After moving to Dayton and enrolling at UD and getting a job at Delco Products in March of 1965, it didn't take long to succumb to the siren's song of a hot car! And White Allen Chevrolet had just the cure. It was a red 1964 Chevy Impala Super Sport, 327ci-300hp, 4-speed, with black interior. I have several memories of this car (one we won't even discuss), but my first memory of it was driving across the Main Street bridge in Dayton on a warm summer day, windows rolled down, and the Rolling Stones blaring "I Can't Get no Satisfaction". "Course I had glass packs on it, American mags, and redline tires which made it even "hotter"! This was at a time in my life that I could have gotten into trouble, but luckily, I dodged it a couple of times and kept going to school full-time and working full-time. What a car!
My third car was another case of young male car worship. I owned the '64 Chevy at the time but for some unknown reason I stopped at Tatone Buick in Fairborn and this red 1965 Buick Riviera was gleaming all alone on the showroom floor. I had to have it. I bought it after talking to my indulgent father who said he would drive the Chevy and if he didn't like it would sell it. What a partner in crime! We tend to forget all those things our parents do for us along the way.... Anyway, the sticker price was $3692.00 I picked it up the next day, stopped at the store, bought a big fat cigar, and drove to Aunt Hazel's house to show cousins Dave, Sue, and Roland! Youth can be embarrassing in retrospect. But it's done and I have the courage to share it.
A couple of years later, if I remember correctly, I sold the Riviera to my Uncle Floyd and bought a used 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado. Car number 4. This was a hunk! The only memory I have of it was with cousin Dave, and we pulled my old 25 ft Trojan cabin cruiser to Kentucky Lake on vacation. When we got there from Dayton, I checked the oil and there was nothing on the dipstick! Once again, luck averted a youthful disaster. We won't even talk about our week on the boat! It was purple as in this picture.
And then the monster of them all! A 1966 Chevy Corvette Sting Ray coupe, 4-speed. midnight blue, 427ci - 425hp, 4:11 rear end, side exhaust pipes, and Goodyear blue stripe tires. Today the car is worth about $110,000. But in conjunction with cousin Sue's husband, I sold it when I was drafted in 1969. I bought it from Frank Z Chevrolet in Dayton. They gave a 30-day warranty on it. On the 31st day, I was driving back from Lexington to Dayton on I-75 and decided to see how fast it would go. The last time I looked at the speedometer it registered 137 mph. It's a wonder I ever grew to be this old. To make a long story short, the engine threw a rod and when they asked me how fast I was going, I said, "Oh, about 70 or so...." They went halves with me, which I considered lucky, but probably ended up paying more than that. It was a great car, no A/C, but oh the sound of those side pipes! Dave and I took many trips in it to Canada, and through the South with the radio blaring and the summer breezes flowing. Lots of other things flowed, but again we were lucky. It was on one of those trips that we listened to Natalie Cole in a nightclub in Atlanta when she was just beginning her career. We misbehaved, but never so bad to get into real trouble. For those Corvette aficionados who note that my 1966 had a 1967 stinger hood on it, I did have that changed. The pic of the maroon Vette is just for a little more detail or quality. And the best picture of it here was just after I bumped into another car on an exit ramp in Winchester, Ky.
After the Army, I returned to my job at Delco and couldn't wait to get another Corvette! Bad judgement and carelessness. I bought about the first one I found from Walker Brothers -- it was a 1969 427ci-390
hp, 4-speed, roadster with only the hardtop. But it had air conditioning which was unusual and an ugly blue interior. I had to keep an eye out on the weather before leaving the hardtop at home! Just ask my brother Stuart! I was hard on it and raced it on local club tracks one car at a time against the clock. Again, cousin Dave was a "partner in crime". It had a lot of nagging mechanical problems that eventually dictated I sell it. Not a smart purchase. But it did provide an interesting weekend one time. I beloged to the Greater Dayton Corvette Club and during one day of the time trials, everyone drove in convoy to Indianapolis. At the city limits, we had a police escort to the racetrack where we got to make one loop around the track! I don't mind saying that was a thrill. I believe this was the last year they allowed this -- probably about 1971 or 1972.
Years later, about 1994, I bought a black 1981 Corvette, (identical to this one) automatic, 
with T-tops and black leather interior from my brother-in-law. It only had about 45,000 miles and was in great shape! It was a great car, but was a constant source of irritation in familial relationships and thus was a victim of one of those highway coaches commonly referred to as a conversion van. :-)
with T-tops and black leather interior from my brother-in-law. It only had about 45,000 miles and was in great shape! It was a great car, but was a constant source of irritation in familial relationships and thus was a victim of one of those highway coaches commonly referred to as a conversion van. :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment