The truth sometimes hurts......Especially when it affects our cherished memories!

Read an article in a Martial-Arts magazine written by Bill Wallace. If you don't know, Bill "Superfoot" Wallace is a Martial-arts expert and former middleweight kickboxing champion. He got his nickname because his signature finishing move was a roundhouse kick that netted him many of his kos. He also appeared in some of Chuck Norris's movies and is one of the few people still living who worked out with the late Bruce Lee. He said Lee was a great friend and a great athlete, but he gets tired of the magazine articles and the internet chatter of "Could Bruce Lee have beaten Muhammed Ali?" Or Could Bruce Lee have beaten Mike Tyson?"  He goes on to say he gets tired of it because although he was superbly conditioned and greatly skilled, Bruce Lee was only 5'6" and 135-145 lbs in his prime. Never mine Ali or Tyson, or any other heavyweight, Lee would have had his hands full with "Macho Camacho" in his prime. Or Aaron Pryor or Alexis Arguello or a young Benny Urquidez, and several other lightweight and welterweight boxers and kickboxers he probably missed. Wallace goes on to say that Lee, at 5'6", probably would have been easily defeated by the 5'10" Sugar Ray Leonard or the 6'1" Thomas Hearns when they were the 147 lb Champs. Besides having equal speed and power, they'd have had too much reach advantage. Wallace took a lot of heat for that article from spittingly hysterical fanboys who watched "Enter the Dragon" too many times, but he refused to apologize for stating an irrefutable fact. I applaud his guts. It's the same way with Musclecar freaks and their memories. Not many of us owned or know someone who owned a Hemi 'Cuda, an LS6 Chevelle, a W30 442, a Ram Air IV GTO, or 428 SCJ Mustang.  There weren't many cars that could rip off a 13 second timeslip right off the showroom floor and with maybe just headers and slicks could go into the low 12s or high 11s.  The low sales figures of the ultra-premium cars of the big three ( GM, Ford and Chrysler ) bear this out. This means that most of us and our friends had "Entry Level" musclecars. I.E.- 383 Road Runners, 396 Chevelles, 389 GTOs, etc. Tales of 4th gear rubber and being pushed back in the seat seem silly when someone pulls out a yellowed, dog-eared copy of Car Life or Hot Rod and we read that the machine in question ran in the 14.60s. That's right, your beloved hot rod would probably get beat by a 2011 V6 Camaro, and would get really dusted by a modern SS or 5.0 Mustang or Hemi Challenger. I love old musclecars too. It's funny, the one I loved the most was my '77 Trans Am. No, it wasn't nearly as fast as my RAIII, 4-speed Judge, or my 396 El Camino, or my H/O, or a couple other things I had over the years. But it was a damn fun car to drive. It looked cool, it handled great, it was fast enough to back up its image most of the time, the engine idled smoothly, the seats were comfortable, and the suspension didn't rattle your fillings loose. I lost a few "Stoplight Gran Prixs" but not many. If I could magically have back any car I ever owned, it would be the T/A, not the Judge or any other. I guess it's because I had more fun in that car than anything else I ever drove. But I don't have any illusions-a New Mustang GT would run off and leave it, and I know it. But not if I got a 455 crank and some Edelbrock heads, and some... You know what I mean. Cherish your musclecar memories, but don't be like Bruce Lee fans and make stupid boasts, like how your 383 Charger would eat a modern SRT8 Charger. Uh-uh. Mastermind