Rides

[Spydro]

Found some pictures of the Elvis Stingray I thought I'd post. Figure OT is where they belong.

The Vette was sold new here in Las Vegas late 1972 and turned into an Elvis show car. Has a wild early 70's paint job done with bullet proof IMRON that is still near perfect 43+ years later. The car has always been garaged, was never in snow country, high rainfall areas or exposed to the salt air along the ocean. It had a mural of Elvis on the rear deck playing a guitar that was covered over not long before I bought it (I have snap shots of the mural though). Custom cloth interior, rags and mags is mostly all it got. Otherwise a numbers matching '73 T-Top coupe with all the bells and whistles left stock. Later a heater core bypass was added and the A/C was R-134 upgraded. Do have much of it's paper trail from new, so know it's early life, and the past 35 years or so of it... mostly who owned it and where, what was done to it, etc. For much of the 25 years before I bought the car it was a daily driver. So it has 97K miles on it. But not long before I got it the entire drive train was rebuilt (engine, trans, etc). So it ran like a fine tuned watch right off the transport, has that muscle car rumble they were so famous for. I bought it from a car collector in WA state, had it trucked back to Vegas in an enclosed van to prevent damage to the paint. And it went right into a climate controlled security garage. It has always been garaged since I got it, most of the time in climate garages.

Taking delivery July 2005.

 

[Spydro]

I originally bought it to go do the Route 66 highway run end to end again like I did back in the 60's in a split window Stingray (Santa Monica, CA to Chicago, IL), then spend the rest of a year on the road touring the US, Canada and maybe Mexico in it. I had my mechanic go through it bumper to bumper and it was road worthy for the trip. But 2 months after I got it the health went south/never came back so I had to call it off.

 

[Spydro]

I have not driven it all that much. Did do some of the local Sin City Corvette Club gatherings until three young ladies there got to be a problem. Soon enough I learned that driving this flamboyant car in the Capitol of Sin is a nuisance. A one of a kind it gets followed by even the Italian Stallion sports cars that could out run it in reverse; folks who honk at red lights, always wanting you to stop and let them looking it over, want to hear it's story and many want to share theirs of some long past ride they had. Stopping at a quick stop for a cold drink can turn into hours instead of minutes if I'd let it.

 

[Spydro]

It's a magnet that draws in the ladies of Sin City, from still so young not much more than babies to MILF's still active in the cities nightlife that are more often than not gold diggers. By young I mean from young enough to be my granddaughters to babies still in high school. A little of that is a good thing if they are older maybe, but all the time more a PITA.

 

[Spydro]

 

[Spydro]

For 2006 the car was picked from C3's worldwide to be Miss August in the C3VR calendar. That was it's official last recognition award. It's now been garaged for about 4 years and not driven...

I will never drive it again.

 

[Andre]

Wow, what a beauty, @Spydro.

 

[Stosta]

I'm going to have to show this to my old man @Spydro , he is a classic nut! He has a strange obsession with Studebakers though, while I'm the one with a Chev and Pontiac fetish. Being able to own a vehicle with this sort of history is a huge feat indeed! It's a beaut!

 

[Stevape;)]

Nice post @Spydro made me smile and sad at the same time. My dad had a immaculate 79 Stingray White with the red interior after a business he bought was not as promised he had to sell the vette a few years ago. He had this baby since I was only 6 years old. Yes new Italian and German sports cars are faster but there is just something else about this American icon.

 

[Spydro]

I've owned well over 100 land vehicles in my life between the hot rods, muscle cars, trucks, 4X4's, regular passenger cars, dune buggies, dirt and street cycles, ATV's, etc. This is my 6th Corvette, and the newest one I've owned. First was a '63 Split Window Stingray that I did Rote 66 in mid 60's. Then I had a new '66 that I wrecked big time so got a new '67 Camero to replace it that became one of the fastest street drag cars I ever owned (The Freak). After the Navy in early 1971 I bought a '58 and 2 '59's all within months of each other (along with a 1967 Austin Healey BJ8 Roadster that was custom built at the factory for high speed racing - the one I should have kept). About those rides... my ex wife couldn't/wouldn't drive manual transmissions, and those 4 sports cars were all we had for about a year. So I had to chauffeur her every place. The up side we lived in Carmel, CA then and they were a ball to go on rallies in, drive on California Coast Highway 1 from end to end, on coastal mountain roads, at Laguna Seca Raceway, etc. We even did the Concours d'Elegance at Pebble Beach in the BJ8 a couple of times.

The C1 Vettes were fast street rods, but the BJ8 was the road machine. Custom everything, entire drive train, suspension, etc that screamed along and cornered on any road scary fast without working hard. I finally sold it to a car collector for 4 times what I paid for it. When I divorced back in 2002 I started looking for it to buy it back. Collector I sold it to had passed on, but his wife told me who had it, a gent in the San Francisco Bay area. I got in touch with him, offered him the US Mint for it (well up in the 6 digits). No way. It was his weekend toy, he drove a Jag as his daily driver. But he did offer that I could come take it anytime I wanted to run back down to my old haunts in Carmel for 2-3 weeks. Health issues got in the way. Then when I bought the '73 Stingray I contacted him again, offered him considerably more for it. Another no thanks. But he said if I left the '73 Vette with him to drive on weekends I could have the BJ8 for up to all summer to go play in. It never happened, the health saw to that just two months after I bought the '73.

This is a picture he sent me of the BJ8... still as pristine as it was when I sold it.

 

[Stevape;)]

This is the last project myself and my dad built over a 4 year period

 

[Stevape;)]

Chevy powered off course

 

[Stevape;)]

 

[brotiform]

Keeping it crispy in my '98

 

[blujeenz]

My '67 GTO, taken at Killarney drags back in '88, parked it next to a '69 for a photo shoot.
Alas it was bit of a money "black-hole", it had its original 400 ripped and replaced with a tired Firebird 350 which eventually siezed in '89, my first born arrived in Dec '88, so not a lot of resources to repair the car as one can imagine.
Great memories all the same.

 

[Spydro]

Chevy powered off course View attachment 53303

Nice ride that I can relate to @Stevape;). Great project for a Dad and son.

Way back in the 60's a buddy and his Dad both had Cobra's. Mike and I often took them out on the streets and pitted driving skills against each other in them to the disdain of the local law that didn't have a chance in hell of catching either one of us. I was a serious street drag racer that also did C & B Modified cars on the local drag strip on weekends, drove a land speed car that belonged to a family friend a couple of times. I always the fearless one, but Mike was afraid of his car. So I usually won out against him. But I couldn't beat his Dad when driving Mike's against him in his. Then near the end of my Navy days in 1970 I had another bud that had one. He was a holly terror when he drove it, downright dangerous, so I did some pretty wild rides in that one that somehow we both survived. Last call... Sheldon was a close buddy that I shot competition IHMSA with for years. He had a kit Cobra just for a fun ride, but sold it and bought this original AC Cobra 427 that we finished the rebuild/restoration on maybe 16 years ago. Later we took it to a local met down on The Strip that Carroll Shelby had came to, and he signed the glove box door. With two 427 full on race engines for it, Sheldon raced it a lot back then. Last time I went to his place for lunch with him and Jackie (wife) a couple of years ago he still had it, but had not raced it for a while.

 

[Spydro]

Nice rides @blujeenz that brings back fond memories of some of the girls in the mid+ 60's. I had a '65 389 TriPwr 360hp 4 spd I street raced some during the year I had it, but I never ran it on the drag strip (wasn't fast enough). I don't have an pictures of it though.

 

[brotiform]

My exes

 

[Stevape;)]

Reading your posts here @Spydro is the reason I always say I was born in the wrong country. A specially if you like muscle cars, late models, drag racing well basically anything your can race even lawnmowers there is no country like the States that come close.
For us this side if you want to do anything special you need to fab yourself there is no summit jegs napa.
My dream car there would be a corvette old as possible with a small block and then just run a single turbo on it with something like 20 psi should get me in the 10s.
So yes much jelly when it comes to the states lol Awsome place

 

[Spydro]

Can relate @Stevape;). I was born in the wrong century has always been my tune. A very early way of life on the ranch that became a lifelong pursuit was going deep into the wilderness alone and living off the land for as long as I could get away to escape "civilization". Most often only for a long weekend, two or three weeks at a time, or for all summer sometimes in the high country. But also for up to months sometimes in my younger days when I ran winter trap lines in the deep snow country of the Rockies.

Around 1800 is the year when 'Walks Alone' should have been born. A primitive match at a local Rendezvous in 2000.

 

[Neal]

Hey @Spydro, those are some stunning vehicles man. I am into my bikes big time, just out of interest do you have any pics of your motorcycles?

 

[Spydro]

@Neal ... Unfortunately I have almost no pictures of the scooters. I owned quite a few of them on and off for about 40 years from the mid-late 50's into the 90's... from trail bikes to two Harley's, and those in between for both serious trail and street use. My ex has had nearly all of the pictures taken with print film cameras of my life since 2002. The pictures I have/had are a few snapshots and framed enlargements, and all those taken with slide film and digital cameras (my son has all of the thousands upon thousands of slides now). I started using slide film almost exclusively in the late 70's (but did still do some print film), started doing some digital in the early 90's when I got my first digi camera but still mostly took slides until the late 90's. Only a few of the prints/slides were ever scanned for digital use years ago is all. But most of those are probably on my laptop that I have not used for years. While I think I could remember all of the scooters I've had maybe if I made a list to get them in the right order, I doubt I have computer ready pictures of any except maybe the last of them I owned. I the last three bought new in the 80's, an '83 VT750 Shadow, an '86 TRX350 4X4 for me and a TRX250 for my ex & son.

 

[Neal]

@Neal ... Unfortunately I have almost no pictures of the scooters. I owned quite a few of them on and off for about 40 years from the mid-late 50's into the 90's... from trail bikes to two Harley's, and those in between for both serious trail and street use. My ex has had nearly all of the pictures taken with print film cameras of my life since 2002. The pictures I have/had are a few snapshots and framed enlargements, and all those taken with slide film and digital cameras (my son has all of the thousands upon thousands of slides now). I started using slide film almost exclusively in the late 70's (but did still do some print film), started doing some digital in the early 90's when I got my first digi camera but still mostly took slides until the late 90's. Only a few of the prints/slides were ever scanned for digital use years ago is all. But most of those are probably on my laptop that I have not used for years. While I think I could remember all of the scooters I've had maybe if I made a list to get them in the right order, I doubt I have computer ready pictures of any except maybe the last of them I owned. I the last three bought new in the 80's, an '83 VT750 Shadow, an '86 TRX350 for me and a 250TRX for my ex & son.

No problem mate, hear you with the whole pre-digital way things used to work photography wise. Was a photo lithographer by trade, trained in the 70's and lost my whole body of work, in excess of 10,000 images to a fire at my house some years ago. Technology is great, but a well taken shot on Kodachrome 64 still takes some beating.

 

[Spydro]

No problem mate, hear you with the whole pre-digital way things used to work photography wise. Was a photo lithographer by trade, trained in the 70's and lost my whole body of work, in excess of 10,000 images to a fire at my house some years ago. Technology is great, but a well taken shot on Kodachrome 64 still takes some beating.

My picture taking started in the early-mid 50's, and by the end of the 50's I developed my own print films and had an enlarger. Then it was the movie cameras from the compact windups to those with gigantic light bars you had to carry an extension cord along to plug them into a power source, the Polaroids, the SLR's, etc. Still have the Kodiak Bullet 127 in its box that my Dad carried in WWII to the battles for the Marshall Islands, Iwo Jima and to occupy Nagasaki soon after FatMan had destroyed it. I also carried it during my Vietnam service. A lot of cameras have come and gone in my life. But I still have 3 of my top end SLR film cameras, including the top of the heap available in the mid 80's that has every lens/accessory usable on it know to man at the time. Still have a bunch of the digital's too, but the expensive top end SLR digi was a huge disappointment after waiting months for it to come out. So it and all of its accessories didn't get used much. The camera bug finally lost it's grip on me after it. So for years I have just been using a cheap Cannon PowerShot A495 10MP that'll be my last camera.