Let's see your Original Owner/Family MuscleCars. And don't forget the stories that go along with them.

Well, though not of the 60's era or so, I am the original owner of my 87 Buick Grand National. Bought in Cleveland in November of '87, so at the tail of the last GN's made. At the time, the payment was almost as much as my rent!! Yes, lived in a crappy apartment. It was my first brand new car. I drove it to my wedding, and six years ago purposely brought my daughter home from the hospital in it. It is all original, stock, still has original exhaust, shocks and brakes even. It's a keeper.

Very Cool! anymore? Dominick tell us your Impala.

All right you got it Ralph. Pull up a chair and let me tell you about the history of my car.
To start with my father's first car was a 54 mercury which he sold and bought a 56 thunderbird when he went to collage in 59. The reason why he drove Ford products at the time was that his uncle was the service manager at the Ford dealership in Port Washington. Well as time went on the cars became faster and the thunderbird was not cutting it and the fact he wanted to propose to my mother so he sold the 56 to buy an engagement ring and to put a deposit down on a 63 chevy which he bought down in Richmond Va. The car is pretty much the way you see it today except it was a three on the tree instead of a four speed. When he picked the car up at the dealership the salesman who was a good old boy pulled him to the side and told him that the breaking in of the motor and going easy on it was B.S. and to take it an drive it hard right out of the gate. So my father raced the car that night in which he beat a 348 59 chevy and did a few other races. Well anyways when he went home the family was quite surprised by not only he was engaged but the fact he had a chevy. In 66 when I was born the first vehicle I ever rode in was the 63 chevy. This is the car they brought me home from the hospital in. The next year my twin brothers were born and my aunt every time she sees the car she recounts the day she held the two of them in the back of the car. Throughout this time my mother drove the on a daily basis my father drove a pickup for work. On the weekends my father would race the car at local tracks on the island. He used to laugh because he would pull up to the staging lanes with the baby seats in the car and people would stare at him. In 72 my parents got a 68 Oldsmobile delta 88 a little bit bigger, more practical and my mother did not want to drive a stick shift especially with just having another son.
They gave the car to my uncle who was in high school who also raced it but almost thrashed in into the ground. It was when he owned it the car became a 4 speed. In 76 my uncle was on his way out to Montauk Point when he broke down with the car. He left it on the side of the Montauk highway that night. The next morning my father and uncle went out to tow the car home when they came across the car being stripped down. Once they made them give the driver’s door, hood, trunk and tires back they towed the car back to our yard.
That was it for the car at the point and it sat in the shop yard with about 130,000 miles on it, till 82 when I pulled it out of the weeds. It took me two years to put the car back together where I did everything myself sometimes three times over because I was learning back then. I did all the body work, the interior, the motor I rebuilt in a friend of my father’s shop. To find parts back then was an adventure there was no reproduction parts, so I scoured the junkyards and searching local dealership old stock to see what they had laying around. In the spring of 84 I finally got it on the road but I was flat broke and could not afford money to buy new mufflers for my car and I was driving this with my date to my prom. My Uncle took pity on me a bought me a pair of mufflers for the car. After that I raced the car all of the time mostly legal but some illegal also. Not the smartest thing in retrospect. I did most of my racing out at the strip in the Hamptons when it was still open. Back then my buddies and I would drive the cars out to the strip. So if we broke it we fixed it or we would tow each other in with another car. I also drove this car back in forth to college in the Bronx, sometimes would use it for work. My father would make me cry when I would have to carry lumber on the roof from time to time when working on apartments in Manhattan. Came the early 90’s I stopped racing because we were all busy with work and wives, families, etc. and in 98 my car went off the road for a few years.
What got me back into the car was my youngest brother started racing his 70 roadrunner (he was born in 79) and Al with his hemi was just a bad influence. So in 2003 it was back on the road and in 05 I was at the strip again. In this time I really became a big fan of the cars tearing up but looking stock. Being that the need for speed and can never leave well enough alone and go figure with about 120,000 miles on the rebuilt motor the car was starting to lose speed. So I finally built the motor last year which took a lot longer than I planned due to the fact my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer and is about to be one year cancer free on June 26. But I have to say that was my therapy during that tough time. Installed the motor in late fall and still dialing it in along with a current transmission issue. Along the way I joined to supercars which I have to say has been great in the two events where I have raced in. Other than that is all I have to say under 1,100 words, because I could go on for hours.

Although I am not exactly the original owner of my SS427, I consider that I kind of can say I am. I wrote this story about the day I bought the car some time back. You guys might enjoy it.

Shopping in Muscle Car Heaven
By Hal Oaks

One morning in June 1969, I decided it was time to shop for a new set of wheels. Just the night before, I had been embarrassed in my 1965 Impala Super Sport 283 glide by a VW Beatle driver who beat me at a stoplight. Enough was enough. A bit of background should be added here. In 1967, I owned the hottest wheels in town, which is the subject of another story but I had sworn off owning a hot car while I was in college. The 65 fastback was a great cruiser but my 20-year-old ego required that a change was needed. As I worked third shift in a defense plant, the money to buy a new car was not a problem.

This record chronicles my daylong odyssey in muscle car nirvana. I cruised down to automobile row. My first stop was naturally at my first love the local bow tie dealer. I was lucky to meet a salesman who was also a performance enthusiast. He showed me a list he kept of all the high performance Chevys and customers he had sold.

I loved the new Nova styling and had read that one could be obtained with the LT1 350. He told me that that was not possible because it wasn’t even available yet in the Corvette, but he did have a 375 HP Nova SS we could look at. I was hoping it was any other color but Marina or was it Nassau Blue. It seemed that every Nova, Camaro or Vette was that color. Naturally it was that Blue. I drove the Nova and what a brute it was. I was about to say yes to $3250 for the Nova when the salesman asked me to look at something else. “We got this car, a COPO car you might want to check out.” he said. “A Cop car?” I asked. He assured me it wasn’t a cop car.

What he showed me was a car with significance I didn’t comprehend back then. It was a 1969 Chevelle Malibu not an SS. It was equipped with an L72 425 HP 427, M-22 four speed, and 4:10 12-bolt posi. It had Rally wheels like an SS396 but had bow ties on the center caps. It was a black on black bench seat car. The salesman said, “Listen, this car has got to go. The guy we got it for bought a Corvette out of stock and this car is just sitting. I’ll let you take this for the same price as the Nova, $3250.” I left a $50. deposit for him to hold both cars overnight for me.

What a dilemma, a Nova I loved in a color I didn’t love, a Chevelle I didn’t care for with a motor and color I loved. I decided to keep shopping.

A couple of blocks up the street I turned into the Pontiac dealer’s lot. The stereotypical salesman who knew nothing about performance cars let me walk him around the lot. I found a 1969 GTO Ram Air IV, hood mounted tach, four speed with a 4:33 rear in a coco brown metallic with black interior. I kind of liked it and it was fast. I told him about the $3250 deal I had at the Chevy dealer. “No problem” he said “I can match that price.” When I told him I didn’t see anything on the sticker about a posi rear he said he would throw one in. I said I’d let him know. The insurance costs for a GTO made it bad choice. Besides that, it’s hard to by a car from a jerk.

My odyssey took me to my final stop another few blocks up the strip. As I was driving past the Mercury dealer, pretending not to look at the enemy’s cars, I noticed the car I still own today. Parked on the lot was my 1969 SS427 Impala and I knew the car. I knew the original owner who bought it new only four months earlier at the above mentioned Chevy dealer. There it was 390HP with a close ratio four speed, 4:56 gears, A/C, and bench seat, with only 4000 miles all in black. It was love at first sight and it was fast.

$2200. my 65 Impala, my Dad’s signature and Blacky was mine. Looking back, what a day it was. Naturally today I wish I could have bought them all. I sometimes wonder what happened to those other members of Muscle Car royalty I drove that day.

I still own this car today. It only has 47k miles on it and it is unrestored. I raced it for a number of years but that is another story.

While at GM's @ Carlisle. I met many great people this gentleman said he owned a 1966 4 Door Hemi Belvedere II 4 Spd. Dana. Check it out and his E-mail! Thanks Greg.

Ralph,

My name is Greg. You and I met at Carlisle last Friday at the SuperCar tent. You asked me to send you a pic of the 1966 Hemi Belvedere II 4 door I owned back in the 1960's. Attached is a scanned pic taken in front of my house located in NJ. Car was ordered from Plymouth by my uncle and delivered to dealership in Bergen County NJ. If you look closely, you can see the 426 emblem behind front wheel. You can also see the front anti-sway bar as part of the HEMI suspension package, just under the front bumper. This car was dark green(don't remember color name)had a bench seat, 150 MPH speedo, a sport steering wheel and 4 speed transmission. I kept the set of mag wheels it has on it for summer use, - snow tires and original rims w/ full wheel covers for winter.

Have never been able to find any documentation that Chrysler ever built a 66 Belvedere 4 door/4 spd. Would sure like to find out the where such documentation might exist.

BTW - your HP-2 is one awesome machine! I own a 67 Corvette Coupe now, but would love to one day get back to a HEMI.

Hope you did well at the drag strip on Friday night.

Best regards,

Too COOL!!

My understanding is there were four of these built, and only two known to exist!!

I'm not the original owner of my 66SS.....but I've talked to her, yes....her and can tell you when & where the car was ordered, why a 46 yr old woman on a farm in SW Missouri ordered a BB car, when it's first oil change was,when the water pump was replaced, what parts were damaged during an accident in 1968 and lots more, as well as vintage pic's.
I'm actually only the third person to register the car...... do I qualify????