...one last story for the night
...I owned an AAR CUDA for a short time, actually owned it twice, but thats ANOTHER looooong story
...I was headed to my warehouse a little before midnight, we were running a 3rd shift in the late eighties, and I was in a big hurry, running late.....the road from our house to town was a very wide 4 lane with a 50mph speed limit and it passed by a park...I had decided at the last minute to take the AAR, I drove it just about all the time, and I was giving her a run thru the gears, SIX BARRELL fully engaged and crested the hill by the park and met the only other car out at midnight that night, a police car....I was doing about 110 mph as we met and knew I was gonna be in for a bad time, so I cut my lights and just kept going...I saw his brake lights come on in my mirror and then he was outta sight on the other side of the hill behind me...
...so, I was still rolling along at 100mph or so and decided to turn into the park entrance...it was wide, I slammed hard on the brakes and I went sliding around the corner and headed deep into the park, ponds on both sides...I still didn't have on any lights and was probably doing about 40-50 mph...there was a bridge in the middle of the park with big round lights and I knew all I had to do was aim for the center of the lights and I would be across the bridge and gone.....things were looking good for a getaway, lol,....I saw the police car go screaming by the park in hi-speed pursuit after me, but I was deep in the park and he never knew where I went...
...about the time I thought I was clear, I was blinded by red lights in my mirror, the park ranger, or "duck police" as we all called him, was hot on my tail, he had been hiding behind the "elephant ears" stand....I slowed, pulled over next to the ducks and he came stomping up to the car and asked why I was going thru his park so fast with no lights on...well, he had a pretty good question and deserved a pretty good answer, so I told him my lights had just quit working and I was headed back to my house to trade cars...I flipped the light switch back on and off a few times and told him it had a short...he took my license anyway and went to his cruiser...it was kinda cold and I was late, tired and getting colder by the minute...after about 15 minutes, I finally went to his police car and told him to "either write me a ticket, or give me back my license, I have to get to work"...he looked at me kinda stunned, rolled down his window and handed me my license back...I thanked him, turned the AAR around, waved to the "duck police" and headed on to work (the lights were working fine now with the switch turned on)...lucky for me the "duck cop" didn't remember me from a 20 years earlier or he would have locked me up for the night...
...that little AAR was one of the cleanest MOPARS I ever owned, and ran like they were supposed to....I raced a new 87 Buick GN and beat him 3 outta 5 times one night...it ran good...bought it at the MOPAR Nationals and we raced it against my Daytona all the way from Columbus Ohio to Indiana ...another loooong scary story
AAR...42K miles/AT all correct, one correct repaint...
