Dodge Charger

Came across a nice picture of the first car I owned. Mine was a blue 1970 with a black vinyl top. This one is definitely sweet, it's a 1969 R/T. I saved up $1,100 back in 1981 to buy mine. It needed a paint job but that was always something on the back burner. When I "saved up enough" I was going to get it painted Corvette yellow or black. Funny how "enough" never came around. I ended up trading it to a friend for a 1955 Chevy. Not even a coupe, a wagon. Definitely not a Nomad, just a wagon. It would scream, though. The motor was a rebuilt 350 with a 4:11(?) rear end. It would get up and go off the line. Not much in the top end department because the rear end was geared so high.

I remember I raced my friend with a Vega that had a 350 in it. Pretty darn stupid. We raced on a residential street next to our high school in the middle of the night. We went about 300 yards or so before there was a curve in the road. I had him by half a car length. If that curve wasn't there and we went much further, his top end would have taken me. I figure I did pretty good since the '55 probably weighed nearly 2 tons and the Vega was feather light.

I would love to pick up a restored '69 or '70 Charger just to have for weekend driving. The gas consumption would be rather prohibitive, I'm afraid. The one I owned had a 383 cid motor which sucked up a phenomenal amount of gas. One month I put in over $200 dollars in the gas tank and that was back when it was around a buck a gallon. That's when the folks quit paying for the gas. Abuse it and lose it. I should have figured that out sooner!