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.
