440 six pack, 4 speed, and because you had to be over 21 to buy a high perf car back then, he had to ask his parent to co sign. His mom adamantly refused.... she believed that he'd kill himself (mothers always do) but his dad went for a test drive with him, was pleased with the low noise, comfortable ride, and figured his son wouldn't drive like a moron, and co-signed.
Mom was so PISSED she wouldn't allow the Road Runner to be parked where she could see it from her home.
What an awesome story! Very rare someone actually gets to keep his first car as a teenager that was truly worth it. I do not miss my 1984 Z28 high school teen ride from the 1980s when 190hp was awesome for a so-called pony car. I would love to know what NJ drew the line for defining a "high performance vehicle" back then. The Southern nor Midwestern states never had that nanny government problem which is probably why so many NASCAR drivers came from there out of the 1960s-1970s as young men - they already knew how to drive fast cars on back roads (and yes this was well after the bootlegging days). When my father was 19 in his first year of college in 1968, he bought a used '66 GTO coupe (white on blue). He kept it into the early 1970s before "growing up" and trading it in on some forgettable sedan after getting married and a post-college career going. It wasn't the fastest muscle car at 360hp tagged to a 3-speed auto for the era, but it was still a genuine muscle car.
ReplyDeleteyou know about Pennsylvania's nanny laws that declared a Superbird not street legal? The others I can't recall, but i do think I posted more of those type of stupid laws over the years, which are now back in the archives
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