Muscles Not From Brussels

I used to live on the central coast of California in my early twenties.  If there is one thing that is appreciated in this part of the country it is cars and motorcycles.  Highway 1 winds down the Pacific Coast and is a playground for guys and gals wielding sports cars and motorbikes.  There was a time back in the day, when I was a strapping young lad; no not gun toting, strapping meaning young and stupid and fearless.  In those days I was absolutely cool with flooring my 71 240Z around the twisty blind curves of Highway 1 so I could hear the headers and open exhaust echo off the mountain walls.   I would chase my buddy on his motorcycle while he dragged his knees left and then quickly right on the pavement with a screaming gal holding tight to him in both fear and excitement.   We would do this fun run all the way to an old stagecoach/Pony Express stop now turned into an out of the way bar called The Cold Springs Tavern.  At the tavern we would eat tri-tip sandwiches and take a looksy at all the other cool cars and bikes that others drove in.  This buddy of mine is still dragging knees on motorcycles and now does burnouts through the hilly farmlands of Pennsylvania in his sweet modified Mustang GT.  Take a look at this weeks featured Wheeled Wonder Pantser, Mustang Matt.

 

Alias: Mustang Matt

My Ride: 2006 Legend Lime Mustang GT with 5 speed

Special because: It’s the car that truly helped kick off the latest pony car/muscle car wars. Not only is it the rarest color of that generation of mustangs but it’s been a blast to drive and relatively easy car to mod, one step at a time. I’ve done all the work myself and slowly seen it go from low 14 second quarter mile times to running mid 12’s at 110mph all while still being a daily driver and getting good gas mileage. It’s also special because it’s the first high performance car I’ve ever owned.

If I had to replace: If I had to replace it I would probably try to get another one just like it, although I would also consider a new 5.0 mustang in either Kona blue or Grabber blue(even though the rear end of the new mustangs looks like hell) or a possibly a SRT8 Challenger.

First car: My first car was a 1965 Plymouth Valiant 4 door with a 225 slant six. My parents got it for 600 bucks and it was in pretty good shape but it had a bullet hole in the rear c-pillar. It had been sitting in a field before we bought it and some kids probably took a pot shot at it. All my friends thought it was really cool that it had a bullet hole in it. Some of my friends also joked it would be a good drive-by car since the rear windows went all the way down unlike most modern cars at the time that had child safety windows, which only went down about halfway! After a couple years my Dad and I repainted in an AMX color called Big Bad Blue and put a set of Cragar mags on it which really set it off. My friends still liked it but were disappointed we filled in the bullet hole when we painted it.

Favorite car movie: Without a doubt my favorite car movie is Two Lane Blacktop. Engines never sounded so good on film and the whine of the rockcrusher transmission in the 55’ Chevy is awesome! Be sure to watch it on a good sound system!

Fondest memory involving a ride: I once went to look at a 2-door 1967 Chrysler New Yorker with a 440 in it. The guy had a back yard full of cars and the Chrysler was blocked in by a few. So he starts it up and after a while of jockeying cars around, all while the big Chrysler was sitting there burbling away, he gets it out of the drive way and off we go. He takes off down his street rather easy which was a residential street lined with parked cars, trees and houses, and after a couple seconds I realize our speed is picking up pretty up quickly and I look over and realize he’s got his foot to the floor on a residential street! The car just started picking up speed like a jet and all of a sudden trees and parked cars were wizzing past us. I stole a glance at the speedometer and he let off when he hit about 90mph! Don’t know why I didn’t buy it, but I’ve wanted a 440 Mopar ever since then!