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I remember those words from a song of the sixties and it seems a good reply regarding explanation of my disease. Here JimmieD reclines on the couch with hands clasped behind the head and Gordon Maney sits close by with pad and paper, "Now relax, son, and tell me all about it...."
"Well Doc, I was a kid, see, and my pop had this great old '47 Dodge sedan. We kids called it the Grey Ghost. Sometimes pop called it other things when he was up under the hood. That was a really good old car and we went everywhere in it. Next I remember a '55 Plymouth coupe with a Polysphere that my sister had. She terrorized the local Fords and Chevies with it. Sweet little car, that. Then the '47 Dodge sedan got replaced with a '56 Chrysler Windsor with a 354 Hemi. This was getting in the fleshy part of my mis-spent youth, you see.
Well, it turned out that the old Hemi, with 129,000 miles on it, still ran pretty good. Good enough in fact to run the wheels off a brand new 1970 Ford sedan with 'special suspension' and a 427 in it. To be fair though it might have been those crazy lights on top of the Ford that slowed it down some....
I had my own hotrods, too, but later pops got a '62 Chrysler 300 coupe with a 413 in it. Hey, that was almost as fast as that old honkin' Hemi, and it was quicker! I still want one of those to this day. Later a '65 Dodge 383 Polara joined the fold and served as a testbed for applied lateral G-force studies and certain inertial mass acceleration experiments. Poor thing, but it took it, and never failed. Next I got a '70 Cuda with a baby hemi, the 340 Hi-Po, and this was a whole new world. Always had to shut off at 130+ cause the front end started floating, but look out Mr. Camaro and Mr. Mustang 'cause you're history.
The next was a work horse, or a mule, as a '69 Dodge D-100 long bed. Years and years of faithful service out of that venerable 318 and 3 spd. Lousy shift linkage though. That good truck was followed by my 1967 Dodge D-100 Town Wagon, 315 or 318 Polysphere. 164 h.p. @ 3900 r.p.m., NP 435, RA36 taper axle rear with 742 center, and a few Special Options. Still drive it daily after 25+ years of abusing it. Near as I can tell it is the only 1967 Town Wagon verifiable as built in that year, and is the last off of the Warren Michigan assembly line, and is the last one ever built.
Also had a '73 W-100, a '74 W-200, and a current '77 W-200 440.
Now working on catching an unusual '58 W-200 PW that is just too cool to describe. For those of you who have a bent toward prayer add me to the list, if you will, 'cause it's not mine yet and it's going to take some doing a little bit beyond my ability to do.
Okay Doc, I think that's it. Ya know, I feel better after just getting it off my chest. Ya, now I feel pretty good. Maybe I'll go out and see about sticking that darned cam in the 440, or playing with the body work on the TW. Maybe afterall, I don't need no doctor. Thanks for listening.....the check is in the mail."
JimmieD
"Well Doc, I was a kid, see, and my pop had this great old '47 Dodge sedan. We kids called it the Grey Ghost. Sometimes pop called it other things when he was up under the hood. That was a really good old car and we went everywhere in it. Next I remember a '55 Plymouth coupe with a Polysphere that my sister had. She terrorized the local Fords and Chevies with it. Sweet little car, that. Then the '47 Dodge sedan got replaced with a '56 Chrysler Windsor with a 354 Hemi. This was getting in the fleshy part of my mis-spent youth, you see.
Well, it turned out that the old Hemi, with 129,000 miles on it, still ran pretty good. Good enough in fact to run the wheels off a brand new 1970 Ford sedan with 'special suspension' and a 427 in it. To be fair though it might have been those crazy lights on top of the Ford that slowed it down some....
I had my own hotrods, too, but later pops got a '62 Chrysler 300 coupe with a 413 in it. Hey, that was almost as fast as that old honkin' Hemi, and it was quicker! I still want one of those to this day. Later a '65 Dodge 383 Polara joined the fold and served as a testbed for applied lateral G-force studies and certain inertial mass acceleration experiments. Poor thing, but it took it, and never failed. Next I got a '70 Cuda with a baby hemi, the 340 Hi-Po, and this was a whole new world. Always had to shut off at 130+ cause the front end started floating, but look out Mr. Camaro and Mr. Mustang 'cause you're history.
The next was a work horse, or a mule, as a '69 Dodge D-100 long bed. Years and years of faithful service out of that venerable 318 and 3 spd. Lousy shift linkage though. That good truck was followed by my 1967 Dodge D-100 Town Wagon, 315 or 318 Polysphere. 164 h.p. @ 3900 r.p.m., NP 435, RA36 taper axle rear with 742 center, and a few Special Options. Still drive it daily after 25+ years of abusing it. Near as I can tell it is the only 1967 Town Wagon verifiable as built in that year, and is the last off of the Warren Michigan assembly line, and is the last one ever built.
Also had a '73 W-100, a '74 W-200, and a current '77 W-200 440.
Now working on catching an unusual '58 W-200 PW that is just too cool to describe. For those of you who have a bent toward prayer add me to the list, if you will, 'cause it's not mine yet and it's going to take some doing a little bit beyond my ability to do.
Okay Doc, I think that's it. Ya know, I feel better after just getting it off my chest. Ya, now I feel pretty good. Maybe I'll go out and see about sticking that darned cam in the 440, or playing with the body work on the TW. Maybe afterall, I don't need no doctor. Thanks for listening.....the check is in the mail."
JimmieD
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