My first car

I don’t know what possessed me to write about this today, but below is a picture that represents my first car. I think I have some actual pictures somewhere and maybe someday I’ll find them and post them.

From cargurus.com a picture of a 1967 Pontiac GTO. My car didn’t have the stock Pontiac wheels, but it had “mag” wheels with raised-letter tires and it was painted blue. My father paid $300 for the car and then proceeded to rebuild the top end of the engine: new valves, rocker arms, lifters, timing gear and chain. It had the “base” 400 cubic inch V8 rated at 335 HP. We put 60-series radial tires in the back and 70-series in the front. The change to radial tires helped the handling significantly, as did putting on more rigid springs, but it was a 1960’s muscle car and handling was never going to be its forte.

After a serious accident, the car was out of commission for five months being rebuilt and repainted and since the accident had broken the right exhaust manifold we decided to put exhaust headers on the engine. A year and a half later someone smashed into the back of the car as I was sitting a red light while driving home from my summer job. That, basically, was the end of the car.

I think many people miss their first car and, as you can imagine, I REALLY miss mine.