Dreams Of Our Youth

Ken Maisano’s Modern, Hemi-Swapped 1971 Duster.

- John McGann

I’ll go out on a limb here and create a new aphorism: youthful impressions create modern obsessions. Though I have only anecdotal evidence to back it up, I submit this statement as fact; evidenced after years of interviewing owners about their cars, the one theme that surfaces in the vast majority of instances is something along the lines of: “It was my first car” or “my father/ neighbor/brother had one, and I always wanted one just like it.”

Instead of being a tired, car-guy trope, it’s actually quite touching to hear, no matter how many times I’ve heard it. That’s because it’s something so personal, yet at a basic level, it’s a notion we can all understand and appreciate.

We are shaped by things we are exposed to in our youth, both in positive and negative ways. Thankfully, the car stuff is usually not the kind of thing that sends us to the therapist’s couch, but is instead a source of joy and a hopeful promise of future happiness. Guys love their first cars or a car they were exposed to early in life. In Ken Maisano’s case, it was his brother’s car, a 1971 Plymouth Duster.

Ken was just 13 when older brother, Angelo, purchased the Duster from Roger Penske Chevrolet in Detroit. It had all the cool stuff an impressionable teenager would love: 340 V8, manual transmission, and a brash attitude. Ken recounted happy memories of riding with Angelo, saying the car felt like a rocket ship. It doesn’t matter that a modern Honda Accord is probably faster than that old Duster was, for the wide-eyed Ken, the thing was a beast.