This is Oldies Part Two with more photos from back in the day when the Aero Cars were just old cars. With the 50th Aero Reunion just around the corner at Talladega, these photos really tell a story.
How many of you are old enough to remember these cars when they were new? Did anyone of you actually purchase one of these new or within two years of it being new?
I remember seeing a Superbird on the street in our small Iowa town back in 1970. One of the “greasers” purchased it new. It really stood out, but not in a good way. It appeared to be gigantic and almost cartoon-like compared to the other cars on the road at the time. I have a distinct memory of coming out of the local movie house one Saturday night and seeing the Bird cruising the loop. Surprise, it was only a couple of months old and the nose was gone and a stock Road Runner front end was installed. I often wondered what happened to the car’s original nose and where is the car today.
Unfortunately, with so many muscle cars in the hands of young testosterone-driven young boys, the fatality rate of the cars and boys was relatively high. I was just getting out of college at the time and remember several school mates who totaled some really cool cars and a few who destroyed their lives while doing so. It was also not only common but almost mandatory to remove the factory wheels and install custom rims. One of my roommates had a brother who purchased a 1967 Chevelle SS 396 and before he would pick it up at the dealership they had to put a set of American ET’s on the car. He didn’t want to be seen in the car with stock wheels! There was also a college kid in town whose dad bought him a new 67 Corvette roadster. Before it left the dealership it’s factory wheel wells were flared, the factory paint covered with a wild candy paint and new mags and performance tires.
What do you remember about cars from 50 years ago?
Thanks go to Joey Machado for submitting many of these photos.
The orange T is mine,pictured in front of the garage doors of a 3 car garage underneath the apartment I lived in.
Wheels are Spyder mags.At one time I had like 4 1/2 sets of those wheels.
Yes, one of the pictures is 6-8 of us at Riverside Raceway taken in the early ’80’s.
The white Daytona I’m quite sure belonged to a guy named Gilbert Bess form the Carolinas or mid-Atlantic coast region.He said Jake King, Sox & Martin’s mechanic, built the Hemi for him.And that could be because to hear him tell it he never found the top end as he ran out of road.