileID=34987&

post-3408-13819261543004_thumb.jpg

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Well, it was pretty cool to see some old muscle cars. I have a neighbor who is also a car nut and into old Chevelles and Camaros. He has some Yenko stuff, etc. He this past summer traded a nice (but not show-quality) '69 RS plus a BUNDLE of cash for a very rare piece.....#36 of the 50 '69 ZL-1 Camaros. He told me that he figured that for what he had in the trade along with the cash that changed hands, the ZL-1 had about $85K into it so far....and this was a bare shell of a car! No motor/trans, but did have the rearend. In rough but restorable shape. He bought a (non numbers-matching unfortunately!) ZL-1 motor for $15K, and the car is currently being restored. Too bad all of his stuff is usually stick cars or I would be doing his trans building for him, lol. If there are any of you who are car nuts go to the website I have listed in my sig....and contact me if you ever need performace or race auto trans stuff! I do the trans building nights and weekends, as days keep me busy as the service manager of a busy RV dealership. My last trip down the track was in mid '98, and my dragster has just been collecting dust since then. I make it to a few races each year to display and offer on-site trans repairs, and that also keeps me in touch with a lot of friends I had made over the years travelling the country racing.

Edit: was over at the neighbor's yesterday and he sold the ZL-1 to a collector here in Iowa. I think he had second thoughts about spending probably $100K to finish the restoration. He bought another COPO instead, and a guy who runs a COPO website was over perusing the two COPO's in his garage. Both however were converted into racecars, which probably makes most collectors cringe!

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While in Phoenix on business trip a couple of years ago, my company took several of us to the Barrett Jackson auction. I must have seen 25 musclecars I would have killed for. It was an amazing event. By the way Allan, a 1969 Hemi Super Bee with matching numbers, right miles, right condition etc., could easily bring $75k to $100k today. Baby Boomers with disposable income are driving these types of cars through the roof.

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By the way Allan, nice Lark. Had a buddy in high school whose grandmother owned one. We used to rod the crap out of that thing. Had more electrical problems that a Jaguar. Headlights just took a dump on us one night and we got stopped twice on the way home. Thought we were gooing to get killed.

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My divorced mother, who was dating a policeman, asked for his advice to help her buy a car. He suggested a 1969 Plymouth Fury III convertible. This was the car that I learned to drive when I was 15-1/2 years old:

4-barrel Super Commando 440 engine. Four speed manual floor-mounted Hurst shifter. And a raised/shackled rear end that literally danced at the local drive-in restaurants.

Stomp on the gas, and listen to the carburetor suck in the gasoline...and watch the gas gauge move toward empty. Back when gas cost 30 cents per gallon.

Good times...

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Still have this baby in the family. 1970 Ram Air IV Trans Am with 4 speed manual. 400 ci, 385 hp, 475 tqe (well, when running well, which it is not anymore). I'm taking it off my dad's hands this spring and hope to get her fixed up (This IS NOT my car, just a picture I found on the web). Flat out speed was not up there with the Hemis (did break 15 sec 1/4 stock however) but unlike just about every other muscle car the TA handles like a modern sports car, the thing is just glued to the road. The body actually produces downforce instead of lift and it's steering is pinpoint accurate. Not like those old Dodges with about 6 inches of play in the steering wheel and boat like suspensions (I had a 73 Charger when I was a kid) Unfortunately the emissions standards hit the next year and handling started to become secondary to trying to get more power out of less efficient engines (the 455 came out in 71 with less HP and more weight) so the Trans Am was never really as great after 1970

post-13200-13819261552554_thumb.jpg

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Allan, you had some really nice cars!

The hottest car I had (not realy all that) was a '66 chevell with a 327 and a 4 speed gear box. I broke the Muncie that was in it and replaced it with a Borg Warner T10 with a hurst comp+ shifter. I am still keeping my eye out for the right '68, '69' 70 charger. 383 min 440 perfered. The wife thinks I am crazy to want an "old car" to her, if it isn't new, it is just old junk that needs to be hauled off to the junk yard. What can I say?2.gif

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download.asp?mode=download&fileID=35048&

My last Lark. Pulled it out of a boneyard and spent 3 years restoring it and like I fool I sold it back in 2001 to a fellow in Zeeland, MI! I still regret letting it go. I has a factory Paxton blown 289 with a T-10 4-speed and a Dana 44 3.73 posi rear end. A real Muscle Car--"radio delete" and dog-dish hubcaps!

post-3408-13819261553414_thumb.jpg

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