I grew up with my dad owning a 65 Corvette Convertible. I can still remember the sound of the engine through the side pipes and the smell of the exhaust left in the garage after he drove away. He sold it when I was 9 to buy a minivan for us kids (thanks dad). We would talk muscle cars and he always liked the 66 Chevelle with the 396. Years later, when I was out of high school, my dad decided to get a 66 Chevelle for his 50th. He found the one below. A Malibu SS, Canadian A51 car (no Super Sports available in Canada that year) that was originally a 283 power-glide, and had been switched over to a 396. The car was a driver. The paint was a bit faded, it had a ding on the front fender, a rust spot in the back window, but overall, was solid, and had only the slightest surface rust underneath. After some discussion, he bought it for $6,000. He had the front fender fixed, and after a couple years of owning the car, he sourced a 4 speed for it and had it installed because he said, with the PG, it was only an exercise to look out the front window.
He'd let me take it out and I enjoyed every second. When I went to SIAST to be a service technician, I pulled the transmission and had the flywheel and surfaces of the scatter shield machined, installed a new clutch as the old one was slipping, tore apart the transmission and fixed reverse gear, fixed the 'Z' bar, and put it all back together. In the mid 2000's my dad wanted to sell the car, so I bought it off him to keep it around. The car got 100 miles to the tank and cost $100 to fill plus the lead substitute, but I enjoyed every one of those miles. The car sounded awesome as whoever built the engine had a really nice cam in it, which came to life when I put on the dual 3" exhaust. I got a lot of compliments on the sound of that car and I still haven't heard any modern car has the same authoritative sound that the old BBC's have. I planned on keeping the car forever, but family priorities came first. I sold the car, like many others in my situation, to buy a house. Now I only have the Corvette, that can now sit in a garage, to dry my tears.
He'd let me take it out and I enjoyed every second. When I went to SIAST to be a service technician, I pulled the transmission and had the flywheel and surfaces of the scatter shield machined, installed a new clutch as the old one was slipping, tore apart the transmission and fixed reverse gear, fixed the 'Z' bar, and put it all back together. In the mid 2000's my dad wanted to sell the car, so I bought it off him to keep it around. The car got 100 miles to the tank and cost $100 to fill plus the lead substitute, but I enjoyed every one of those miles. The car sounded awesome as whoever built the engine had a really nice cam in it, which came to life when I put on the dual 3" exhaust. I got a lot of compliments on the sound of that car and I still haven't heard any modern car has the same authoritative sound that the old BBC's have. I planned on keeping the car forever, but family priorities came first. I sold the car, like many others in my situation, to buy a house. Now I only have the Corvette, that can now sit in a garage, to dry my tears.
