[njsteve]

Sad news to report.

On Saturday September 7th, 2019, Enrico "Rick" Stein, the original owner of my 73 SD455 passed away. He was in his late 80's and had suffered a fall and broke his shoulder earlier this year. Complications set in recently.

He lived one helluva interesting life - owning most of the rarest musclecars back in the day when they were brand new. He even bought a brand new 1967 green and tan L88 Corvette roadster which he owned for a total of two days before returning it to the dealership because he was too tall (6'8") to drive it without leaving the door open to clear his left knee.

But he is best remembered for this 73 SD455 Formula and his amazing level of attention to the entire process from inspiration to ordering, to reordering, to threatening to throw the Pontiac zone rep from his five story office window if he didn't authorize the order of this car. He had a photographic memory for all things automotive and was a master mechanic back in the day, owning a string of high performance tune up shops.

His wife Lenora reached out to me yesterday to thank me for reuniting them with their old car at the 2016 MCACN where they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary next to their old Firebird.

Having no kids of their own, Rick and Lenora had "adopted" our family over the past six years and we had a continuous email string of car gossip, family vacation stories, high school wrasslin' tips for my son (Rick was a former unlimited weight class wrestler in college) and just random thoughts and remembrances about his old car. They were an amazing couple. I will surely miss Rick and his opinions on everything that in his opinion, needed opinions expressed upon.

In celebration I just took out Samarkand for a joyride. Samarkand was the name he and Lenora gave the Firebird back when it was new - it is a mystical city in the mountains of Uzbekistan. It was the name they had on all their record breaking powerboats over the years.

Of course, the town just decided to seal and gravel the road outside our house this afternoon.

Rick would have appreciated the irony. And yelled at me for taking his car out on those crappy New Jersey roads.

God speed Rick.