Hey, that thang got a hemi?

Thought you might enjoy seeing how my pal and fellow CIS is “investing” some of the proceeds that accrue to being a bigshot oilman in a $55-a-barrel world:

In case you’re not of the same, um, vintage as Tommy and me, that’s a 1969 Chevelle SS 396, restored to primo condition. Tommy tracked it down and bought it over eBay (after coming oh-so-close in the bidding for a 1968 version of the same car a couple of weeks earlier).

The car has 4-on-the-floor, bucket seats and has been bored-and-stroked to 405 c.i.d. (I didn’t realize it, but this model actually came stock with a 402 engine, but the SS 396 nomenclature had gained such impressive marketing cachet that Chevrolet decided to stick with it even after the engine displacement grew.)

Let me tell you, this puppy gets up and moves!

Riding in it last week brought back all kinds of memories. Growing up in the muscle car era, we didn’t really think of them as “muscle cars.” You couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting a car that cranked out 300 hp or more; that’s just what Detroit made. GTOs, Dusters, Road Runners, Shelby ‘Stangs, Z-28 Camaros, ‘Vettes (only for the hoity-toity, of course), 442s…they were everywhere (well, everywhere except my garage, of course). Sure, most of them also carried around 500 or a thousand extra pounds of steel compared to today’s hi-revving pocket rockets, but that was nothing that 400 foot-pounds of torque couldn’t overcome.

Of course, the downside of Tommy’s rumbling nostalgic foray is that the engine requires premium gasoline. Or, as we like to call it, “ethyl.” The engine’s been modified to run well on unleaded, but he still probably could have picked a better time to get a sub-10 mpg car. (I’m sure he’d be the first to acknowledge the irony that the situation that funded this purchase is the same one that bites him in the wallet everytime he gases it up.)

I have to share one anecdote that perfectly displays how times have changed. Tommy said that when he took the car in to get a state inspection sticker, most of the guys working at the shop were younger and they were all abuzz over the car. But they seemed to be having a problem at one point in the process. They couldn’t get the headlight’s high beams to work. One of the more “seasoned” employees had to come over and point out that little round foot peg in the floorboard…none of those young whippersnappers had ever seen one! Man, youth is wasted on the young, y’know?