If your going to drive the car at all....Be brutally honest about what you need.....

I talk to so many people that pay big dollars for a musclecar and then are unhappy with it. Often this happens because they spent thousands of dollars on a something some hack in a magazine said was valuable. If your just buying some $50,000 piece of garage jewelry to trailer to shows, then get whatever you want. But if you plan to drive the car at all-even it it's only on sunny summer days-you need to think hard about what is realistically important. For example-yes, a '55-'57 Chevy is cool. But do you really want a car with no power steering, no power brakes, that handles like a UPS truck? I know guys that have built '55 Chevys that handle like ZR1 'Vettes-with custom frames, Wildwood 4-wheel discs etc-but that kind of defeats the purpose of having a vintage car, doesn't it? Anything built before 1960 is going to be pretty primitive. Even Corvettes didn't get disc brakes until 1965. So if you want at least power steering and front disc brakes-that's a reasonable minimum standard for safety and convenience. So don't bother to look at stuff that doesn't have power steering or has 4-wheel drum brakes. If you live somewhere where it gets to be 100+ degrees in the summer, it might behoove you to only consider cars with Factory A/C. If you live in a big city that has a lot of stop and go traffic-an automatic transmission might be a better choice than a manual. And the biggest, baddest option isn't always the best. I know a gentleman who bought a 1968 Solid-lifter, 435 hp Tri-Power 427, 4-speed, 4.11 geared Corvette. It was ungodly fast. But with 11:1 compression it pinged incessantly on premium fuel if he didn't add 2 cans of octane booster per tankful, his wife burned her legs on the sidepipes every time she got into or out of the car, and since they liked to take weekend trips-he wasn't real happy about the engine buzzing at 3,800 rpm at 70 mph on the freeway. I told him to sell it and buy another Stingray with a low-compression big block or small-block with a hydraulic cam and he'd be a lot happier. Luckily-being a numbers-matching 427 L89 car-he got his money back and then some. He didn't lose any money. He then bought a 1971 LS5 365 hp 454 model. It still has that mountain of torque that only a 454 has-it's fast enough that he doesn't have to take crap from little boys in WRX's or Yuppies in 3-series BMWs. With 8.5:1 compression it runs fine on regular gas, and the 3.36:1 gears are a great compromise between jackrabbit starts and easy freeway crusing. 5,700 rpm is something like 138 mph, so it's got some long legs. He loves it, and him and his wife regularly drive it to Lake Tahoe or to the wine country.  Another guy was looking at a Boss 302. It was pristine. But it had no power steering, and it had 3.91:1 gears. It was blisteringly fast-but it had very little torque below 3,000 rpm,you were constantly shifting it in traffic, and parallel parking was a nightmare. We looked at a Mach 1-that had the 351W and an FMX automatic. It also had power steering, and factory a/c.  He liked driving that one much better, and it was fast enough-it could smoke the tires at will and lay 8-10 feet of rubber on the 1-2 shift. He decided to buy the Mach 1-especially since it was not only more pleasant to drive, it was about 30K cheaper to boot. So the biggest baddest, model isn't always the best choice. Do you really NEED an LS6 Chevelle? Or could you live with an SS396?  Do you want to pay 100K for a Super Duty Trans-Am, that you'll be so afraid of blowing up that it will never see the high side of 3,000 rpm, or would you be happier in a 400, 4-speed "Bandit" or 10th Annivesary model for 30K that you can powershift to your heart's content?  Wouldn't a 340 or 383 Challenger be good enough to live out your "Kowalski" fantasies in, or does it have to be a Hemi or 440+6?  Be honest with yourself about what you really want, and you'll be a lot happier. Mastermind