One of the big things ricers argue about against the
classic cars of the late 60's is the fact that they
were so fast stock.
I once picked up a "Mopar Now" magazine to see what
the newer generation of performance Mopars were like,
and opened up to the editor's page in the begining of
the magazine.
The editor talked for a page about how bad classic
muscle cars (including Mopars) were because they were
soo fast stock, and that it doesn't say much that
someone could take a 12-14 sec stock 1968 Hemi R/T
Charger and then hot rod it and get 11's and sometimes
10's. Now, by contrast, the current "hot rodders" take
cars as slow as 18's stock and make them fast enough
to get 7's-12's. Not too long ago, the fastest modern
car was a 7-sec Neon...
I personally disagree with this modern hatred of older
cars which is often unseen by the traditional hot
rodders, and also disagree with the modern hatred of
new car hot rodders from the traditional hot rodders.
I.e.
My dad once had a hot rodded '68 Charger. It must
have been around 400-500 HP when he sold it. It was
slower then my grandfather's 1967 Saab which had a FWD
60 HP V4!!!!
I personally liked both cars as much... and also like
(with as much energy) my car, which is an on-going
project to hot rod a '92 3.3 V6 Dodge Dynasty which
pretends (wishes) it were an Imperial.
When trying to gain information on custom exhausts, I
looked to the traditional hot rodding groups (after
all, I was fimilar with many groups from my other
grandfather's 1930 Model A). When the groups learned
what I was doing, I was flamed, laughed at, and
recieved more personal attacks then I could ever
imagine anyone getting. Ever gotten over 1,000 hateful
e-mails a day for a week?? Now, I went to the modern
hot-rodding groups and was meet with kindness, until I
once asked a question not specific to modern cars and
then recieved similar results!
But then once I was able to get perfect results from
building up a k-car.... no better way to get laughs
then to drive around in a 1989 Aries with flames,
brass rims, white racing stripes, hood scoop, and a
rear wheelie bar (on a FWD car...). Great way to get
attention, and so long you're alright with comedy, can
be a great way to have fun- but my Aries was my first
car and a true death trap- no brakes, rust was holding
the car together, ran on 3 of the 4 cylinders, had a
leak in the gas tank big enough to make Ken Star look
air tight, and had the original fluids and filters
when I got it with 100k+ on the clock! Was fun though
(scary though- when driving the car with no brakes at
highway speeds, without knowing if you could stop, or
if the car would be able to keep togther any
longer.....).
--- "D. Dardalis" <dardal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> >Whoa.. I was uhh... 19 when I bought my '66 Imp a
> few years ago.
> >I am always surprised when I hear about someone in
> their 20's owning an
> >Imperial.
> >
> >-=snip=-
> >
> >I'm curious what draws a younger person to an older
> car, and in
> >particular to an Imperial?
> When I bought my Imperial, I was fresh from Athens
> Greece (6 or 8 months)
> in undergraduate Engineering school, and was looking
> for a car. My father
> was driving a 65 Volvo back in Athens for a few
> decades, so was not scared
> of old cars. There is a severe limitation in most
> European counties on the
> engine size of your car, so most cars have tiny 4's
> (my father's car was
> 1.8 lit, and that was considered big!). So, I liked
> the idea of owning an
> old American car with a real big engine. However, I
> was disappointed by
> friends' American cars with their real poor
> performance and handling. It
> seemed that my little Volvo I could outrun cars with
> 4 and 5 liter
> engines. So, when I bought my 68 sedan (for only
> $800) mainly because it
> was inexpensive and nice/unusual styling (I liked
> the idea of driving a
> 7.2 liter engine, 4 times bigger than my Volvo), I
> was not expecting
> much. I was a bit concerned about its size, but
> being trained to drive in
> Greece where the roads are very tight, it was not a
> problem. Eventually, I
> started to realize that this car had a lot more
> performance that its peers,
> and even more performance than performance cars,
> even though you never felt
> it. Then, I slowly did my research and learnt what
> Imperial and in general
> Chrysler products of the period were all about. In
> other words, I was just
> lucky running into that car at the right time and
> the right place! Then, a
> college friend introduced me to working in cars
> (rarely in Europe people
> work on their cars compared to the US), and that was
> it. Now, I combine
> transportation with fun, and save money in the
> process by avoiding car
> payments.
> D^2, 68 Sedan, 68 LeBaron
>
>
>
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