That cuda is sweet!
When I was in college back in the early 80s and was working 2 part time jobs, I had my T/A and a '79 Bronco, both owned free and clear, and some money in the bank. I decided I really wanted to find a hemi cuda or Challenger.
Between school and work, I didn't have a ton of time to be running all over the country looking at cars so I limited my search to places I could drive to and back to look at a car, in one day. During the time I was looking, only one car turned up in that traveling distance, a '70 hemi Challenger north of Milwaukee WI, IIRC, it was February of '82, and the guy was asking "best offer".
I drove up there in my Bronco to see the car. It was B5 blue, blue interior, automatic, and a shaker! The paint job was not high quality, had a few small rust spots and a cracked dash, but still decent. When I got there, the guy walks out of the house and starts eyeing my Bronco, and says, "you have the ultimate winter cruiser! Maybe we can work up a trade??". I'm like, no way, not my Bronco!
I took the car for a test drive, it ran good. I asked him if he had any offers, he said $4500. I said I could go $5000. He claimed he had $6000 in it. I drove home sort of worried he would accept my offer, I'm thinking I'm going to have to put over $2000 in it if I buy it, "restoring" it, new paint, dash etc.
Never heard from him again, so my worries were unfounded I guess.
Years later I saw a nice restored B5 shaker hemi Challenger at a local show. I mentioned that online, and the late Daniel Banker, who ran a shaker registry, replied that from the facts in my story of the WI car 20 years earlier, he thought it was probably the same car.
I never did find a hemi ebody I could afford, it still is a dream and a bucket list item I may or may not ever be able to fulfill. That car might have been my only chance to.
Even though there wasn't a direct offer made, I will always wonder if I had been willing to trade my Ford, if a good deal could have been worked out for that car. In my area, people had bought 4x4's like crazy during our terrible winters of 79 and 80, and when gas prices jumped several years later, they were dumping them cheap, that is how I ended up with my 2 year old truck for less than half what sticker was. If I had traded mine for the hemi, I could have quickly scored another Bronco locally for a good price I'm sure. I may have been stuck driving the hemi or the T/A to work and school in the snow and salt until I found another truck however.
Kept my Bronco for another 10 years and it was rotting away when I sold it for $900.
Woulda, coulda, shoulda!
