How about an original owner's or old fart's thread?

[RECHRGD]

In February '68 the local TV commercials continually advertised basic 4-speed Roadrunners for $2888 so I decided I wanted one. But.....they were selling so well that not a single dealer in Northern Calif had a "basic" RR, the dealer I was visiting had only one RR, a $4200 red Hemi automatic, so a salesman was trying to sell me a $4000 GTX which I couldn't really afford.

While he was laying down his sales pitch he talked me into giving him the keys to my potential trade in '63 Dodge (ex-Max Wedge, now a street 426) for a test drive to determine the trade in value. While on the test drive the transmission totally quit, they had to bring it back in on the hook.

I was tired of working on that car so I bought the GTX that I really didn't want just to get something new and reliable. First new car I ever bought.

Thanks for chiming in John.  Yea, 4K was a ton of money back then.  My R/T only ran me about $3,500.00.  I think if the HEMI had been a $300.00 option rather than over $700.00 alot more people would have bought them and they would'nt be such a big deal today.  Bob

[SeattleCharger]

     

[472 R/T SE]

$700 is $4356.35 in today's world. 

Neat stories John & Bob.  I never bought a new rig until marriage.  I could afford one just didn't want to be strapped 2 the insurance costs to go with payments.

[tecmopar]

I went down to Ft. Hamilton in Brooklyn for my Army induction physical back in '69 and when I was finished I wound up finding my self in front of the local Chrysler/Plymouth dealership. Sitting inside was gorgeous yellow 440-4bbl, 4-speed Superbird. Well, a salesman sees me and of course slowly starts the sale pitch with the hint that they were dying to get it out of there so I'm almost on the hook. In his last ditch effort he writes down a price and slides it across his desk, 3550.00 out the door and I almost fell over. He has the guys open the side doors and I knew what was next, the test drive, onto the Belt pkwy we go which doesn't have a lot of straight runs but big sweeping curves and I don't think we ran under 90 except to get on and off the Hwy, I'm hooked now. So I call my mom to see where my finances were at and even with a loan from my Dad I kept coming up 35.00 short per month which shows just how much that was back then because I took the train home, never to see it again. So sad but what a ride.

[skip68]

   Keep them coming guys.    And thank you for letting us younger guys dream of what it must have been like. 

[RECHRGD]

I went down to Ft. Hamilton in Brooklyn for my Army induction physical back in '69 and when I was finished I wound up finding my self in front of the local Chrysler/Plymouth dealership. Sitting inside was gorgeous yellow 440-4bbl, 4-speed Superbird. Well, a salesman sees me and of course slowly starts the sale pitch with the hint that they were dying to get it out of there so I'm almost on the hook. In his last ditch effort he writes down a price and slides it across his desk, 3550.00 out the door and I almost fell over. He has the guys open the side doors and I knew what was next, the test drive, onto the Belt pkwy we go which doesn't have a lot of straight runs but big sweeping curves and I don't think we ran under 90 except to get on and off the Hwy, I'm hooked now. So I call my mom to see where my finances were at and even with a loan from my Dad I kept coming up 35.00 short per month which shows just how much that was back then because I took the train home, never to see it again. So sad but what a ride.

Yep!  Superbirds and Daytonas were hard to sell when new.  Most people considered them to be ugly or just plane goofy looking.  A crystal ball and some money would have been great.  Just think if you could have bought up a dozen or so and stored them for 30 or so years.  I remember driving through Glendale one day in late '68 or early '69 and seeing a strange Charger in a dealership's showroom.  I stopped and went in to look at it.  It was a gunmetal gray 500 with a HEMI and 727.  A salesman accosted me immediately with a trade in offer for my '68.  I thought that the flush front grill was unattractive and didn't need any larger car payments, so I passed.  I think the sticker price on it was something over 5K.  Bob

[Khyron]

$700 is $4356.35 in today's world. 

Think of the price difference for the SRT package.. seems about right

Keep it up guys.. what about going to school.. up hill.. both ways I love the storys! :thumbsup:

[The70RT]

I was only 9 years old in 70 so no story about a new one. Here is how I got it though. My nephew got it in late 78. He is 2 months older than me  . I was at school one day and my sister and her husband lived two blocks from our high school. My nephew decides to stop over lunch at their house (he attended another high school). I was driving by in my 69 GTS 340 Dart and said oh Eric's here. I never rode in the car, I just sat in it the day he got it a week before. I pulled up and jumped from my car to the Charger. I put my key in and BAM it fired up! I was going he he. He came running out and said WTF! He said get out  He took me and a buddy for a ride though. Well he had it for like 6 months and told me he was selling it and going into the army as soon as school was out. I said I have first dibs. Well with the 50 dollar a week dishwashing job didn't allow me to save before school was out. I begged my mom to cosign for a 1000 dollar loan. I ended up paying 38.00 a month for a 3 year loan  oh yeah I never could get it to start with the dart key when I got the Charger 

[RECHRGD]

This is before the Charger's time but may be interesting anyway.  My older brother has always had a few screws loose and was a pain in the ass for the family from puberty on.  I haven't talked to him in years.  Anyway, as I previously mentioned, my dad always had new cars in the driveway whether he could afford them or not.  In '59 he had a new white T-Bird. That was the first year they turned it into a big boat rather than the original little sports car.  One evening, he went with my parents to a party.  The son of the party givers was my brothers best friend at the time.  So, after they had been getting their share of booze while the parental units weren't looking.  They took the T-Bird for a joy ride and promptly wrecked it while trying to take a corner too fast.  He only had a learner's permit at the time.  As I recall, he didn't get in much trouble for his antics and never did.  Fast forward to '61 and dad's latest temptation in the driveway was a new Corvette.  I loved that car, it had the 270hp 283 with dual quads, 4 speed and positraction.  Of coarse, dear brother was not allowed to take out the vette on his own.  So, somehow he managed to get a spare set of keys made and was just waiting for the right time to have his way with the fawn beige beast.  One day, mom and dad were again over at a friends house and took the other car, whatever that was at the time.  This time he wants little brother (me) to be his accomplice in grand theft auto and talks me into going with him.  It took all of about 15 minutes for him to total the vette.  He didn't want to wait for a car to turn right and open up his field of vision of oncoming traffic.  He just floored the vette at an intersection crossing Angeles Crest Hwy. in La Canada and promptly t-boned a 56 ford with a family inside, almost rolling it.  Luckily, no one was seriously hurt.  He tried to run after the impact, but the poor vette didn't go so well after having it's front end torn off.  The Cops drove us home.  He wouldn't let me call our parents.  I had to wait until he emptied the liqueur cabinet and was incoherent.  Again, I don't think he really ever got his ass kicked for that either.  I promise to be back in mopar territory on the next post.   Bob

[68charger383]

I went down to Ft. Hamilton in Brooklyn for my Army induction physical back in '69 and when I was finished I wound up finding my self in front of the local Chrysler/Plymouth dealership. Sitting inside was gorgeous yellow 440-4bbl, 4-speed Superbird. Well, a salesman sees me and of course slowly starts the sale pitch with the hint that they were dying to get it out of there so I'm almost on the hook. In his last ditch effort he writes down a price and slides it across his desk, 3550.00 out the door and I almost fell over. He has the guys open the side doors and I knew what was next, the test drive, onto the Belt pkwy we go which doesn't have a lot of straight runs but big sweeping curves and I don't think we ran under 90 except to get on and off the Hwy, I'm hooked now. So I call my mom to see where my finances were at and even with a loan from my Dad I kept coming up 35.00 short per month which shows just how much that was back then because I took the train home, never to see it again. So sad but what a ride.

Yep!  Superbirds and Daytonas were hard to sell when new.  Most people considered them to be ugly or just plane goofy looking.  

I was pretty young in the early 70s, but remember that they had an unsold orange superbird in the back of our local chrysler dealership until almost 1973. As funny as it may sound today, it was like each dealership got forced to take or got stuck with 2 of these cars by Ma Mopar, like it or not.

[PocketThunder]

I was born in 1975, so i grew up hearing all these stories from my Dad and his friends and that is what got me hooked on muscle cars.  My High School ride was borrowing my parents '83 Ford Escort Diesel, poop brown and the heater took 30 minutes to warm up.  I'm suprised my girlfriend at the time would still get in that car durring the winter months when i picked her up on dates.

[BROCK]

This story is from 82 & is about my first 70 Charger R/T.  I was in college & like most young broke guys
was headed to the town square to hang out for the night.  I stopped at a store to get a drink on my
way & this guy with a 69 428 Grand Prix pulls in.  He starts going ga-ga over my car & says we have
to race so he can see how his car compares.  I'm like fine but I'm not gonna break the speed limit. 
My 727 auto had a bad habit of not shifting into 1st so I tended to overcompensate for it with the
throttle.  I easily got him from a green light & from a rolling start (yeah 2nd gear).  When we parked
up at the square, he wanted a ride.  When I floored it to pull out onto the road it really was in 1st
gear.  It shot over to the fast lane & boiled tires through to 3rd as my passenger held on for dear
life.  Another MoPar convert

[moparstuart]

428 ?   GM         

[The70RT]

428 ?   GM         

Yep...you young guys 

http://www.highperformancepontiac.com/features/hppp_0602_1969_pontiac_grand_prix_sj/index.html

[moparstuart]

428 ?   GM         

Yep...you young guys 

http://www.highperformancepontiac.com/features/hppp_0602_1969_pontiac_grand_prix_sj/index.html

wow learn something new everyday  

[The70RT]

428 ?   GM         

Yep...you young guys 

http://www.highperformancepontiac.com/features/hppp_0602_1969_pontiac_grand_prix_sj/index.html

wow learn something new everyday  

Or something old    JK buddy 

[SeattleCharger]

This story is from 82 & is about my first 70 Charger R/T.  I was in college & like most young broke guys
was headed to the town square to hang out for the night.  I stopped at a store to get a drink on my
way & this guy with a 69 428 Grand Prix pulls in.  He starts going ga-ga over my car & says we have
to race so he can see how his car compares.  I'm like fine but I'm not gonna break the speed limit. 
My 727 auto had a bad habit of not shifting into 1st so I tended to overcompensate for it with the
throttle.  I easily got him from a green light & from a rolling start (yeah 2nd gear).  When we parked
up at the square, he wanted a ride.  When I floored it to pull out onto the road it really was in 1st
gear.  It shot over to the fast lane & boiled tires through to 3rd as my passenger held on for dear
life.  Another MoPar convert

Look at the headline of that grandprix article:   

        "1969 428 Pontiac Grand Prix SJ - Banished Brute
Unwanted By A Mopar Collector, This '69 428 Grand Prix SJ Exhibits
  High Class With High Power" 
                                                

[The70RT]

This story is from 82 & is about my first 70 Charger R/T.  I was in college & like most young broke guys
was headed to the town square to hang out for the night.  I stopped at a store to get a drink on my
way & this guy with a 69 428 Grand Prix pulls in.  He starts going ga-ga over my car & says we have
to race so he can see how his car compares.  I'm like fine but I'm not gonna break the speed limit. 
My 727 auto had a bad habit of not shifting into 1st so I tended to overcompensate for it with the
throttle.  I easily got him from a green light & from a rolling start (yeah 2nd gear).  When we parked
up at the square, he wanted a ride.  When I floored it to pull out onto the road it really was in 1st
gear.  It shot over to the fast lane & boiled tires through to 3rd as my passenger held on for dear
life.  Another MoPar convert

Look at the headline of that grandprix article:   

        "1969 428 Pontiac Grand Prix SJ - Banished Brute
Unwanted By A Mopar Collector, This '69 428 Grand Prix SJ Exhibits
  High Class With High Power" 
                                                 

Ha Ha.....I never noticed. I remember the 428 back then and googled 428 and picked that link. I was at work and the page was loading slow so i never read it.

[moparstuart]

This story is from 82 & is about my first 70 Charger R/T.  I was in college & like most young broke guys
was headed to the town square to hang out for the night.  I stopped at a store to get a drink on my
way & this guy with a 69 428 Grand Prix pulls in.  He starts going ga-ga over my car & says we have
to race so he can see how his car compares.  I'm like fine but I'm not gonna break the speed limit. 
My 727 auto had a bad habit of not shifting into 1st so I tended to overcompensate for it with the
throttle.  I easily got him from a green light & from a rolling start (yeah 2nd gear).  When we parked
up at the square, he wanted a ride.  When I floored it to pull out onto the road it really was in 1st
gear.  It shot over to the fast lane & boiled tires through to 3rd as my passenger held on for dear
life.  Another MoPar convert

Look at the headline of that grandprix article:   

        "1969 428 Pontiac Grand Prix SJ - Banished Brute
Unwanted By A Mopar Collector, This '69 428 Grand Prix SJ Exhibits
  High Class With High Power" 
                                                 

Ha Ha.....I never noticed. I remember the 428 back then and googled 428 and picked that link. I was at work and the page was loading slow so i never read it.

dennis is really a closet or not so closet GM man 

[BROCK]

WOW!  I had to go back & look at the link just to be sure
That is just too priceless

[The70RT]

This story is from 82 & is about my first 70 Charger R/T.  I was in college & like most young broke guys
was headed to the town square to hang out for the night.  I stopped at a store to get a drink on my
way & this guy with a 69 428 Grand Prix pulls in.  He starts going ga-ga over my car & says we have
to race so he can see how his car compares.  I'm like fine but I'm not gonna break the speed limit. 
My 727 auto had a bad habit of not shifting into 1st so I tended to overcompensate for it with the
throttle.  I easily got him from a green light & from a rolling start (yeah 2nd gear).  When we parked
up at the square, he wanted a ride.  When I floored it to pull out onto the road it really was in 1st
gear.  It shot over to the fast lane & boiled tires through to 3rd as my passenger held on for dear
life.  Another MoPar convert

Look at the headline of that grandprix article:   

        "1969 428 Pontiac Grand Prix SJ - Banished Brute
Unwanted By A Mopar Collector, This '69 428 Grand Prix SJ Exhibits
  High Class With High Power" 
                                                 

Ha Ha.....I never noticed. I remember the 428 back then and googled 428 and picked that link. I was at work and the page was loading slow so i never read it.

dennis is really a closet or not so closet GM man 

  Yeah I got 4, but hey I got a couple of fords too. I would have more mopars but they don't give them away 

[firefighter3931]

Nice old picture Ron.  Ever here of 1/2 mile drags?  They used to have them a the old Riverside Raceway on the back straightaway.  No helmets or roll bars required, just weld a small chain under your driveshaft and you were good to go.  I went their once with my then girlfriend, Marcia.  She was a drop dead gorgeous blond that, oh never mind.  I wish I still had those old time slips.  As I recall the car ran around 126mph and I think around a 19 second E.T..  I remember a friend of mine with a small block El Cameno kicked my butt.  Not too many guys in my crowd did engine mods to their factory hot rods back then, but this guy's dad was a mechanic and had that little chevy rocking.  I think he turned about 130mph with some big slicks on the back.  My engine mods consisted of headers and that was it. 
Right after I bought the car I took it to a shop in Pasadena that was well known for VW exhaust systems.  They said they had been waiting for one of these cars to come in because they wanted to design a set of headers that would work on them.  They said if I could leave it there for a couple of days that I could have the headers built and installed for only $50.00.  Well, when I went to pick it up and saw that they had cut big holes in my wheel wells for one of the pipes on each side I was not too happy.   The guy apologized for not clearing it with me, but the damage was done.  Bob

That's a cool story Bob....especially Marcia !   

I have read about the 1/2 mile drags but never participated myself....at least not on a sanctioned track. 

Good lord....i can just imagine the look on your face when you saw those inner fenders hacked up....OMG ! 


Great stories guys...keep em coming. 



Ron

[RECHRGD]

My first trip to the drag strip was at the San Fernando Raceway, out in the valley.  Rumor had it, that the track had a slight uphill grade to it.  It's probably a housing tract now.  My first run was against a vette.  He got me off the line, but I was able drive by him on the top end.  I don't remember much else about that day, so it must have been cut short or something.  Most of the time I would go to Irwindale Raceway on Saturday nights.  I ran in the 'B' Pure Stock class.  You could run headers, but no slicks or other performance enhancements.  I usually did pretty good, but there was always a guy there in a yellow GTX that would keep me from getting that trophy.  Our cars were very close to the same except he had 3.91 gears and I was running 3.23's.  He would always pull me off the line and then I'd be gaining on him at the end, but never enough to pass.  The last time I raced him, I tried to get a hole shot on him and ended up red lighting.  We both kept racing and I did beat him, but he took home the trophy.  I think he was running 13.8's at 100mph and I was running 14.0's at 101/102mph.  Out of all the muscle cars back then the Charger would hold it's own and actually win more encounters than otherwise.  I had a friend that had a '68 Mustang GT with a 390 and 4 speed (think Bullitt).  That thing was a slug, the Charger would just walk away from it.  I remember one night going up against a GTO.  My plug wires were going bad and the engine was missing like crazy, but I still managed to beat him.  One night the "old guy" with the Charger that I had previously had a dead heat with out in Sunland, showed up.  He had since put 3.91's in it and was running 13.7's.  He managed to take down that GTX and took home a trophy.  These old Chargers were just badass back in the day.    More later.   Bob

[tan top]

       .....................good story Bob 

[PocketThunder]

These old Chargers were just badass back in the day.    More later.   Bob

That is just bitchen....