Here is the first Malibu. Gold 1980 wagon with 267 V8 and woodie paneling. I freaked out my Junior Prom date when I had the car completely airborne on Smithbridge Road in Delaware, 1984.
Off to the Senior Prom
Shortly after I my parents gave me this car, I got hit by a drunk driver. With the insurance money, I got a newer, less offensive one. Well, at that time, anyway.
Road Trip to Ft Lauderdale for Spring Break
This car came with the 229 V6. I swapped in a 1984 Formula Firebird 305 and 700R4. I later ate the engine drag racing in Florida. Later I built a 400 small block and added in a 200R4 overdrive transmission.
Organ Donor Dragged Back from Warwick, RI
The Connecticut doors gave up, and the Florida doors never got painted. But I had fun watching those annoying rice racers disappear in the rearview when they flashed the brights to get me out of their way. I would unlock the torque converter, drop it into third and gallop away. I loved that ever- shrinking look of shock…
Hawaii Dive Car
With 3.73 gears and a posi-traction, I scored a 14.6 second quarter mile at 92 mph in Barber’s Point, Oahu. Yes it was way ugly. But it was a great car for that time of my life. Drags on Friday nights, dive car on Saturdays and Sundays. Room for four friends and ten dive tanks…I provided the wheels and they provided the gas, lunch and air fills! And we parked anywhere without ever having a break-in.
February 1996 Back on the Mainland
Near the end of my tour in the Navy, my sub moved to Portsmouth, NH. One of my favorite pictures is Hawaii plates under snow. When I got parole the Navy and moved to New Mexico, the car was so rotten from Connecticut salt rot (bottom up) and Hawaii surf rot (top down) that it was not worth the expense to make a second 2500 mile drive or to ship it. So, I parted it out like a Thanksgiving turkey. In the southwest, one can unscrew 30-year-old muffler bolts. I got Coupe Fever…
Mmmmmmmm.....Greasy!!!
See more in upcoming posts on the other cars…