CHEQUEBOOK SUCCESS TWO

Hi Todd, I have just read your editorial in the latest NZV8. I couldn’t agree with you more. I have had a few V8s over the years and I am not a mechanic, panel beater, or a painter, but I appreciate what a good mechanic, panel beater, and painter can do. My first car was a ’68 Monaro with a 186 in it. I repowered it with a 400ci Chev. My mechanic at the time explained a lot of what he was doing and advised me on a number of things that resulted in a car that not only went hard but handled and stopped as well. I would probably be called a ‘chequebook’ owner as I didn’t do the work myself, but I learned so much in the time I owned that car that I developed the confidence to do more work on later cars. I appreciate the work that goes in to a lot of the hot rods that we see on the road in NZ and on TV, but I know my limitations and whilst I may strip a car and reassemble it after the tradesman has done his job, I would never attempt to do the work myself. On another note, muscle cars of today will become the street machines of tomorrow and may end up as the hot rods of next year. Allan de Reeper