No no no!

I’ve been trolling Ebay and other websites for examples of “One mans’ trash is another mans’ treasure”. I think I found a few, and I hope that you’ll join me in asking “why did you do that?”.

Kinda of like a drug or alcohol addiction, there are folks out there that are a bit confused at what looks cool, what looks tacky, and what money well spent looks like.

One can only see so many cars with racing stripes before they decide it’s a wise investment to increase the curb appeal of a car. Stripes belong on a lot of different cars. Pinstriping is one thing. However one car that comes to mind that there are to be no racing stripes whether it be down the center or offset, no stripes wider than 1/4 of an inch (6 cm).

The 1978 Firebird Trans Am

Center stripes give this car the “runny nose” look. Not threatening on the drag strip and a downright female repellent.

Notice the HOLES in the front quarter panel.

Just curious, why 5?  Why not do only 4 holes on each side, then you could run exhaust pipes through the body like a “Hot Wheels” car.

I remember my first beer.

Lets move on to another example of money well spent.  If you bought your car as an investment, or to be the guy that wins every race at the traffic light, this is an example of what not to do.  The “Pro-Street”.  Yes, drag racing is fun.  Drag racing is cool, don’t get me wrong.  If you’ve got this kind of money to burn (quite literally) go for it.  But if you want something you can drive on the weekends or want something to go get ice cream on a summer night, this is not a good thing to do.

This is not my cup of tea, personally, that’s just too over the top.  I like horsepower, but not when there’s a need for an elevator to get to the air filter(s).  I’m sure this car is one bad-ass car, I would love to listen to that thing idle, and I’m pretty sure I would mess myself if I saw it go past me at the track.  I however would not be happy with the depreciation,  the cost of the parts, modifying so much you break something everytime you drive the car.  I would also not like the fact that returning that car to stock would still not help the resale value because of all the cutting that went on.  That’s a lot of engine.  I’d rather see that in a 69 Camaro.  Just doesn’t look right to me in a 77-78 T/A….

Like a hooker with new boobs, it’s just going to turn into an expenditure that might leave the owner not all that satisfied in the end.  In my opinion. I’d rather take the $20,000 that was spent on the engine, restore that car, and wake up the stock engine.

This is also why you can buy cars like this for almost 1/10th the cost of what it was to build the car.  Also, how much life is left in that engine?  Who knows.  Do you want to risk your life and find out?  Put on a fire suit, helmet, full saftey gear, put it on the track, stick it to the wood and see what happens.

Oh, by the way, does it run on racing fuel that costs $10 a gallon?