(Pardon the repeat. But as you’re reading this, we’re taking the Great Pumpkin Mustang down to Alabama for Austin’s second-annual Mopar vs. Brand-X race and we felt that this was a fitting tribute. If all goes well, we will have photos up later this week. If not…I’ll be paying a tow truck driver a mint to haul our orange Fox-body back home on a trailer. -McT)
Austin Griggs’ Ratty Muscle Cars setup is a very honest deal: just drive the damn car, who cares if it isn’t perfect. If that doesn’t speak to you, then I’m sorry, but for many people I know and more that I don’t, detailing down to the last nut and bolt or going for broke on a paint job over putting some miles on the clock doesn’t make sense. So long as it runs, drives, and won’t completely self-destruct in the process, why wouldn’t you drive the interesting car? Ratty Muscle Cars is the antithesis of the auction crowd. There is no speculation on values, there is no real urgency to win awards or to have any of that type of pressure applied to owning and operating a fifty-year-old design. There is just the fun of being out and about, and driving the car. The end. Every fuel stop, every stoplight, another person gets to see and hear what an old hot rod really was all about back when they were just cars instead of investment properties and garage art.
This footage from The House of Muscle was shot last year in the spring as part of their coverage of a spring No Shine Shit List event. I was there shooting pictures and got to see Mike Musto’s reactions to a lot of the vehicles that rolled in and were waiting to roll out. For that event, Griggs had been hoping for a small handful of cars to appear. He had a conga line of machines following him through the Alabama backroads, at least twice what he was expecting, maybe more. Each time, the group seems to get a little bit bigger, a little more diverse in make and models.
Get out there and drive ’em.
This is unbelievable!
What are now million dollar plus cars should be cherished and presented as they came out of the factory not neglected until they look like expensive rat rods.
But these cars are probably about as genuine as the Ferraris in Miami Vice…..
Geordie watch this video again, as you’ve missed the point on this one which is about driving your vintage musclecar and having fun with it, rather than making it into a Barrett – Jackson commodity.
Someone has obviously hacked CHMG’s computer!
CHMG showing yet again he just doesnt get it. I have a ratty-ish Aussie 73 Falcon coupe – it goes in the rain, on dirt roads and most importantly gets used as it was intended, not over restored and polished to within an inch of its life. I have asked this a few times, CHMG – what exactly do YOU drive????????(if anything?)
Had a restored 68 RoadRunner 383 4 spd car.Always scared to drive if for fear of a door ding,getting stolen etc. Sold it to buy a survivor 60 Dart Swingwer 340 car.People thought I was nuts. I drive it everywhere and park by the front door.Gets another ding I wouldnt be able to notice where it is.Any man can restore a car.Takes a real man to leave it alone.
Just drive the thing is right. No body is going to care that my ratty 1978 LT Rally Sport Camaro is a correct restoration taken out for the once in awhile “Cruise Night Event”. In fact no body cares about Disco era Camaro’s but I get into more conversations at the gas station when I have the thing out. It usually goes like this “Man, I had one of those back in the day, brings back memories, 8-tracks, and smiles, don’t ever change it or make it perfect, man,” The truth is people dig that connection and warm fuzzy feeling seeing a well used older car on the road gives them.
Love this every year. My Challenger would qualify for this so I sure wish the thing was near PA instead of Alabama but oh well.
Who brought the 57 Dodge Town Panel? That was my favorite thing there.
I like this movement, make it solid mechanically and drive it !! My sbc MGB (a couple dings, primered front), custom frame and suspension-solid mechanicals, gives me as much fun as I can handle. At local shows the nice, pretty cars won’t park near me any more, people really appreciate that I really drive it. Again, I like this movement !!
While not a muscle car, I have a 67 truck that is original and running but obviously looks like it as it was never restored. I love it, use it to haul stuff and it gets plenty of likes on the road or stopping at stores. I might give it a paint job at some point in the future but it won’t be a fancy paint job, just one to keep it looking decent.
Hopefully in the not too distant future, I will own another 30+ year old car. Plan on buying something decent but not perfect so driving it will be fun and not worry what happens to the car.
It won’t be a rust bucket that’s for sure.
Go ahead and spend all your money on getting something restored. You won’t drive it ,it will set. And when you go to sell it .You will loose money,unless you are talented enough to do a first rate resto your self. I am all for finding a survivor .Clean it up. And drive the shit out of it.They were ment to be driven ,all of them were. Let them set and when you do go to drive it. It will have issues ,brakes ,bad gas ,dead battery ,ect . I personally think those that don’t like that people drive thier beater muscle car. Are those that spent way too much money getting them redone.And now its not worth what it cost. And the survivor cars are getting all the looks . Its just about egos. Besides the old saying applies here .They are only original one
As someone else stated awhile ago somewhere on the old interwebs, not driving your musclecar to preserve it, is like not banging your hot girlfriend/wife to save her for the next guy. I built my car 25 years ago and have driven it ever since. At a recent local show, a guy told me he looks forward to seeing my car every year and asked me to please, never restore or change it. Georgie is still a clueless moron.
Hmmm. I’m ok with the patina thing. I’d want to restore the suspension… new shocks and springs, bushings, steering components,etc. Not upgraded, just back to stock. Brakes redone too. I wouldn’t want seats that were totally trashed either. If everything works as it should, then it’s cool.
Stuck chokes. Gapping points. Leaking exhaust manifolds. Smoking the right rear tire. Power braking. Ah….the good old days?