Continuing from the TC teaser in COAL № 9: I returned to see Lee at his shop, at close to 5 PM. He called his wholesaler friend and asked the status of the car. The reply was “high bid $6,500”, but he would be willing to sell it to Lee for that price, Lee being a friend. Lee looked at me, I said yes, and the deal was done.
So on February 10, 1995, I bought my first Chrysler’s TC by Maserati from ABC Auto Sales. I had heard there was a club for these cars and found TC America and a phone number; a call to the president of the club and soon I was a member. She informed me the club would be having their annual Spring meet in Indianapolis, Indiana in May that year, so I booked reservations. We were all going to be in Indianapolis on the 5th of May and attend ‘Carburetor Day’ and the ‘Mayor’s Breakfast’ at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday morning the 6th.
There was a lot of preparation for this trip with an unknown car, so I got to work in my spare time. I checked all the normal things like brakes and tires, but I knew these engines had issues with head gaskets as they neared 100,000 miles. So I pulled the head and although the gasket was OK, a new one was installed as well as seals, related gaskets, and a new timing belt and water pump. I also purchased an official Indy decal from the Chevy dealership (the Indy pace car that year was to be a C4 Corvette). I put the decal on the driver’s door, and it has been there ever since, still looking good today!
I found out a number of TCs were going to get together somewhere around Vail, Colorado; the owners in their TCs were driving together to Indy. I contacted the leader of the group and let him know that Eva and I would be meeting them in Vail.
We began our journey driving north on I-15 through Las Vegas and on to join them at a ski lodge where we all spent the night. The next morning we had snow on the ground and were halted by the state police until the roads were cleared and safe to travel, and I got to test out the ABS brakes the TC brochures brag about; they worked well. We got on our way, led by the Colorado regional director in his 16-valve, 5-speed ‘89 TC—a very fast car.
Our destination for the night was Independence, Missouri, so there was no time to waste. This was a very long drive for one day, and our leader and most of the others insisted on speeding. I, for one, was not interested in running more than 5 mph over the posted speed limit, which aggravated the others. We arrived at our destination late at night and immediately retired to bed. At sunrise we were awakened by engines running at the rear of the motel, especially that 16-valve car as he revved the engine while maneuvering the car in the parking lot. Eva and I figured they were merely staging the cars for a photo shoot or to be ready to leave, but when we were packed and ready to load our car, we discovered that they had left the motel already.
Only one thing to do in a situation like this: beat them all to Indianapolis! So we hit the road and when we saw a convenient gas station, I filled the tank to the brim while Eva grabbed something to eat. I have often watched some NASCAR driver stretch the fuel in his car, to win a long green flag race. I told Eva we were going to attempt the same and drive nonstop all the way to Indy. And so we did!
That afternoon we passed a rest area along the Interstate, where we saw all those TCs parked while the folks were taking a break. We beat them and arrived at the designated hotel for our convention, unloaded the car and joined the other people already gathered while we waited for our ‘traveling companions’. Their leader was not happy with my greeting as they pulled into the parking lot. “You people finally getting here? What took you so long?”.
The next morning, our cars were lined up and we drove to the Speedway in a long parade across town. We entered the track just past turn 2, were held in place for a short time until the cars ahead had a chance to speed individually down the back stretch into turn 3 where they were slowed by track officials and then permitted to proceed through turn 4 and down the home stretch for a photograph of each car and driver as they crossed the finish line over the famous Indy bricks. We were then guided to park in the infield and were escorted into a giant tent for the Mayor’s Breakfast and speeches by various dignitaries. After the breakfast, we all got to watch the entrants for the 500 practice their cars around the track. Just before noon, which was 10 AM in California, I asked Tony George if he would say a few words over the phone to KVEN radio as the Auto Talk Show was about to begin. Unfortunately, he had to make opening greetings at noon Indy time, so he had to pass. We all has a great time at the speedway and returned to our convention hotel for the opening dinner event for the club. I have been a member of the club ever since.
At the Texas convention, I was asked to be one of their technical representatives. I accepted and have appeared at TC meets over the years, as I will again on September 13-16 this year in Chesterfield, Missouri. Old Red, as my TC is lovingly called by former club president Karleen, will be logging its 300,000th mile on this trip, but more about all that when I return, in COAL № 11.
Now, Old Red was not my only car acquisition of the 1990s. I also acquired a minivan. Here is the story on that one (“short story”, I wish; so may you!):
Out of the blue, one day I had a call from a lady whose 1985 Plymouth Voyager with the 2.6-liter Mitsubishi engine had broken down along highway 126 which leads from Ventura to (and beyond) Valencia, California. She and her two grandchildren were on their way in their Magic Wagon to the Magic Mountain amusement park in Valencia. The van was towed to the Dodge dealer in Fillmore and left there, and the lady and her grandchildren were transported back to their home in Buellton, 96 long miles away.
The van’s camshaft had broken in two between cylinders 3 and 4, leaving the engine running on only three cylinders, though the worst part was that the camshaft continued to an external pulley which drove the water pump mounted at the rear of the engine. I guess this was a convenient place to put the pump, on a Japanese engine designed for rear-drive cars and reconfigured for an American front-drive vehicle. As it turned out, the lady decided to free herself from that van and asked if I wanted to buy it, as she was going to buy a new 1989 Van from a dealer in Buellton (not the one in Fillmore). I agreed to purchase it for $500 and to transport all her belongings to Buellton when I came to pay and close the deal.
So now I also had this van to deal with. I had a replacement camshaft, so I just removed the two broken sections and installed the whole camshaft in its place. That took chiseling out the cylinder head in the cam bearing area where the camshaft had seized. It wasn’t pretty, but at least the camshaft was free to rotate, though it had no support in that area. When the engine was all together, the engine ran just fine and I used the van regularly.
One day in late ’94, I had a call from a service station in Thousand Oaks, quite some good distance away, that had a LeBaron in their shop with a bad engine. They asked if I could get it, evaluate it, and recommend the repair and cost. The car was towed to my shop and I checked it out; needless to say, it needed a rebuilt engine. I gave them a price for the job, and they relayed a price to their local customer. He replied “too high” and I was asked about installing a junkyard engine. I told them about the unreliability of that one, but they still asked for a price. I gave them a reasonable price for labor to replace the engine and a rough price of a ‘running’ engine from a yard. A few days later I got a call that the customer had agreed, and they wanted to know how soon I could get the car back to them, running on its own. At that moment I had no idea if any local junkyard even had such an engine or if it was worth installing! I decided I’d use the 2.6 engine out of my Voyager and deal with its replacement later. So the deal was sealed and I yanked the engine from the Voyager, shoved it outside, and began the transplant in the LeBaron. It was a simple swap and I had the car running in no time. As I drove it back to the Thousand Oaks service station, I noted how well the car ran. I got paid, the car was delivered to the customer, and I never heard anything more about it. Apparently the customer was well satisfied.
An advantage of having one’s own repair shop is that you can juggle engines around at will. I had a funeral home as a customer, and along with the Cadillac cars and hearse I serviced for them (no big repairs), they also had a ‘flower car’: a 1987 extended-wheelbase Voyager (maybe something like this one? -ed) with a 3-liter Mitsubishi V6 engine, which at that time had begun to smoke heavily from the exhaust. This was a common problem with the early 3.0 V6. I had the fix for this condition, but with the fairly high mileage in the van already, the people at the mortuary insisted on a Chrysler remanufactured engine purchased from the dealer so there would be a warranty on it. I thought it a waste of money, but I was just the middleman. It did bring up an interesting scenario in my mind though.
I ordered a crate reman engine through the dealer and installed it. It ran fine and the van was delivered to its owners. Now I had to return the core, which was a clean engine, regularly serviced by me. I decided a core is a core, and whatever the factory gets back—so long as it is a complete engine—I get my core deposit back. So, out to my trusty junkyard and a search for any 3.0 V6 in the scrap heap. One was found, delivered to me for cheap money, and into the transport crate it went. One call to the dealer to pick it up: DONE!
I was credited the core charge, and now had a perfectly good 3.0 engine to put into my ’85 Voyager. I did remove the heads and have new valve guides, with retainers, installed by a machine shop I always used, but the block remained intact. I had to come up with a transaxle that would fit, as well as the electronics since we went from a Mikuni 2-barrel carburetor to multipoint fuel injection. Since I had it certified in January of ’95, I must have done the other swap work in ’94. The swap went fine and the van ran well. I didn’t intentionally build in an anti-theft system, but there wound up being a trick to starting the van. It’s not difficult, you just have to know what to do. Fine by me.
Sometime in July of 2010, I was contacted by this guy named Guy in a K-Car club, telling me there was a search on for an original first-type Voyager or Caravan, an ’84 or ’85, to display at the Iacocca Patriot Award event. I submitted photos of my ’85 Voyager, a plain light-gold unimpressive vehicle in most people’s eyes.
They liked it, but told me I would have to remove the mudflaps, the large bug deflector attached to the hood, and the tow hitch attached to the front bumper. The rear hitch is welded on, so it could not come off. Also I had to install the original steering wheel and front bucket seats without head restraints. I told them I would if they accepted the vehicle. We agreed and I got the van as close to original as I could for this free (unpaid) presentation of my van 313 miles away in San Diego Harbor. Then they asked me how I was going to get it there! Kind of an insult, I thought. I told them I would drive it there the day before the presentation, and so I did. The following photos are from September 2, 2010; you can see there was some heavy lifting involved:
I was honored to meet and greet Lee A. Iacocca and have my original Voyager there for him to see. He stated on several occasions that he considered the development and production of the first garage-sized minivan was his greatest contribution to the Automotive world, not the Mustang. I was given 2 free passes for a future tour of the Midway Museum as payment for my contribution, that’s all.
I was happy to burn the gas and spend the money to stay overnight in a hotel and for eats, just so I had my van there on display. It was payment enough for me.
Afterward, I drove the van back to my shop and reinstalled the front hitch and the burgundy ’89 high-back front seats, but left the bug killer and mudflaps off.
I used this van to haul cars from as far away as North Carolina to my shop in California. (these days the hitch is off permanently). And it was my bedroom for the 11 years that I continued operations in my Ventura County shop after we moved from Santa Paula to Arizona in 2003. Of all my vehicles, it will be the last one I would part with. I still use it regularly, even to transport veterans to medical appointments.
Alright, that’s Chapter 10. Now back to packing and preparing to set out on Sunday morning for the TC meet in Missouri!
Previous chapters:
- First Transport – Coming to ‘Amerika’
- Being American and Picking a Car Company
- Motoring Into the Working World
- The 1960s – Serving, Saluting, and Swapping
- The 1970s, Part I – Backing and Forthing
- The 1970s, Part II – Barking and Forthing
- The 1980s, Part I – The Barracuda Goes Into Dry Dock and the Wagon’s a Tractor
- The 1980s, Part II – Much Too Many Cars and One Dealership Too Much
- Out of One Box and Into Another (Also: Friends in High Places)
“Hemi A – A Byword for Excellent Tales, by Chrysler”
And you’ve equaled your (new) slogan here, of course.
Two questions. One, why (but only if you want to say) was the Voyager your bedroom for 11 years?
Two, the photo of the Mitsu 2.6 fascinates, because I always assumed the US Chryco cars got the Astron 2.6 (with the balance shafts), but this doesn’t look like an Astron as it appears to have a belt-driven cam (like the Mitsu Orion family).
The 2.6 was an Astron, and they do have a timing chain. The Orion is a much smaller engine (1.2 – 1.6 L).
This is an Astron 2.6L.That belt cover you see towards the right of the photo is at the tail of the engine, for the rear-mounted water pump belt driven off the tail end of the camshaft. The engine’s nose end with the timing chain (hidden under the valve cover) is towards the left of the photo.
Justy Baum, you have a good eye! Engine type first: This photo shows the 2.6 (balance shaft) engine as installed in a MOPAR MiniVan. The black cover you see at the rear of the engine is not the timing belt cover but the shield covering the belt pulley which drives the water pump mounted below at the rear of the block and above the transaxle. The water pump is clearly visible. Remember, this is an American vehicle, not Japanese, and the “Front” of the engine where the timing CHAIN is located is on the passenger side, the right side as you sit in the vehicle.
My bedroom: Did you notice that very comfortable double bed in the rear of the van, in the photo? I had rented an empty shop with a small office and a restroom, No sleeping quarters. In the summer of 1995, during the O.J. Simpson trial, I took the van for a cross country shake-down trip and used it as a small ‘mini-camper’. I removed the right front seat, placed an electric 12V Coleman cooler chest in its place and a ‘Porta-Potty’ behind it next to the right side sliding door. I had the rear seat folded down as a bed the whole trip and found it as comfortable to sleep on as my bed at home. So, from 2003 until I retired at the end of 2011, the van was my bedroom while parked under the lift in my shop while a customer’s vehicle hovered on the lift above. During the winters I slept in a sleeping bag and was ‘Snug-as-a-bug’. Remember me? Read COAL #1 again, I grew up inside WW2 and have served in the USMC. Sleeping in the van was luxury-living!
When installed in RHD Australian cars – and entirely cast and made here – the Astron engine’s round the other way, with the exhaust facing forward, and for reasons unknown, there’s no cover on the water-pump belt, so forgive my error. The whole thing looks quite different.
Thankyou kindly for your answer on the bed thing (proof again of your slogan, Excellent Tales, etc). But please let us all know that your sleeping arrangements since retiring have become, um, how to put it, a bit less USMC since 2011?
Hello again Justy Baum, yes I now sleep in my home here in Arizona, in a conventional bed, in a bedroom. The van, which you see in the garage is a little too hot to sleep in being that the temperature in the garage has been close to 50 degrees C here all summer. If I were to take it on my trip to Chesterfield beginning tomorrow, I could and would sleep in it again. But I must take my TC (for display purpose) which is terrible to sleep in, even with those wonderful leather seats fully reclined. There is just no room for the legs. So it will be Motels along the way.
Hemi, thanks for another set of absolutely irreplaceable and unique stories.
I hope your Voyager makes it to some museum once you’re done with it…which from the sounds of it won’t be for quite a few additional miles!
There’s another great tale. Good to hear your experience with TC car club people improved after the first trip to Indianapolis. My experience with car club people has always left me thinking “err, no thanks”.
I assume that California was doing emissions testing during these years, did you have any problems getting an engine swapped vehicle tested?
DougD, I always seem to be very blessed with circumstances falling together just right. The shop foreman at the last Dealership I had worked at in ’88 had retired and ‘just’ happened to become a California Emission Station Operator and when I presented him with my situation, said just to bring it in for testing and if it is properly equipped with the required emission hardware, he would run the tests and if it passed, supply the required certification label that you see in the photo above.
Excellent story, well told. Did not expect a chance encounter with Lee Iacocca.
I also appreciated the Star Trek V’ger reference!
Hi Tom, I guess, like many, I name my more favorite vehicles. I very much enjoyed the Star Trek story of discovering that it was the Voyager that was found to be that ‘mysterious brain’ and as they wiped off the dirt over the name of the ship, it read V GER.
I think I’ve seen photos of this particular minivan survivor before, primarily due to the rarity of the fold-down bed in the back.
It’s terrific this one is still around by someone with the wherewithal to maintain it in solid, original, running shape. There are so few of these T-115 survivor minivans left. With their inherent disposable nature (and, frankly, questionable Chrysler quality), it’s not like there’s an extensive cottage industry for spares like other, more typical classic collectables like the Model T/A, Mustang, Beetle, et al. It’s particularly sad, considering that the original Chrysler minivan is as much an automotive game-changer as any other. Serious kudos to the author/owner.
I donno, rudiger; the T-115s seemed rather better-built and more durable than many other American-brand vehicles of that time. There were still quite a lot of them in regular service in salty, harsh Toronto when I left in 2011.
I certainly hope so. Maybe it’s more that the mission of the T-115 was that of a practical (but disposable) appliance and, although it most definitely excelled at that, the downside was they were simply tossed at the end of their lives. Something more akin to an aged washing machine which, rather than repair, off they go to the landfill when they quit working.
I wish it weren’t so because I really like the simple, practical, right-sized two-box design of the SWB T-115 every bit as much as those other historical auto industry game-changers and wish there were more survivors (as well as a decent parts cottage industry to keep them going).
That seems to be the fate of the majority of vehicles built from about 1973-forward. I think it’s a combination of many things. The mechanical simplicity of earlier cars, combined with their tendency to use less plastics, plus the disdain that many had for emissions equipment and the dulled performance/drivability of 1970’s-80’s vehicles… then stuff started getting *much* more complex in the 1990’s.
Hello rudiger, Daniel Stern beat me to the punch here with his reply. DISPOSABLE is a common American used word meaning “I’ll use it until I get bored of it or something breaks, then I’ll just throw it away and get something else.” People from and in other parts of the world rarely even ‘think’ disposable. To them, something new is wonderful and cared for to the point of extremes at times. You see my van and the ’89 TC next to it in my garage. They are treasured, like the antiques we have hanging on the walls from our parents and grandparents. Little things that remind us of “better days” I’m not scolding, just saying that I take care of my stuff. That way I won’t have to buy a new one, EVER again. I was almost embarrassed to take and send that photo of the engine in the Van, uncleaned, but that is how it looks after years of use, dusty. The TC engine is prepped for ‘show’.
Thanks rudiger for the kind words. As an old guy from Scandinavia, I value my possessions more than most folks here in America, where everything seems disposable. I live with my wife in our home decorated with memories from as far back as her grandparents and my family from Finland and Denmark as well. Things are meant to last and I was very honored to find my V’ger on the flight deck of the Midway, as a tribute to a man I highly admired.
When Daniel convinced me to write these COALs, I really had no idea that I was going to write a History Book.
When I write about my ‘TC’, I hope the readers will get another perspective of the interesting vehicles Lee A. Iacocca brought to the public, not always as well received as the Mustang.
Love the Voyager! My 86 was the same color, but without the bed. The 2.6 engine swap was a great idea, as the 2.6 was a forgettable engine. One of the balance shafts seized due to oil starvation and I rebuilt the engine without the shafts.
Chrysler got a lot of things right in that first gen van. Everyone else tried to match it in later years, but never succeeded.
88 LeBaron, you certainly know how to focus like a Laser on the weak point of the 2.6L and earlier 2.0L MMC ‘Balance Shaft Engine’. Way back when we had the ‘Colt’ cars at our Chrysler Dealers, I had the job of replacing the balance shaft chain and gears on those engines, and they failed by the bucket load. Unfortunately, they didn’t have self adjusting tensioners which could have eliminated a lot of those failures. Something everyone has learned now with belt tensioners. I had some engines that had destroyed the rod bearings due to this failure since one of the sprockets driven by this chain is the engine oil pump, and when it quits turning, the engine does not have long to live!
I can tell you directly, I tried a used 2010 Chrysler Town & Country with the great 3.8L pushrod V6. It was a fantastic vehicle to drive, BUT in the end I sold it and continue being very happy driving my ’85 Plymouth Voyager whenever I am not behind the wheel of my TC.
The ‘Key’ reason here, you actually DRIVE and CONTROL the older vehicles where the newer ones want to take over all the driving control.
I used to have a pretty good collection of Plymouth-Dodge TSBs spanning 1960–’94 or so. No reprints, these; they had done time in various dealers’ service departments, so mixed in was the occasional odd and end that wasn’t a TSB: a paint chip chart, a signup form for Chrysler’s Master Technician training program, a Miller Tools leaflet, that kind of thing. One such odd (or was it an end?) was billed as the minutes from a New Jersey dealer’s service department meeting, dated 1974. It didn’t read like much of a “meeting”, more like a collective bawling-out. I don’t recall the whole list of line items, but here are a few of the ones I remember; the relevant one is verbatim, including the all-caps:
• Do not badger the front office about when you’ll get your check, or everyone’s check will be held until the 15th and end of the month.
• Complete EACH and EVERY item on EACH and EVERY work order you draw. Do not rob the gravy from a job and leave the rest for someone else.
• COLTS WILL BE WORKED ON BY *ALL* TECHS WITHOUT ANY BACKTALK.
I assume that the hood of the ’85 Caravan was kept closed at that event in San Diego, given that it had a very non-stock 3.0 V6 under it.
Another great morning read.
Yes Paul, and if you look at the wheels, you will see a set of 5 lug wheels taken directly from a ‘Chrysler’s TC by Maserati’ badged automobile. I have a reputation of “Liking to upgrade.” You’ll see a lot of that coming soon.
On closer observation, that’s an ‘85 Voyager, I did actually have a Dodge Caravan too, come to think if it. I remember after turning in my Volvo Diesel Station Wagon, I put a temporary trailer hitch on this 2.6L underPowered Caravan to tow my Coleman Tent Trailer to my shop in Ventura from home. The highway is just a bit up grade heading west the 9 miles to the turnoff and the Caravan struggled all the way not even being able to attain and maintain 55 MPH. It had been my plan to hook the trailer wiring I took off the Volvo onto the Caravan, but that trip cinched it for me. NO 2.6L MMC was going to take us camping. That was another reason why I so readily sold the 2.6 out of the Voyager. As I told in my story above, with the 3.0L in the Voyager, it easily towed a complete, all together TC from North Carolina to Ventura, CA. I used it often to haul customer’s cars to my shop with the van and my 1979 Dodge D1500 Pickup truck (Oh! Here’s another for me to write about)
See what you have stirred up Paul? More stories……
It’s great to see one of these original Magic Wagons still running! My father owned an ’84 Voyager, which was an odd purchase for him because he swore he’d never buy another American car, and he’d always said he refused to buy a first-year example of anything. But these vans offered such a great package that he forgot all of that stuff and bought one anyway. It was a great car for my folks. I haven’t seen an early Caravan or Voyager in about ten years.
Well Eric703, as I roll out of my garage in my ’85 V’ger and past all the homes here in our ‘gated community’, I feel rather good about my van as I observe all the costly new ‘iron/plastic’ that I pass, the HummerH3 and he Cadillac SUV the Lexus and all that new ‘AI’ operated stuff. I don’t have the ‘bread’ to buy any of it, yet my $500 van from ’95 is still rolling along and able to take me anywhere I want to drive, even cross country at a moments notice. Good machinery, properly maintained, will last almost forever.
This was in a kitchen cupboard of what had been my grandparents’ kitchen in Seattle; eventually it was my kitchen. I still have the saltbox.
That’s awesome!
Oh wow! It’s been a long time since I’ve eyed an early T-115… my elderly next door neighbors had a light blue 1986 Voyager into the early 2000’s, trading it in for a plain white LWB 2nd generation Voyager with a 3.3 after the 2.6 in the in the ’86 started thrashing and smoking and finally STB over about a one week period. I’ve never been super impressed with the Astron, but won’t throw too much shade at this particular one, as said elderly neighbor had some curious beliefs about oil change intervals. He was born in the mid 1910’s, and must have picked up on an early oil filter ad that proclaimed that you’d never have to change oil again if you install their oil filter… because it filters the impurities out of the oil. He would perform one oil change per year for good measure, always after winter was over. He drove about 15,000 miles per year. He also had a very strong opinion on Dodge vs Plymouth, which persisted long after the cars became clones of one another. A Plymouth was far superior to a Dodge, and he would not own the latter.
But yeah. I’m digging on the stacked headlamps of the 1984-86 models. It’s a happy reminder of my formative years, when these vans were THE thing to have. Everybody seemed to have one for a family car, and people viewed them without that odd stigma that formed somewhere in the late 90’s or early 00’s when the SUV boom first took hold. How something with so many redeeming qualities became an object of scorn is beyond me. Magic Wagon, indeed!
STB?
Seems to have worked for him…!
It was deliberate, just like the rest of the SUV boom; SUVs are massively more profitable than minivans.
Yes. “Shit The Bed”. A rather inelegant, but apt, description of this particular 2.6’s sudden death march. I’ll never know, but my best guess is that something came apart in the balance shaft drive, contaminated the oil with metal shavings, then ground the engine to pieces.
Mr. Hollopeter’s once per year oil changes probably weren’t too far off once he and Mrs. H slowed down in their later years. I started performing their oil changes when I was in high school in the 90’s, and what came out of the ’86 looked like carbon black and flowed like gear oil. My Dad rebuilt the 455 in their 1973 Oldsmobile in the early 1980’s… I remember him saying that it was pretty sludgy inside and had a lot of wear. I think GM was recommending oil changes every 7.5k and oil filter at 15k under optimal conditions by ’73.
Sh*t The Bed . means catastrophic failure .
I like these little vans, pops bought one when he was living in Hawaii and shipped it to New Jersey then some years later he drove it fully loaded across America to Bellingham, Washington where he lived until he passed .
During one of my visits he asked me to get it ready to sell, I installed a new battery and cleaned it up, unlike most family mini vans he’d never abused it so everything was really nice .
For $1,000 I thought it a bargain, so did the lady who bought it and the Mechanic she paid to P.P.I. it .
ChryCo hit this one clean out of the park .
-Nate
Another great installment – I will be sorry for this series to end!
These came out before I became a convert to minivans, and I never got interested in them because of the dreaded 4 cylinder/automatic combination that almost all of them came with. But I knew some people who owned them (including some people with not-very-high opinions on Mopar vehicles), and I had to admit that they made quite an appealing package. I would imagine that the V6 makes this a really nice driver.
I also love the way you have given a TC some love, and the way you have coaxed many, many miles out of it.
One niggle – what you called “carburetor day” at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in preparation for the race is actually “carburetion day”. There has not been a carburetor there in decades (I just looked it up, 1963 was the last time a carburetor was on an Indy race car). But it was, as the final day of practice, the day racers would get their carbs dialed in for race day. For whatever reason, the name persisted. I am glad you had a good experience when visiting, and love the big decal on your car.