Years Gone Bye

      For those of us who have been in the performance car hobby for many years now, a lot of things have changed, and some things have changed very much. A subject I’m very familiar with, is the way the style of  “street racing” has completely changed in the last 60 years.

     Back when I first discovered the activity, in my teenage years of the mid-1960’s, it was a lot different than the way it was during my last experiences in the early 2000’s.  It can be compared to the scenes of a couple different popular movies that most people may be familiar with.  Starting out with the classic movie “American Graffiti” , and the type of down town street scenes that film portrayed.  Then compare that to the outrageous craziness of the more recent “Fast and Furious” movie series.

     That is the reason, I describe the racing in my book as “the old style street racing”. Those who may be interested can find my book at: Grab Some Gears

    ( Twitter photo )

The Road Ahead

     With the world we live in today, and every car company moving toward electric vehicles, it makes me wonder what the future will look like for us old time car enthusiasts. Will all these coming changes mean the cool performance models we see today will be moving to electric too?

     All the latest automotive news we see is filled with every company moving to new hybrid and electric power, even for some of their top performance models. When I look over all the beautiful photos of the latest Shelby GT 500 Mustang, I now wonder if we’re looking at the last of this type of car. Will everything be electric in our future?

                        ( Twitter photo)

Greatest Mustangs

      Those of us who have been long time Mustang fans know there have been many great models over the years.  Each of us has a favorite, and sometimes many favorites, making it very hard to choose just one. I have a few that I have mentioned many times before on this blog, but one that has always been near the top of my favorites is the awesome BOSS 429. 

     The first one I remember seeing on a regular basis was a black 69 model that I often saw parked on the edge of a parking lot that I passed every weekend.  It belonged to someone who worked in a nearby store, maybe the store owner. That was way back in 1970 when I was first married, and was in the Air Force, and living in the Phoenix area.

     There have been many Mustangs in my life over the years, and I have owned many high performance models myself.  I could name several different models, and particular model years, that are high on my list of favorites, but the 69 and 70 BOSS 429’s will always be somewhere near the top.

    Those interested can find my book at; Grab Some Gears

     1970 BOSS 429  (Twitter photo). 

1967 Shelby GT 500

      The very first Shelby Mustangs I remember seeing were at a Ford dealership in Rapid City, South Dakota, in the fall of 1967.  They had a few Shelbys on the lot, most were 67’s , and they had one 68 model as well.  I spent a quite a bit of time looking those cars over, and comparing what changes were made between the 67 and 68 model years. There were several styling features that I preferred on the 67 models, and those preferences haven’t changed in all these years since.

     A lot of years have passed since my first Shelby experience, and I have owned many Mustangs myself, including a 2007 Shelby GT 500, and two Mustang Cobras. But, in all these years, and all these many performance Mustangs I’ve owned, the 1967 Shelby GT 500’s are still my favorite. I would have loved to have owned one.

      1967 Shelby GT 500   ( Twitter photo )

The Terminator Cobra

      I think it started out as a project nick-name when the 2003 Cobra Mustangs were in development. But, somehow the name got out, and as soon as the Mustang fans heard of it, it stuck. The factory supercharged V8 was a real power house, in pure stock trim. But with a few minor upgrades, it was crazy awesome.

     I installed some cold air induction and exhaust upgrades on mine, in the first few months of ownership. The performance was very impressive, and lived up to the Terminator name in most any street contest I found myself in.

     After the car was three years old, I installed an upgrade supercharger pully. The resulting increase in horsepower was crazy wild. The last chapter in my book details the last major street race I was involved in, and it was between my Terminator Cobra and my friends Dodge Viper. It was an easy win for the Terminator Cobra.

     If you would like to check out my book, just follow this link; Grab Some Gears

      Me with my Terminator Cobra in 2006.

Grab Some Gears

      My book; "Grab Some Gears - 40 Years of Street Racing" was finished in 2006.  It is a history of my automotive life for over forty years. Although many other things were happening in my life during all those years, the book is full of the stories of the old style street racing events I was part of during those 40+  years, and the many cars I owned and raced during those times.

     From the time I was an early teenager, until I was in my 50's,  street racing, and the cars we drove,  went through many changes. The book does a pretty good job of bringing the reader along for the ride. I've tried to tell pieces of some of those stories here on my blog over the years, but in less detail than you will find in the chapters of my book.

     Anyone interested in these things should check out my book, and even read sample chapters. Just follow this link; Grab Some Gears 

Where We Live

      Most people these days move from place to place, several times during their lives. Usually it’s because of our profession, and where the jobs take us. For me, it’s been the same situation for most of my working years. But when it came time to retire, we had some choices as to where we wanted to live. 

     There are always many things to consider, such as where some of our older family members were living at the time.  That was one of the factors that had us considering southern Utah, along with the beautiful scenery of the area that we had driven through many times over the years.

     Now that we have had a place here for over ten years, and it has been our primary residence for seven years, it truly feels like home now.  For a car guy, it’s the perfect climate, with an almost unlimited selection of scenic drives to take up our free time.  Every once in a while, when I get thinking of other places I might like to live, I truly can’t think of any place that I would rather be.

                    My 2015 Mustang GT ,  over looking our home town.