Art & Inspiration What was THE car that everyone was envious of when you were in high school?

Well,-----1946 to 1950,----The most "Drooled over" car at Inglewood Hi school had to be the all white, chopped, 3wnd coupe belonging to Pierson, it also had twin appleton's,-- Desoto bumpers,---Skirts,---Twin pipes.
2 others that were the same in appearance, were Joe Torvick's, & Jim Mc Kinley's,----The 3 of them formed a club named "THE COUPES".

 

Kids in most areas of the US can't afford the exuberant prices people ask for their rusted out buckets and don't have the know-how to make something out of nothing. Some older folks love complaining about it, but do nothing to fix the problem.

This has been said before, but I'm gunna keep saying it until people actually internalize it.

 

I know they can't afford the hot items like 32-36 Fords, Tri five Chevys and Mopars but very few of them even show any interest at all in them. They see the older cars and don't even seem to notice them. All three of my kids have had their hands in building or at least working on their cars.
As far as know-how...how many here knew anything about cars to start with? I sure didn't. It was all trial and error. And the error was when you broke something and it was an expensive lesson, but we had the desire and interest. I just don't see that in young people now. They probably can't wait to get a self driving car so they can text while traveling.

Edit: This is getting off topic, sorry.

 

I grew up in a small town in the west coast of Finland.
I can tell you there were tons of dreams of american cars & hot rods, but not much the real things around...
I bought me a 1964 french Peugeot with shot gear box and fixed it up with help of my daddy who was mechanic.
It was a 15yrs old boring car, but we over sprayed it and I decorated it the style I saw in US custom car magazines. I knew it was wannabe, but in my mind it was still cool. And it gave me freedom to go around!
There were some cars we all envied and drooled;
a 1966 Fairlane HT coupe was my favorite daydream, unfortunately it was totaled an year after I took my grades...
Couple of years older school mate drove a 1971 mustang mach 1, I didn't know the guy, but I assumed it was really his father's car...
The coolest thing in town was a 1965 Pontiac Parisienne HT coupe built to show car, poison green flake paint job.
Then there was a ca. 1970 V8 Mercedes owned by a rich kid, he really raced the Mercedes in the streets.
There were no old school hot rods around, but my tastes were already then to older US steel, thus I hang around vintage car club. There were model A Fords, 30's Chevrolets & Buicks, 1939 Nash sedan, early 30's phaetons owned by elder fellows. Even if we had not much, those were Happy Days!

 

I graduated in '84 in the Minneapolis area, so rust buckets RULED!!! I remember a '65 Mustang Coupe, a '77 Mustang II Cobra II and a 1970 Cutlass Supreme. They were all "jacked up" in the back with wide rear tires, way out past the fender well Haha. I was restoring my own Rustang but didn't finish it until right after I graduated, or it would have been the nicest by far!!!

 

A friend of mine had a 70 something Dodge Challenger with a 440 six pack, that car was scary fast.

 

Class of 1960...Arlington, Virginia 1955 Chevrolet Delray

 

Not mine! Possibly the kids who walked. I was proud as hell of it.

 

mommy and daddy buy them vehicles or if they buy it themselves it's in extremely bad shape with 400 or 500 thousand miles on it.

coolest car in the lot at my high school was a 96 impala ss, owned by a really good lookin girl in my class. her dad had given it to her and apparently after high school was over her dad had pieced together a previously stolen 06 impala ss with all the options for her too.

 

My son drove this, his first car, in his senior year and now college. We did the black on bottom, cowl hood, and 200s wheels. He was the only kid with any kind of older car.

 

Rich kids in high school had a 62 Vette 327/340, 62 Pontiac 389 tripower, 62 Impala 409/409. I had a 4 door 54 Chevy

 

Class of '81. I drove a '73 Cutlass, '56 Chevy hardtop in grey primer, running a healthy sbc/4 sp. 4.11 rear, and a 1-owner '66 Impala. Best friend had a '69 Cuda, and others were 4x4s', Novas, Roadrunner, few Chevelles, and one kid had a brand new '80 Z-28. I was the only one who had a father into hot rods, and kids would come to our house, not for me, but to get help/info from pops. My buddies called him "Mr. C", the "Motor Manual". If you look at my avatar, the driver's door is lettered with that same Mr. C, because it belonged to my dad when I was growing up. It was our family hot rod.

 

Early Mustangs are the envy in my school parking lot... nobody has one though . Closest thing to for envy are new pickup trucks and whatever scrap heap I am driving, as people are usually impressed by the fact that it's running.

 

High school from 1966 - 1970. The core group that I hung around with was most impressed by the 1955 - 1957 Chevy Nomad. We were equally impressed by the sedan Delivery. Any year, any make. I still snap my head around when I see a sedan delivery.

OP

 

High school 1976-80. Not many cool cars or gearheads at my Catholic prep school. Nothing falling within HAMB guidlines. The oldest was probably a 1965 Mustang GT convertible. Only seniors could park in the "Senior Parking Lot". Everyone else parked in the neighborhood around the school. I rode the city bus to school until senior year. I worked summers and evenings to save up for my 1969 Firebird 350 HO ($1400) that I drove senior year.
****I thought I had the coolest car in my high school.****
Other cool cars in high school I remember: 1965 El Camino, 1971 Firebird Formula 455 (I beat him in a street race), 1972 Bronco (we 4-wheeled that thing everywhere) , NEW 1979 Toyota Landcruiser FJ40, NEW 1979 Toyota pickup 4x4 (first year for 4x4 minipickups), 1968 Camaro 327, 1968 Nova 350, 1965 VW Bug that was FAST and looked bad-ass with polished CenterLines. No real modified cars, except the VW.

 

Private Catholic school, probably 3-4 gearheads at a time in the student body. I am graduating next year...

3 students have bought there own cars, out of the 80 or so Juniors and Seniors who drive. One drives an SUV he picked up for $300 and a thing of beer. It sits in the school parking lot half the time, the other half I am getting it going so he can drive home.
The next spent 3 years working minimum wage to buy a respectable 4 cyl. econobox from Japan she paid $2500 for.
The last one is me. I bought a quarter million mile Buick sedan, about 10 years old, for $1500 I made flipping old collectibles on eBay. Running strong, and still capable of smoking tires (only non truck capable of doing so in the school, including the Mustang). Also own a 1966 Thunderbird that was a gift from my father, a "ran when parked" out of Grandpa's yard. Had it running over the summer, but currently the old 390 is in short block form in the garage while I rebuild it.

None of them are HAMB worthy, but we are still out there, buying our own cars.

 

I went to school in the city, so we had to park where we could find a space so the cars were scattered all over the place. You really never knew what people were driving unless, they drove past school as you were heading into the building, and it caught your attention. I had a 56 Chevy 210 2-dr. sedan, that I bought off the back lot of a local car lot. It had a 58 Corvette 283 engine with 3-2's, a 4-speed, and posi. rear end. Black & gold button tuck interior. It had been traded in for a 63 Corvette. This was in 1965. I later met the original builder of the car at a local burger joint. He told me he wished he had the car back. He said it's power train had come out of a wrecked 58 Corvette from a local junk yard. He installed a Dontov fuel-injected cam in it, and it was the baddest ass sound I had ever heard. You could pull into a drive-in parking lot, and slip the transmission down into 1st and just let the lope of the cam pull the car through the place. By the time I parked the car, guys were running over to the car to see what was under the hood. I kept it chained down, so they couldn't find out. Seems you had to race me to find out, and I made a lot of money off that car. So, I guess I had one of the popular cars in school. The other was a brand new 64 1/2 Mustang a senior had. I also liked my best friends 57 Ford 300 Custom, with a 272, 3-speed. Good times.

 

67 Fairlane 427 (Boat) single 4V 4 speed . I had 3 -2 hardtops -1 droptop . 427 , 428scj and 289


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Kids nowadays can't afford any of the old cool cars.

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My best friends old brothers Roadster Pickup.

 

I went to high school in San Jose,California during the late '70s and Early '80s. Due to the second "gas crisis", muscle cars were pretty cheap (even really nice ones), so they were fairly common in my high school parking lot. One guy I knew had black primer '57 Chevy with a hot small block and a four speed that he drag raced, other than that, I don't remember any kind of hot rods. There were a few lowriders. Most kids drove things like VWs, Datsuns, Toyotas, and big '60s land barges. One of my good friends had a cherry '71 Dodge Challenger, 440 six pack, factory slapstick automatic, black, black vinyl top, black interior, Centerlines and Radial TAs. He bought that car with money he earned from a paper route and working at McDonalds. The hardcore gearheads considered this machine to be somewhat special, but to most of the students, it was just another nice muscle car.

There were two cars that were probably the most envied. One was a beautiful, metallic green '69 Camaro Z/28 driven by a young man from a wealthy family. He really put that car through its paces and drove it as it was meant to be driven, but always kept it well maintained and looking good. The other was also a '69 Camaro, this one was an SS, RS Indy Pace Car convertible. It was driven by a young lady also from a wealthy family. It was a nice car for sure, but she was not very diligent about keeping it clean. It looked great when it was clean, but most of the time the car was dirty and kind of shabby looking. Muscle cars were fairly common at that time, but these two were the standouts, considered "special".

 

Well, I see the inevitable "teenagers don't care about cars" horse has been dragged out of the stable for another good beating, that's a shame.
And as someone else on here mentioned about the Kompressor mercedes, there is a girl in my senior class this year who drives one, as far as I can tell, they still suck.

When I was in 11th grade (last year) there was a senior who puled a 58 ranchero out of a field and put it back together

 

Good to see another student here!

 

1998-2002. Most drove cars from the 80s, including me. Many old Saab 900s and a couple of turbos which were not too slow. I drove water cooled VWs which I could make reasonably fast. Other than trucks we all had FWD cars. You were cool if you had a fast snowmobile in the back of your pickup! One kid's dad had a Roadrunner with 440, but he only drove it a couple of times and Buford T Justice kept an eye on us, as we all laid rubber daily. Even a VW from the early 80s will.....

I was always scrounging "speed parts" for VWs, bigger throttle bodies, making our own exhause etc. Every kid who was the least bit gear head had loud exhaust even if his car was slow...

 

It was expected of me to have a nice car by the kids. That`s all I knew. My first car when I was 16. 69 Chevy Caprice with a factory 427 bought by me. I worked my ass off when I was a kid. There was always a push mower in the trunk going from yard to yard. When I was 17, I had hydraulics installed. This is in a small Iowa town with about 80 kids in my class. This was my senior picture in 88. Still have the car today. See avatar. I bought a beater 70 Impala for daily use after that. Then a nice 66 Impala Super Sport. A few years ago my boy had a nice 4x4 pickup in school. A teacher called and he was sleeping in class and was grouchy. I told them they can punish him if they want but---He was in the field during harvest till 2:00 in the morning and up the next day at 6;30 checking cattle for his FFA advisor. Stop bashing kids. My daughter is 16 and has 2 jobs and is a cheerleader.

 

My stock 72 Pinto had to be the envy of the whole school!
Next on list might be the LS 6 Chevelle with 2 Holleys sticking out of the hood or the AAR Cuda maybe the 440 Six Pack Super Bee.

 

Graduated in 73 in Burlington Wi. about 18 miles from Union Grove Dragway and about 35 miles from Milwaukee's Hwy 100 . Way to many cool cars . A lot of them where just like my 67 Merc fastback that I got in 71. Mag wheels, glass packs and air shocks! lol My friends actually thought the 72 Ford van I bought and turned into a shag carpeted wonderland our senior year was the most fun you could have on four wheels! Half dozen of your best friends and a couple cases of beer. That side piped 302 got us to the party in winning time! The good old days Larry

 

At the risk of sounding conceited, I think the 57 Ford Skyliner retractable I had when I was a junior in high school made a few guys wishful. It was all white, red/white aftermarket interior, 312 four barrel, auto, ps, pb, pwindows,
glass and a reverb (remember those)? Had "Mellowtone" duals with four inch chrome echo cans I made
from barstool bases out of my
uncle's bar. Chrome reverse
smoothies with small baby moons inside Remington wide whites made
it a sharp drive-in cruiser.
It was as fast as a garbage truck, but every time I put the top down (never mind how many times it refused to go back up), or barked the pipes, it got looks. I bought a tube grille from J.C. Higgins, and put two amber running lights behind it. Those "complimented" the two red ones under the dash next to the kick panels. Wow, I was so freakin kool.
We nosed/decked it at the gas station I worked at, and I ran it with primer spots on the hood/trunk to show it was a masterpiece-in-progress.
In a stunning example of brain fade, I traded it straight up for a 55 Buick Century two door hardtop a friend had. Before you drown in drool, let me tell you the Buick had a factory three on the tree, and was yellow with a green top which looked just like the old 7UP bottles, and a black and yellow interior. See what I mean by brain fade? Oh yeah, and factory red rims with no hubcaps. Yummy, huh? Remember, I was only 17 - glad I got past that year.
Did this make any of you envious or sick???

 

The girls LOVED the converible Rabbit in white, the guys went for either a MBZ or a lifted Toyota P/U. High school was late 80's........at least it was easy to spot my early '73 Camaro in the parking lot.