Worth wrote:Growing up we had a big ole 1968 Olds 98 with a 4 bbl Rocket 455 under the hood. Man, you could lay a mean patch of rubber with that right rear tire, no power brakes required. Really impressed the chicks or so we thought lol. I'm sure my Dad knew why that tire wore out so quickly.
Story time:
Our family car in the early 70's was a 1970 Olds Cutlass. My Mother--aka the Masked Marauder--drove that car. But, eventually it came to me, and it was my first car: a completely irresponsible decision on my parents' part, but that is a separate assessment.
My mother noticed, after I'd been using the car for a year or so (before it was officially mine), that the right rear tire seemed to be wearing out faster than the left rear tire. She asked our favorite service station mechanic/owner (Mr. McBride, as I knew him, RIP) for his advice. Mr. McBride responded, "Well, Miz Denney, that there's the pullin' tar". I shot him a look that should have shriveled him to a puff a smoke, and he knew then that he'd busted me. He actually felt bad about that, and showed it. And showing that was the trigger that explained it all to my mother, who didn't know what a pullin' tar was, but who did know what caused it's rapid wear. The irresponsibility of allowing my use of that vehicle started to become apparent at that time. Nothing more need be said on that front, however.
That Cutlass did not have a 455. It had an Olds small block--350--again nothing like the Chevy 350's of the day. And a Rottenchester Quadrajunk. Hence the rapid wear on the pullin' tar. But I fell in love with Olds muscle cars. I also fell in love with my VW Campervan. The GMC Motorhome is the logical marriage of those two concepts. Through it, I became friendly with Joe Mondello, probably the most respected Olds muscle-car expert in history, and he, too, owned a GMC during his last ten years. Great guy.
Rick "who can report in hindsight that it did not attract females, but it repelled them less forcefully than the VW Campervan that replaced it" Denney
It helps that I have a large 'studio' room with 10-foot ceiling downstairs.
