No Guts Glory

1968 Pontiac Firebird 400

The owner of this rather wonderful Firebird had never owned or even driven an American classic before – and he bought it blind, from Florida. So how has that worked out for him? 

- Nigel Boothman

“My son Conor and I went down on the train to the shipping agent’s premises in Milton Keynes,” says Karl Moore. “I’d never seen the car I’d bought. In fact I’d never even driven a left-hand-drive vehicle before. It was tipping it down with rain and we’d soon be pulling out of the yard for the 100-mile trip back to Staffordshire. You could say I was a little nervous.”

With good reason. How did Karl get into this rather exciting situation? Like all responsible dads, he blames it on his boy. Conor, it seems, had been making remarks along the lines of: “Why don’t we get a classic, Dad?” every time he was dragged along to a car show, which happened fairly often. Karl was coming round to the idea and began looking at solid British beef like a Rover P5B. This, however, did not go down well with Conor. “He said, ‘You must be joking, Dad. That’s a proper pipe-and-slippers car’, so I thought I’d better look elsewhere,” recalls Karl.

The Rover’s American V8 gives you a hint to the way Karl’s mind was working, and indeed he rapidly moved on to the classic American scene to check out possible additions to the family. He cast the net pretty wide, and with Conor helpfully pointing out some of the more eyecatching machines on sale in this country, he realised he’d have to impose some sort of size limit.