More on "Butchered" projects...

A lot of people hold the opinion that a classic car that is modified in any way is "Butchered". I disagree. Gearheads have always played with cars and modified them in the never-ending quest for more speed. I saw a great article in a magazine. A guy bought a '57 Chevy. The 2nd owner had made it a race car in 1962, running a 389 Pontiac with a blower, backed by a B&M prepped Hydro-matic. It has the typical '60's "gasser" look-which I love-radiused rear fenders, straight front axle, big-n-little tires.  The car was raced up until the 1990s, always with Pontiac Power. It currently has a 400 Pontiac / TH400 combo. Refreshingly-the current owner said he was going to fix a few things and paint it,and keep running it at the drags, with the Pontiac powertrain!! He was even hunting down a Pontiac Blower setup!  Now that's preserving a piece of hot rodding history, rather spending a gazillion dollars restoring to "Just as it left the factory" status. I salute the guy and wish him luck with his very cool "barn find".  I saw two very badass Chevys at a recent show-n-shine of a local Chevy club. One was a 1965 Corvette. It had radiused and flared fenders covering huge tires on Halibrand mags, the front bumper had been removed,it had chrome sidepipes and it was powered by a nasty 396 that had dual-quads. I loved it. It was totally badass in a very '70s way, yet still looked and sounded cool today. Of course some asshole had to comment on how sad it was that someone "butchered" a classic 'Vette. By flaring the fenders and removing the front bumper?  Puhleeze. I talked to the owner-he said he bought the car in 1984-from the second owner who bought it in 1972. Like I thought-the cool mods were done in the early '70's, and thank god over the years the subsequent owners didn't feel the need to "Make it Right"-i.e.-return it to stock. The other one was a '68 Camaro. It had fat tires on Minilite wheels,flared fenders,front and rear spoilers,a domed fiberglass hood with a 427 'Vette style power bulge, and loud exhaust that exited in front of the rear wheels,giving it a very Trans-Am racer look. It was powered by a nasty 327 backed by a Muncie 4-speed. A nice little touch-it had a 750 Double-Pumper Holley on an Edelbrock "Scorpion" single-plane manifold,and the owner had painted the little cast Scorpion emblem red. It looked cool. It had finned "Mickey Thompson" valve covers-very 70's period correct-and the water pump, the alternator and brackets, and the radiator support were all chrome. The hoses all had the stainless steel braid covering that was popular in the early '80's. It was a very slick-looking car, with the power to back up the image. It reminded me of the Camaro driven by Paul LeMat-( The '32 Ford driver in "American Graffiti ) in "Aloha, Bobby and Rose". Of course some "Just as it left the factory" type had to turn up his nose at it. I don't get that. If you bought a new Mustang G/T or Challenger R/T today-would you leave it totally stock for the next ten years? You might, but chances are better that you would add a K&N air filter, a Flowmaster "Cat-Back" exhaust, a Hurst shifter and maybe some aftermarket wheels. More hardcore types might invest in a computer chip, a cam, some higher per hr flow injectors or even a blower. And 30 years from now-some asshole will gripe how you messed up the car!!  I'm kind of a middle-ground guy on this issue. Yes I think the guy who took a pristine, for-real fuel-injected, '63 Split-Window Corvette, and "Pro-Streeted" it-I mean gutted the interior, put a roll cage in, put 33 inch slicks with wheel tubs on it, and installed a tunnel-rammed 454 back by a powerglide with a trans-brake,ought to be dragged out into the street and shot, and his house burned to the ground. On the other hand an SS396 Chevelle is not "ruined" because it has 17 inch radial tires on aftermarket wheels, halogen headlights, and an HEI Distributor!! See what I'm saying?  A Ford I saw was pretty cool. It was a '63 Falcon. I know-"Ford Falcon" and "Cool" are rarely used in the same sentence, but this one was. It had a Mustang II front clip which gave it rack&pinion steering and front disc brakes. It had a roller-cammed 302 backed by a 5-speed-obviously pirated from an '80's or '90's Mustang. The interior was cool with aftermarket gauges, and Recaro-style seats and a leather-wrapped Grant steering wheel. It was really fast, and looked cool. I know I gripe about modern fuelie swaps all the time-but this wasn't a numbers-matching Boss 302, it was a '63 Falcon!!  Who gives a shit what you do to a '63 Falcon?  Anyway-have a little tolerance-just because a car has some modification that you wouldn't do-doesn't automatically make it a piece of crap!!  Mastermind