...around May, 1985, I was standing in a truckstop, waiting for the manager to give me his order for merchandise, I was in the wholesale tobacco supply business at that time, and I was waiting and waiting and waiting....while waiting for him I just happened to be next to the magazine rack and picked up a copy of Deals on Wheels....while I waited, I looked over the ads, just killing time, when I spotted an ad for a Challenger T/A....I remembered these cars but hadn't seen one in many years, so after business was transacted, I bought the magazine and left
...I got home that night and called the number in the ad, he answered and we talked condition, price, location, all the fundamental details, and I made an appointment to go look at the car and purchase it if I liked what I saw...the car was a 70 T/A, 4 spd, Go-Mango with black interior and was located in Cincinnati in an area called Price Hill....
...the garage was perched on top of a big hill and the car was sitting outside by the curb, it looked brand new...exactly what I had hoped for...the seller was wanting to unload the T/A so he could put more money into the restoration of a 1932 Buick...the Buick was near completion, but he needed some cash to finish the project
...It didn't take me long to decide this T/A was going home with me, and after some price negotiation, the car was mine for $5,100....it had an original 34,000 miles on the odometer and was perfect inside out...this was the first time I had driven a Challenger EVER, and the first time I had driven an E-Body in a decade, so, it seemed a little strange, uncomfortable to drive away in it...my nephew had made the trip with me in case I made a purchase so we could bring the car back...the first few blocks were downhill, a real steep downhill...I rode the brakes the entire first mile I owned the car, lol...naturally, the car needed gas, so we stopped a few miles away, figured out the "locking" gas cap, fueled up and away we went
...the trip home was uneventful, but the car cruised the interstate at 80mph without a hitch of any kind...I tested the SIX-PACK at every opportunity, it ran great....about a week later I got a magazine in the mail that described how important it was to have "matching numbers" on the drivetrain....well, I had no clue what I was looking for, so I stopped at the local Dodge dealer and my mechanic buddy slid a floor jack out to the car, and about 30 seconds later he said, "yep, they match the Vin"...I was extremely happy, it was a low mile original car, all the correct parts were there and I even found the broadcast sheet a few days later
...I drove the car everyday for a few weeks and an old friend stopped me right in the center of traffic one day and said, "ya wanna buy another one of those cars"...I followed him across town to an old garage and there was a Lime T/A sitting there all dusty and dirty...it was a one owner car with 54,000 miles and a 4 spd...by this time I knew all about the numbers and fender tag info, so checking out the car was real easy....long story short, I bought that one too...it took $4,900. to talk the owner out of it, big money for a used Challenger in 1985...
... a few weeks later I drove the orange T/A to the MOPAR Nationals and had a bunch of "FOR SALE" signs and pictures of the Lime T/A(the Lime T/A was barely road worthy)...I wanted to sell the Lime one, make a few dollars profit, and keep the orange one....I was overwhelmed with lookers wanting to buy the orange T/A and before the day was over I had sold it to a guy in Farmington, Mn....all I remember is he owned a body shop, but I never heard from him again, nor did I ever hear of the T/A again....it was a real beauty and one T/A I often wished I had never sold
...and so began my love affair with the Challenger T/A, my all time favorite MOPAR
...pix...the Go-Mango T/A the day I bought it, and the pair the last night before the new owner picked it up...sold the Lime one a few weeks later and started the search all over again
