Horsepower Roundup : Car Buffs Convene to Admire Mean Machines of the Past
A crowd of young car enthusiasts “oohed” and “aahed” as they admired Joe Free’s 1965 Mustang Fastback. The maroon car gleamed under the parking lot lights, and its chrome engine parts twinkled brightly under the raised hood.
This was no wimp car, they concluded. The 302-cubic-inch engine with a 671 GMC “blower” (supercharger) that doubled its horsepower to 500 made the car look “killer,” and the 22-inch wide rear tires made it appear downright menacing.
“How’d you like to go cruising in something like this?” a young man asked his girlfriend. “Bet this would turn some heads.”
An aging, pot-bellied baby boomer, who had his “Heavy Chevy” on display, heard the kid’s remarks and chuckled.
“Twenty years ago, if you were lucky enough to own a car like this, you’d go cruising to show off your chick and your car. Now, you go cruising to show off your car and tell the old lady to duck,” said the man, who, in deference to his wife, remains anonymous.
The man’s wife bristled, then looked at his drooping belly and responded herself.
“Well, if truth be told, the car has aged better than one of us.” Touche.
Welcome to Saturday night on Balboa Avenue, where car buffs gather at the Vons shopping center to show off their rebuilt and restored muscle cars of the 1960s and early 1970s. The mean street machines on display bring back memories of a time when souped-up Mustang GTs, Chevelle Super Sports, GTOs, Camaros and Chargers were all the rage.
These cars were nearly every baby boomer’s dream, until the Arab oil embargo of 1974 sounded the death knell for the V-8 engine. Those were the days, when car engines were measured in cubic inches, rather than liters, and when miles per gallon was important only to nerds who drove tinny foreign cars.
About two dozen car owners gather informally at the shopping center’s parking lot every Saturday evening to show off and, occasionally, to sell their cars. The classic showcase also attracts patrolling cop cars, which meander off Balboa Avenue to cruise slowly along the line of vehicles.
Like everybody else, the cops also come to admire the powerful machines. On this particular night, an officer slowed down and checked out a canary yellow 1962 Corvette, whose speedometer topped at 160.
“What are you running?” said one man, asking about the engine in the patrol car.
“Not enough,” smiled the cop.
Invariably, the gathering also lures a teen-age crowd that favors Japanese-built trucks and foreign cars of every description. The younger group is familiar with Mustangs and Corvettes but appears baffled by bigger models like the Charger and Chevelle.
“Can you imagine these kids getting together in 20 years to show off their restored Nissan and Toyota trucks?” asked Tom Russell. “It’s kinda sad when you think about it. When they talk about their teen-age years, how much can you say about the four-cylinder pickup truck you drove in high school?”
Larry Murollo of La Mesa said, “Getting together like this keeps you in touch with an era when muscle cars were the thing. That time is lost, gone forever.”
“Come back in another hour and you’ll see how many people are hanging around this car,” said Free, 38, and owner of the maroon Mustang. “The Mustang kind of symbolizes our generation. You could say that restoring Mustangs and other muscle cars is kind of a novelty, but it’s better than drinking.”
Murollo, 40, and owner of a construction company, was showing off his 1966 Chevelle, with a 327-cubic-inch engine that puts out 375 horsepower. The bright red two-door sedan, with a multicolored stripe running along each side, was for sale. Asking price: $6,900. The paint job alone cost $3,500, Murollo said.
Parked next to Murollo’s Chevelle was Gil Lucero’s 1934 Ford roadster, a legendary 1950s hot rod, the precursor of the muscle cars. Like many of the restored cars on display, Lucero’s prized beauty was bright red but appeared orange under the mercury vapor lights.
“How much money have you put in this car?” someone asked. Lucero, 41, hesitated and looked around. “Where’s my wife at? If she’s here, the answer is about $2,500. If she’s not,” he leans forward and whispers, “about $20,000.”
The other men in the group roared with laughter. Then Lucero, whose family owns a farm and garden supply store in Vista, explained how he manages to maintain his expensive hobby and keep his wife, Jeannie, happy at the same time.
“I kinda use the barter system. Every time I get a car, she gets carpet or tile,” he said.
Gas Mileage: Don’t Ask
Besides the roadster, Lucero also owns a 1934 Ford sedan and a 1947 woody station wagon that was driven to the “parking lot show” that night by his wife. An admirer wondered what kind of gas mileage Lucero gets from his roadster, which is powered by a V-8 engine.
“If you gotta ask, you don’t want to know,” said another vintage car owner.
Lucero, who was puffing on a “pretty stale” cigar, smiled and answered the man’s question.
“It’s got a 12-gallon tank and gets about 4 miles per gallon,” he answered.
Free, a San Marcos resident, acknowledged that restoring cars like his 1965 Mustang is expensive. The monster rear tires on his car require specially made wheels. Free, who works at a builders supply company, said that each rear tire and wheel cost him $250 combined.
“I’ve got more than $12,000 in parts in this car,” Free said, “but I wouldn’t take less than $25,000 if someone wanted to buy it.”
Lucero has been looking for an original chromed radiator grille for his roadster and a tipster told him about “a guy in Arizona who has two of them for sale.” Lucero and his wife have already made travel plans to Arizona later this month.
“I expect to pay between $1,500 and $2,000 for the grill,” he said.
Indeed, prices for some hard-to-find parts are often outrageous.
Kevin Caldwell owns a hybrid 1969 Dodge Charger, similar to the one that chased Steve McQueen and his Mustang Fastback around San Francisco in “Bullitt, a 1968 movie. Caldwell’s gold car has the front end from a 1968 model and a 1969 model’s rear. He has been looking for two tiny hood reflectors that measure about half-inch wide by 2 1/2 inches long.
“I found them a few days ago but the guy wanted me to pay $100 apiece for them. I wanted them real bad, but hell, me and this car weren’t born yesterday, you know.”
As might be expected from a group whose preference for cars might be interpreted as a manifestation of their libido, it is no surprise that male chauvinism is rampant among the owners.
Billy Hebdon, 50, a car builder from Oceanside, has a beefed-up 1925 Model T that is powered with a Mustang V-6 engine. Hebdon, who has owned the car for 34 years, has about $25,000 invested in the machine, which sports several shiny coats of “1955 Buick Seminole Red” paint. His girlfriend, Delsa Stone, 40, was sitting inside but complained that is about all Hebdon will let her do.
“Oh, I get to drive it like out of the parking lot, once in a great while. But other than that, not at all,” she said. “I mean, Billy and this car went through puberty together. That’s how close they are.”
