I've had hundreds of cars. My first was a 39 Olds coupe when I was 13. That was my favorite for about a week till I traded it for a 50 Ford sport coupe.
The car I would most like to have back was a 1969 Ford custom 500 two door post sedan. I bought it at a state surplus vehicle auction. It was a Maine state police cruiser with a 427 engine. Areal sleeper. It was a medium blue with a white top. I lived in Mass. at the time and the Mass. state police cars had a distinctive two tone blue paint job so it wasn,t recognized as a police car. I won a lot of street races in that thing.
A kid at work had a new (72) Mustang Mach 1 with a 351 in it. He kept challenging everyone to race him.
After a couple of weeks of his bragging I told him I'll race him but only if he would race for pink slips. I had to explain the concept since there were no pink slips or titles in Mass. at the time. I rode to lunch with him a few times and when he tried to show off I could tell he was afraid of it.
I smeared some grease on the air filter where it said 427 and pulled off one of my plug wires and took him for a ride in my car. It didn't run very good on seven cylinders but I asked him to give me a day to tune it up and we would race the next day after work. The tune up was a tank of Sunoco 160 and replacing the plug wire.
The next day he was talking trash and asking if anyone wanted to buy the clunker he was going to win. After work everyone was waiting for the big race. There was a big empty paking lot next to the shop. I said I wanted to warm up the car before the race so I did a Rockford into a double cookie making enough smoke to get lost in. The kid tried to do the same but kept stalling. His big grin was gone.
The race was from the 128 exit off rte 1 to the Wakefield town line. When the light turned green I sat there for a while burning rubber so he could go first. I passed him on the offramp and didn't see him again till I pulled over at the finish line. He wen't by a few minutes later but didn't stop.
He never came back to work even to pick up his paycheck. I ran into him a few months later and asked him when can I pick up my Mach 1. He said it was reposessed. He was driving an old caddy.
It was the only street race I had that was prearranged and had an audience. The guys were glad they didn't have to listen to him anymore.
Of course when I drove the car in Maine everyone thought it was a police car. People would pull over when I came up behind them or turn off at the first chance.
I traded it when I moved to Maine in 73 for the 65 Mustang fastback that I still own. So I don't really regret letting it go as much as if I had just sold it for cash.The guy I traded it to made a stock car out of it and won a lot of races with it. The engine was still good when he was done racing and he put it in a 66 pickup and kept it for a couple more years before I lost track of it.
Maybe if I didn't still own the Mustang I would pick that as my most memorable car but I'm not through making memories with it yet.
AL