We all have stories about the one that got away. The girl (or guy), the fish, the house and in this case the car. But sometimes with a few decades of perspective that turns out to have been a good thing.
Mid 80’s, I was 16 or 17 driving home from downtown with a friend when we passed a Dodge dealership.
“Hey, wasn’t that an old Road Runner there beside the building?” We circled back for a closer look.
It was not a Road Runner. It was a 1971 GTX, a car we’d read about but never seen in person.
We got out and examined the car in detail. It was badged as a 440 six pack, but under the hood the 440 was wearing an Edelbrock Tarantula intake with an enormous Holley four barrel carb. It had the Air Grabber hood, pistol grip shifter for the four speed, and Dana limited slip rear end.
It also had jacked up rear springs, G60-15 rear tires on chrome kidney bean rims, rear quarter rust and the general appearance of being ridden hard and put away wet. But to us the car practically had a glowing aura around it, and the rising chorus of angel voices told us what we must do.
Just then a salesman came around the corner, to see these two shaggy haired teens crawling over the GTX. He started it up for us and it ran well with a lumpy idle and a bit of blue smoke. He told us that they weren’t sure what they were going to do with the car, but might let it go for $1,200.
Twelve hundred dollars! Between the two of us we figured we had that much money. The rest of the afternoon was spent checking bankbooks and counting change, but in the end we came up short.
We approached our parents, and you can imagine how that went. My friend’s father called the dealership and gave them a blast over trying to sell such a powerful car to a couple of kids with no money. My friend did get some benefit out of the fiasco because his father later helped him obtain a $150 Chevy Impala which was a much more appropriate first car.
In reality we may have crashed the GTX within minutes, or sunk all our future college money into it, or fought over whose car it actually was.
I’m 51 now and I could afford a GTX if I wanted it badly enough, but these days my automotive tastes run cheaper and slower. That way I can have my classic car enjoyment along with the other things in life that matter more. Now I mostly look back on the episode as an enjoyable memory, a little bit of “What if?” but with considerable relief that we didn’t succeed.
What’s the one that got away from you, and do you have any regrets?
In the late 1980s one of my neighbors had a ’73 Dodge Dart Swinger 2door hardtop, green with matching green interior and black vinyl roof, a slant six. Typical little old lady car in immaculate condition. Over the years I used to drive the car on errands for the lady, detailed it, did a few simple repairs (I remember replacing a slightly damaged grille once, etc). I really liked that car, even though it was just an older used car at the time. Unpretentious but with a bit of style that eventually made these Darts a classic. Several times I asked if she would sell me the car, she always said it’s not for sale, but if ever she decided to sell it, I’ll be the first to know. One year while I was away at college, the old lady died, her daughter got the car and promptly wrecked it.
This kind of relates to Syke’s story and yours…
When I was a kid, one of the neighbors had an early 1950’s CJ3 Jeep that he used only occasionally, mostly he would go deer hunting with it. When the snow flew, that was when I saw him using the Jeep, to plow his long driveway. He never drove it on the streets when it was snowing, however. By the time I was 16 or 17, he was past retirement age and the Jeep rarely moved. I asked him what the plan was with the Jeep, he said when the time was right, he’d sell me the Jeep. Great! So, I waited. And waited. I graduated high school and moved away and essentially forgot about it until…
He passed when I was living in Cleveland, during my early 20’s. I didn’t even find out about it until my mother mentioned it in passing. I went and spoke to his wife on my next trip back and they had given the Jeep to one of their grandsons! I was a bit crestfallen.
I’d heard later on through friends that the grandson had tried to use the Jeep as a daily, but didn’t know or understand how twitchy they could be. Long story short, the kid wrapped the Jeep around a tree and totaled it…
Oh, just when I try to forget…
These were the cars that I actually had, but let get away after the fact:
’72 Buick Skylark 350 “Sport” Coupe
Transmission went kaput, and sold it for $50. Gawwwwwd!
’79 Firebird Formula. A friend was selling it for $200, and because I wanted a stereo for my Cougar, I passed it up.
’87 AMC Eagle 4WD Wagon
That was a cool car, but getting too worn out. I let it go for $200.
I had an opportunity to buy a really nice (near-mint) original ’65 Chevelle SS for $6500 back in 1995, but I was young, money was tight and it would’ve meant selling my ’91 Cougar XR7 that I loved. Hindsight being 20/20…