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.
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