Although I am now older than dirt, I still love cars. I always have and have owned more than my share of various genre of enthusiast rides. My '72 Cutlass Supreme W30 is my favorite from my muscle car phase. Loved that thing, but had to unload it during the 2nd Arab oil embargo because I was spending half my life in gas lines. That's when I moved on to my sports car phase. Lots of brief Euro-trash infatuations. I suppose my '74 Alfa Spider Veloce was the most memorable from that era. Had a real love-hate relationship with that one. On and on it went, but I had developed an affection for tackling the twisties, so, of course, an IRS was a prerequisite for anything new.
Along the way, I became pretty good at turning a wrench and really enjoyed the Zen of it. Finally, in 2001, I decided to buy myself a brand new project car, which I still have. My little black SVT Cobra, which I bought off the showroom floor on Father's Day 2001, will turn 25 on Sunday (31 May 2001 build date). It has always been a weekend fun machine, never been a daily driver, and it's still a kick to drive every time I get behind the wheel.
For the first dozen or so years, I spent more time wrenching on the car than I did driving it, upgrading every one of the car's systems until I had exactly what I wanted. Turned every nut and bolt myself. For a while, I drove it on autocross and open track circuits, but I quit beating on it after a rule change that required ragtops to either run top-up or with approved roll bars. Just been enjoying the hell out of it as a weekend cruiser ever since. Anyway, this is my little monster ...
