I think I had car horniness even before I had girl horniness! Even though I was only 15 (in 1985), I hocked my amp to a friend for $500 and bought a 1964 Dodge Model 440 4 door from this family of hillbillies across town who ran hemicars at the local dragstrip. They had turned this thing into a parts repository for everything that didn't make it into their race cars - a 70s cop 360, headers, suregrip (positraction), slapper bars, a left over 2 barrel from a van, hood pins (!), snow tires and Cragar 5 spokers. I was about 8 months away from a licence, so I spent the whole winter doing bodywork on it and idling it in the driveway. I put in a tach and an 8 track player, helper springs and air shocks, cranked the torsion bars down low, and flipped the air cleaner upsidedown because IT SOUNDS COOLER, DUDE!

After finally getting my license I took it to the strip and turned a disappointing 16.2. Couldn't get any traction with the snow tires. My first semester in college I sold it to a friend for $800, so I guess I didn't do too bad. I upgraded myself to a 1967 slant 6 Valiant.

Kip Amore
-gearhead-