Looking For My First Muscle Car Part 2

Wow!!! I thought to myself, this is one of the coolest cars I have ever seen.  It looked like something you would see at the Auto-Rama Car Show at Market Hall.  It had a wild paint job, it was blue and purple metal-flake that sparkled like glitter  when the light hit it.  It had the American flag running down the middle of the roof, and on each side of the flag was a psychedelic design that ran the length of the roof and down the fastback panel.  It also had two interlocking psychedelic designs on each side of the huge hood scoop that ran the length of the hood.  Down each side of the car was an orange area outlined in red and in the middle of the orange area were the words “Street is Neat”.  Ron said, “That the same guy that painted the L.A. Hooker funny car painted this car.”  The car was so unique looking I wasn’t sure what the model was.  I asked Ron what is the car?  He said, “It is a 1966 Chevelle Super Sport.

I told Ron that I had never seen a hood scoop as large as the one on this car. Then I asked,  “What is under the hood?”  As Ron started to unlatch and raise the hood he looked at me with this goofy grin on his face.  When he exposed the engine compartment it took me by surprise.  I had never seen anything like that before.  At least not driving around on the street.  I had seen the 318 V8 with 4 barrel in Randy’s 68′ Dodge Coronet 440, and the 383 V8 with a Torker high rise and 4 barrel in Ernie’s 69′ Road Runner. The biggest engine I had seen up to this point other than something at a car show or drag race from a distance was the 396 V8 with 4 barrel in my buddy Gary’s 1965 Chevy Impala SS.

When I saw the engine in what I thought was going to be my first muscle car I said, “Wow what is that?”  Ron still had that goofy grin on his face and then broke into a belly laugh.  He said, “That is a 427 V8 with a tunnel ram high rise mounted with 2 fours, with a Muncie 4 speed and 4.88 gears.  Ron made that statement with so much pride in his voice you would have thought he was talking about one of his kids.  As I peered into the engine compartment at this huge Chevy orange engine I noticed a big tow chain bolted to the engine block.  I asked,  “What is that chain for?”  Ron said,  “I kept breaking motor mounts at the drag strip so I bolted one end of that chain to the block and the other end to the frame to hold the engine down, now when I stand on it coming out of the hole it doesn’t break motor mounts.  Ron said,  “She is pretty fast for a big car, she runs 12 seconds in the quarter mile.

Well by this time I am pretty sure I want to buy the car. Now it was time to go for a test drive.  I asked Ron if I could take it for a drive?  He said,  “I will take you for a test ride.”  As I think back on it now I am pretty sure my buddy Ernie was with me when I went to check out the car.  Ron started the Chevelle which had open headers and we had to cover our ears in fear that our eardrums were going to pop.  As we drove down the neighborhood streets of Duncanville the deep rumbling sound of the 427 was bouncing off the houses and echoed down the streets.  What a great feeling it was just riding in that car.  As we drove down the streets and passed people they would point and wave at us and give us a thumbs up.

As Ron continued to drive headed towards Old Clark Road I started to get butterflies again.  I knew he was going to get out on a straight lonely road to show us what the Chevelle would do.  As we pulled onto Old Clark Road Ron rolled to a stop and down shifted to 1st gear and said, “Hold on boys.”  Ron stomped on the gas and the Chevelle began to roar and you could feel the vibrations going through your body almost like electricity, and then he popped the clutch and tires started sqealing and the Chevelle jumped forward so hard it pressed me against the seat and the front of the car rose up so far that the road disappeared and all I could see was tree tops and sky.  Then about the time the road became visible again Ron hit 2nd gear and the tires squealed and the front of the car rose up again. This time not quite as high and as long. When it came back down Ron hit 3rd and tires squealed again and the front end rose again but not as much as it did in 1st and 2nd.  We were probably going about 90 mph when he hit 4th and you could hear that tunnel ram and 2 fours roaring like a lion.  That was the greatest car ride of my life.  I think I was sweating adrenaline after that ride.  What a RUSH!!!

At first when we left Ron’s driveway I was disappointed because he wouldn’t let me drive the Chevelle. But after that ride I understood why.  I would have never stood on it like he did, and I would not have experienced what the Chevelle could do until I bought it and found out for myself.  I was on cloud nine all the way back to Ron’s house.  When we got the Chevelle back in the garage I told Ron I had half of the money saved and I needed my dad to cosign a loan to get the balance.  I told him I would contact him when I could get my dad over to take the same test ride he just gave us.

A day or two later after some hard selling I got my dad to agree to go look at the car.  I remember when I told my dad that Ron wanted $1,500 for his 1966 Chevelle he said, “$1,500 is a lot of money for a 1966 Chevelle that is a 9 year old car.  I told him yes you are right but you haven’t seen it yet.  When I got my dad over to Ron’s to look at the Chevelle and go for a test ride I could hardly stand it.  I couldn’t wait until we got out on Old Clark Road and for Ron to take it through the gears again for my dad.  Me and my buddy Ernie were sitting in the back grinning ear to ear anticipating what was about to come. Ron said, “Hold On” and off we went.  I never in my life saw the look of surprise on my dad’s face like I saw at that moment.  After things settled down and we were driving back to Ron’s place I asked my dad what he thought.  He said,  $1,500 is a lot of money but this is a lot of car.  If you want it I will cosign for you to get the rest of the money to buy it.  Two days later I was driving the 1966 Chevelle home.