My 30 Year Love Affair... Chevy Camaro
Posted at 10:16 PM / April 14, 2012
Although I live in an urban area where the predominant ride of choice is a German luxury car, that's never been where my heart truly llies. Sure, my pulse will kick up a little if I spy an M3 or AMG Mercedes, cuz I like any kind of sporty car that makes a bunch of horsepower. But that's not what I'm about.
Now Chicago, or more specifically the North side, is not a muscle car scene, in fact it's quite the opposite. The only thing more ubiquitous than Starbucks are the soulless cars that folks drive here... Jetta's... BMW 3 Series... Infiniti G35's... The Mini Cooper. Domestic muscle cars are more rare here than a George Bush bumper sticker.
But I've been a GM fan for as long as I've been into cars, and that's a long time. I'm not sure when it started, but I remember the car that made me a Chevy fan for life.
Back in the 80's I was a teen and we lived just outside of Boston in Quincy, Massachusetts. My hometown hero was a guy named Sammy who lived about ten houses down from me.
He daily-drove an immaculate 1969 Camaro RS/SS, that had mile-deep black paint and a set of big and little Cragar SST wheels. The rears stuck out about two inches and were shod in a set of N50's. Back then I didn't know much about drag racing and handling, it was all about the look and the sound.
When I heard that car fire up, it didn't matter what I was doing, I would immediately dash over to the front porch windows so I could see him slowly cruise by - The Milodon gear drive whirring, the cam announcing itself through a set of dumped Flowmasters, and him with one hand on the wheel and the other around his girl.
It's hard to believe that was 30 years ago.
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I bought a car today that brought that old magic back, a 5th generation Camaro SS.
I drove 'er home from the dealer and immediately stuffed my two boys in the back, and we went for a drive. They fit quite well though that will be a different story some day. They are only 4 and 6 and legroom is not a word in their vocabulary yet.
We drove around for what seemed like minutes, but it was an hour. We cruised. Here and there they asked me to get on it and beat some other car. Sure that other car was sometimes a UPS truck and one time a city bus, but you could see the energy and excitement flickering in their eyes whenever we lined up with someone at a light. We beat that guy. And then that guy.
Camaro.
Fast.
Cool.
Inevitably, I had to head home as it was time for them to get to bed. While we went through their nighttime routine, they kept telling me how awesome the Camaro was.
All I can say is... Me too.
I'll take better pictures soon.
I want to go and drive around again, BRB.
