64 VW Bus, The Cosmic Toad

I bought my first car when I was 18, in 1978. My Russian grandmother gave me the money for it--very disapprovingly, as we are Jewish, and it was a VW, thus German-made. Well, my dad had a VW bug and then a bus, so it was in my blood. I thought for years I'd never drive anything else (ha!).
        I bought a 1964 VW bus with the sun roof and all the windows except the rear wrap-around ones, for $1000, being told it had a rebuilt engine. It didn't--it just needed one. It was painted acid-green, and the sunroof was blue paisley.

Mexican Racer

About 1993 a friend gave me a Pink Floyd video called La Carrera Panamericana, a story about the rock group's exploits racing British cars (jags) in Mexico. Inspired, I sought my own suitable American road racer for the Mexican race and finally settled on an unlikely racer, a 1955 Chrysler. After about a year's build time, I had a car, kind of. Anyway, it was started--roll cage, fuel cell, the front frame clip and suspesion removed and replaced with a more modern and repairable front clip from a 1975 Oldsmobile station wagon. At the time finding parts for or information about the early hemi engine was nearly impossible because most of the old hemi guys were dead and there was almost zero interest in these engines. Any parts to be bought were old junk made in the '50s. Anyway, long story short, I now have three cars set up for the Mexican road race. --Ronald Davis, Fort Collins, Colo.

Rockfish Service Station

From the Library of Congress collection: Rockfish Service Station, Virginia Route 865, Waynesboro, Virginia, about 165 miles from Washington, D.C., via modern interstate highway.

'87 Shelby Charger, Big Car in a Small World

I bought my new Shelby Charger GLHS in November of 1987 after waiting 6 weeks for delivery. That had to been the longest 6 weeks of my life.
    This was no ordinary Dodge Charger but rather a modified product of Shelby Automobiles in California. There were only a thousand of these cars made sporting individual dash plaques with their unique production number. It was a four cylinder turbo engine with modifications that added 40 horsepower. As well, it had European adjustable shocks and tires, with graphics to match the racy hardware.
    I reluctantly sold my dream car five years later in 1992 after realizing that it was not practical for family life.

Painful Chevy Commercial from '65