American Muscle Cars

My parents owned an all-original 1964 1/2 Mustang before I turned 16 and could make it my own. Pony bucket seats, automatic on the floor. They got rid of it to pay off a debt. I can't imagine what it would be worth today.

 

This bad girl was up for auction at a car show I attended last summer, a tribute to the Eleanor car from "Gone in 60 Seconds," arguably my favorite movie car. Her license plate was LYN-274. My daughter's name is Eleanor Lynn. I was convinced I had to buy it. Until it went for $137,000, that is.

 

I'm gonna need a kleenex and a cigarette.
That's gorgeous.

 

Exactly.

There are all sorts of great Mustangs and Shelbys from that 1965 - 1972 Golden Age, but none better than that.

 

And in defense of bad guys, it has to be said this was pretty cool, too.

 

Rare, underrated beauty of the Late Muscle Period.

1973 AMC Javelin SST.

Stunning style; insufficient muscle.

 

My beef with Ford......
Making a new, modernized version of the Bullitt Mustang.
Leave it alone.

 

Holding up my dad's lighter for you.

This thread has been my happy place this weekend between crisis chats.

But...but...

I really want to like the new movie about the Ford/Ferarri rivalry. I do. Seeing Matt Damon play Carroll Shelby feels like... Okay this is a girl thing, so bear with me. Every time something gets sufficiently trendy, the Mattel people make a Barbie (and Ken) version of it. For instance, they did an X-Files Barbie and Ken. Imagine something as vapid as Barbie and Ken in place of Scully and Mulder. You see where I'm going with this? Matt Damon is a Ken Doll version of Carroll Shelby.

Let me pull in another reference. A friend of mine went to a preivew of the first "Iron Man" movie. I asked him how he liked it, and he said, "I'm still most definitely a straight man, but that movie left me and everyone else in the theater wanting to have Robert Downey, Jr.'s baby."

Maybe it's a personal prejudice on my part, but I can't imagine a movie about Carroll Shelby made as it should be without everyone leaving the theater either wanting or wanting to be Carroll Shelby.

Before I drop the mic on this, here is my spirit animal, James May's short film about that historic race:

 

Which gets us to the most beautiful American car ever made.

 

That is beautiful.
But you can't drive it.
Part of the fun of having a Bullitt, or a GTO, or a Nova..........anything like that......is that you can take it out and drive it.
Something like that GT......you would be scared to death to drive it.
Even something like a Corvette. I drove a 2015 Corvette once, and was petrified of it. The visibility out of this car is non-existent.

 

So, read the book first then the movie?