Our land boats, barges and bulldozers

[cm23uoc]

With Europeans it's mostly fascination with these unusual dimensions and design details that drive them to get such a car, maybe influenced a bit as well by the old movies or TV shows.

With Americans first hand childhood and youth memories are maybe 50 % of the spirit.

 

[vdk2010]

These are unbelievably beautiful cars! There is absolutely nothing comparable over here! And of course, the size, styling, uniqueness, a V8...
I owned a couple of small german cars (mainly VW rabbits) in my life and now I wanted something special.

A car with character.

 

[Catfish]

You could always email me the pics. Ohhh, the carnage.

Carnage, yes. I built up quite a reputation in eastern montana and western North Dakota as the crazy guy in the imperials. LOL. Balls to the walls in a car that will damn near drive through anything else out there. It was a lot of fun, but my back is paying the price. Here's a screen shot from a video taken in North Dakota. That's me in my 67 imperial #91.

 

[70NPORT]

These are unbelievably beautiful cars! There is absolutely nothing comparable over here! And of course, the size, styling, uniqueness, a V8...
I owned a couple of small german cars (mainly VW rabbits) in my life and now I wanted something special.

A car with character.
View attachment 24351

That car has character for sure. I loved my old Imperial, it was like nothing else.

 

[70NPORT]

Carnage, yes. I built up quite a reputation in eastern montana and western North Dakota as the crazy guy in the imperials. LOL. Balls to the walls in a car that will damn near drive through anything else out there. It was a lot of fun, but my back is paying the price. Here's a screen shot from a video taken in North Dakota. That's me in my 67 imperial #91.

Can't watch, will just take your word for it.

 

[Catfish]

Can't watch, will just take your word for it.

I don't blame you, it's not for everyone.

 

[Marian]

Carnage, yes. I built up quite a reputation in eastern montana and western North Dakota as the crazy guy in the imperials. LOL. Balls to the walls in a car that will damn near drive through anything else out there. It was a lot of fun, but my back is paying the price. Here's a screen shot from a video taken in North Dakota. That's me in my 67 imperial #91.

Ouch! We will let that one go and remember you for your avatars. :campfire:

 

[Stormer]

My grandfather owned a small town Chrysler dealership in the 60's. Mopar is the only option for my mom, uncles & tons of cousins.

 

[Marian]

My grandfather owned a small town Chrysler dealership in the 60's. Mopar is the only option for my mom, uncles & tons of cousins.

There is more to this story? First car?

 

[Stormer]

My first car was a 79 camaro that I jammed a built 327 out of a 66 impala into. That came from my dad's side but my second car was an 84 RamCharger. I also had a 74 Jeep pickup truck in high school.

I got into the C bodies when my Challenger lost the back seat for a roll cage so I decided to build a low-rider. Now I look down my nose at A,B,E. Total C Body snob...

 

[70bigblockdodge]

My Mopar story first glimmer was a 68 Dodge Charger owned by my mothers cousin's husband, I have no idea what engine was in it but it was loud jacked up in the rear chrome wheels wow, it should be mentioned that my mother was from east Tennessee so this wasn't a car I saw often. My Dad his dad and my uncles are not car guys, my dad being the worst cheap and low maintenance the moment it needed more than brakes, tires, battery-gone, mostly Chevy products as he got rid of each one I would feel sad. My parents first mopar was a 77 Plymouth Gran Fury sw wood grain poverty caps with beauty rings and those porta walls that were in another thread, I thought yuk, but it had a big block (400), I have always been fascinated by all things mechanical. My first car was a 63 chevy II given to me by my Grandfather after years of bugging I fixed it up(lots of bondo) had countless problems with it, went looking for my first mopar a 74 dart sport /6, 3 spd manual no p.s. no p.b. perfect for a bb conversion, car was pretty rusty never happened. Bought my Cordoba also with bb as a total for $250, headers dual exhaust had a lot of fun with that car till springs came through trunk this was while I was in Navy so I dumped it, which lead to my Baracuda (to make another bb a body) bought my Challenger to beat around while putting bb in b-cuda still have both added the Charger years later and have been looking for a c body for the last few years mostly because they will never make cars like this again BIG and beautiful, not much of a c body story but a mopar story.

 

[70NPORT]

been looking for a c body for the last few years mostly because they will never make cars like this again BIG and beautiful

My thoughts exactly. Thanks to OPEC You will never see another 2dr coup the size and dimensions of a Chrysler fuselage era car (or slab, formal) ever again.

 

[1978 NYB]

Growing up.... my Dad had 3 (1960's-1970's) Dodge/Plymouth station wagons. We had 7 kids and a German Shepard in my family.

I bought my first car in 1971. I had to get my parents to co-sign for my car loan so I had to take my Dad with me to look at and test drive the car. The car was a 1969 Dodge Super Bee. We went for a ride and my Dad drove the Super Bee. We drove a couple of miles and he didn't say a word. He started to head back to the Dodge dealer and I thought everything was OK. There was a entrance ramp to I-43 and my Dad turned on to it. It's a long straight entrance and he came to a dead stop and then punched it. He was up to 100 mph quickly and said "no way are you getting this car.....it's too damn fast". We went home and I begged my Ma to let me get it since I was paying for the car. We agreed to a compromise....I could get the Super Bee if I promised to stay off the expressway. Done deal and we went and got the Super Bee. Not 4 hours later....I was the driving the Super Bee on the expressway with my brother and friend in the car and we just passed my Ma & Dad in their Plymouth station wagon doing 80 mph. I had the keys taken away for a week.

In 1973, I traded the Super Bee in for a brand new 1973 Dodge Ralleye Challenger with a 340 Magnum with a Torqueflite on the floor. I had that car until the day before I joined the Army on 29 December 1976. I sold the Challenger for $700. I could kick myself even today for selling either of those cars.

I had several Mopars during my 20 years in the Army. I had a 1967 Satellite wagon and a green 1969 Fury III. Both were perfect low mileage cars. I did buy a new 1977 Dodge pickup with a slant 6 and 3 on the tree in El Paso, Texas. Huge discount for the military back then.

I still didn't have any interest in C-Bodies. I viewed them as old man cars. There was a Chrysler/Imperial dealer right across the street from the Dodge dealer that I bought parts from......to this day I can't remember a single car on that lot.

Well, I was overseas for many years and when I came back to the states in 1983 for a brief assignment at Ft. Knox I wanted a 1969 Roadrunner and my Ma and wife both attacked me. Why do you want one of those? When are you going to grow up and buy a family car? Well, I caved and bought a 1982 Olds Cutlass.

Fast forward to 1992, just got back to Germany from Iraq and then transferred to Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md which was going to be my last assignment before retiring from the Army. I found out about the Chrysler's at Carlisle show and I had the biggest damn flashback of my youth when I saw the thousands of Mopars at Carlisle. I'll even admit I had a tear or two leaking out of my eyes when I saw that beautiful showfield and all the Mopars. I've been to almost every Chrysler's at Carlisle show since....trying to find my Super Bee and Challenger.

I decided I wanted another Mopar about 5 years ago and knew that if I bought another B or E body that I would be putting a ton of money in to the car and I would be on the dragstrip every weekend. Well, I decided to get a formal (an old man car) and I ended up buying a 1978 New Yorker.

 

[detmatt]

My dad retired from Chrysler in '87 but he worked for financial and was not really into cars. With a family of 7 we always had a 9 passenger wagon and the other car would have been a sedan of some sort but all Mopar. I was very much into cars from the minute I gained control of my thumbs, matchbox & Hotwheels. I am told that at the age of 3 I became fascinated by the teenagers across the street from our house that were constantly working on there car in the driveway. This was about 1973 and It had a custom paint job and was loud and I must have loved it because whenever they were working on it I could be found sitting on the curb in front of our house watching them. It may not have mattered what kind of car it was but it just happened to be a '68 Charger and to this day it is my favorite car ever. Time went on and my enthusiasm for cars grew and Mopar has always been my mark. I went from pushing around the die casts to building plastic models (some C-bodie notables in particular a '68 300) to drawing cars in all my spare time. My godfather, God rest his soul, was a mechanical type guy and I got some exposure to how things work from him. He also taught me how to drive in his '72 Plymouth Satellite while on the many trips up north with him. Next, in my early teens, I realized that there were car shows so I started dragging my dad to the ones that were all Mopar and there were quite a few in the mid '80s. It was about that point that I think I got my dad into it at least enough for him to buy a car that we could start enjoying together. He later told me that the main reason he bought the car was as an effort to keep me from dropping out of high school. I have since told him that I never once thought about quitting school, I didn't like it but would never have quit. The car we found in the Detroit Free Press weekend classifieds was a '68 Charger and that was about '85:yaayy:! Had that car for many years and had lots of great times in it until selling it before a pending divorce. I figured that would be a better fate for the car. My dad ended up wanting a car of his own eventually and he is a convertible guy so he found himself a butterscotch '71 Challenger in '96 and we began enjoying that car together for 16 years that he owned it. After getting the divorce thing well behind me I really began to feel the need for another car of my own so I found my '68 Road Runner project and began the restoration of it which is still not finished but it will be at some point... My collection grew from there and it was on a parts hunt that I first laid eyes on a silver on silver '67 Imperial Crown Coupe and it was love at first sight! I now have a pretty decent small collection of some noteworthy muscle cars in various stages of resto, including my most recent purchase of the vert from my dad. I've said it many times since I acquired the Imp though, if someone were to tell me that I was only allowed to have one classic car I would be an Imperial owner.

 

[70NPORT]

....I could get the Super Bee if I promised to stay off the expressway. Done deal and we went and got the Super Bee. Not 4 hours later....I was the driving the Super Bee on the expressway with my brother and friend in the car and we just passed my Ma & Dad in their Plymouth station wagon doing 80 mph. I had the keys taken away for a week.

Some how while reading your story I knew that was coming....the part about promising to staying off the expressway....yea, right. Caught red handed. lol.

 

[70NPORT]

My dad retired from Chrysler in '87 but he worked for financial and was not really into cars. With a family of 7 we always had a 9 passenger wagon and the other car would have been a sedan of some sort but all Mopar. I was very much into cars from the minute I gained control of my thumbs, matchbox & Hotwheels. I am told that at the age of 3 I became fascinated by the teenagers across the street from our house that were constantly working on there car in the driveway. This was about 1973 and It had a custom paint job and was loud and I must have loved it because whenever they were working on it I could be found sitting on the curb in front of our house watching them. It may not have mattered what kind of car it was but it just happened to be a '68 Charger and to this day it is my favorite car ever. Time went on and my enthusiasm for cars grew and Mopar has always been my mark. I went from pushing around the die casts to building plastic models (some C-bodie notables in particular a '68 300) to drawing cars in all my spare time. My godfather, God rest his soul, was a mechanical type guy and I got some exposure to how things work from him. He also taught me how to drive in his '72 Plymouth Satellite while on the many trips up north with him. Next, in my early teens, I realized that there were car shows so I started dragging my dad to the ones that were all Mopar and there were quite a few in the mid '80s. It was about that point that I think I got my dad into it at least enough for him to buy a car that we could start enjoying together. He later told me that the main reason he bought the car was as an effort to keep me from dropping out of high school. I have since told him that I never once thought about quitting school, I didn't like it but would never have quit. The car we found in the Detroit Free Press weekend classifieds was a '68 Charger and that was about '85:yaayy:! Had that car for many years and had lots of great times in it until selling it before a pending divorce. I figured that would be a better fate for the car. My dad ended wanting a car of his own eventually and he is a convertible guy so he found himself a butterscotch '71 Challenger in '96 and we began enjoying that car together for 16 years that he owned it. After getting the divorce thing well behind me I really began to feel the need for another car of my own so I found my '68 Road Runner project and began the restoration of it which is still not finished but it will be at some point... My collection grew from there and it was on a parts hunt that I first laid eyes on a silver on silver '67 Imperial Crown Coupe and it was love at first sight! I now have a pretty decent small collection of some noteworthy muscle cars in various stages of resto, including my most recent purchase of the vert from my dad. I've said it many times since I acquired the Imp though, if someone were to tell me that I was only allowed to have one classic car I would be an Imperial owner.

What, no pics? Not even of that gorgeous Imp??

 

[70bigblockdodge]

Blew up a /6 in my 74 dart sport on the expressway also used to love twisting speedo in my cordoba back up past the zero.

 

[detmatt]

What, no pics? Not even of that gorgeous Imp??

The only digital image of the first charger is a scanned pic on my desktop which I don't turn on very often anymore. I'll get after it today as well as the "as I first saw" pic of the Imp..

 

[commando1]

... the "as I first saw" pic of the Imp..

This pic was my downfall. As soon as I saw that on ebay I knew that car was coming home to papa.

 

[bluefury361]

This pic was my downfall. As soon as I saw that on ebay I knew that car was coming home to papa.

You fell for the "little old lady" line ..... Didn't ya .