I remember my first car a 1971 Dodge Challenger. She was metallic green with a white vinyl roof. A 340 four barrel pushing 275 horsepower mated to a slapstick 3 speed automatic and a positraction rear end. Which meant to my eager 18-year-old ears I could burn out both rear wheels at once. I remember the guy who sold it to me bragging about how he would race it up the highway and do spin outs on icy roads. At the time this was a selling point. A more mature self would have translated that to “I beat the crap out of this car I hope you have a lot more money to spend”. But I was all emotion and the gleaming metallic paint job and rumbling engine destroyed all semblance of logic. In fact I was so green I bought the car 3 weeks before I passed my driver test. Need less to say I ended up spending a lot more then the $1000.00 to purchase the car.
It wasn’t entirely the fault of the seller that I had to spend so much on repairing and maintaining the challenger. I did my fair share of burnouts, racing, and general beating of my poor car. I remember my girlfriend’s stepfather warning me he knew it I was squealing the tires at the end of the street every...