Musclecar Attraction

[Steve Shauger]

I think our passions for musclecars and attraction is based on our senses. The first glance with amazing styling and graphics, may not seal the deal but it gets our attention. Obviously, the sound of a performance engine whether at idle or 8k rpm, smell of high-octane fuel and burnt rubber or the rush we get as we accelerate and feel the g-forces climb.

This article focuses on the graphics in the wild 60's and 70's although these are factory in most cases, many applied their own with airbrushes. Enjoy the read and share with us what got you hooked on musclecars and the events that drove your passion for decades. I look forward to some amazing recollections!!!!

[Keith Seymore]

My dad and I were always the ones that peeled that stuff off, preferring a more plain or sleeper approach.

He even removed the "GTO" stickers from the rear quarter of our new '68 GTO (well - they came off in the car wash, saving him the trouble).

He had removed the GTO emblem from the grille of our '65, so when I returned it to street use that was one of the corrections I had to make.

So - it is with a great sense of irony that I mention that my job now is to design graphics and racing stripes for Nissan. God or somebody has a sense of humor.

You might be able to guess where my inspiration came from.

K

[Steve Shauger]

Keith cars are in your DNA, handed down by your father, and very much appreciate you sharing your father racing history and how you've kept his and yours going.

My father was an electrical engineer for Boeing and had zero appreciation for performance cars to the point of disdain. When he would see me working in the garage with the engine apart he would just shake his head. He would always say they were only meant to go from point A to B.

It started in the spring of 1967 while on my way to elementary school. There I would first hear this car tearing down the back roads of suburban Philadelphia. The tone of that exhaust, the lope and sound of the solid lifter camshaft left quite an impression. Then I saw a white with black stripe 1967 Camaro. In following years, it turned out to be a schoolmate’s brother’s 1967 Z28 Camaro, one of 602 built to homologate for the Trans Am racing series.

To me it's still amazing how the Z28 has captured the hearts and mind of so many collectors. Between the look, sound and performance it's amazing how they are so coveted even 50 years later.

[danachevroletfor1967]

I can't remember what first attracted me to muscle cars. I can remember lifting the hood on my dad's 1956 Dodge Coronet Lancer when it was in the garage just to look at that beautiful red engine with Red Ram spelled out on the valve covers and that big, black air cleaner sitting on top. I would have only been in very early teens. In 1965 my dad traded it in on a new 1965 Dodge Coronet 440 (trim level only) with a 318 ci engine.

I remember the first ads I saw in early 1969 I think on TV for the new Dodge Coronet Super Bee with the 440 six pack engine. By now I was hooked on supercars as I remember them being called then.

During the summers of 1970 thru 1972, while I was in college, I worked at a local Gulf service station. I loved the smell of that Gulf fuel. To me it definitely smelled different than the other local gases like Chevron, Shell, Richfield, Flying A, etc.

I waited on customers of all kind of muscle cars that came in: 454 Corvette, 1970 Hemi Roadrunner, etc. A guy that lived across the street from the Gulf station in an upstairs apartment owned a 1970 Hemi Cuda that he used to park right on the street. When he started it, it seemed like the whole block would shake.

What a time to be alive and working at a service station.

[Bill Pritchard]

Apparently I was into cars at a very early age, as my parents said by the time I was 4 or 5, I could correctly name the make - and sometimes model - of many cars going down the road. Started building plastic model cars early on, and by the time I was 11 or 12, I would always accompany my mom when she went grocery shopping.....because the store she always went to was next door to the local Chevy dealer, Ed Fanning Chevy in Aurora IL. She would grocery shop and I would car shop. In 1964, when I was 13, a good friend and co-worker of my dad's bought a new 64 Malibu SS, red with white bucket seat interior, 220HP 283 and a 4 speed. I thought it was gorgeous and that cemented my love for white interiors. My dad borrowed it a couple times and took me for a ride and showed me how he could 'speed shift' it and burn rubber in 2nd gear. I thought I died and went to heaven. In the summer of 1970, a few weeks after I had bought my first car, a new Hugger Orange 1970 Nova, my parents and my 2 brothers went on vacation. When they got back, the Nova's OEM single exhaust had been replaced by a Midas dual system with glasspacks, and the OEM Rally wheels were gone, replaced by a set of Keystone mags similar to Torq-Thrusts. My dad was not too happy. Unfortunately he only lived a few more months after that, so parental disapproval was a non-issue.

[Too Many Projects]

I had an older cousin who would come over a few times a summer with his '65 3 deuce GTO and take my Dad for rides. I never did get to ride in that car... apparently, my Dad thought it was too fast and dangerous. He liked muscle cars and bought a '66 Malibu new, but being a child of the depression would never spend the money for the SS or the gas it drank. The Malibu had a 283 3 speed trans. I was 14 at the time and passed my driver test in that car 2 years later. I got very good at pulling second gear "scratch" with that column shifter...

After graduation, I had a '64 Galaxie hardtop that I yanked the 352 out of and put a warmed over 390 in with the 3 speed trans shifter moved to the floor with the infamous Hurst Mystery Shifter. That car only stayed a year, as I had the chance to buy a '68 Chevelle SS with a flat cam lobe. Once I had it out, I went to the local Chevrolet dealer and bought the requisite L78 cam and lifters to "upgrade" from the L34. as many would know, the rest of the valve train wasn't up to the task of that cam and the fun of changing out bent push rods and broken rocker arms wore out rather quickly. I got the opportunity to buy the managers Camaro where I worked a year later and sold the Chevelle. The Camaro was a '67 base v8/PG on the column. It soon needed a new exhaust and, like Bill, I got a dual system from one of the local auto parts stores. My Dad didn't understand why I wanted to spend more for the dual than the single AND it was so damned loud !!! LOL

When the '70 'Cudas first came out, I was smitten with them and in March of '72, I decided I needed one for my 20th birthday, so I went to the local Plymouth dealer on a Saturday ordered one with the 340/4speed, console and posi rear. The next week, I called my insurance agent and told him what I had ordered and he said "good luck finding someone to insure that for you". My driving record wasn't exactly "clean" anymore by then. I called other agents and was told no or an outrageous monthly sum of nearly $100. I had to go back to the dealer and change the order to the 318 and no 4 speed... The fiance' liked the automatic better anyway. After we got married that fall, I bought a '69 GTO with a 3 speed manual and she got the 'Cuda. I had the GTO a year, when I spotted a '70 SS Chevelle on the local Ford lot and HAD to go look at it. Black/Black, white stripe and 454 4 speed. Yep, HAD to have it. Traded the GTO in on it.

[olredalert]

----When I was 6 my uncle took me to Miami Country Day school in his new 53 Corvette. I guess that would be the starting point. It's funny but I was always GM oriented.....Bill S

[Igosplut]

I grew up next to an air force base in the 60s. Enough said.

[Tenney]

Cool article, Steve! Pontiac consulted w/Peter Max on the initial Judge graphics, and Peter created this piece of art for Jim Wangers upon completion of the project ... (1:38:27)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFBo4f_Mh2M

[Too Many Projects]

Originally Posted by olredalert

----When I was 6 my uncle took me to Miami Country Day school in his new 53 Corvette. I guess that would be the starting point. It's funny but I was always GM oriented.....Bill S

You were SIX in 1953 ??!! Holy crap, you're OLD...

I was only 1... and the only brand of car my dad had until 1988 was Chevrolet.
I have had Buick's and Pontiac's,

and 3 Fords, yes, I'm a slow learner... but have always come home to Chevrolet...