Of Magazines influencing musclecar buying...
I recently had the pleasure of appraising a very nice car. The owner told me that back in 1965, his otherwise conservative father decided the family needed a sports car. He was getting all dialed in on a new Corvette. The son, seizing the moment, took his new copy of SPORTS CAR ILLUSTRATED which compared the 1965 Corvette to the 1965 289 Shelby Cobra. That article, along with 45 minutes of deliberate lobbying by the son, convinced the old man to place an order for a new black on red 289 Cobra, trading in Mom's 1962 Olds 98 sedan. It arrived several months later but fell off the transport truck (?!). Shelby American deemed it mortally wounded, and submitted a claim to their insurance company (but later repaired and sold the car!). Anyway, 289 production was almost done, and no more orders were being accepted. Fortunately, a nearly identical car, built two units after the ordered car, was located in Florida. A dealer swap was arranged and the boy hopped onto a plane and drove it back home to the heartland of Wisconsin for his dad.
Ironically, Dad never opted to drive the car, and the boy got to use it for his college car from '66 to '69!. The boy is now a man, and still has the car in his garage. It shows just under 60K on the odometer and is so honest it HURTS. It's gorgeous, too, black on red leather with factory chrome wire wheels. He still uses it to relive past glories, it sees tour and club picnic duties every summer here in the Northwest.
Oh yeah, HE STILL HAS THE MAGAZINE, too. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggthumpup.gif[/img]
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10-17-2003, 08:04 PM
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