Everyone makes money

[Chris396]

My dad came by today and told me a funny story. A local guy sold his early 70's Nova to another guy for $10,000 no engine. He had $350 in it. The next guy just sold it to Fast Lane Classics in St. Louis for $20,000 with a big block in it. Fast Lane just sold it for $28,000. The market is crazy. Bubble?

[Mr70]

I just purchased an early 70's BB Nova from Fast Lane....


j/k

[Zedder]

Yes, things are crazy! The '67 Z I just bought went up $10K in the week before I got it and there is still another $10K profit left in it! Who'd a thunk it

[jg95z28]

This market is the only reason I'm not worried about all the $$$ I'm dumping in my kid's 67 Coupe.

[GOAT72]

[ QUOTE ]
Yes, things are crazy! The '67 Z I just bought went up $10K in the week before I got it and there is still another $10K profit left in it! Who'd a thunk it

[/ QUOTE ]

Check out the July issue of "HOT ROD" magazine. On the cover it says: "Musclecar Boom".

A great article about the soaring prices.

I guess the ricer/tuner market just dropped considerably this year.
(I don't mind ricers, but when they drop in on our local classic car show it just doesn't seem right.)

Mac

[Pantera]

We just have to remember that the "ricers" are just what we would be if we were a 18yr old today. They don't have much in the car world that they can afford to buy, so they are hotrodding what they can get thier hands on in thier price range.

We represent to them the HOLY GRAIL of muscle cars. They love the cars we have and they would give anything to own one but there is no way they could afford it now.

So just remember, what some of us were doing when we were at that age? We bought some old beater and built it up into something the best we could afford. I was lucky my mother gave me her dusty rose/white '57 210 post with a 220hp 283 and a Pglide when I turned 16 in 1961.

That was one of the fastest cars at my high school. Of course it helped having a cousin being the Parts manager of Bill White Chev and getting me one of the first HP 327 crate, short blocks when they came out. I took the old 283 that I had spun a rod bearing with and scrounged the wrecking yards and picked up a 55 chev 2 dr post for $65 and little by little turned it into a car to race so that my 57 was always reliable and would get me to work so I could buy more parts. LOL...

I have to laugh when I see the extremes that these kids go to today to go faster than their buddies. The are not to much different that that kid I was back when I was 19 - 20!!! I think we called it "CAR CRAZY...!!" I know my mother sure thought I was.

Just remember those are the guys that will go to college and get a high paying job and some of them if they are lucky just could own one of "OUR" special cars one of these days. Rember that is what we had to do to get where we are today. (At lease most of us)

I know it sure makes me think about what will happen to my babys (my cars) when I am too old to even drive them and the best I can do is chase the gal down the hall of the retirement home with my souped up wheel chair.

So lets be nice to the Ricers because someday they just may be the guy driving the ambulance that saves our ass one more time.

They share something we all take for granted and that is a LOVE of cars. Can that be so bad??? I don't thind so?

(Climbing down off soapbox now)



Pantera

[427TJ]

You hit the nail right on the head Pantera. I was fortunate to turn 16 before '60s musclecars became too valuable and expensive for gear-head boys to buy and fix up. I bought my first car in 1979, a '67 Camaro, from my next-door neighbor who bought it new. First thing I did was put headers and turbo mufflers with 2.5" exhaust. I loved the sound and drove like hell everywhere I went just to hear those pipes. It was even better when I put in a strong motor to fill out those pipes. What's the first thing a kid does today with his used Civic? He puts a big ol' "fart can" muffler on and rat-races all over town. Yep, we've all seen that kid and he is US. We all remember guys who put Cherry Bomb glasspacks on their cars and then rapped-out their pipes between every stoplight. We used to laugh at such ridiculousness and I still laugh at 'fart can' Hondas. Cherry Bombs and 'fart cans' are the exact same thing executed with the technology of their day. I'd bet that if someone grafted a Cherry Bomb onto a Civic, that would become the new craze.

In February I bought a brand new Subaru WRX STi. 300hp, 300 ft.lbs., intercooled turbo 2.5 liter flat four, six speed box, lockers front and rear (AWD), and it'll hit the limiter at 147 mph with ease and it's as smooth as glass at that speed. Road tests show the 1/4 in 13.20. It'll corner hard enough to make you feel carsick. Yeah, it was 30K, but I've already smoked a couple C6 Corvettes with ease and nobody (stock) can stay with me through a section of tight curves. Now, when Chevy re-releases the Camaro in what, '06?, we'll be very lucky if it can do all that from the factory WITHOUT MODIFICATIONS. If Chevy gets it right with the next Camaro and it turns out to be a real bomb, like my STi, my guess is that it'll be AT LEAST $40,000. Heck, I'd love to have a new '02 Berger or even a new '06 Camaro SS, but I could afford the STi. I laugh every time I drive it, it's that fun.

[djunod]

Back in '79, the first mod I did to my '68 Camaro was add Thrush mufflers to it. Boys like loud motors.

[Canucklehead]

When i was young we would repair our rotten exhaust system with pop cans and muffler clamps, worked good and sounded cool. Cheap too

[GOAT72]

[ QUOTE ]
We just have to remember that the "ricers" are just what we would be if we were a 18yr old today. They don't have much in the car world that they can afford to buy, so they are hotrodding what they can get thier hands on in thier price range.

So lets be nice to the Ricers because someday they just may be the guy driving the ambulance that saves our ass one more time.

They share something we all take for granted and that is a LOVE of cars. Can that be so bad??? I don't thind so?
Pantera

[/ QUOTE ]

Pantera,
Let me first let me start by agreeing with you on one point: "Ricers" are younger kids who love cars and speed and are doing much what we did as kids. Even when they rattle the windows of my ol' GTO with their subwoofers it's OK, because once I was blasting Led Zepplin or Aerosmith through my own speakers. That's not the issue.


What I have a problem with (and I'll include an example) is the way they have little-to-know respect for property, noise and laws. I wanted to attend a fairly big cruise-in at the BK in Manassas, VA, but was told I'd have to arrive in the mid-afternoon and be out of there by 6PM, because once the sport compacts start showing-up there is drinking, fighting, burnouts, street racing and booming rap music.


These guys have been warned several times, but still it continues until now it seems they are jeopardizing the weekly event -- as the BK management is tired of calling the PD and cleaning up beer bottles.

Imagine the poor guy in his Dodge Caravan pulling in there with his wife and 3 kids at 7PM?

When I was a kid my dad helped me buy a '63 Impala SS 'vert with a 283. Sure, I left a little rubber here and there, and I certainly did so even more when I bought a '68 GTO convertible, but drinking?
Nope.
Fighting?
Never.
Burnouts or racing on someone else's property?
Absolutely not.
Loud music?
Well, OK... ya got me there.


The "ricers" have some very nice cars and need to learn (maybe from us?) that they should respect property, and each other - as well as the law. I enjoy peeking into their cars to see what they've done to modify their drivetrain, interiors, or sound systems -and many of these kids are proud of their work, but why spoil it by acting like animals - especially after "chasing out" the classic car crowd?

As always, someday the "ricers" will understand, and they'll be complaining about the next generation -- who will arrive at their own cruise-ins before they know it!


Mac