I seem to remember the good old days, out till 3:00 AM every night, and the most important thing of all, was learning about American muscle the fun way, by experiencing it first hand.

I fell sorry for the kids of today who may never understand the thrill of real American muscle; my first learning experience was brought by way of a 1968 L88 corvette, my god what an awesome car.

My best friend at the time had just bought a used one, and it was around 3:00 AM in the morning, I was standing on the main drag with all my friends, and who pulls up, but Vern in his new L88 corvette, I was leaning against my 1969 Z/28 which by all rights was a very mean car, but next to the L88 corvette, it looked like a dog.

I got in the corvette to go for a ride, my first ride in a corvette ever, and learned very fast what that car was all about, we pulled out on to the main drag, and right next to us was another friend of mine is his 426 Hemi coda, and as unwise as it seemed to me at the time Vern decides to have a friendly race against him.

We pulled up to a red traffic light, in the small town that we lived in, and the lights were exactly 1/4 mile apart, so Vern revs his engine, and the cuda revs his engine, and the race was on, we chewed the cuda up and spit it out, but the excitement hadn't even begun yet, one more totally amazing thing was going to happen before we'd get back to our hang out on the side of the road.

On the trek back to the hang out, of course we got stopped by another traffic light, and Vern being the man he was decided that he needed to really see what the car would do, the light turned green, and Vern eased off the clutch and the car started to roll, and the he dropped the hammer, shoved the pedal through the floor, the car immediately started to do 360's in the middle of the main drag, the first thought through my head, was we're going to die, it's all over.

It sent chills through my body, as he shifted through the first three gears before pulling the car out of the mad spin and back to the straight and narrow, and it saddens me to think that the new generation of hot rodders will never have an experience like that to tell their children, yet I still hear all the time how much better those new cars are "HUH".

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I've been in the automotive business for about 20 or 25 years, I have worked in all facets of the industry, from parts to restoration, all different makes and models, I just want to keep people interested in the old cars because it's where my heart is.