CHAPTER 4:

TOO FAST TO LIVE, TOO YOUNG TO DIE

The allure of performance cars can take over a person’s life. Many people are susceptible to this, but particularly the ones who toil in the garage until the late hours of the night, or well into morning, to make a carburetor work right, or resolve a brake problem. These guys are car guys. Many of them grew up with muscle cars in their lives. Back then, muscle meant high horsepower in small and mid-size bodies. The mindset can be traced back to hot rods of the 1940s and ’50s. It was all about speed or looks then, and sometimes a bit of both. The production muscle car began to take hold in the early 1960s. Some guys with the rarest of the rare got hold of them when the cars were new or nearly new, or later, when they were just used cars and gas guzzlers. The smartest and most dedicated of those gearheads knew what they had and put their cars away for a rainy day.

This is a car of myth and legend, one that people tell stories of for years to come. An original 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona sits outside, neglected for decades. For shame!

You could see this car from the road, and I finally got the nerve to ask the owner to see the car up close. It turned out to be a 1969 Dodge Coronet 500, a model between the 440 and R/T.

An old barn in Illinois housed a bunch of cool cars and trucks. This is an original 1979 Dodge Li’l Red Express truck, tucked up against the wall with its original exhaust stacks intact.

Getting lost sometimes ends up being for the best, as I found a nice family in Wisconsin by accident with a barn full of Mopars, including this 1969 Dodge Super Bee.

The same family as above had another 1970 Dodge Super Bee in a lean-to next to the barn. This is a rare V-Code 440 Six-Barrel, sitting in front of a 1969 Dodge Coronet R/T.

I’m a member of a local car club called the Chicago Gearheads. We are a medium-sized club, and a good group of guys. Earlier in the book you read about one of our members, who invited me to view a car he bought new (with some help from his mother). Even as a kid, he was a true gearhead. He knew that the car he was buying was unique and rare, and he protected that car through his entire life. He made sure that it was taken care of. That’s why the car came to sit for decades in a Chicagoland garage—a unique, hard-to-find race car that never changed hands. The owner had the forethought to keep it all these years; it’s the kind of decision that pays off in the end. This owner enjoys the memories associated with the car and has seen monetary gain, as well, as the car’s value has skyrocketed due to the rarity of the model/engine combination.

Not to be left out, they had a few Challengers lying around as well. This 1972 Dodge Challenger resides in the basement of one of the barns.

At car shows, you’ll see many vintage muscle cars produced by GM, Ford, and Mopar. They are available today not because they were produced in plentiful numbers, but because their runs were relatively limited. Some were driven to death; others just faded into the dust of old age. Surviving examples are rare, and rarity increases desirability. And car guys knew what was rare. When they heard “Hemi” or “Shelby” or “Yenko,” they knew the car was special, and deserved special care. More of those cars were preserved than, say, slant six Dusters or 4-door Impalas. The trickle-down effect has been that a greater proportion of muscle cars survived. Devoted owners saw to it that these cars are around to be enjoyed today.

One of their storage barns held nothing but B-Body Mopars, a ’69 Satellite, ’69 Charger, and a ’70 Charger, among others.

It is good to have friends who like to travel. My friend Mark pointed out this 1970 Dodge Challenger in Plum Crazy paint sitting in a yard in Wisconsin.

After all these years, I am not surprised by much. I had actually been to this junkyard before, but the owner let me into a barn for the first time, where he stored a C1 Chevrolet Corvette! Color me surprised.

After the Hot Rod Power Tour one year, I headed to Charlotte, North Carolina to visit my sister. En route, I discovered this little honey hole in the mountains. Out front was an all-original 1955 Chevrolet 2-door post—one of the famous Tri-Fives.

Talking with the owner, he said if I was interested in muscle cars, I should walk around back, where a 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle sat next to a 1969 Dodge Charger.

That’s very like the situation of my friend with the Hemi Charger 500, who is discussed in this chapter. While out on the road, he loved to find—and buy—rare cars. Because he had a thing for Mopars, many would be located and brought back to his farm. He even collected the rarest of the rare Mopar parts. Most such parts disappeared into history, so here he is decades later, with an amazing collection. Because of his dedication, the parts survived to exist in the modern era.

Sitting in Charlotte, North Carolina was a Mopar car dealer. You would never know unless you slowed down off the highway, but in his back lot he had a smorgasbord of cool cars, including this 1969 Plymouth GTX.

The Charger was right up against a ridge that fell drastically into a mountain river. Any more decent rain and the Charger would be in the drink!

You don’t see this very often, but as North Carolina is the home of Richard Petty, I found this 1972 Plymouth Barracuda in Petty Blue.

This is what happens when you don’t pay your bills—they take half your car! This 1970 Plymouth Road Runner was parted out to save other cool cars.

Tucked in the back of the yard, this complete 1968 Plymouth Road Runner was slowly being re-absorbed by the Earth.

As noted, many muscle cars of the classic era were collected after the fact, in the late 1970s and early ’80s. Back then, the gas crunch doomed muscle cars to gas-guzzling dinosaur status. Popular wisdom was that such cars should be relegated to junkyards. Many of them were. Even fresh off the production line, they didn’t have the best rust proofing or fit and finish. Rust was a major bugaboo. Grocery getters and muscle cars alike were beat up pretty good as they got passed down the family tree. Most ended as rusty hulks in junkyards. But muscle aficionados took care of their rides, particularly if they drove a GTO Judge, an AAR ’Cuda, COPO Camaro, or other obvious rarity. Many of them were carefully tucked away.

Next to the ’68 Road Runner was a ’69 model—this one had been there so long that a grove of trees had grown up through the engine compartment.

Nothing like cruising in a convertible to make a person enjoy life. This 1969 Plymouth Barracuda convertible had not done that in many years.

A 1973 Dodge Challenger sits wide open in the back lot, waiting for its time in the shop.

American Motors Corporation really pushed the envelope with the AMX 2-door. This 1969 AMC AMX had seen better days, but was a great project car.

A friend of mine got his 1969 Camaro Z/28 that way. He bought it back in the ’80s, when the cars were plentiful and cheap. He found a very nice, clean Camaro and began to play around with it. Someone who had the car before him had done some poor engine work. A valve dropped, damaging the piston and block. So what does a person in that situation do? My buddy pulled the bad engine, found a junkyard engine, and threw it in the car. But because he knew the Z/28 was something special, he kept the original, damaged engine tucked away in his garage. He also made a point to keep as many of the original parts as he could. Now, decades later, he’s thankful he did, because all those original parts add hugely to the Camaro’s value.

Rare as hell, this is a 1954 Kaiser Manhattan. What made it special was its original McCulloch Supercharger.

Out back behind a body shop was this original steel body Ford Model A 2-door sedan. The owner plans to eventually make it into a hot rod.

Another rare vehicle sitting behind the shop was an old Cab Over Engine truck (COE) that was being transformed into a hot-rodded car carrier.

Among the bushes was this 1969 Plymouth Barracuda. The stripe could mean it was a high-performance model. Unfortunately little remained to say exactly what it was.

Car enthusiasts are everywhere. The come from America’s fields and farms, and from the steel canyons of major cities. There is little difference between them in spirit, but not everyone has equal ability to a car. In the cities, space is at a premium. You can’t store a car, even a rare one, over the long term without paying through the nose. That’s why so many desirable cars are located far from the city, in the suburbs and farmlands. Collectors from those areas have much more space at their disposal, and can preserve their treasures more easily, and more privately.

This is what remained of a 1950 Plymouth Business Coupe. The owner wanted to build a clone of the original RamChargers ’49 Plymouth race car called The High and Mighty.

Walking among the scrubs, you don’t expect to come across an original 1971 Plymouth Duster 340 with the original 340 sticker still visible on the deteriorating hood.

The 1971 Dodge Demon had a few different models if you wanted all the looks of the 340 without the engine, like this original 318 Demon Sizzler with original graphics intact.

The trees have enveloped this poor 1972 Dodge Demon in rare Petty Blue. It has sat for so long that the trees have completely encircled the car.

Up in Wisconsin, I had a friend who had a large storage barn. He kept it full of tractors and hay for his cows. Years earlier, though, the barn had been home to horses and other animals. But farming had changed, and with the animals gone, a bunch of empty stalls were available to be filled. So what did he do? He bought cars. He had some rare ones too, including old race cars and a ’69 Charger R/T. There were others, too. Because he had the room, my friend was able to protect his cars much more easily and at a lower cost than people in the city.

The dedicated car collectors have great love for their machines, but they have insight, too. Call it a sense of history, call it respect for the past—it’s a quality that allows collectors to see beyond the moment. They see the future as well as the past. Their imagination is why I and so many other car lovers are continually surprised and delighted.

Trees take no prisoners, but time does some funny things to the land. Not only have trees grown up, through and around this 1970 Plymouth Barracuda, but the hill it was pointed toward has eroded and now partially covers the front of the car.

Most people would not believe you if you told them that deep in the forest is a 1968 Dodge Charger R/T. And yet, there it was, sitting so long a tree had grown up and around the front bumper.

Now there is rare, and then there is the uber rar,. the cars that people don’t know exist, and shouldn’t. This is a 1972 Plymouth Road Runner 440 Six Barrel—one of one. This was the only known build before the engine option was dropped. In the right hands, it’s priceless, and even features a sun roof.

CHALLENGERS AND THE HEMI

Have you ever heard stories about places that don’t make sense? I mean, places that just shouldn’t exist. A wall of shaker hoods from rare Mopars? What sense does that make? Rows of Challengers tucked away inside while a Superbird sits outside? Odd. I had heard stories about such a place for years, and never put much store in them until someone offered to introduce me to the owner. That was the day that reality changed for me.

The owner was very cordial to my friend and me. As a little kitten skipped around at our feet, he walked us to a barn. First thing I noticed inside was the ’70 Superbird nose sitting on a workbench. We went in deeper and there it was: the mythical wall of shaker hoods. I couldn’t believe it.

The cars were nothing to sneeze at, either. I saw an altered-wheelbase ’65 Hemi Satellite and a 1970 Challenger 440 Six Pack convertible. There was a ’71 Barracuda convertible and a ’70 Hemi Challenger. All of this in one small barn!

It didn’t end there. Another barn had more cars. The structure was classic barn red, and sticking from the entrance was a 1970 Challenger R/T. That was a rarity—and even more Challenger R/Ts were inside, plus a ’70 Charger R/T.

Another quite different kind of rarity was behind the barn, an original 1970 Dodge Dude Sweptline pickup, pitched when it was new by Barney Fife himself, Don Knotts. During the truck’s 1970-71 run, Dodge built fewer than 2,000.

We went deeper onto the property. More Challengers were scattered about, including a ’71 ragtop with a tree growing up through the body. We saw Darts, Dusters, and Barracudas. There was a bit of it all there.

We were getting ready to leave when the owner pointed to a car under a blue tarp. It was a ’70 Plymouth Superbird! Out front, sitting quietly in the driveway was a 1964 Dodge Polara convertible. Nothing too crazy about that, until we popped the hood and saw the original 426 Hemi. I nearly fell over.

Great things can be hidden inside unassuming packages. It was a good lesson.

BIRDS IN THE BARN

My first “barn find” came about completely by accident. I was at an auction—waiting for a ’53 New Yorker shell with a 354 Hemi to go across the block—when a gentleman told me about a fellow living nearby with a yard full of Mopars.

When I didn’t win the New Yorker, I booked over to the Mopar yard. My eyes popped wide open because, sure enough, I saw Chargers, Road Runners, and a Super Bee or two. I chatted with the owner, and after awhile he led me to his storage barn. He mentioned that he had a Superbird inside. Now, even with him being a Mopar guy, I figured he meant Super Bee. There was no way he had one of just 1,920 Plymouth winged wonders. (The official Plymouth production figure is 1,920; it is possible that more than that came off the line.)

He tugged at the door and there it was: a real 1970 Plymouth Superbird resting quietly on the dirt floor. I couldn’t believe it. You just never heard about such a rare and unique car just sitting around. And yet, there it was, right in front of me.

That was the beginning of my long friendship with the owner. I come back every few years to talk and have another look at his collection. And during every visit, I discover something I’d missed before—like the rusting hulk I spotted squatting on a trailer. It was a Ramo Stott 1971 Hemi Road Runner, retired from NASCAR competition and turned into a dirt-track racer.

It thrills me to have a close look at that kind of history.

HEAVY STUFF IN IOWA

After years of hearing stories about a place of dreams and wonders, I was finally able to get out to an Iowa farm where the tales—people said—came true.

I met the owner, who was excited to show me his goodies. I offered him the issue of Hot Rod with my article about an original-owner ’69 Dodge Charger Daytona. He looked at the magazine and said he had one of those cars that the Daytona was made from. It was an odd way to put it, and I assumed he meant a ’69 Charger.

Our first stop was his tractor shed. He kept a ’69 Charger 500 in there, an original 426 Hemi example that came with a floor-mounted 4-speed and a body done up in Dodge’s B5 Blue. The sad thing is that the car had sunk into the earth right up to the rims’ valve stem caps.

Other cars were in the shed: a 1967 Plymouth Hemi GTX, a ’67 GTX with the 440, and a smattering of Plymouths and Dodges spanning the 1940s to the ’60s.

Out in the “back 40” the owner kept rows of rare Mopars, including a ’64 Plymouth Fury; an original Max Wedge car sitting with other Dodge Coronets; Plymouth Barracudas. There were more, a lot more—rows of cars that covered the property from one end to the other.

I had already been flabbergasted by this visit, but things just got better. The guy kept trailers for storage; some were full of rare dual carb setups; others were stuffed with first-generation Hemi engines, including an original Hemi irrigation pump in its original stand! Now I understood the owner’s remark about Charger Daytonas.

The interior of the last barn was dim, but I saw at least three 426 Hemis, and benches covered in spare Hemi parts. You couldn’t walk without tripping over something 426 Hemi. And here’s the craziest: a complete, original NASCAR Hemi setup. You just don’t see that!

The owner was a truck driver. He loved rare stuff and found a lot of it during his travels. He favored Mopar, so those cars and parts dominated his collection.

The gentleman has one of the greatest collections I’ve ever seen.

SLEEPING AERO WARRIORS

Sometimes I really have to beat the ground to locate a certain car or collection. Other times, the treasures fall into my lap. Thanks to the Internet, this adventure was one of the “lap” stories.

I left a Monday-afternoon phone message for the owner of a property, asking if I might come down and photograph his collection. He called back and turned out to be an amiable guy. We set up a time for my visit, but he warned that the Internet glimpse of his collection represented just a small fraction of what he had.

The drive ate up half a day, which I didn’t mind at all as soon as the owner began to show me around the property. First thing we looked at wasn’t a car but a vintage Indian motorcycle that belonged to my host’s father. Close by, a converted mobile home protected a 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona; an improbably low-mileage, NASCAR-inspired Dodge Aspen Kit Car—and a 1970 Hemi ’Cuda!

It was when we moved into the main barn that things went sideways. The building was crammed with rare collectibles. As if an omen of things to come, a ’66 Hemi Charger was closest to the entrance. We walked a little farther, and there on the right was a mid-’70s Cosworth Vega. A ’69 Charger 500 was next, and then a 1969 Ford Talladega.

Then there was the other side of the barn, where I found a big-block ’69 Plymouth Sport Satellite convertible with a 4-speed; whoever ordered it that way knew how to dodge the insurance man.

I was impressed by a ’69 Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II, and then I was floored by a 1970 Plymouth Superbird!

The owner came down with the Mopar bug in the mid- to late ’70s, and picked up his prizes when they were just used cars. After he bought the ’70 ’Cuda he phoned his girlfriend and said he had something special to show her. She thought he was talking about an engagement ring. Well … surprise! (She was a good sport and ended up marrying him anyway.)

It’s easy to admire the Mopar aero warriors, but you won’t be taken seriously by the community unless you own one. My host figured there was no reason why he couldn’t own one of each! That’s what he found, and he’s had them ever since.