Cars with Cragars

[markinnaples]

Day2's Old Camaro

[novadude]

Mark... you must be talking about Donnie Bell. Yellow '69 RS w/ black stripes and a tunnel ram. His other '69 is a red convertible.

That yellow '69 used to get driven a lot, yet he kept it spotless. It used to make some appearances at the Sunday night street races in Crafton in the early 1990s too.

The "mopar" guy you mentioned... is he from Washington, PA? There used to be a guy that had a 'lil red express, a white AAR cuda (clone maybe), and a green '68 Dart GT 340 4-spd that he used to run down in Crafton.

[markinnaples]

novadude, yes, that is Donnie's Camaro. Does he still drive the yellow one? Beautiful car.

The Mopar guy is Jon Ohnhouse (sp?), a friend of my brother who is a shop teacher at Eliz Fwd I think. He sold most of his old Mopars and has that twin turbo Viper that is ridiculously fast.

Here are some of Tom / Day2_69Z's photos. The time slip is from his red '69 above; the red Z is his current Camaro; the two pics of the Garnet Red COPO are of a ZL-1 he drove BITD, and the black '69 was a BITD pic. Thanks Tom for sending these great pics.

[novadude]

Tom... I remember the family dealership (Martins Auto Corral) just south of Century III mall on Rt 51. You guys used to always have all kinds of cool muscle cars on the lot back in the early 1980s. I didn't get my license until 1988, but I was obsessed with Chevelles, etc from about age 8. I blame my Dad, as he got me into the whole car hobby. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]

As an aside... I met Tom back in about 1991 when I was in college working a summer job at a Chevy dealer. I was driving a brown '70 Nova SS clone to work as a daily driver back then. Started life as a 230 ci PG car, and I converted it to factory buckets / console, PDB, 350/TH350, 8.5 10-bolt posi, multi-leaf springs, SS hood, etc.

Some people seem to think that clones are a relatively new thing, but I can assure you that people like me who couldn't afford the real deal were creating SS cars from base models even back then. It was much easier to buy a $500 base model and &quot;upgrade&quot; as money allowed. Of course, back then you could find the &quot;good&quot; SS parts for affordable prices in junkyards and at swap meets. Even 30 years ago, we all knew there was something special about a real numbers matching car though.

Anyway... back to the Cragar discussion...

[Day2_69Z]

Thanks Mark,
cept, They're Hugger Orange !
The Z/28 ,SS350 &amp; ZL1 are HUGGER Orange.
Post those 12 second time slips from the 69 SS !!!
Please Post the Black 70 1/2 Z/28 with CRAGARS as well,, after all, this is a Cars with Cragars thread....lmao.

The ZL1 was Carl Dwiggins car from Conover, NC. February 1987, Friday the 13th., He just got it back from Dave Tenell &amp; asked me to drive it on his back 40,,,,said it had a &quot;miss in it&quot; and wanted my thoughts.
Needless to say the &quot;miss&quot; was just a '180' Cammed Aluminum 12:1 427 that needed &quot;opened up&quot; !!!!.. Carl gave me a personal tour of his Massive 5 Pool building, 120+ car collection and capped it off &quot;allowing me the privilege and pleasure to drive that Beast&quot;
He helped me acquire the Orange Z pictured above.
The ZL 1 went to Reggie Jackson along with about 15 others a few years later..... I think that car is in a Private collection here in Pa. now.??
Tom

[Day2_69Z]

John,
Your Dad like a lot of our Dad's are well commended!!!
This Hobby is one of the greatest !
Our lot, was opened because we &quot;out grew our neighborhood&quot; with all the cars we had. My Dad who will be 79 this Saturday, November 15th. is still an avid car guy frequenting ALL of the local race tracks in Western Pa. from dirt to asphalt to drag strips every weekday and weekend there is a Race.
Martin's Auto Corral operated from 1983 till 1999 when the State put the new bypass in for the &quot;43&quot; super highway. Which is now the Greatest place to run Wide Open if you wanna go 150-200+ mph !!!
Dad always liked seeing us with CRAGARS on our Cars....and helped us &quot;GO FAST&quot; n FASTER !!
My older brother Joe, Runs with a Pro-Nitrous PDRA 69 Camaro as Crew Chief/tuner/engine &amp; trans/chassis set up Einstien for Camp Bros. Supply out of Canosburg.
That car runs 3.80's @ 198 &amp; finished 4th in points for 2014 behind Lizzy &amp; Pat Mussi.... it ran a 903 SONNY's /MUSSI Billet , Injected motor . New Motor is a MUSSI for 2015.

[markinnaples]

Sorry for the color error; here's Tom's other pics:

[novadude]

All this talk about the Pittsburgh &quot;scene&quot; back in the day... I often wonder what happened to all of those cars? On any given summer night, the Corrigan drive parking lots were like a car show. Growing up in a city neighborhood, I can remember the following cars parked on the streets in the early 1980s within blocks of our house:

'71 Chevelle SS 4-speed Mulsane (sp) blue w/ white stripes (and Cragars)
'69 Camaro RS 4-spd - grey primer black vinyl roof (and Cragars)
'66 GTO automatic - white with black vinyl roof (aftermarket chrome steel slots)
'68 GTO automatic - red (Cragars)
'65 Impala SS - Maroon w/ Cragars
etc

I took my drivers test in my Mom's daily driver in 1988 - frost green '69 Malibu 2-dr hardtop 350/TH350 w/ rallys, eagle ST radials, and a SS hood that me and my Dad added. These cars were literally everywhere you looked in the 'burgh back in the day (and most had Cragars... trying to keep this a little on topic! LOL).

[markinnaples]

John, I know what you mean. We had a brown 70 Camaro with centerlines, a Cranberry 70 SS 454 Chevelle, a white and a red 69 Camaro base 327s, a 67 Chevelle SS with a 427, a 69 B5 blue Charger, a brown 57 Chevy (most with cragars) and a 69 Pace Car all on the way from my house to school that just sat there 97% of the time.

Tom and I were discussing some of the muscle cars that were around when we were much younger (mid-late 70's) that were some hot rides and wondered where they are now. One was a chopped 70-ish Camaro with a naked woman on the side that was painted over in all black, and a silver 68 Z/28 that was body off restored and painted with multi-color stripes that ran over the trunk lid and hood and then down through the firewall and underside of the car. That car was painted by a guy who Tom and I both knew, and it was amazing. I'd love to see what that one looks like today.

[Day2_69Z]

Mark,
Google Brake Service on Cochran mill Rd. South Park or Broughton,Pa....
Norm LeBlanc was owner, now deceased. From what I know his wife leases out the business.. rumors run that she has the '68Z/28 at home (I thought she sold it)
Tom