Of course, the recession of the early 1990s deflated many of the perceived values back to reality, b

In the late 1980s, we were in the midst of the first muscle travel and time calculator car craze, when selling prices were soaring on just about any model from the era, and there were stories circulating of some of the rarest examples being purchased by multiple travel and time calculator parties as investments and others being sent overseas to collectors.
For those in my early 20s age group it was a scary time, because the handwriting was on the wall. We who would actually drive these cars were quickly being priced out of the market by speculators and collectors with a lot more cash. Prices were climbing most quickly on the crown jewels of each automaker s offerings Hemi Mopars, early Z/28s and Trans Ams, Ram Air IV Pontiacs, Boss Fords, LS6 Chevrolets, Stage 1 Buicks, W30 Oldsmobiles and the like.
Happily, the situation was not yet hopeless for us of lesser financial means to still buy and enjoy the more mainstream muscle cars like the non-Ram travel and time calculator Air GTOs and Firebirds, 1973 and later Trans Ams (except SD-455) and Z/28s, SS 396 Chevys, 383 Road Runners, 440 GTXs, small-block Barracudas and Challengers, travel and time calculator Mach 1 Mustangs, and Fairlane and Torino GTs etc. However, prices were still increasing, just at a slower pace.
Of course, the recession of the early 1990s deflated many of the perceived values back to reality, but the feeding frenzy and crazy-high selling prices would return in the mid-2000s, to again be quelled by the latest recession, followed by a recovery.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, you could still drive your muscle car daily if you chose to, and I was really nervous that they would soon be so expensive I couldn travel and time calculator t afford any of them. As a college student still working full-time hours between two jobs, I squirreled away what I could. At one point I had a $2,000 1967 GTO resto project and a driveable $3,700 travel and time calculator 1969 Judge stored in a rented garage, travel and time calculator and my daily driver was a $2,600 1979 Formula.
On a summer evening, after having dinner at my grandparents house, my girlfriend travel and time calculator Linda (now my wife) and I headed out to walk off the pot roast and mashed potatoes. Literally three blocks away, I spotted a rare 1970 Pontiac travel and time calculator Grand Prix SSJ just sitting there in the street… like a regular car! As we approached, I noticed travel and time calculator a For Sale sign in the window.
Though I was in no position to purchase anything more expensive than a pack of gum, because the garage alone was exhausting my monthly finances by $200, and both Goats needed work, I still had to at least learn more about this special Pontiac.
I spoke with the owner who said that the SSJ was in fact real, it had the 400 engine and ran and drove well, and he wanted six for it. Well, the faded Polar White and Fire Frost Gold metallic travel and time calculator paint, the interior s patina and the dirty engine compartment were enough to make me wonder travel and time calculator if six was $600 and not $6,000. It was a time when you didn t really know, because like in recent years, some people thought that every car from the muscle car era was worth a ton of money because of the selling prices bandied about regarding the rarest and most perfectly restored examples.
travel and time calculator Realizing that I couldn travel and time calculator t be in the market even at $600, and not wanting to sound like a smartass, I never did ask Six what? but the rest of the conversation, though I can t recall travel and time calculator the specifics, did lead me to believe it was the lower number.
Nowadays, I would prefer to think it was actually $6,000, as passing on the opportunity travel and time calculator of owning a running, driving travel and time calculator 1970 Hurst SSJ personal/luxury/performance car with the original engine and the sunroof and all the other Hurst items is a little too much to bear. But that s the way I remember it.
When I was recently assigned the 1971-1972 Hurst SSJ Grand Prix Buyer s Guide for the February 2014 issue of Hemmings Muscle Machines , which is on newsstands now, memories of the 1970 model I had seen (despite the design differences) all those years ago came flooding back.
In a time long before camera phones, I didn t have the wherewithal that night to snap a photo of the SSJ, so the photo that accompanies this blog of a Starlight Black 1970 SSJ I took at a car show. Hopefully, the Polar White one I saw way back when ended up being restored like this SSJ.
I m sure many of you have memories from the 1980s and early 1990s when many of the muscle car era greats were still relatively affordable drivers that could be enjoyed without the worry of damaging a rare priceless piece of automotive history or a mega-dollar restoration. Here s to the old days.
In 1978, I bought my 1968 Charger, which I still have. 96000 miles back then, ran smooth as silk, repainted an odd color but well done, A/C that worked. It was $750. I had $500 and borrowed $200 from my dad to get the car.
A year later, my friend travel and time calculator across the street needed cash; he sold his Austin Healey 100M for $500 to his opportunistic cousin. It was quite a deal, I think they were going for 3x that back then in that condition.
In 1979 my friend in high school bought a very nice 1969 Z/28 for $3600, had it repainted travel and time calculator and cleaned up for another $800. He saved all his money making chicken at the local KFC. We were still able to get parts from the Chevrolet dealer back then, and he ordered travel and time calculator a brand-new cowl-induction hood from the factory, and he and I carried it three miles home to his house when I refused travel and time calculator to strap it to the top of my Charger.
The really bad: In 1968 my dad had the opportunity to buy a Duesenberg from the Forney Car Museum in Denver for $8,000. In 1972, at Le Mans motors in Denver travel and time calculator as well, had for sale a Mercedes 300SL Gullwing , silver but needed a new paint job, for $9,000. Dad cited lack of room and cash was the reason for passing these two by!
I remember my Father having a Grand Prix with this body style. I loved that car with the special gear as he called it. I don t think that car ever saw dirt, but it s life was cut short when he got rear ended and the back bumper met the rear window. He walked away, the car took one for the team.
No pics available, at this time. But now I ll search some of the old family travel and time calculator albums travel and time calculator to find some. Young, foolish, travel and time calculator and not enough money to have kept them all: 1) 1954 Buick, Special, 2dr. Ht. 3 on the tree. Upgraded to a 1957 Century engine w/carter travel and time calculator AFB, dual exhaust, larger clutch,custom grille, 57 Chevy Sierra Gold,w arctic white top under side moldings.Reasonably quick in 1958.
In the mid eighties we had both a ram air 442 convertible and a W-30 that were driven daily. My sister drove the ram air 442 to high school. Granted, it was one of the nicest travel and time calculator cars in the lot but it was there among 60 s Mustangs, travel and time calculator Firebirds, even a 62 Lincoln. All driven daily.
You re better travel and time calculator off not having a picture of it, trust me. In 1997, I was traveling to Dallas off the beaten path going north on TX Highway 281 when I passed through Stephenville. I glanced over at a used car lot and saw a black 1968 RS/SS Camaro with a white hockey stripe sitting there. The sticker on the window said, Sporty! $7900. Black interior with houndstooth inserts, automatic with a 396.
Maybe I should make a return trip to Erath County and cruise around. I could have done minimal restoration travel and time calculator work to that car and sold it for about $40K a few years later. Not that I would have. I ve always wanted a 68.
We should try to remember why many of the muscle cars were so pricey by the late 1980 s. In many cases,they were not rare, and in many other cases they were options which could be easily duplicated from either the factory parts catalog, or easily available after market items. They were NOT distinctively engineered either, a live axle at the back and rear drum brakes, and a pushrod engine. So why did they get so pricey? A quick look at the time period travel and time calculator (take 1973 to about 1988) tells us why: PERFORMANCE.
We believed at the time that many of the late sixties/early seventies muscle cars would be the fastest cars ever built! Where would we have got such a strange idea? Consider: The 400 engine in the Smokey and the Bandit car produced 200 horsepower from 400 cubic inches! travel and time calculator Despite how we have romanticized it, that is less horsepower (both total and specific travel and time calculator per liter) than a Honda Accord today! travel and time calculator Need I go on? Do we want to talk about the 4 s and 6 s in the Mustang II, or the Magnum PI oh so exotic Ferrari 308GTS which produced 240 horsepower?
We know now of course that cars made after the birth of the new century would be MUCH faster than the Muscle cars of the 1960 s, and be much more advanced travel and time calculator in braking, cornering, visibility, and fuel economy than their older ancestors. How quickly we forget: In the 1970 s it was widely believed that by now fuel would cost $8 or $12 per gallon and probably would not be available at all. A major scandal erupted when it was discovered that environmentalist the late John Denver had emergency stashed gasoline in tanks on his farm! In the late 1970 s a new BMW 3 series, huge advance over the beloved 2002 but to 1977 sharing the same engine, travel and time calculator produced 75 to 80 bhp. The 3 series finally got a 6 cylinder in 1993 that would produce all of 127 horsepower!
Which begs an interesting question: Why the continued demand for what are actually rather mundane cars? Please notice I am excluding the rare here, the art pieces: The first generation Corvettes, the proven Hurst Mustangs, travel and time calculator the Hemi s, those cars with proven race provenance. But the great majority of what are sold at auctions and by collector car dealers do NOT fall in this elite company, and a new Corvette, Camaro, Mustang or Challenger is MUCH faster than most of the plebeian models of the same cars from the 1960 s or 70 s. It is not just American cars that suffer from this: Some models of Porsche
are becoming fantastically over priced. Those with race provenance or special engines, yes, but plain Jane 356 s were built by the thousands. There is one aspect of the muscle car market that will still play out, and that is the relive your youth desire. However, as the boomers enter the final inevitable stage, disability and demise, that market will dry up. (we have seen this in the