years ago i was driving by a used car dealership outside chicago called cy-k
he always had some cool muscle.
so what do i see?
a triple black challenger vert. shaker, go wing...
i about fell outta my car trying to see as i drove by.
wheeled around and inquired, he wanted to much at the time for my feeble pocketbook.
Cy Kay? I remember them, I grew up in Glenview where their dealership was for many years until he moved it up somewhere north in the early 90's I think it was.
He had a bad reputation though!
And I remember a triple black Challenger convertible there too, was that in the mid to late 80's some time when it was there?? I don't recall it being a shaker car, but I could be wrong. I'm pretty sure it was the same car I ended up going to look at when someone was trying to sell it around 1995, it was definitely a project by then, and had a few issues, it was an N code R/T convertible, but the fender tag was missing and no broadcast sheet. The guy who owned it was going to have a new tag made up to reflect what options he wanted to put on it
, but he had too many projects and that is why he was selling it. I wonder where it ended up, that guy was trying to sell it for many years.
Same guy had a prototype Shelby Mustang convertible in his run-down garage, buried in parts, but that is another story....
I remember when I looked at the black Challenger vert I thought that it almost certainly was the same car I'd seen on Cy Kays lot 8 or 9 years earlier.
For me, I became interested in Challengers and cudas when I was a freshman in high school. Custom Vans were big at that time, and I wanted to get a van when I was 16 and modify it. But I came to believe I wouldn't have enough to buy a van and have any money left over to customize it, so I started thinking about getting a nice late 60's early 70's musclecar instead.
Then I saw Vanishing Point on TV and from then on my life was changed! I wanted a Challenger when I was 16!
Reading Hot Rod and Car Craft I learned about the Challenger's sibling, the cuda, and came to like those too, there was a really nice '70 FK5 cuda I used to see driving around town with its parking lights on all the time, that I thought looked great. I actually came to slightly prefer the cuda. But when I finally turned 16 and was looking at cudas and Challengers for sale, it was a Challenger I ended up with.
I owned a '71 cuda for a while when I was in college and it was cool. I've sort of focused on Challengers in the last 20 years though, since a Challenger was my first car I've sort of decided to stick with them. Not that I would kick a nice cuda out of my garage for dripping oil or anything someday!