Dad and I like Camaros -- the more vintage models if you please. Pictured above is his current indulgence, a '77 Camaro LT with a built 350 and a 4-speed. I learned to drive in his '73 Camaro 3-speed and soon after sadly became the car's undoing after losing control through a S-turn a few weeks after acquiring my license. Ouch.Dad replaced that with an '80 model that I was, for some reason, also permitted to drive. I later acquired my very own Camaros; a '70 RallySport followed by a '70 Z28 with a close-ratio 4-speed.
So we attended "Cruise night" last night in the '77. There was actually very little cruising going on -- not in the cars, anyway. Scores of autophiles gather at the local Whataburger with their restored and in-process vehicles, wander from car to car, and hob-knob about chrome and carburation. I saw nearly everything from a rusting Packard wrecker from the Twenties to a new BMW M5 sporting a vicious looking V-10.
And a good time was had by all. I know those cruise nights go on in other parts of the country, but it gets to be more of a challenge up in the Rust Belt to keep the cars pristine -- not that a lot of these vehicles are used as grocery-getters, but there is an element of risk for nearly half the year if they're driven at all.
I'll have another Camaro -- a SS model next time. Whether it will be the latest and greatest example of Chevy ingenuity or a late Sixties to early Seventies big block has yet to be determined. After all, we just bought vehicles and there's only so much room in the driveway.
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My first car in high school bought with my own money was a 69 Camaro, 350, 4 speed. I did everything to that car: gabriel hijackers, bigger carburator, mag wheels and many more things that I can't even remember.
Later I got a 68 Camaro, automatic, from a friend who didn't want it. It had some ridiculously low amount of milege. But one icy nite, I glided over the yellow line going down hill and couldn't brake. The car was totalled and no one was seriously hurt. Interestingly, the woman I hit sued me and her driver. He testified that he was looking down, lighting a cigarette. I testified (it was a jury trial) that he had plenty of time to at least stop if not move out of the way because my car was out of control due to the ice. The jury found us both guilty, but he had to pay 85% of the verdict and I only 15%. The judge sympathized with my predicament but said because there was a law on the books that said I had to be on my side of the road, that he had to hold me liable for some of the responsibility.
I later owned a 70 Nova, which I really liked, as much as my Camaros.
--gravity at work
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