Getting Really Weird

   There's a few quips and quotes that I've heard over the years in reference to my glorious, misspent youth; "The
'60's were weird. If you remember them, you were either too young or too old to truly live that era." The second one was, "If you thought the '60's were weird, the '70's were even more strange." I guess it depends on how old you were during those respective decades and what you might call "weird". When chatting with some older family relatives, some mention that the time frame between the late '60's and early '70's were the weirdest of years. Others state that both decades were somewhat unhinged, because societal norms as well as numerous other aspects of life changed so quickly that you needed a detailed score card to keep up. I think it finally depended on what your "norms" actually consisted of. For this post, we're going to define our weirdness quotient to the automotive realm. 

  

The first examples we'll look at when peering under the weirdness microscope, would be the 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona (left) and the 1970 Plymouth Superbird (below). Without going into phenomenal detail about either limited production vehicle, their sole purpose was to dominate the race tracks of the NASCAR circuit - period, end of story. While both these vehicles are coveted by collectors today and carry insane price tags for purchasing, they were considered weird or odd by the public back in their day. The interesting part is, the Superbird has always been considered the weirder of the two. But why? This author believes that several factors came into play like production numbers, vehicle cost, novelty, and timing, even though both vehicles completely changed the course of racing history.

   When dealing with the Daytona, the production numbers required by NASCAR that a manufacturer had to build in order to qualify said vehicle for racing was 500 units. Depending on where you get your information from, the total number of Daytona's that were built hover around 503 or 505. Some sources say only 392 units were built and in fact, some cars were counted twice. In any case, the novelty of the vehicle was incredible. 

   Numerous performance car enthusiasts had seen off-the-wall show cars before, like Bill Cushenberry's Silhouette (below) or the made for

TV Monkey Mobile created by Dean Jeffries, but to have a domestic manufacturer build a car of the Daytona's nature and sell them to the public, was unheard of. The Superbird, on the other hand, for some reason, was a different story. NASCAR rules literally changed every year, especially when the winged wonders were being built. The revolving changes involved production numbers as well as safety and fairness concerns. Plymouth had to build almost 2,000 units in order to qualify the car for racing (two cars for every US dealership). The MSRP of the special bird started at over $700 more than the Daytona, which was a good deal of money back then. The insurance companies didn't help matters as they finally tuned into that owning a high-performance car was a greater risk, in both driving and theft. Regardless of the extra monetary problems, the novelty of the cars was wearing off in the public eye and many Superbirds sat unsold. Numerous dealerships converted the Superbird's back to regular Roadrunners or took huge sales losses just to get rid of inventory. To quote numerous dealership owners, "...the car was just too weird looking and too expensive."

   Speaking of show cars, one has to agree that concepts and vehicles took a totally left of center turn at the dawn of the '70's. While numerous show cars were considered futuristic back in the '60's, things got downright abnormal by 1970. Maybe people were running out of ideas - who knows. One of the weirdest show rods of all time, which is still in existence today, is the Bathtub Buggy. In an extreme exercise of dropping too many hits of LSD while designing it, the show car was initially built starting in 1968, but it didn't really hit the show circuit until the 1970 season. As the name suggests, the Bathtub Buggy is a hot rod that has twin bathtubs for passenger seats and, yes, a plush toilet throne for the driver’s seat. All porcelain surfaces are covered in velvet-like fabric in a very dated but still pretty cool yellow-ish  mustard, (depending on the light hits it), which matches the gold copper of all that extra “plumbing” perfectly. This show rod spawned other creations that followed like the Outhouse, but shortly afterwards, designs really calmed down in concept. Perhaps the acid was wearing off and everyone had a headache...

  

In the toy realm back then, weirdness wandered and followed into that industry like a little puppy. In my never ending quest to collect Hot Wheels toy cars, a new series from Mattel debuted in 1971 called Farbs. They were goofy as all get out, and in one case, a little politically incorrect by today's standards. Initially, there were four racing dudes, all with catchy names, that were part human, part hot rod. They all had engines attached to their bodies, had slightly silly faces, and one in particular called Miles Ahead, had the fuel tank sticking out his butt. It was actually between his legs, but us kids thought it was funnier the other way around. But hey - this was 1971 and it was hilarious. No harm ever came to a kid who purchased one. 

   Finally, we take a look at a toy model kit that actually had the term Weird-Oh in it's name. A very well known, extremely colorful, and eccentric artist and car designer named "Big Daddy" Ed Roth truly inspired these initial characters. The Hawk model company took it from there and specifically called them "car-icky-tures". Ed Roth became famous from building show cars of various themes, to creating the immortal Rat Fink character, as well as being the originator of the popular weirdo t-shirts and sweatshirts throughout the '60's, amongst other ventures. Unfortunately, he never trademarked or patented his designs and several companies took substantial liberties with very similar art work. One series that was hatched in 1964 was the Weird-Oh's model series that featured such off-the-wall characters as the Drag Hag, Digger, and Endsville Eddie. Hawk also released a glow-in-the-dark series of these same model kits by the late 60's. I was just starting to get into model kits of sorts by 1970 at the tender age of seven, although that phase didn't last very long. But one Weird-Oh model kit I wanted was "Davey; the Way Out Cyclist" - mainly because we shared the same name and I thought it was cool looking. He was a deranged looking monster on what looked like a Harley Davidson motorcycle. 

   My Mom said no and I kinda forgot about it after the initial bummer reaction wore off. She later told me that she thought the model kit would be a bad influence on me at some future point in my life. She tried, but the bad influences still crept in - like extremely fast muscle cars and hot rods as well as a bunch of other crazy shit. It still hasn't left my system yet. Oh well... and sorry Mom. 

Until next time, peace out. And it's more than okay to be weird.

How Rare is Rare... Really?

   When it comes to almost anything, be it an automobile, book, coin, or what have you, the terms of vintage and rare are thrown around more than baseball during a Red Sox game. Go onto eBay and you'll see almost any item that is at least 20 years old, is labeled as vintage. I will be the first to admit, along with countless others, that this is not vintage. Hit me with something from the mid-70's, and depending on what it is, starts to qualify as vintage. And no, your 25-inch Zenith color TV in it's ugly wooden console on wheels from the mid-70's does not count. 

   However, certain items in our classic and high performance world do indeed qualify as vintage but also definitely rare. One item that comes to mind was a 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner I owned for about 2 1/2 years back in the mid 80's. It was a basic hardtop model - nothing really special. It was also before the aftermarket restoration industry exploded catering to muscle cars ranging from 1964 to 1974. Back then, the only aftermarket parts were for Corvettes. In order to find parts, you either had to scour swap meets, car shows, or if you got really lucky, found something you could use of the same era car in a junkyard. Once the aftermarket parts industry with companies like Year One caught up with enthusiasts, all those junkyard classics were crushed for scrap metal money. I purchased the Roadrunner in its purple glory (not the original color) that had a modified 440 Magnum engine between the fenders (not the original engine either; the 383 cubic inch V-8 was long gone). The guy I purchased the bird from was going through a divorce and included in the selling price of $2500 a 426 Hemi engine from 1970. My wife was a little miffed - she knew about the Plymouth coming home, but nothing about a spare engine that had to be stored in the basement. Rarity be damned. 

   In the weeks to come, I had a good friend of mine who worked at a local service station haul the Hemi engine out of the basement, and I left my Roadrunner with him for a few weeks for him to pick away at an engine swap. I told him he could keep the 440 magnum (which ran like a Swiss watch) as payment for his work. Once the swap was finished, which took a little more work than either of us anticipated, the car was an absolute animal on the street. The Hemi had hydraulic lifters by 1970, instead of the solid lifters of years past, so now the engine pulled hard all the time - no constant tuning and valve lash adjustments. I ended up selling the vehicle for a down payment on our first house. My wife was good with the sale, because the car was a handful to drive, was horrible on gas, and was never driven in the winter. Never mind she wouldn't drive it. While I never considered the Roadrunner itself a rare car (it was 1 of 20,000+ built that year), Chrysler only built a few hundred Hemi engines that year as factory high performance was on its way out.

  

However, speaking of REALLY rare, I stumbled across a magazine article from October 1966 where the staff was able to test drive - if you could honestly do that with this prototype vehicle - a 1967 Ford Galaxie with a "streetable" 427 SOHC (single overhead cam) engine. The race version of the SOHC engine that Ford developed in order to compete with the Chrysler Hemi on the drag strip and NASCAR race tracks, was an incredible engine that developed over 600 horsepower right out of the gate and could rev easily to 7,000 rpm. The supposedly streetable version of the SOHC engine had smaller dual quad Holley carburetors as well as a milder camshaft. Aside from the way beefier suspension, higher speed rated tires, and the almost competition four speed transmission, it looked like a stock Galaxie - right down to the hubcaps. However, the vehicle was never put into production due to cost (the engine was a $1000 option on top of the optional Galaxie 500 trim level) as well as driveablity issues like lousy low-end torque, hard starting in colder weather, and abysmal gas mileage. The only bright side to this insane rarity aside from the massive engine under the hood, was once  that power plant revved over 4,000 rpm, the car was literally untouchable and unbeatable on the street. 

   I owe the last rarity, that I still own, to my dad and him being kinda a stickler for reality. He knew I loved Hot Wheels as a kid and that I had a real yen for hot rods. So, for my birthday, he went searching for the classic '31 Ford Woody. Of course, the toy car came in all sorts of colors ranging from red to blue to purple to green. But to my dad, this didn't make any sense. It was a Ford Woody - wood is brown. Not red or purple or whatever. He managed to find one and I managed to preserve it all these years. It's not in perfect shape as it was played with - after all, it was a toy. However, it didn't see as much play time as my other models because it was not only tall, but boxy in shape. It didn't work as well with some of my Hot Wheels accessories mainly because it was so top heavy and awkward. Turns out, this particular Hot Wheel is one of the rarest that Mattel ever made. I have no idea why, but it is what it is. Google it and be prepared to get your mind blown as to its value. I did years ago looking through a price guide and that was way before Google was even thought of. Today, it's even more scary... and no, it's not for sale.

Until nest time, be that cool, rare person. Peace out.

When & How Did You Get Started In All This Vintage Automotive Madness?

   The short answer is, many moons ago. If I had to nail down a year, I'd definitely say it was 1968. I
was going on six years of age when I received my first batch of Hot Wheels toy cars which made their debut that same year. I had collected a few Matchbox cars prior to that, but they didn't roll very well and half the time I had to ask either my dad or grandfather exactly what the model was as most of them were based on foreign vehicles. When I first laid eyes on those cool Hot Wheels with their spectra-flame colors and hot rod attitude, that's all I wanted. I've been collecting them ever since. Of course, the success Mattel experienced from those initial 16 toy cars sparked a revolution and spawned more advertising on Saturday morning cartoons than you could shake a stick at. That led me to purchase more Hot Wheels and the associated track and accessories. By 1971, I had a LOT of Hot Wheels stuff; everything from a lunch box to miles of orange track to the almost 3 foot tall Tune-Up Tower. If anyone in my family asked my mom what I wanted for Christmas, my birthday, for Easter - the answer was Hot Wheels. The above picture is my older sister and I back in 1970. My mom had a cardinal rule of sorts, where I was only allowed to bring down so much Hot Wheels stuff from my room to play with at one time. She knew that everything I owned could take over the entire study / TV room in our house, as evidenced by the fact my bedroom was loaded with it. 

  

As time went on, those Hot Wheels branched out to other things. The only sport I was into was drag racing. I used to fall asleep watching the football or baseball games my dad or grandfather used to watch. Basketball was a little better, but my mom wouldn't let me watch hockey - too violent. I also thought NASCAR racing was kinda cool, but it took too long. A drag race was the only sport where you had one shot to win. No innings, quarters, periods, halves, rounds, sets, frames, or what have you. If you lost the race, you went home. Before we moved from northern New Jersey to live in the middle of nowhere in New Hampshire in 1974, my neighbor, who was an avid drag racer, took me a few times to Englishtown Raceway which was a racing mecca in its day. He was gracious enough to snap some pictures of some of the race cars, and I still have those faded color photos today. That mostly cemented my love for 60's and early 70's muscle cars. By 1972, I started collecting AHRA drag racing trading cars made by the Canadian company Fleer. I still have those today and still collect those as well. 

   Fast forward a few more years when performance took a real hit, but there were still a few diehards in my family who had the same bug I did. My older cousin, who lived near Chicago, owned a 70 Roadrunner with lots of power and attitude. And yeah - lots of cars had that serious rake; totally inspired by drag racing. When I was 16, I purchased my first car, a Mustang, from a neighbor. The vehicle never saw a New England winter as they went to Florida every October. The saving grace was the fact it had a 302 cubic inch engine, even if it was graced by Ford with only a 2-barrel carburetor. My dad was a little miffed that I didn't get something foreign or front wheel drive, but he knew it was still a good car. With the help of a fellow speed freak at a local garage, the engine soon had a performance intake manifold, 4-barrel carb, a set of headers with dual exhaust and a pretty healthy camshaft tackling the valvetrain. I never drove it winter, which still worked out okay, as I had a very good friend who had a 4-wheel drive pickup. The arrangement we had was we would drive my car from the beginning of May until about the first on November, then drive his rig all winter. Having this modified Mustang led me to start collecting Hot Rod, Car Craft, and Popular Hot Rodding magazines from the mid 50's through the early 70's. Each was loaded with performance tech articles regarding my era Mustang, never mind the coolness factor from a by-gone era.

  

I took a hiatus from performance cars when I went off to college. Girls were now a major concern as was my love for music and radio broadcasting, which was my major in college. My dad wouldn't allow me to take the Mustang to college as he felt it would get stolen. He said he would store the car for me like I did for several years. Unfortunately, for one reason or another, his game plan didn't work out. He thought he would have a friend or neighbor store it somewhere for free as he didn't want to pay anything for storage like I had done. So the Mustang sat - outdoors - totally unprotected. One winter while I was away at college was especially cold and brutal. When I came back home in mid-May, the car had taken a real beating. All the tires were flat, I had to replace the battery, along with the distributor cap, rotor, as well as the spark plugs and wires. My gear-head friend from the local garage helped me get it started. It took us over 2 hours to get it running. Needless to say, with my 19-year old attitude, I was pissed. While I drove the car all summer, I just couldn't bring myself to let it sit like that for another winter, despite family promises. I sold the car to my gear-head buddy. 

 

   It wasn't until I was married in the mid-80's, that muscle cars started making a comeback. The restoration parts aftermarket definitely helped that along. At that same time, I had a little bambino on the way, and my mom informed me that she had saved all of my Hot Wheels stuff, my Fleer trading cards, as well as all my magazines. Maybe I could share my passion with our child. To my benefit, my parents owned and ran a large antique shop. My mom saw that all these things I collected were escalating in value, so in her fore-thinking wisdom, (and unbeknownst to my dad), she collected more of these things. My wife was a little surprised with all this "stuff" that had now taken up residence in our study and TV room, just like when I was a kid. 

   I still have most of these things - I made a mistake once and vowed to never do it again. Money was tight during the recession going into the early 90's and I put all my Hot Wheels track and accessories out in a huge box as part of our annual yard sale. A guy and his wife approached me and asked how much I wanted for the entire box. Being a tad hesitant to sell, I shot out, what I thought was a high figure of $250 dollars. He didn't even bat an eyelash and agreed to it. He pulled out his wallet and handed me the money. My wife was stunned at the amount. He asked if I had any Hot Wheels cars for sale and my wife, thinking we could really rake in some cash told him, "Oh yeah, he has tons of them inside! He has all kinds of old drag racing stuff too!!" I told him that the box was all I was selling and that I already had sellers remorse. Yes, I'm still married to that same woman today but she tolerates my hobbies MUCH better... and doesn't offer to sell my stuff for me.

Until next time, remember; don't collect for the value. Value what you collect. 

Peace out.

You Want How Much For It?

    I was reading two articles the other day from one of my older Hot Rod magazines. One article was
titled, "100 Ways To be Inflation" - tips on car repair and maintenance that ranged from exhaust to carburetor jets to installing trunk mounted batteries. The other article contained a photo caption that read, "Swap meet prices are out of control. We need to bring them back down to earth. Some clowns are trying to get rich by buying and selling old hot rod parts." Sound familiar? So when do you think these articles and such were written? Believe it or not, all those words were written back in 1972... 52 years ago. 

   I don't know who said it, but it still rings true - some things never change. While inflation seems to rear its ugly head now and again to varying degrees, it seems the prices of old cars, their associated parts, as well as vintage automotive memorabilia which includes various collectibles ranging from toys to literature has rarely taken a break. And lately, it seems to have been injected with a heavy dose of steroids. I can remember when, and I'm taking about six or seven years ago, when someone could purchase an older vehicle, say pre-1980, for less than 2 grand, if it was a 4-door with a small V-8 engine between the fenders. And while it needed work, it usually ran, drove and stopped. Nowadays it seems, that same vehicle is at least $5000 or more depending on make. 

   eBay seems to be ripe with this inflation price attitude. Facebook marketplace also seems to falling into this unfortunate trend. I belong to several Facebook groups that range from hot rods to Hot Wheels. I've read way too many posts from members that are criticizing some of the prices for certain items on eBay. In my humble opinion, it's your stuff - you can sell it for whatever you want. But these people do have a point; there seems to be an almost out-of-control pricing problem that is being inflamed by unknowledgeable sellers or price gougers trying to make some serious cash. One Hot Wheels FB group I belong to had a member post a brand new 1971 Chevy El Camino Hot Wheel that was also a super treasure hunt. His first mistake in his for sale post was he found the toy at Dollar Tree - which means he paid $1.25 plus tax for it. He was now selling the toy online for $40 plus shipping and handling. Shipping is more than a-ok, but an additional handling charge? Needs to say he was absolutely lambasted by the group and the post was removed, most likely by him. 

  

Again, it's your stuff - you can ask whatever you want for it - be it reasonable or stupid crazy. I'm seeing a number of eBay listings ranging from vintage automotive stuff to Hot Wheels that just get renewed month after month or week after week, because the item or items did not sell. The auction will usually see a price drop after a few renewals because the seller just may be realizing that the price is too high. Others don't get it - they hold out for some newbie collector who doesn't know any better. The best thing we can all do, is to educate ourselves as best as possible about a potential purchase, and pay reasonable prices. If they're too high, don't pay them. This theory holds true whether it's on eBay, or at an old car swap meet. Another bottom line is, it's your money - do whatever you want with it. But don't be the fool who's money is easily departed. Don't get into a hobby because of the value of what it contains or strictly for resale purposes; that isn't a hobby. Value what you collect or get out of your hobby. You'll be much happier.

   I'm done with the old cliches - I'll catch you next time. Peace out.

Like Technology? Thank a Drag Racer

    Technology is everywhere, regardless of industry. Whether the field is medicine, automotive, computers, or even housing and construction, we can no longer ignore it nor not use it. Technology is helpful and in most cases, a very good thing. I'm currently going through cancer treatment and had what's called a port inserted into the upper right side of my chest. This thing is smaller than a quarter, took all of 15 minutes to install after the prep work was done, and now the cancer center at the hospital where I'm receiving my treatments, as well as any other doctor, can utilize this port for any number of things. While this technology has been around for a while, it's still amazing what can be done. 

  

In regards to automobiles, we take for granted things like computer systems, fuel injection, flex-fuels, supercharging, direct drive transmissions, aerodynamics, transverse mounted engines and more. Ever wonder where these ideas ever cam from? Drag racing. Things like fuel injection and flex-fuels have been used in drag racing since the late 40's. Advanced supercharging and direct drive transmissions have been a staple in top fuel dragsters since the 50's. Aerodynamics and transverse mounted engines have been played with for over 60 years. This was all in the name of going fast, first and foremost, and eventually safety when that came into vogue in the early 70's after too many close calls and bad accidents. Take a good look the photo to the left - this is circa mid-50's and one can see the supercharger on top of the main engine. Those tubes above the supercharger, going into the air scoop is a fuel injection system. Lastly, that cool front mounted fuel tank would hold a mix of gasoline and nitro-methane. 

   More technology - I recently acquired a 2x3 foot reproduction banner that is identical to the ones that were at Shell stations back in the late 60's. I purchased it from a guy who makes these new banners with his computer and a professional printer. The quality is first rate. This is yet another warm fuzzy from my past for multiple reasons. One, because I was in love with Hot Wheels toy cars, and two, because I was in love with muscle cars and hot rods. There was a very cool Shell station that also did full-on mechanical work and I always begged my dad to go there to get the gas for our vehicle. Not only did 3 gallons of petrol get me either a free Hot Wheels, or at most would cost us 49 cents, but there were always cool muscle cars and street rods parked there in the warmer months that were owned by the station employees. Looking back, my dad was always pretty cool about these jaunts into my hot rod fantasies. He always got more than 3 gallons of gas, would pony up the two bits for the toy car if necessary, and would allow me time to drool over the awesome vehicles. Some of the mechanics were even good enough to take a few moments from their busy schedule to talk to me. That's become non-existent these days. 

   Call me an alarmist, but I see all these stories and headlines about AI. Everything from where it's going to be much harder to tell the difference between actual and fake photographs, ditto with videos, and who knows what else. Hopefully, other technology will develop along with this so we will be able to decipher what is real and what isn't. The "good 'ol days may not have always been so good, but at least we knew that shit was real. 

Until next time, peace out.