This story is an oldie but goody. About 2 months before my 16th birthday, the folks decided to trade in the old Pontiac wagon on a new car. My brother and I waited anxiously, expecting them to drive home in a Chevy station wagon or (worse yet) a Ford 4 door. I can still recall our utter amazement when Mom pulled up in a spanking new 66 Coronet, a 2 door HT, yet. True, the Citroen Gold Paint and white bench seat interior didn't light us up, but all that was instantly forgotten when we spotted the "383 Four Barrel" emblems on the front fenders. Well, it took us about 6 weeks to finally talk mom into letting us borrow the car one Saturday evening to "go to the library". My brother, being older and licensed to boot, took the wheel and we headed down town, almost instantly pulling up next to a 64 GTO. The guys in the goat took one look at the ugly paint and the full cover hubcaps and snickered. The guy riding shotgun says something like "Borrowed momma's car, eh?" My bro is trying to ignore him when I yell "Oh yeah? Ya wanna run that piece of $%#@&!?" To make a long story short, out to the country we go, and Momma's Dodge nailed the 389 - 4 speed Poncho by about 3 lengths. Coulda beat him more, but the 7.75 x 14's didn't allow you to use more than half throttle for the first hundred feet or so. Going to the library on Saturdays got to be a real habit, and many were the races entered and won. Lost a few, probably would have won more if the old man would have bought the cheater slicks I almost talked him into. Four years later, mom decided to get a more economical car, and I bought the Coronet for a whopping $700. I put some Casler cheaters on it, tuned it up, and ran a 14.96. At 2400 feet elevation, with mufflers and almost 80,000 miles. The car eventually became my wife's bracket car, turning consistant 13.0's with a fresh engine, 3.55 posi, headers etc. In a moment of weakness, I traded it in on a new 73 Charger. Still miss that car.
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