"Little Brothers" can be both affordable and fun....

All the buff magazine's glorify the premium big-block cars, and with good reason. They are awesome performers. However this has driven prices so high that "Joe Average" can't have a musclecar. I don't have an extra $25,000+ laying around to spend on a second or third car that I'd only drive on weekends. I know-first thing everyone is going to say is "You said you were a mechanic, you don't have to buy a frame-off restoration, buy something that needs work and fix it yourself."  Ok.  Forget the cover of a magazine-I don't have an extra $10,000 to spend on something that needs another 10k worth of work just to make it reliable and road-worthy. The solution to this problem is to lower your sights a little. For example-Chevrolet built 243,000 Camaros in 1969. Out of that total only 19,000 were Z/28 models and about another 13,000 were SS396 models. That means the other roughly 210,000 cars sold that year were base models. Which isn't a bad thing. 68,000 or so had 307 2bbl V8s. The other 140,000 or so ( except for a few strippy 6 cylinder models) were 350s. We all know there's more speed equipment available for the Small-Block Chevy than anything else on the planet. It would be much easier and cheaper to buy or build a decent base model '69 Camaro than it would be to chase after a restored or needing work, but still grossly overpriced Z/28 or SS396. This isn't an isolated example. Of the 400,000+ V8 Chevelles that Chevrolet built in 1968-only 58,000 were SS396 models. Ford built 299,000 Mustangs in 1969. Only 1,628 were Boss 302s and only 13,193 were 428CJ models. That means the other 285,000 ( again excepting a few 6-cylinder strippys ) were 302 or 351W powered. Which certainly isn't a problem-there's just as much speed equipment available for small-block Fords as there is for Chevys or anything else. Of the 113,000 Firebirds Pontiac built in 1969, only 697 were Trans-Ams. That leaves 112,000 others with either 350 or 400 V8s.  Of the 81,000 Road Runners Plymouth produced in 1969-over 77,000 were 383 powered. Think they'll be a little cheaper to buy than the remaining 1,000 or so 426 Hemis and 2,000 or so 440 / Six-Packs??  See a common thread here?  The bottom line is-if you don't "gotta have" the absolute top of the line, you can still find a bargain and have a cool ride without re-financing your house or winning the lottery. Mastermind