It all started with my brothers '70 Olds 442 W-30. This is the car I cut my teeth on. I was about 10 years old and some of the details are vague. He got the car cheap...it had been wrecked and the driver side frame behind the A-arm assembly was broken in two. Not sure how they fixed it but I believe he just welded it all back together.

It was the factory orange color with a black vinyl top. It had the factory fiberglass dual scoop hood but was missing the breather assembly to mate it to the carburetor. I'm not sure if it was the original motor or not...but it was a 455 with an automatic transmission. It had the black interior with bucket seats and a his/her dual gate shifter, rally gauges with tach and tilt steering.

I remember being in several races with my brother and I think we won most of them...it was pretty fast and I remember being proud to ride in something so rare. The car was put out to pasture (literally) as the frame broke again in the same place.

My brothers 2nd car was a '68 Pontiac GTO. I think he traded a rearend and transmission plus a couple of hundred bucks. I was probably about 14 when it was trailered to our house with no motor/transmission and in brown primer. It was in good shape with minimal rust.

It had a completely rebuilt and repainted 12 bolt rear with 4:56 gears and a Moroso gold anodized cover, white air shocks, swaybar and ladder bars. The interior was in pretty good shape. Medium blue in color with all the GTO badges. We dropped in a extra 455 olds block that was lying around with a Turbo 400 transmission. This was pretty much stock setup Don't remember if this one blew or we just yanked it for the hell of it. Anyway...the 2nd motor was '70 model 455 out of a Delta 88. We put a Holley 750 double pumper and stuck the w-30 cam in it. I remember the night we dropped it in the goat and fired it up. With the low geared rearend and the hi-torque olds engine it was about the hardest pulling combination I've rode in. This one didn't last long...I think it spun a rod bearing and was yanked.

Finally we put in a stock '70 350 Olds Rocket motor. Even with the smaller cubic inches it was still a powerfull combo. This setup was only beat once out of at least 20 races by a '70 Pontiac Gran Prix. Out of those 19 races we were NEVER beat out of the hole. My brothers quick reaction time and the low gear gave us the holeshot each race. But this time was our downfall! The GP got the hole shot and beat us by a fender. Neither my brother nor myself could believe it so we lined 'em up again. The GP got the hole shot again and again we lost by a fender...we just kept on goin' to the house with our tail between our legs.

The car soon turned into a daily driver for my brother and I used to sneak it out of the garage and down the driveway and terroized the boulevard with it. This was my first taste of racing...while it was dangerous and I wouldn't recommend it today...it kept me out of more serious trouble like drugs, gangs, etc. I never lost a race in that GTO and my brother NEVER found out about my escapades until I told him several years later.

I've had several first cars...the first three were extremely cheap/free. All came with no motor or transmission. The first was a 1967 Pontiac Firebird. It had an extreme case of rust and was pretty much gone. I decided I could make money off of this one on the parts and parted it out. The interior was in extremely good shape and I got the most money for the fold down rear seat which supposedly was a rare option.

The second first car was a 1970 Chevrolet Malibu. This was one was a winner and I'm still trying to remember what exactly I did with it. It had no front clip but was otherwise complete. I believe I traded it for my next first car which was a 1971 Buick Skylark. This one was in great shape. Good body with minimal rust and a clean interior. I put considerable time into it. Sanded the entire body and cut out the rust and then ran out of money (the story of my life).

Now on to my first real car. It was a 1968 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme that I bought with help from my brother (Hey..that's what brothers are for, right?). It was silver/grey primer and a black interior. It was all stock with the factory 350 Rocket motor and turbo 350 transmission. It had about 80,000 miles on it and ran great.

The first project was a paint job. My brother and I were good friends with a guy that was fair at painting cars in his garage. I struck a deal with him (I believe I traded my Skylark for the paint job and labor) to sand and paint the car. There was very little bodywork to do and minimal rust so he he block sanded the entire car and got it very smooth. My color of choice at that time was Hugger orange. Looked great on the paint chip in the store...boy it sure was shockingly bright when it rolled out of the garage. Took a couple of days to get used to it. I found a used set of Cragar wheels to go on the car and it looked pretty damn good for a 16 year old kid. It got plenty of looks on the boulevard!

The next upgrade was in the power department. I yanked the old two-barrel carb and manifold and swapped in a factory 4-barrel manifold and quadrajet. I also took out the single exhaust system and installed a set of Blackjack headers and ran duals out the back. I had my brother give the car one of his famous tune-ups and it sounded/looked/ran great! Granted it was no speed demon but was fast enough for a 16 year-old. I believe it ran right around 98-100MPH in the 1/4 mile...never got around to timing it as I was more concerned with speed at that time. I got smoked plenty of times(if you owned that late model Z-28 in '84 you got lucky 3 times in a row!) but I did win my share of races.

After about 1-1.5 years that orange paint grew annoying and I decided to have Johnny paint it again. We sanded the car again and I selected a much subtler hue this time around. It was a dark metallic blue. I ditched the cragars and bought a set of Oldsmobile rallye wheels with the center caps and trim. Had them painted the same color as the car and then reinstalled all the trim and caps and put 60 series tires all the way around the car. I also made some minor upgrades like rear swaybar, better stereo, reupholstered the torn seats and dark tinted windows. When it was done the car looked very nice.

I soon graduated from high school and took the car with me to my first year in college at the University of Tenneessee (Go Vols!). It did very well on those weekend road trips to the Smokey Mountains and Gatlinburg. Well my money ran out after my freshman year at college and I joined the Air Force in '88. The car sat at my mom's while I was in boot camp. I was sent to Biloxi, MS for my technical training for about three months. After about the first month I got some leave and caught a ride to Atlanta where my brother met me and took me home. I then drove the car back to Biloxi.

I became very popular as very few in my squadron had cars on base. Every weekend we would cruise the highway between Gulfport and Biloxi checking out the beach. Good times!! After my training completed I got orders to Omaha, Nebraska. I took 2 weeks leave and packed up the Olds and went home. I made it as far as Birmingham and threw a rod on the interstate. Ungodliest sound I've ever heard. There was smoke and fumes everywhere! Luckily a very kind local family pulled over to lend assistance. The took me back to their house about 3 miles up the road and got his truck and a chain. He towed me back to his house and then drove me to a local motel. I called my brother to give him the bad news and he agreed to pick me up in the AM. Later that week I bought a brand new '88 Chevy S-10 pickup and drove it back to Birmingham with a friend and towed the Cutlass back home. It was all that little S-10 could do to pull that car home but we made it. I later sold it for about $950.

NEXT INSTALLMENT: My new S-10...I couldn't leave it alone!