spoilers, air grabber hood and either a 440-6 or
a Hemi. I ain’t willing to pay the extra $$ for the
Hemi though, so 440 is the way I chose.
After YEARS of searching for just the right
close. You see, me and dad and my brothers get
near cool cars. In addition to watchin’ the Richard
Rawlings shows and shows like Toy Makerz
we watch quite a lot of the auction shows. I think
Mecum is our favorite thanks to the Mecum family’s
way of putting on a show around the cars
and their aggressive and entertaining auctioneers
and spotters.
An orange (originally doo-doo brown) ’71 R/T
came up for auction fresh off a restoration. It
had a vinyl top which I didn’t care for, and no airgrabber,
and no 4 speed, BUT it had that wonderful
440-6 with air conditioning! And, as a bonus,
the pop-up headlights. Dad and I agreed to
meet in Kississimee to bid on the car. When the
time to bid came I got nervous and asked dad to
help me make sure the auctioneer wasn’t “playing
me” and that my bidding etiquette was OK
things. Dad gave me some quick advice based
on the hundreds of auctions he had been to and
the thousand or so cars he had bought at those
auctions. Then, as the car came up for bid, he
quietly walked away and left it up to me to handle
the bidding….all the while smiling at me from
across the way – or maybe he was smirking (sink
or swim I suppose). I got the car and payed less
than I was prepared to, and I got a big hug from
I drove that car very little as it had some gremlins.
The A/C never really worked that well and
an exhaust leak combined with a ventilation system
leak to make the inside of the car a carbon