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To: ETL
I learned to drive in a 1970 Dodge Charger with a 383 Magnum and a 4-speed transmission (with that lo-o-o-ng pistol grip shift lever). It was not the easiest car in the world to learn in (nor did I have the world's most patient instructor), but in retrospect, it made a lot of subsequent vehicles easier to deal with.

It had manual steering and brakes, no air, not even an FM radio option, but it did have nice leather bucket seats and the SE package... it was an idiosyncratic car option-wise. Being black on black - with a black vinyl roof - and having factory "road" wheels, it was a sharp, somewhat sinister presence not unlike the Charger in the movie "Bullitt."

After I got my permanent license, I drove it like a typical teenaged idiot, and because it had a non-SureGrip 3:23 rear end, it was not a great quarter-miler per se, but it would hold its own. It was an exceptional "top-ender" on the local long, straight stretch, and it now embarrasses me to think how dangerous such antics really were. What I then lacked the wit to understand was the extent to which it was a tremendously reliable* all-around powerful piece of transportation with a bit of attitude... sort of a "Swiss army knife" of muscle cars.

Last I heard of it, the poor thing had been totalled by its third owner somewhere out in western Iowa.

Mr. niteowl77

*Except for the typical @#$%! semi-functional Mopar clock in the dash.

100 posted on 12/20/2013 7:20:58 AM PST by niteowl77 (Establishment Republicans possess fewer guts than the last gnat that hit the windshield of your car.)
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To: niteowl77

My Mom had a ‘68 383 4spd Charger in the early 1970’s. I remember elementary school car pool with 7 neighborhood kids in the car on her day to drive. I got the passenger side fwd foot well. That was my spot.

In ‘74 mom made dad trade it in on a used, baby blue ‘72 Coronet Custom station wagon... Dad had muscle car withdawals and bought a ‘69 390 4 spd AMX later that year, which he knew couldn’t be used for carpool (it could only fit 5 kids).


101 posted on 12/20/2013 10:31:19 AM PST by UNGN (I've been here since '98 but had nothing to say until now)
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