This thread reminds me that some of you older guys were once cool. Nice cars!

We were walking around the Granbury square a few weeks ago and this kid pulls up to the stop sign in his 70 Camaro with the windows down playing 80's rock. That kid has it right.

Wish I had a photo of my first car - 65 Mustang Fast Back 289 ci /4 speed, A/C and spoke hub caps. Posi too I believe. Mom had bought it new in 65 and it was mine to drive when licensed in 76.

By the 80s, I left hot rodding to coaching my kid's sport teams and toys that went bang. But I seem to remember a car magazine publishing a feature on street racing, naming Forest Ln and Red Bird as top locations. Gaining national attention, DPD vowed to stop street racing.

As evil street racers were viewed, I never remember anyone in my crowd vandalizing or destroying property for entertainment.

Complete with Cragar wheels? I rode around in a 67 Camaro similar to that. Great times!

That is a 1972 Dodge Challenger. 340CID. The 1st year when the emissions people attacked and my Challenger came with low compression. Within a year I changed the heads to W2, shaved them, and boosted compression from 8.5 to 10.5. Added Hooker headers, Crane Fireball cam, and Edelbrock Torker intake. Then got rid of the Quadrajet and added a Holley 780cfm double pumper carb. 340's were great small blocks but worked better in Darts(Swingers), Dusters, and Plymouth Demons because they were 300lbs lighter. 3.55 posi-trac rear end. Auto tranny (MOPAR 727) with a new shifting gimmick ... a slap stick so when shifting manually you couldn't over shift. The Holley almost over gassed it for the cam.

I could hold my own against almost all the small blocks but big blocks would come on too strong at the end, especially if they were running high ratio gearing.

Always wanted a 440 Challenger, especially after seeing the B movie "Vanishing Point".

Those were fun times. I have some stories.

My car shown above was a factory big block car (396). Got it at age 15 and kept it until I was 31. I still have the VIN memorized, its last set of plates on the wall, and a windshield registration sticker I never put on. It was built in Kansas City in the spring of 1968. OEM color was Island Teal, medium teal interior with buckets and console, and a black top. Sold it to a collector car wholesaler from The Colony back when I was moving from Nocona to Gainesville. All the pics I have are developed paper photos. Sold the car before I had a digital camera.

It's last configuration:

• 11:1 454 with forged pistons and rods
• Large oval port heads with upgraded 2.30" intake and 1.88" exhaust valves, full porting and bronze guides by Reher-Morrison
• Holley Victor Jr. high rise single plant 4150 style intake powder coasted black
• Holley 800 CFM double pumper that I milled the choke off of and profiled all the venturis plus complete custom internals and a 50cc primary accelerator pump
• Hooker 2" primary 3.5" collector headers
• Retrofit HEI with MSD coil, custom advance curve
• Taylor wires
• Solid flat tappet cam with .618"/.636" lift 256/264 duration at 0.050" 107 LSA
• Roller tipped rockers
• THM400 with B&M full reprogram kit built by me
• 3600 RPM stall 10" converter with anti-balloon plates
• GM Corporate 8.5" axle with bolt-in shafts (like a F*** 9") with an Eaton locker out of a Lewisville police Caprice
• Aftermarket 4.10:1 gearset
• 3" mandrel exhaust dumped in front of the axle (I forget whose mufflers I used but it's not one of the ones you're thinking of)
• Rear-mounted Holley red pump
• Auxiliary transmission cooler
• Battery in the trunk, master kill switch in the rear panel, F*** remote starter solenoid in the trunk
• Low and high beams re-wired to run off relays (made them 2X brighter and not yellow)

Power to the distributor was on a toggle switch so I could spin it over before lighting it. The fuel pump was run off a separate key because the original ignition switch cylinder was so worn it could be turned without a key (last year for the switch in the dash). Since the coil didn't work unless there was at least 4.5 PSI fuel pressure due to a pressure safety switch I wired in back when the 396 was on nitrous, it would take a while for someone to figure out how to steal it.