I had no choice but to be a car guy, my father was infatuated with cars there for I followed suit. My father had a 55 bel, was originally black with white roof and quarters, he painted the white black so it was all black, had some wide steel wheels on it, it had a 62 327 in it, and he welded the exhaust up from 2 tractor stacks, and laid them our under the car, it was pretty loud. Had a 4 speed in it that he got with the 327.
Story went he bought the 55 new, but coming home a little feeling good one rainy evening he hit something in the road and damaged the 1/4 and took out the engine, (later found out he hit a parked car and drove home in first gear without knowing it).
So he bought a brand new 62 impala 4 speed, well very shortly after that coming home feeling a little good, he rolls that off the shoulder of a road and destroys it.
So the 55 was still parked in the yard, they fixed the body, painted it all black, and put the driveline out of the 62 impala in it, there was the birth of the "black bastid" as we used to call it, man that car felt fast.. I learned to drive in it, and probably wore out the trans fake shifting in the driveway. I swear I did more burnouts in that car with out the car running than don garlits did with his funny car.
But that car made me a car guy, the loud unsafe sound of it, my old man making the tires scream and smashing through the gears taking out all his lower middle class rage out on it and me thinking better this car than me.
Then when I was old enough to reach the pedals, me and my cousins were off to the races, we were stealing cars, swapping motors, changing parts, driving drunk, chasing loose women, greased up hair, leather jackets, cigarettes, skipping school, dining and dashing in near by towns, all because we had bad *** cars...
I remember it well and I blame the cars, all the "good guys" had normal quiet 4 doors, their parents old woody wagons, they had no fun, we had muscle cars, chopped up junk boxes with no exhaust but a shiny new motor out of the one of their parents wagons we stole, lol..
Actually it wasn't that glamorous, and luckily I grew up fast when I met a special lady who wasn't impressed by that stuff...