That looks like the one I described in another post!!!! That car brings back memories for sure! If you had wire wheels on it, it would be identical to the one I rode shotgun in back in high school. Those are BOTH beautiful cars. ... View more

That's it....I am throwing down the gauntlet next year. Maybe an LTDII ugly sweater. ... View more

I am with you on that one. What "holiday" is left but Christmas?  ... View more

That's hilarious! I think you and my Dad would get along great. ... View more

My wife is just the opposite. She would be harassing me to put the 260 and keep the L6 on a stand. She has a lead foot. I would be on the fence. The straight six is a great engine.  ... View more

I always liked the Falcon. There was a kid from another town when I was in high school that had a beautiful white on red '63 with a 302 he had built. That car would pounce like a tiger out of the hole, and looked beautiful doing it.  ... View more

Thanks, guys. I appreciate the vote of confidence. ... View more

I had an '84 Corolla in college that would get, "Come on you p.o.s. STAAART!" yelled at it a lot. I guess I have named at least one car. ... View more

Finished my interview at 3:00. My Deputy Director, who was part of the panel, called me to tell me I knocked it out of the park. Now all that's left is to wait and see. ... View more

I appreciate it, sir.  ... View more

My '68 Cougar. It is fund to drive but there are a few things that will drive you nuts with the 1st gen sister of the Mustang. First is when the sequential tail lights start going bad. Although, they will let you know with how many "wheezes" you get when they are on. After disassembling everything, cleaning contacts, etc., I did manage to get them working, only to have them give me the tell tale "two wheezes" one day at a stop light. I eventually just converted to digital signal sequencers. I thought I would never miss the wheezing old analog units, but for over a year I would pull out of the garage and check to make sure they were actually working. The "wheeze, wheeze, wheeze" told you you had all three sequences. The vacuum operated headlights are another source of anguish as finding the seals and boots is a bit hard (although WCCC finally contracted a repro set that sold out almost immediately). Why? because when the seals go bad you can get a car that winks, or open but not close, or in some cases open and then randomly close while going down the road. What else? The convoluted four hose power steering system. At this moment she is going down the road with a manual conversion.    The pleasure? With the suspension upgrades it handles like a slot car. The 289 runs like a scalded dog with the combo that I am running. The manual four piston disc setup hauls it down quickly and actually doesn't kill your leg in the process. And the other thing is I can go to a car show and will most likely be the only 1st generation Cougar owner at the show. I wouldn't trade that car for anything. Once I get the Borgeson p/s conversion, that will be about the last source of pain with it. Although, if I were to be honest, the "pains" are the type of pains that I wouldn't trade on another ride. I always wanted a 1st generation Cougar, and am fortunate to have one.  ... View more

I will definitely check out BOTH of those. ... View more

A place that my parents would drive by every day while taking me to school was Stage Four Performance in Danville, IL. It was a very small shop, but in the window was a, it's been awhile, but it was a mid 60s stingray prostock car. Varying shades of candy from front to back, with an clear tunnel ram. When I was in my early teens, I rode my bike up there just so I could FINALLY see that Vette up close and personal. It was beautiful on the outside, but all business as far as equipment. Full cage, typical prostock interior with. The engine was a 427. I just drooled for about 15 minutes. It's where I got my first set of mags.   But honestly, what got me into classic cars was my Dad. He had a '57 Belair when I was 4 yrs. old, along with a '68 Cougar, and a '69 Superbee. Mom had a '71 Comet GT and a '71 Cyclone GT. It was inevitable that I would end up being a muscle/pony car guy. ... View more

I can stick weld, and was given a wire feed for Christmas one year. I am still working on that. I'm getting better, but I wouldn't DREAM of trying to weld the headlight rings on my Cougar. That being said, if you are ever in the market to buy some, check out West Coast Classic Cougar. They have them for a great price. ... View more

I like the story of him downing an aircraft without firing a shot. He basically played chicken with the bomber pilot and the bomber pilot lost his nerve banked and hit another bomber if my memory serves me correctly on that one. Don't quote me, but after reading interviews of other pilots, as well as watching a few of Chuck, I could see him doing that. Another story that I always got a kick out of was one of the other test pilots he flew with talking about how he was in one of the early jets, and Yeager goes by him inverted flipping him a bird in a P-51.   ... View more

I grew up in central IL, and can tell you that a LOT of guys made the trip up to Mr. Norm's to either buy a Mopar, or get their Mopar tuned at Grand Spaulding. My Dad and his friends took their cars to Grand Spaulding for the Mr. Norm treatment. They knew their stuff. Dad's Superbee was a testament to that. ... View more

You're a mean one, Mr...... ... View more

Man! And I was just fixing to give them all of my account information. What a buzz kill. ... View more

Shepherd Lincoln Mercury in Danville, IL. It was closed by the time I was around, but mom had a picture of her in front of the dealership on her first day of work (it was her first job as a bookkeeper out of college). So there she is standing in front of the door. To her left was a '70 Cougar Eliminator, and to her right was a Pantera. This is where she got her Comet GT and the Cyclone GT. That picture got me hooked on cars. I don't know who ended up with the Pantera, but an older (I was five when I saw it driving around town the first time so she was probably mid 40s) lady drove that Eliminator around town for years. I actually saw her blow the doors off of a '77 Trans Am filled with teenagers from the passenger seat of Dad's Superbee. That Eliminator left a stripe with every shift.  ... View more

My cousin Donnie had a 70 1/2 split bumper 4 spd car. He blew the LT1 that was in it and ended up putting an L82 from a wrcked 'Vette in it. It was red, beautiful, and MEAN with that LT1. We were in junior high at the time, but he would take us cruising occasionally. Especially if I helped him work on it.  I remember helping him put a holley intake on it one afternoon. I got a few weekends worth of "shotgun" privileges for helping him. I hope you get another one. I always loved the early 2nd Gen Camaros. ... View more

That Z 28 brings back memories of the '79 I had in high school. Glad you hung on to yours. I miss mine. ... View more

My favorite "smart phone" situation actually wasn't my own. I was driving from Knoxville to Crossville, and on the side of the road was a tow truck backing up to a car while she was doing her best "duck face" pose while snapping a selfie in front of her broken down p.o.s. This was back in 2010 and I was thinking,"Are people REALLY that into themselves that they do this?" Fast forward to today where the answer is a resounding,"Yes. People are that into themselves." ... View more

I had some pics of the Challengers used in the Vanishing point remake. They are both at Floyd Garrett's Musclecar museum in Sevierville, TN. I will try and find them. ... View more

I wish I still had this: '69 Sport Satellite 440, 727, console, slapstick, Dana 60 rear. Yep, I should have kept that one. This is a facsimile as my pics are at home. This one is identical, however. ... View more

Agreed. I wish I had jumped on the marketing bandwagon and developed my own snake oil kit. Oh well, there's always selling "cordless screwdrivers" from the back of Popular Mechanics. "And if you act quickly I will not only sell you a second one, but also a Phillips bit as well" ... View more

And to answer your question, yes, it is a Town Landau. Factory turbine wheels, split bench, rallye instrument cluster, and 88,000 original miles.  ... View more

And still amazing to me is that our elected officials get a lifetime salary for doing so no matter if they only serve one term. Oh yeah, and they are exempt from most of the things they force on us. Out here in the real world that is called hypocrisy.    If I do a bad job, I lose that job and don't get to collect a salary from that employer after being fired. I think many have forgotten that this country was designed to be ran from the bottom up, not the top down.  ... View more