The bureaucratic presumption was that killing an old car would take it off the road and therefore stop it from polluting, thereby offsetting the smog from the refineries. The deal allowed private parties to sell older cars for $700. Enterprising gearheads found a way to flip a whole mess of old cars that hadn’t been legitimately driven in a decade or more.
I found this wildly bogus and proposed to Jeff Smith—then the HRM editor—that we go to a junkyard and buy an old car out from under the gasoline company’s crusher program. Rob Kinnan and I went to the yard and found a number of potential projects, and then I saw a Scheib-tan ’67 Camaro pulling in the driveway. I ran at full speed to the car and asked the driver if he was turning it in. He said yes, because his son wanted a mini-truck and his wife didn’t want the Camaro in the driveway. The guy had owned it since the ’70s with its inline six and Powerglide trans. I asked if I could give him the $700 so it wouldn’t be crushed, he said yes, and the rest is history.
The car that instantly became known as the Crusher Camaro first appeared in HOT ROD 25 years ago, as we told the story of rolling the car away from the junkyard and over to a Chevron station where it passed an emission test up to the standards of a much newer car. I think it also got 21 mpg. This put the lie to the buyback program.
この記事は Hot Rod の February 2021 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Hot Rod の February 2021 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
What Is Pro Street?
You know it when you see it.
Pro Street in Pure Vision
Builder Steve Strope weighs in on the Pro Street look and what he would build today.
THE GAS ERA LIVES ON
These vintage race cars chart the evolution of technology in the early days of drag racing.
MOTOR HEAD FOR LIFE
Scott Sullivan is one of the original Pro Street pioneers. He still builds cars today out of a small shop in Dayton, Ohio.
BRINGING BACK PRO STREET!
David Freiburger and Roadkill Garage built a Pro Street Nova.
SWEET ASPIRATIONS
Jerry and Matthew Sweet added an 800ci Pro Stock mountain motor to chase HOT ROD Drag Week's Pro Street NA Record.
Making Bad Decisions Badder
Bradley Gray's 1970 Nova is a Hybrid! It's a streetable Funny Car.
ART PROJECT
This Rad Rides by Troy-built '63 split-window Corvette went from restaurant prop to ripping up the street!
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
THE PRO STREET ERA PEAKED IN THE '80S. ARE WE IN THE BEGINNING OF A RESURGENCE?
Making Connections
Project T-top Coupe: We install a Terminator X Max for big power.