page loaded in 0.046 seconds
| | Site Map | Back Page Art | Back Issues | Privacy and Security | Terms of Use | |
| Home | Features | Articles | Daily Drives | Rear View | Driveway | Directory | Showcase | Classifieds | Store | Games |
by Mike Furtado
Copyright (c), 2003, My Daily Driver -- All Rights Reserved My '74 Scamp is in need of some attention both mechanical and cosmetic. I thought I'd like to do a complete restoration of the old Scamp, so I decided to look for another car to drive while it was being done. Since a project like that can take months to even years, I looked for a good reliable late-model vehicle in the 5 - 7 thousand dollar range. I saw a lot of vehicles in that category, and felt ill at the prospect of giving up the Scamp and driving one of these POS's for the forseeable future. Every time I went searching, I found myself looking at old Mopars wishing that I was in search of one of these. I saw an ad for a '70 GTX 440 for sale about 2 hours away from me. I thought "too much money, and too far to go look just for fun." 
I kept looking at the ad and wishing things were different. Finally, my car dealer friend found a car
for me. A '96 Dodge Stratus in fantastic shape, low mileage for a mere 7200 bucks. The final straw.
I couldn't bring myself to spend that much money on a car for pure utility and no excitement. I called
on the GTX ad and made arrangements to go see it the following day.A trip to the bank to drain my account of the GTX's asking price, and a call to a friend to accompany me on the trip (in case I needed a second driver). When we arrived at the sellers home, there were a few minutes spent looking at and talking about my old Scamp and the reason I was looking for a second vehicle. The garage door opened, and there it was. The Vitamin-C orange paint glowed. The 440 badge called out to me. The car was in pristine condition. A few minutes spent checking fender tag numbers, and casting numbers revealed that this was a numbers matching original car with all of it's original goodies. The few exceptions were the original Carter carb had been replaced with a Holley, the exhaust manifolds had been replace with headers (original manifolds in the trunk) and the original 3.23:1 gear set had been swapped with another set of the same ratio (original gears in the trunk). Upon closer inspection, the body and (original) paint were showing signs of age. Small dings in the body, numerous small chips in the paint. Not bad for 31 years. The seller told me that he owned the car for almost three years, but hadn't put much more than six or seven hundred miles on it in that time. Test drive! Although the owner explained that I could "get on it a little", it appeared that he probably hadn't done much of this himself, as he was stiff and motionless throughout the ride, and had an unmistakeable look of terror on his pale-white face. This car is a rocket ship! After a little bit of haggling, and a LOT of hundred dollar bills, I was on my way home with my new GTX. 
I did some extensive research on the '70 GTX and without going through all the
details, the original base sticker price was revealed - $4180!! And to think,
31 years later I only paid $10,000 more than that...The GTX needed some mechanical attention to be a true "Daily Driver". Into the garage to replace the headers with the original manifolds, rebuild the carb, new fuel tank and lines, fuel pump, complete brake job, valve job and some miscellaneous electrical repairs. The punch line? The repair bill was $4180. Now I am Daily Driving the GTX, and scaring the neighborhood! 
page loaded in 0.046 seconds
|