Insanity!

I read an article in an enthusiast mag about a guy who claimed to have $14,000 invested in the rear axle of a Yenko Camaro he restored to make sure it was "Absolutely Correct."  That's not a typo, I said $14,000, not $1,400!!  To put it in perspective, if you like motorcycles that's the price of a brand-new Harley Davidson Super Glide. If you want to buy a high-school or college-age kid a dependable, economical car, that's the price of a brand-new Hyundai Accent or Ford Ranger pickup. If you like modern muscle cars, that's the price of a low-mileage 2006 or 2007 Hemi Charger or Mustang GT in any state in the union.  And this guy spent that much on the rear end?!  If he had 14 grand in the rear end, what did he have in the whole car? 100 grand? 150? In any state but New York or California that's the price of a house! Muscle cars led hard lives. People raced, modified and wrecked them. Spare me the rhetoric about "Priceless" cars. Everything has a price, and that's what someone is willing to pay for it, million dollar Hemi Cudas during the craziness of a few years ago notwithstanding.  If  a Yenko Camaro could be documented to be an actual Yenko car, and had the original 427 in it, are you saying that if it had say,a brand-new replacement Moser 12-bolt housing, or one that came out of say, a 68 400 Firebird, the car would be worth 15 grand less on the auction or resale circuit?  Like Ditka says on Monday Night Football- "Come on, man!!" Just as in performance modifications, in "Originality", you hit a wall of diminishing returns. Let's not turn our hobby into another game that only the very rich can play in, like Yachting, or NASCAR racing.  Mastermind