Muscle car/Classic car for daily driver??????

[EZ Nova]

Originally Posted by L78_Nova

I fry the tires on my (Fake) 68 Acadian SS with 350 / 200R4 / 4:11 12 bolt / factory AC
pretty regular all summer... not always in the rain though.


People love the sun baked California paint ! everyone wants to buy it.... for $3000, NOT!!

Will $4850.00 take it off your hands????

LOL, sorry had too. I think since I should work for a bit longer in life, might as well enjoy it some. Insurance will be a bit my then my Ram 1500, but who cares. I have a few thoughts and some people have some valid points like ride, bumper and less "safety" stuff.

[L78_Nova]

Originally Posted by EZ Nova

Will $4850.00 take it off your hands????

LOL, sorry had too. I think since I should work for a bit longer in life, might as well enjoy it some. Insurance will be a bit my then my Ram 1500, but who cares. I have a few thoughts and some people have some valid points like ride, bumper and less "safety" stuff.

No Worries always good for a laugh.


Fun Factor FAR exceed the insurance bite and the hit for premium fuel... as the 350 is now 11 to 1 with 87 corvette 58cc aluminum heads


my other cars are painted too nicely to park at work... door bashers.

[x33rs]

Agree, however insurance is actually cheaper for us, as well as registration. Guess it depends on where you live but here, if you own a new car, you are dinged the value of the car for tags every year, and insurance is nuts. For instance a basic $50k new car can be as much as several hundred dollars a year for license plates. The DMV doesn't put much value on classics so tags are $30.

The other advantage for us is that maintenance on the classics is so much cheaper than a new car. Tires are half the price, shucks just parts in general are half the price, lol. No car payments. All the money saved easily pays for the premium fuel. And with proper tuning these cars are very respectable on mileage.

Not to mention it was actually my wife that was tired of all the creature comforts and electronic controls, and she especially doesn't like some of the safety features that seem to be getting more and more excessive. She's not a fan of air bags at all, and I definitely don't want a car with lane correction or one that hits the brakes on it's own. No thanks.

It was a lot of these reasons that made the decision much easier for us. Plus we live in a climate that allows year round driving. The other bright side is that I'm always looking for a reason to go somewhere It's highly unlikely we'll be buying any type of new vehicle for the rest of our lives.

[EZ Nova]

x33

Ya your one of the lucky one's, EXCEPT this year for year round weather. Parents have a place in Mesa and been going since 2000. Stay usually Oct till April. Dad got a brain tumor in '14 and kept saying he wanted to go back to Az. Didn't go in '15 but back in '16, '17 and passed away there in January '18. We know about the lic and insurance on the new car stuff. too. Cheaper to ship a car there AND BACK then to do that the lic and insure a new car.

Back about 2008. Dad tried to buy a '55 T-bird for his Az car. Seen one at BJ action. BUT he didn't have his bank stuff so he said just swipe the card for 200K. They wouldn't do it.

[Mr70]

Nice Robert!

[tunes]

Thanks. The picture makes it look better than it really is. It needs paint but I've about gotten over that and just enjoy shifting gears and driving it.

[tom406]

I'm almost 50, but after I moved to Seattle 25 years ago, I had a run of 5 years or so where my vintage cars were my DD. I had a 20 mile commute (mostly to a classic car dealership, so parking security wasn't really an issue). I used 1955 and 1963 Ford Country Sedan wagons, a 1966 Ford LTD 4dr HT, a blow through turbocharged 1972 Nova, and a 1966 Ford F100 for commuters. The F100 served me until we had our second child and a standard cab just wouldn't do anymore and in '06 I got an extended cab 2005 F150 that I still have. I enjoyed driving them quite a bit, and didn't consider it too much of a burden-I even drove that '55 on bias ply wide whites with power drum brakes in the rain and lived to tell about it! There was, in retrospect, a fair amount of normal old car troubleshooting on the fly that I just wasn't willing to deal with anymore once I had multiple small children in the car. They're all older now, but I still tend to want my DD to be stone reliable. All the drivers in my family LOVE/LOVE/LOVE back up camera technology and really miss them when we drive the cars that don't have it. I'm leery of intrusive automated safety things too, but I'm a huge fan of the emergency braking in our new Mazda3 commuter. None of us really knew it had it until I turned my head to merge onto the freeway and didn't see everything stopping in front of me. I heard a quick series of beeps and the brakes applied. I then hit the brakes as well, and we came to rest a few inches from the car in front of me. Without that technology, I'd still be parked in that guy's trunk. I think its a great thing, especially for older drivers in congested areas. As for insurance-it does tend to be cheaper, but make sure your policy actually covers you. Many are set up with the assumption that you have a late model DD with a standard policy and may not cover you if you sell your late models and don't tell them. Even in the late 90's, I had trouble finding a regular insurance policy that would use stated value on my vintage vehicles. I ended up with Country Companies because their farming vehicle background was the only one that gave their agents the latitude to handle my request for stated value policies at the time for those cars and trucks I listed earlier.

[ZiggyL78]

Back in the 70s I had a new 69 Camaro SS350 - 4 - 4:10s as my first car and a DD.I still can't believe I drove the car through the winter with just 2 snow tires and 2 50# bags of sand in the trunk.

I lost my job and had to sell and I bought a 68 L79 Nova 4SPD.Sold that one and bought a POS 64 Chevelle 327/300 4SPD (wide).I put a cam and kit in it and it ran ok.Maybe a low 14 car.I added a 12 bolt with 4:88s and 26" M&H slicks.Holly sh+t.It was a rocket.It ran 12.90s which was very fast back then for a SBC.Guys with BBCs would bow out for a run once they saw the car go.I could tell you some stories on that one.

After that car I bought a brand new 73 Vega Panel Wagon Delivery.$2452.lol.One seat and no carpet.Dark green and a 3 SPD on the floor.I got the idea when I saw Jungle Jim's Vega Wagon Pro Stock.It made it through one winter all stock.I pulled the motor and sold it back to the dealership I bought the car from.Belmont Chev Olds.They just happened to need one at the time and their customer could not afford new.Back halfed the car with a Dana and L60 Ingelwoods inside the fenders.No big deal today but back then people flipped out.I Dropped in the 327 from the Chevelle.Not fast enough.I dropped in a long rod Shafroft motor with a tunnel ram,Nitrous and a Glide with a brake.10.30 and still drove it on the street.This was in 1978.

I lived with my parents and had a big paying job.I always had 3 or 4 fast cars.I bought a LS6 Chevelle and pulled a trailer with the Vega on the back.I would drive into Harveys burger joint and ask if anyone wanted to run the Vega.If no one was interested I said."How about the tow car?"lol

Then the L78s came up.Oops.Am I running off at the mouth?lol.I know some guys won't believe me but it all happened.I need to get some pics posted.Oh ya.The DDers stopped after the Vega.

[EZ Nova]

Nice stories and El Camino. KEEP THEM COMING.

Ziggy, Harvey's??? Umm Jane and 401 by any chance?? That was before my time. We used to run out of Weston & Finch on weekends. Always made some $$$. Never lost but that was because we knew our limits. Ran with a '73 454 Vette with nitrous. Ran twice one night. Ran a Blue '69 COPO Camaro and another '69 Camaro out of Comp Auto. After winning, Serge with the Challenger wanted to run. Umm I knew better and we declined.

My first car was "supposed" to be a B5 Blue '70 Cuda 440+6 4sp 4.10 Dana. Black hockey stick stripe, black int. with Keystones classics. Put $1000 down till spring. Owner got shipped out for work and offered my $$$ back as he didn't know when he could get back and it was now mid April, 1982 (I think). 2 days later a buddy called and said he would take my offer for his '68 GTX Convert. 440 4 sp 4.10 Dana Blk on Blk with red interior. That was my daily driver for 4 years in the summer. Had winter beaters but from april till it snowed, I drove that 440 everywhere. I was 16 and pumped gas. Worked 2 years to save for the car. Car went 12.70's with slicks. Fun car and nice size. Been thinking something like that for a retirement driver. Nice ride, big, has some power and the '68's just look tough.

Nothing seems to match the late 60's Mopar B bodies for size, comfort and power with some tough looks. The '68 GTX/'69 Coronet Rt's as well as the '69 Chargers. There power steering was just sick. Most 440's were fast and pretty trouble free. Ya a L72 Impala would be fast, but just wouldn't "look the part" like the Mopars.

[ZiggyL78]

Originally Posted by EZ Nova

Nice stories and El Camino. KEEP THEM COMING.

Ziggy, Harvey's??? Umm Jane and 401 by any chance?? That was before my time. We used to run out of Weston & Finch on weekends. Always made some $$$. Never lost but that was because we knew our limits. Ran with a '73 454 Vette with nitrous. Ran twice one night. Ran a Blue '69 COPO Camaro and another '69 Camaro out of Comp Auto. After winning, Serge with the Challenger wanted to run. Umm I knew better and we declined.

My first car was "supposed" to be a B5 Blue '70 Cuda 440+6 4sp 4.10 Dana. Black hockey stick stripe, black int. with Keystones classics. Put $1000 down till spring. Owner got shipped out for work and offered my $$$ back as he didn't know when he could get back and it was now mid April, 1982 (I think). 2 days later a buddy called and said he would take my offer for his '68 GTX Convert. 440 4 sp 4.10 Dana Blk on Blk with red interior. That was my daily driver for 4 years in the summer. Had winter beaters but from april till it snowed, I drove that 440 everywhere. I was 16 and pumped gas. Worked 2 years to save for the car. Car went 12.70's with slicks. Fun car and nice size. Been thinking something like that for a retirement driver. Nice ride, big, has some power and the '68's just look tough.

Nothing seems to match the late 60's Mopar B bodies for size, comfort and power with some tough looks. The '68 GTX/'69 Coronet Rt's as well as the '69 Chargers. There power steering was just sick. Most 440's were fast and pretty trouble free. Ya a L72 Impala would be fast, but just wouldn't "look the part" like the Mopars.

Hi.Ya.That was me.I probably met you at Weston & Finch one time or another.It was a great hangout.I had my Grand National back then.I was on Nitrous also.I shocked a lot of Big Blocks as the car ran 11.80s and idled like stock.We didn't have drag radials so we ran McCreary dirt tires.They hooked real well on the street.When I first started using the spray on my GN I did a lot experimenting.Always trying more boost and a hotter chip to go faster.When I got in the 11s I blew a lot of head gaskets.The car was still under warrenty so I just took it in and they usually fixed it.After about the 3rd time my original dealer turned me down.The service manager told me that my Ecm screws were loose and so was the waistegate actuator rod.I had to tow the car to Burlington were nobody knew me to get it fixed.lol.
Thanks for posting.
PS.Buy that GTX before they hit 100K!