Original owner muscle cars.

[SS454Elky]

I got the wonderful opportunity to talk with Bill at the '98 Super Chevy Show in Tucson. I was admiring his car when this most unassuming man walked up and asked if I had any questions. We spent the next hour talking about his car and the truly incredible story surrounding it and the other one he owned. (Its a GREAT story) In this era with the $3000 distributors and original air in the tires he was a breath of fresh air. Just an average down to earth guy with an incredible car and the desire to share its story with lowly gearhead like me. It was a wonderful hour for me.

[jannes_z-28]

Scuncio Kid brought life back to a 10 year old topic...

[hvychev]

Wow, an almost 11 year old thread actually! Most of us are still here and kicking too!

[Postsedan]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: hvychev</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Wow, an almost 11 year old thread actually! Most of us are still here and kicking too! </div></div>

.....and some of us are a lot lighter [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

Dan

[hvychev]

[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/youguysrock.gif[/img]

[55chevy]

[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/santa.gif[/img] Some just lurk around [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/naughty.gif[/img]

[69LM1]

Not quite on topic but close (sorry for those that already heard the story). While not the original owner of a special car, I am currently the caretaker of the &quot;Tin Soldier&quot; 69 COPO Camaro.

Plenty of stories around this car, but this past summer I was able to get in touch with the original owners son, Jason. Jason's dad, Ron Terrell was the original owner of Tin Soldier. Jason and I hatched a scheme to sneak the car and his dad to the Camaro Nats in MD. We did a reveal and his dad had not seen the car in nearly 28 years!

You can read about that here:
Link to Thread on the Reveal

The true history of the Tin Soldier was great, as I had been told that Ron worked for Queen City chevy where TS was ordered. Instead, I learned that Ron actually worked for GM in the Norwood plant, and he helped assemble this COPO at every station on the line. There were indeed some &quot;items&quot; that fell on the car along the way too! One item still on the car, is a large water gauge tapped into the intake manifold (which had been changed by Ron along the way over the years). That water gauge was donated by one of Ron's friends in the GM locomotive division.

Ron was not only a well known &quot;Privateer&quot; back in the day, but is still a respected one today. He still races &quot;Tin Soldier II&quot; the 85 Camaro he sold Tin Soldier to buy. His wife told him either the Camaro or his 67 427 vette would have to be sold to get the 85. Ron is a legend in the privateer (non sponsored) drag racing community.

Here's a pic of Ron from last summer in TSII:



Jason and his mom snuck out Ron's old fire suit, helmet and photo album. I brought a scanner and scanned all of the old TS pics and made this vid with the reveal and the pics. My favorite is at the 1:00min mark where Ron was handing his wife his beer as he was staging!

Youtube Vid:
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Stills:



Ron and Wife Early 70


Ron and Wife 2013


Ron Jason and I


Ron and Jason taking Tin Soldier for a spin


Old Pics I scanned:




Anyway, not the original owner, but still a cool original owner story I thought......

Rich

[bergy]

Great job bringing the car full circle Rich! Cool story.

[Xplantdad]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: bergy</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Great job bringing the car full circle Rich! Cool story. </div></div>

I agree! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/headbang.gif[/img]

[Keith Seymore]

I think many of you know my story (...stories...) but since I wasn't here 10 years ago I could add them now:

The GTO was my dad's car. He raced for Royal Pontiac in the early/mid 1960's, so after a string of special '63 and '64 models close friend and salesman Dick Jesse had this '65 built specifically for dad to drive. It's a 389, tripower 4 speed car, built early in the model year (September of 64) and was expedited through the build so dad could have it before the UAW strike hit that year.

We ran the car in B/Stock in '65 and '67, and then switched over to run B/MP through 1974. Best ET was 12.23 at 118 mph, and it was a national record holder and local legend. Dad was diagnosed with debilitating Rhumetoid arthritis in 1974 and so the car basically sat with 4656.2 miles on it for 25 years or so. I was able to convince him to let me clean it up and get it running again in the late 1990s. Dad passed away in 2005 at the age of 70, from complications related to having that disease for such a long time.

The car currently has 4800 original miles and is in original unrestored condition (&quot;born with&quot; paint, interior and driveline). It doesn't see many road miles but we do take it to a lot of shows, including the inaugural MCACN show in Chicago and various concours events here in Michigan. It had been featured or mentioned in numerous enthusiast books and magazines including High Performance Pontiac and the big GTO book.

K