This made me a little sad... (Hunk o' Metal sold)

[carbuff]

While searching for a picture of my old Camaro tonight, I stumbled onto this:

Hunk o' Metal sold at Barrett Jackson

I suppose I should be flattered that a car which my father and I did almost 100% of the work on was sold at BJ. Not something everyone can claim. But I am a bit bummed as I had an agreement with the buyer that if he ever decided to sell it, he would give me the first shot at it.

TOW is certainly a better overall car for many reasons, but Hunk o' Metal will always be special since I built it with my dad.

The seller made a few changes to it which I don't completely like (and it wasn't a real Z either), but that's their prerogative I suppose...

For anyone who wasn't around back then, here is the article from Car Craft where I competed in the Real Street Eliminator with it, finishing second to Jeff Schwartz.

2002 Real Street Eliminator

[andrewb70]

Originally Posted by carbuff

While searching for a picture of my old Camaro tonight, I stumbled onto this:

Hunk o' Metal sold at Barrett Jackson

I suppose I should be flattered that a car which my father and I did almost 100% of the work on was sold at BJ. Not something everyone can claim. But I am a bit bummed as I had an agreement with the buyer that if he ever decided to sell it, he would give me the first shot at it.

TOW is certainly a better overall car for many reasons, but Hunk o' Metal will always be special since I built it with my dad.

The seller made a few changes to it which I don't completely like (and it wasn't a real Z either), but that's their prerogative I suppose...

For anyone who wasn't around back then, here is the article from Car Craft where I competed in the Real Street Eliminator with it, finishing second to Jeff Schwartz.

2002 Real Street Eliminator

Man...I remember that event so well. That was at the Bristol Bash in 2002. I was there with the GTO right after I got it done and Johnny Hunkins photographed it for Popular Hotrodding. It ended up being the cover car for the April 2003 issue. I got to meet you and Jeff, and had a great time! The following year I came back and won RSE. How time flies!!!!

Andrew

[Neil B]

I always loved this car. Your 377 build was an inspiration for my 372 motor.

[Flash68]

Very cool Bryan. Looks like a nice car and an even better family memory.

[carbuff]

Originally Posted by andrewb70

Man...I remember that event so well. That was at the Bristol Bash in 2002. I was there with the GTO right after I got it done and Johnny Hunkins photographed it for Popular Hotrodding. It ended up being the cover car for the April 2003 issue. I got to meet you and Jeff, and had a great time! The following year I came back and won RSE. How time flies!!!!

Andrew

That event was great! I remember crawling up and down over the GTO and appreciating it as well.

I was a little disappointed that I couldn't quite pull off the win, but on a car that was a fresh as that Camaro, it was pretty awesome to finish where I did!

[carbuff]

Originally Posted by Neil B

I always loved this car. Your 377 build was an inspiration for my 372 motor.

It was a fun motor! 8000 rpm came really quickly with the 4.56 gears. The motor didn't quite make what I expected on the dyno, but it was a blast to drive! Good memories...

[carbuff]

Originally Posted by Flash68

Very cool Bryan. Looks like a nice car and an even better family memory.

I wrote up a pretty cool diary (my version of a blog before there were blogs) as I was building the car. I was hosting it on a home PC which is not up and running anymore, so I don't have it available online. It was pretty cool how many people were following it back in the day before forums.

For anyone who never saw any of them, here are a couple of pictures of what I started with. My father has started building the car, even painted the body, and then decided to pull the LT5 / ZF6 that were from a ZR1 Vette and install them in his 57 Chevy. The car sat for several years like this until I bought it from him and brought the project back to life.



Yes, he had cut out the firewall:



In case you couldn't get the first perspective. I did a lot of repair work to this car, more than it was probably worth...



The donor patch. The original was long gone:

[awr68]

Bryan, I remever this car, RSE and print. I loved it! Very nice build, you should be proud! And the memories with your dad are priceles! Any chance you can buy it from the BJ buyer?

[Yelcamino]

Originally Posted by andrewb70

Man...I remember that event so well. That was at the Bristol Bash in 2002. I was there with the GTO right after I got it done and Johnny Hunkins photographed it for Popular Hotrodding. It ended up being the cover car for the April 2003 issue. I got to meet you and Jeff, and had a great time! The following year I came back and won RSE. How time flies!!!!

Andrew

I too was at that event when I first got the El Camino on the road! Hunkins also shot my El for a PHR feature. Small world.

[andrewb70]

Originally Posted by Yelcamino

I too was at that event when I first got the El Camino on the road! Hunkins also shot my El for a PHR feature. Small world.

Small world indeed. I wish I had those pictures, they are amazing. Johnny was still shooting film at that time as the world of digital photography had not yet evolved to be good enough for print.

http://www.hotrod.com/cars/featured/...0-pontiac-gto/

Andrew