I couldn’t help myself the moment I saw it sitting on the lot, I had to drive it. A Mineral Gray S197-era Ford Mustang…it called to me. For those who don’t know my backstory prior to writing at BangShift, I had a 2005 Mustang GT that I turned into a Mach 1 phantom that I started calling Mock One. I bought the car after my LS4-powered Monte Carlo SS’s transaxle packed it in rather violently, and it had already been tweaked with by the former owner (who, according to the locals who knew the car, was a lady who liked to date guys who’d spend money on her car) before she decided that a Challenger SRT-8 would suit her tastes better. Her loss, my gain…I did some suspension mods and upgraded the brakes and spent most of my time in Arizona tearing down canyon roads with friends. Good times…so why isn’t that car still around? The seats. I learned that after two hours or so behind the wheel, my spine wasn’t happy and after a 12-hour run to Colorado, that I was in serious pain and could only blame the bucket seat. I needed a larger car and still had a craving for a Hemi-powered late-model Mopar that wouldn’t go away, so begat Angry Grandpa.
The drive was uneventful. I behaved myself, and quickly reminded myself why I liked that era of Mustang so much…and why I traded it off for the Chrysler so fast. The steering was nimble, the brakes adequate, and the noise…ok, given that my old car had headers and pipes, the noise could’ve used a tweak. So could the interior trim…this GT I drove was one of the most bare-bones I’ve ever seen. It didn’t even have full instrumentation, and that’s only one of a few irritations that came flooding back. The 5R55S five-speed automatic might be the only automatic in the world to make the Chrysler’s NAG-1 look absolutely amazing by comparison. The Mock One’s shift points had been tweaked, but it still had it’s issues…the test drive car’s algorithm was clueless and confused. But bitching aside, if I found a manual-trans example, it’d be very hard to look away…this era of Mustang was a very decent car and it would be a riot to do one up right, and right now the prices of decent examples are in that sweet zone.
Story time over, one of my “rules” I hold myself to is that I try to not own anything twice. It hasn’t really worked out, with two G-body Cutlasses, two B-body aeroback coupes, and at least six Mopar FJM cars in my history books, but some cars I’d love another chance at while others I wouldn’t touch if I was paid to. A second-gen Camaro is high on that list, as is another aeroback B-body. What about you?
65 impala. Bought it in Colorado Springs and drove it to Michigan. Loved everything about it. 327, 4 speed, white with red interior. “Gave” it to my brother when the Army shipped me overseas. Never saw it again.
1970 Cuda 440+6 it was the prototype
That’s a tough question to answer for most of us. There are about 5 that I wish I could get back; The 55 T-Bird I had in high school. The 68 Torino GT I bought a few years after high school. The 57 T-Bird I had in the early 70s. The absolutely cherry and un-cut 69 Bronco I sold when I moved from Colorado to Florida. That was a mistake on both counts. The final one is the 70 Boss 302 that I sold because it had gotten rough over the years (daily driver) and I couldn’t afford to restore it. But at least the new owner is in the long process of doing so on his limited budget. I am keeping my 94 Mark VIII and was planning to be buried in it until I found out the hole I bought is too small for the car.
My 2004 GTO. I bought the car new and this was the most fun all around vehicle to drive and race. Made around 200 passes at the drag strip and even TT the car at Pocono North. Got layed off in 2009 and had to sell. Been regretting it ever since.
I’ve had several cars that I’d like back but the one that would be first is a ’65 Malibu SS, dark green, black interior, black wheels with poverty caps, 327 (350hp clone), 4-speed, was the best driver, fun car, reliable, good looking, drag racer (13.90s), wish I had that one back.
My high school / college ride: 70 Dodge Challenger R/T 383 pre production run. A long story.
1963 Chev Impala SS, 327 Auto, Dark Brown with Tan interior
One of the four XA/XB coupes I’ve had over the years.
Just one, any one …. (sob)
Either my 08 Mustang GT or my 99 Dodge Ram. My two favorites out of the 30 or so cars I’ve had in my lifetime. I wish I did not have to DD the GT otherwise I’d still have it. It was starting to show its age and with other things going on in my life at the time it was impractical to say the least. My 99 Ram, man how I loved that truck. It was a dream of mine to own a lifted 4X4 and over time the truck became a dream realized but, like all dreams weird stuff started to happen and I had to wake up and part ways…
MN-12 Thunderbird…. sorry Lohnes.
My high school ride from 1967
1955 Chevy with a tri power 348
Had to sell it a year later when I was home on leave
My ’69 Dodge Dart GTS with a factory 383, in B5 blue…
My sweet ’69 Road Runner, bought in spring of ’76 for $1,000. Garden variety 383, 727, but still . . . I had too many vehicles so I sold it to a high school girl down the street and she ran it into a pole. Her dad put a Belvedere doghouse on it and sold it. I have no idea what happened to it but I’m thinking that sometime in the last 42 years somebody was scratching their head wondering what they had.
96′ Buick Roadmaster Estate. Best car I’ve had for overall reliability, millage, power, comfort, and functionality. Could fit a 4×8 sheet of ply in it. Towed my Matador with ease. Got 20mpg all day. Rode like a caddy.
57/58 rambler ambassador custom . assembled in Auckland new Zealand rhd push button slush box aka borg warner 12, 327 cu in , holley replaced with 600cfm dp delco dizzy anti clockwise rotation installed luminition kit . never liked torque tube with single uj . days before computers. no help getting parts in nz