First post is a recap of my first post on the forums....
A bit of my personal history to offer appreciation for your efforts.
I turned 16 in the summer of ’88…and by that point had saved $2k dollars and was given a loan by my father for 3.5k. There were rules and restrictions about my car choices based on what my brother had achieved the previous year when he had turned 16. I was determined to do better. Unfortunately my grades were not up to snuff at the end of the previous school year, but my father agreed that we could proceed with the car shopping but I would have to forego driving it until the midterms arrived. The beneficial part of this was that I was not in a hurry to find a car.
It was towards the end of summer when it showed up, parked on the corner with a ‘For Sale’ sign in the window: a solid black and, by all appearances, a stock 1969 Camaro. I took the number and called...the price: $5000. I raged for days trying to get my father to go look at the car, unable to stand his nonchalant attitude towards a car that I certainly expected to be sold immediately. Then it was gone. I immediately chastised my father…well…as much as thought I could get away with without irritating him to the point of calling off the hunt. He phoned the owner and learned that the car had simply been moved to another corner…the sign was still in the window and the car was unsold…AND my father was ready to go look at it. Oh happy day!
It was perfect. It has just finished a ‘light’ cosmetic restoration with new vinyl, paint, and carpet…a few other bits replaced here and there and it looked great…and it was clear by the lack of a scowl on my father’s face that he too was impressed. “Let me pop the hood for you,” the owner offered while handing me the keys “go start her up.” While my father was looking over the engine, I cranked the car. It was at that moment my hopes were shattered. With the hood blocking the view of my father’s face, I knew the change that had occurred…the scowl would be present and we were ‘done’ looking at this car.
When I got out of the car and walked around front, I was disappointed but also impressed. “Well, we had her bored, blueprinted, and balanced…” He continued on with the list of appropriate engine and suspension upgrades and modifications that had all been recently completed that made this seemingly stock ’69 RS anything but ‘stock’. When I had turned the key, and breathed life into that engine…the glorious noise it made revealed that this car was inappropriate for any sixteen year old boy. My father knew it, the owner knew it, and even I knew it.
I have never gotten over that car.
Over the years I’ve certainly been in a position to find a similar car…but I’ve never pulled the trigger. One ‘to-do’ on my list is to rebuild a ’69, but I’m waiting until my sons are old enough to enjoy the journey with me if they so choose. The first time I caught a glimpse of the gen 5 Camaro…old emotions stirred anew, and I realized that some things were going to happen sooner rather than later. The ’69 will get rebuilt…but there’s a stop gap measure…one that will likely be better than the original.
So…to all those that bear even the slightest responsibility for bringing this car to market: Thank You.
Below is a picture of my last car…thought it might be relevant to communicate who some of your ‘new’ customers are going to be.
and here's the first pic of the new car....