Be glad you only play with Stereo Equipment

[Mighty Favog]

beer budget-

Probably had that carb that ran on water....

[Champagne taste beer budget]

Actually, I believe it was a fuelie. After 15+ years some of the details are a little fuzzy, but the basic story remains the same.

[maxg]

I dont know - I guess you have to be in on these things to appreciate them. These cars are probably very fast (if you were to actually drive one - or is that a heresy?) but I would sooner buy a brand spanking new Ferarri.

Come to that I think I could buy 2 new Ferarri's for this money and put one into storage as an investment. I imagine in 20 years time that one would pay for both and then some, plus all the running costs of driving the first one into the ground.

Have I stumbled across a cunning plan? Now where did I put that $425,000?

[Mighty Favog]

Max-

Granted I, too, would like to have a Ferrari but this is a car that hasn't been produced in over 30 years, has not been touched be someone trying to make it "better", has been owned by someone(s) with a lot of will-power to leave it alone and not drive it, is a rare car to begin with that has outlived it's expected usable service life and was at or near the top of it's peer group that had/has a huge following.

It would be like a mother having the biggest and best SUV ever built with zero miles on it, in perfect shape that's 30 years old. (wait a minute....that might be called a "Woody")

Some people buy art to impress their friends, only a few others buy art to impress themselves.

[fini]

"Have I stumbled across a cunning plan? Now where did I put that $425,000?"

I think you dumped that into power cords and interconnects...

[maxg]

Actually Tom I changed my mind anyway. Aston Martin DB7 * 2 would do me fine. One to play with and one to store as this car has been stored for the next 20 to 30 years.

and Fini,

I didn't spend half that much on cables!!

I am soooo economical

[Allan Songer]

27 miles. Amazing. The only car I have ever seen with such crazy low miles was much more pedestrian--'66 Pontiac Catalina 2-door with less than 100 miles. It was bought by an old man who died the next day and his widow kept in the garage for the next 25 years. The brother of a guy who works for me had me go look at it with him--it sat there on 4 flat tires covered with dust. When you opened the door it was all BRAND SPANKING NEW--blue intereior, white exterior.

He got the car for nothing and spent the next few months tearing it all apart and putting it back together. When he was done he had essentially a brand-new 1966 Catalina 2-door with a 389/4bbl. I don't know if he sold it or kept it as I lost track of him--I wonder what that one would be worth today? $25,000? More?

[sfogg]

Chris,

"Everyone go ahead and make me feel really bad now."

Don't feel too bad. I sold a '67 Firebird 326 3 speed in the early 90s for $3k that was in unrestored but in good condition. I miss that car....

Of course my father takes the cake... when he was younger he was going to buy a '53 Vette... for $800 (that he had the money for) but his father (who worked for a Chevy dealership) wouldn't let him buy it. My father still grumbles about that one....

Shawn

[Allan Songer]

I sold my 1969 Dodge Super Bee with a 426 Hemi and 4-speed in 1977 for $3500. That was top dollar at the time.

Probably worth more than $100,000 today. Oh well . . .

[dodger]

----------------

On 6/1/2005 9:53:52 AM Allan Songer wrote:

I sold my 1969 Dodge Super Bee with a 426 Hemi and 4-speed in 1977 for $3500. That was top dollar at the time.

Probably worth more than $100,000 today. Oh well . . .

----------------

Hey Allan:

A Mopar Man Too? Alright.

The Best Man at mt wedding had a 1970 Hemi Cuda with a six paqck. 56 miles on it. Five years ago the Garage he was storing it in burned. Neither the owner of the garage nor my Best Man had Fire Insurance - he did not even have Comp.

One I went to school with owned a 1963 Corvette, split window. When the 1964s came out with no split, he had his removed.

Last One is the late 1970s. Guy I know had a girlfriend that worked in the Estates and Trust of a local Law Firm. Gentleman that had stored a !963 split window, 275 miles, passed. The Family knew nothing of the value.

He bought the car, still owns it, paid $350.00 for it.

[CaptnBob]

This is a little off the topic, but, has anybody seen the automobile graveyard in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri? It looks like a salvage yard run by the Addams family - two foot diameter trees growing through the frames, a creepy perpetual darkness, that sort of thing. Most of the cars seem to be from the twenties through the early fifties. A friend of mine who's a police officer called the Ste. Gen. department to see what he could learn about it, and they claimed to not know what he was talking about. Maybe it's like Brigadoon, and only appears on certain phases of the moon ...

In Jerseyville, Illinois there used to be a dealer with the big old Pontiac, Studebaker and Buick signs in front. In back, sunk to their floor pans in the mud, was an assortment of ancient Studebakers, some with the windows open. (!) Must have been twenty of them, all - at least the ones I could see into - had 20,000-50,000 miles on them. They all disappeared about the time the Wal-Mart went up.

[Champagne taste beer budget]

Speaking of Ferraris...

grrrrr.. can't get a link to load correctly

[Smokem]

My brother has a completely UNrestored 1965 Buick Grand Sport with the Buick 401cui 450hp "nail head" motor. It has 20,000 miles on it the interior is 99% and the exterior is 95%. He went to a local Muscle car dealer and was offer $22,000.00 for it on the spot. He went there looking to find out it's current value and was not expecting to hear that. The guy told him the fact that it has not been touched at all in 30 years makes it worth at least that. By the way he paid less than 1/4 of that price 2 years ago.

[J.4knee]

What ya gotta love is the link below the $425,000 price "How to get low monthly payments"

[dgb]

Damn Allan,

426 Hemi's are the holy grail of muscle cars. You could get 100,000 for that thing if it just ran, much more if it was in excellent condition!

That Chevelle is definately a rare car (offically only 20 built), and definately pushes serious HP, but nearly a half-mil is insane. Once the baby boomers die off the price tags on these cars will bottom out seriously. Plus there is a very good chance it is a counterfiet. Muscle Car clones are a serious business these days.

I have a 1970 Trans Am (400 ci) 4 speed that I'm have partially restored (suspension and engine) now and I'm totally stoked to get behind the wheel again. My dad bought it new way back in 70 and it was the first car I ever drove. Unfortunately it's a Ram Air III rather than a RA4 which knocks it's value down from about $125,000 to $40,000, but none the less, I'll never sell it. It'll also kick that Chevelles *** everwhere but the 1/4 mile track (and even that would be damn close). The 70 Trans Am was the best handling muscle car ever built, even better than the Corvette. But there were a couple thousand RAIII Trans Am's built, so they are rare, but not super rare. Only about 80 of the RAIVs were built, hence the hefty price tag.

For those that have never had the pleasure, there is nothing quite as thrilling as smashing the pedal on 4 barrel carbed V-8! Fuel injection is more efficient, but not nearly as fun (or loud usually)

[dgb]

For all the crap Fiero's get, the 6 cyl versions were damn fine cars to drive. Good power and they handled excellently! Just keep your fire extinguisher handy.

[Corvette6769]

----------------

On 6/2/2005 2:52:23 PM dgb wrote:

Damn Allan,

Once the baby boomers die off the price tags on these cars will bottom out seriously. Plus there is a very good chance it is a counterfiet. Muscle Car clones are a serious business these days.

----------------

Don't be so sure that these prices will ever go down....after all it's the Baby boomer's kids that are paying $40,000+ for a minivan these days. The Muscle Care era was a unique time in automobile history that like fine art and other antiques, will have a following for many decades to come. While the new breed of Muscle Cars are quicker, faster, and better engineered & built, nothing will ever replace the experience of a big block, 4-speed, posi-traction "65-'70 Muscle car roaring through true dual exhaust at wide open carbureted throttle smoking the REAR tires when you bang second gear and catching rubber in third and fourth.

Coincidently, I received a letter in the mail today from an attorney asking me to be a paid expert witness in a law suit. Apparently his client purchased a 1970 Chevelle which was represented as a true SS car and turns out to be a clone.

[Big Rig Guy]

What's thier name in Toronto-are you referring to Legendary Motor Cars, thier shop is about a mile from mine.

Fiddled some ten years ago or so, restoring and rebuilding, it s a hard gig. Nice example of a fine automobile though, not worth that kind of money to me though, someone else for sure.

[dgb]

You may be right, but the new "motorheads" seem to be far more inerested in fart-box exhausts, fake roll cages and obnoxious rims. Of course, cars made in the last 20 years are so damn hard to work on I can see why few attempt to mess with them when you can simply buy an ECU chip and instantly get %25 more Horse power.

The rarity of the old muscle cars will keep the prices high, no doubt, but really, $400,000 for a Chevelle? Chevelles were definately way down on the pecking order when I was a kid. MoPar, Pontiac, the suped up Mustangs are the cars everyone wanted. Of course I was a kid in the 80s so anything with more 100hp was cool, and those of us with muscle cars got SO much enjoyment out of crushing the rich kids in their daddys Porsches and BMWs.

Anyhow, I can definately see wanting to stay true to the original car, but you could get a body practically anywhere, a crate engine with 200 more HP and get a real suspension for probably $15K. The obsession with numbers matching cars always amazed me. Cars are to be driven, and as long as it looks and drives and sounds good,that's what matters, not whether some tiny numbers no one can see are correct. Anyhow, I'll end that rant.

I hear you about the exhiliration of opening up a big V-8, there is somthing special about it. But the feeling of dropping the clutch in a 250 or 300hp AWD car is pretty sweet too. (And kind of frightening frankly). Of course you'll never see the tourqe numbers like the old days. My 70 Trans Am has somthing like 460 p/f of tourque (High compression, leaded engine). It'll spin tires all day long and accelerate like a ***** even at high speeds in 4th. Man I can't wait to get it back! It's been about 15 years since the thing has been in good condition.

----------------Don't be so sure that these prices will ever go down....after all it's the Baby boomer's kids that are paying $40,000+ for a minivan these days. The Muscle Care era was a unique time in automobile history that like fine art and other antiques, will have a following for many decades to come. While the new breed of Muscle Cars are quicker, faster, and better engineered & built, nothing will ever replace the experience of a big block, 4-speed, posi-traction "65-'70 Muscle car roaring through true dual exhaust at wide open carbureted throttle smoking the REAR tires when you bang second gear and catching rubber in third and fourth.

Coincidently, I received a letter in the mail today from an attorney asking me to be a paid expert witness in a law suit. Apparently his client purchased a 1970 Chevelle which was represented as a true SS car and turns out to be a clone.

----------------

[merkin]

It's an AUTOMATIC!