My 14,000 mile Day 2 (or Day 3) TA

[The Boss]

It's 1973 and this guy Randy in Bellflower CA, a junior in high school, is being indulged by his well to do grandparents with a new car. Nice enough, Randy drives it for a couple of years and then decides he wants to build a race/show car. HO Racing is tasked with building a Super Duty motor from over the counter parts, ASC installs a power Sunroof, a state of the art Blaupunkt Remote stereo is installed, Recaro seats are ordered, Cragar Sport Slats, Ansen Ground Grabber Traction bars and a few other items come together and Steve's Paint'n Lace is tasked with performing a metal flake black paint scheme. A little over 11,000 miles are on the car at this time.

Car takes over a year to come together and Randy's moved on to a BMW 3 Series as his daily driver. Car sits in the garage and the paint fails so in 1979/80 it gets stripped and painted again - this time inspired by the BMW M1 Race Car Randy had seen in Car & Driver and some BBS cross laced 3 piece magnesium wheels were sourced, clad in BFG rubber. He drove it a bit more this time, took it out to Sears Point to the Bonderant school (Bob drove it) but it once again ended up in the garage.

Not much more goes on for the next 8 or 9 years and in June of 1989 with only 14,000 miles on the car, Randy's best friend John Berdino convinces him to sell the car. John had loved it since day one and had spent a lot of Saturday nights in the passenger seat. John's an electrician and busy both days & nights so he only gets in two quick drives that first week and then Saturday morning comes and he has it idling in the driveway to take out for the day and the distributor gear breaks & the motor locks up. John pushes the car back into the garage and there it sits....next to the family mini van, his 5 kids bicycles, the boogie boards until finally in January of 2013 John gives up hope of ever driving it again and puts it on e-bay.

Steve Schappaugh of Musclecar Memories has a customer restoring a 73 Super Duty who buys the car off e-bay with the intent to harvest the motor. He has no interest in the car itself so Steve ends up with it & has his guys drop in a W72/T10 combo he has laying around and drives it a couple of times. Steve then does something he almost never does - he posts pictures of it one evening on Performance Years.

I called Steve early the next morning and after a few words about how cool it was I asked him what he was doing with the car. Steves words were something like this "Chris, it's funny you say that because last night when I got home and was pulling into the driveway, the headlights swept across the car port and across the car, those exact words went through my head - Steve, what are you doing with that car?" He then asked if I was interested and a deal was struck.

Other than changing the wheels to a set of Cragar Fan Stars I had and removing the M1 sticker from the rear spoiler, I've done nothing but finish the work Steve did after the motor was pulled, re-installed the stereo and replaced the gas & volt gauges, dash face & other items that were donated with the motor. I had picked up a set of SD heads and was planning on building a new motor for it, but life for me has gotten in the way and the car now sits at the back of the barn. Mileage now sits at 14,181 miles.

Odd & strange how such a cool car has been driven so little. I've only shown it once, other cars have come & gone and consumed my time, but this one sits, once again patiently waiting to be driven.

Steves pictures & on the transport heading East.

[The Boss]

With new wheels/tires in my driveway & at the PY show in 2014.

[The Boss]

Some of the interesting items in/on the car.

[markinnaples]

Awesome! Very IMSA-ish. Reminds me of all the articles in Hot Rod and Car Craft in the late 70's about building a road race car. Any pics of when it was a show car with the lacy paint? Do you drive it ever?

[The Boss]

Unfortunately I don't have any of the black lace metal flake paint - didn't drive it at all last year.

[ssl78]

Who added the sunroof? I have seen 1 other 73 with a factory sunroof and didnt think it was a option

[The Boss]

American Sunroof - Custom Craft, Inc.
7322 Quimby Street
Paramount California 90723

They were exactly 5 miles from Suburban Pontiac in Bellflower, CA

Sunroof wasn't installed when the car was new - it was installed in 1976.