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

Kool Car, your Son is a very lucky boy. Not being a wise guy and wish you the best, my intentions are good, have you checked into your car insurance on that car so he can drive it and be covered, suggest you read your policy and follow up with your agent, most hobby car insurance states drivers have to be 25. My wife is in the insurance business (many years) and has had customers with your situation, (we were in it for years) 16 year old boys's/girls are a high risk insurance problem.(high risk=high $$$ preminum)Please remind him, the first 60 days he drives are the most dangerous he will ever drive. I had 5 kids and I worried about them plenty when they started driving, they all survived it with a few problems, nothing major. Experience is a tough teacher, can't buy it, you have to earn it. Good Luck !

 

[QUOTE="InstantT, post: 12327567, member: 194498"


The senior yearbook has the best car vote listed as a girl who drove a new Kompressor mercedes. What a gay car that was.
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Sounds kinda like a car show I drove my 32 coupe to this past summer. It was at an O'reilley's auto parts in a little country town. The best of show went to an Army deuce and a half even though there were street rods and muscle cars there. Shows you how uncool the general public is.

 

Class of '85 checking in. Coolest car in my HS parking lot was driven by my English teacher. 1958 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz convertible. White with a red interior, personalized plates that said "WHALE".

 

Class of 1988.
There were several 65-68 Mustangs (including my V8-stick coupe). Once and a while I would drive my Dads really low 53 F-100 or nice late model F-100 shortbox. If I was REALLY lucky, my Moms 83 5.0-Stick Mustang convert...Burnout city then! The coolest and most HAMB friendly was a kid with a 55 Chevy post with a hot SBC. A couple other kids would occasionally get to drive their old mans "cool" car. One had a 60's Vette, Another's Dad had a pair of nice 64 V-8 Mopars tudors...a Dodge and a Plymouth! The auto shop teacher drove a 55 T-Bird and a REAL 66 Shelby! I was a T/A in his class and did several projects on the Shelby with him!

 

This '64 289 AC Cobra in '66 Mondello heads. Crane cam. 'nuff said!

 

Class of '79.

My classmate David's father had a wicked bright yellow '55 Bel Air hardtop that was an absolute screamer. He was fortunate to get to drive it every so often to school.

I hadn't thought about that car in years. I may have to build a model of it from memory now. Model Project #479. Lol

 

32 Ford roadsters, 40 Fords 48 Fords and one 50 Chevy with a GMC engine with a 5 pot manifold.
Tri fives were brand new and only owned by rich kids with jobs that didn't drink much wine HAHAHahahah!!!!

 

Class of 1963 in Auburn, WA. Several Ford Shoeboxes and early 50's Chevys. Most desired were probably the Tri-Five Chevys. Not too many early hod rods. A couple of model A coupes, one 32 Coupe and a couple of 34 coupes. There were some early fifties Mercs and one 50 Merc With a Cadillac. Not a high dollar community. Most of us worked for our wheels and maintained and/or modified them ourselves. As I remember there wa one 58 Corvette and one 56 T-Bird.

 

My buddy and I both had 36 pickups with flatheads in the mid 60s' and believe it or not we both still have them. I've had mine for 57 years so his must be going on 60. His is back to a flathead, mine is not. Time flies.

 

The youngsters on here may not identify with this, but ANY CAR!

We had maybe 200 students of driving age in the Baja boondocks of central MO in my high school, and I was privileged to be one of maybe 8 students with their own car. Mine was a 1956 Ford 2 door with 292 4-barrel and dogmatic transmission that had rolled the speedometer at least once. I spent two summers salary ($100.) on that car.

Only 3 or 4 of us regularly drove to school. As I was involved with sports (after school practice) and we lived on a farm, I did drive to school.

Most would borrow the parents car for dances, etc.

Jon.

 

Class of '69. Had to be a tri-5 Chevy. My '65 Falcon 2 dr. wagon wasn't all that cool but by the time I got drafted it did have a solid cam 289 with headers and a t-10. Good times, both driving and in the back.

 

1959-there were a lot of 49-51 Fords and Mercs. One was a 51Merc with an Olds and a hydro that was painted and had work done by Winfield in Modesto. Everyone wanted TriFive Chevys and there were quite a few as well. The richer kids had 59 Impalas-there were a couple of these with 335HP and 4 spds. Mine was a 57 Pontiac with 3-2's and dropped with Lancer caps. As a farm kid, I drove to school everyday so as to be able to get home quickly to go to work (had to pay for the car!!). My Pontiac held it's own against most of these and beat the majority. Many were run at the Drags in Madera regularly-I ran B/SA.

 

class of 68
coolest was Butch Wilkins black 55 301 four speed it was quick and everyone loved it, then there was Dennis Dahmer's 54 olds Burgundy and white chrome wheels tinted window just damn cool. My 55 Pontiac was NOT cool just ugly and green

 

How's about a bump?????

 

Just having a car itself made YOU a hot shot

 

As I posted earlier , my 69 Nova had a hot 327 with 671 and two 660 center squirts ,roll cage, tilt front clip. My buddy drove a 69 Camaro, very hot 350, 4speed M22. We were the two guys that raced, and beat on our cars every day. We also had to work on them alot because of the beatings we gave them. Very few of the other guys would race us. We got pretty crazy with our machines. I drove my Nova to my senior prom, 1981. My date tore her gown trying to get in and over the roll cage bars. She yelled at me, Why did you not get us a limo, you cheap sob! Good times, and she got over it later that night. LOL.

 

Class of '77. We had lots of muscle, but the baddest was a white '70 RAIV Judge. My '69 Cougar was quicker than most but not at the top. My son was class of '14 and he drove a '95 Z28 that he and I build a pretty nasty LT1 SBC for on the cheap. It was probably the fastest car at his HS (mid 12's at 112), but no one cared. His friends would wet themselves every time leaned into it a little.

 

Class of '62. We had Bob's '29 A Sedan, Newton's '40 chev coupe w/265 in it(he was a friend of "Grumpys"), Chip with a primered '36 Ford coupe w/a 296 Flattie, Bobbie's '40 Ford convert w/283, Charlie's silver '57 Chev convert w/FI, Rich's '51 Chev(always polished like a concours conterder), John's '56 Ford convert(also highly polished), Dick's '56 T-Bird, One of the teachers had a '58 Packard-Hawk. These I remember, but there were a wide rangeof others in the lot : '31 Chev, '38 Ford, '51 Merc, '49 up Ford/GM/Mopar/Studie/Rambler(the generic cars that students were able to afford or were given)

 

Class Of 60 No Muscle Cars even around yet, my little 55 Club Sedan, bought with yard mowing ,paper route saving, and $.25 cents an hour at the Holiday Inn Texaco. there were very few cars at all in high school back then we parked in a weeded lot across from the school. But Big Mike Burkhart had an 1958 Ford NAMED PEGGY SUE, by the time we graduated in 1960 it was running a 430 cubic inch Lincoln full house and he took on all comers, when he graduated college in 1964 with an electrical engineering Degree He turned Pro in drag racing and went on to Many Funny Cars etc. I believe he is in both the NHRA and AHRA Halls of fame. we used to ride our bicycles together and started by installing Briggs Stratton Engines on those... in my backyard under a Chinaberry Tree.

 

Like carbking said "any car" I was class of 1965 with about 400 in the senior class, as I recall only about 25% had cars, most of us rode the bus or walked. But to address the question, the cars most guys lusted after were 57 Chevy hardtops with glass packs and fender skirts, or 55 Chevy 2 door post cars with the front bumper removed and the front end raised, but most of these were owned by guys who had graduated or dropped out. Fellow HAMBER "willy 47" might remember it differently, he was in the same school and class.

 

Okay, Jim's son wins!

 

I was a kid from the late 80s so I saved all my paper route money and bought a 1969 camero and put a mild 350 in it. It was pretty fast ....

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In my high school days (66-69) it was 57 Chevrolet first, and 55 Chevrolet second that everyone wanted; the 56 Chevrolet was't the "popular" car at the time. But, most guys did't have those cars, they drove what they had, or what their parents had bought them. Some upper class guys with real jobs had newer cars, and quite an array of them too; 67 Chevelle SS 396 bored to 427, 64 Chevelle Model 300 2 door sedan with a suicide front end (that proved to be correct in the parking lot one day), and one guy with a 66 Mustang Fastback with a small block Ford and a B & M Hydro Stick; that car also had the Shelby style side glass and T-Bird style tail lights. One of my classmates was a Ford guy to the core, and always had a 56 Crown Victoria, and always slung an axle under the front and dropped an FE motor in along with a 4 speed; he'd sell one, turn around and build another in a different color (???). I'm sure there were others, but it's only been 48 plus years. And me, I had a 56 Chevrolet of course. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

In high school they were envious of me enough. Imagine if I had a car? We were too broke, too out of control, too unsupervised to own a cool car? All the rich kids had cars, I was chasing after the school bus every morning late.

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graduated in 1970. There was a guy had a 69 roadrunner 383 magnum 4 speed and hedders. One of my friends had a 65 GTO 389 4 speed. there where a few tri fives but they where mostly stock. The guy who owned the ford dealership his daughter had a 69 mach 1 mustang 351 Cleveland 4 bbl. Never seen her drive it her boyfriend always drove it. One teacher had a red 66 mercury cyclone 427 4 speed. I usually drove a 64 chev pk. 283 stick. My dad had a 66 galaxie 428 automatic. I have a older brother two years older than me and never got to drive it much until he got drafted in 68. My personal vehicles where old rusty bondo filled raggedy 55 & 56 fords $50 cars and trucks. I snuck the 300 hp 352 interceptor from a nonrunning 59 galaxie. loosely installed my boat anchor Y block in the 59 closed the hood and cut the release cable. That FE was swapped into a couple of 56 ford,s. I still have that engine. the cruseomatic was out of the 59. and dad never got around to fixing it. The 59 was still on the farm when the estate was probated.

 

A guy in our high school class. graduation nite spring 1970 he caught a bus to Hammond Indiana. He had a job waiting. He rode a bicycle to work. There was a chevy dealer that had a unsold 69 Camaro. and every paycheck he stopped and made a payment. He couldn't take the car until it was paid for. And he paid it off as fast as he could. Got the car and drove it to where he was staying. And it got stolen that very same nite. The paperwork was still in the glove box. He rode that bicycle all over the Gary Indiana Chicago area for months carrying a ball bat looking for his car. Never found it.

 

Graduated in 67. Grew up in the U.P. of Michigan and anything that wasn't full of rust holes was a cool car.
In 66 I bought a 51 Merc 2 door off a used car lot for $ 75.00 and thought it was very cool. Flathead stick with overdrive and a huge back seat. In 67 was married with a kid. Darn that big back seat.

 

Car licences only at 18 here, so nobody drove cars to school. You could ride a 50cc motorbike at 16 (that was the late '70s; it's 125cc nowadays), so a lot of kids had "fifties". Notwithstanding nine times the displacement, a friend of mine rode a CB450 Black Bomber: completely different style from anyone else.

 

Class of 59, Bud Carelli,s 56 Chevy Convertible with a Duntov cam and Trips, but most of the guys drove old Fords, my 32 3 window with a 296 inch flathead, channeled 6 inches, but the girls were not allowed to ride in it, so I drove a 48 Mercury Convertible with a worked flat head for dates, my first car costs 35 dollars it was a 41 Mercury Convertible. The kids with money had tri 5 Chevys or Fords


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Class of 79. I had a 56 Chevy and a girl had a late 50s Ford. We were thought of as weird.I badge of honor now. The best car and truck were my friends 65 Mustang and a 67 Chevy Pickup,both FAST!!!!. The rich kids with the Dads Car were not squat.
I sold the 56 a year after graduation and bought my 47 Olds. I plan on having that ready for my 40th reunion.