A Short Introduction

Hello,

My name is Kevin from Long Island, New York. I have always loved cars (Especially fast ones!). I never really have been a person to give my full devotion to one manufacturer, but have always have tended to gravitate towards Chevy (I know this is probably an evil word on this website :bounce2 Anyway, my first car was a 1968 camaro SS with a heavily modified 327 and Muncie 4 Speed (Loved that car). I had this car until my sophomore year of college at which my parents told me I had to get it out of their garage; unfortunately I sold the car (I got $4500 for the car...It would be worth a tad more today:shigrin) Well, my next car was a 1993 camaro Z28; I liked the car but it wasn't my 68'. The 1993 camaro was my last "irresponsible" car for many years...starting carreer, dating ($$$), marriage, house, kids.

So, that brings me to the present. This past year I got excited when Chevy reintroduced the Camaro; the looks of the new Camaro stirred up the memories of my 68'. I started doing my research on the new Camaro and found that the car was NOT anything like the Camaros of old. As I read the magazine articles comparing the new Camaro to the competition it was sluggish and heavy (Not a pony car but more of sedan like retirees would drive to play bingo). I had to go back to the drawing board on the whole car scenario; what car would suit my criteria? I knew I wanted a big horsepower engine, preferably supercharged, six speed, a wicked V8 rumble and of course sinister good looks.

After getting over the fact the Camaro was not the car for me, I started to look at corvettes. The only problem with a corvette is that everybody has one; it seems on Long Island (they are a dime a dozen). I wanted something different but it had to be American. It was at this point that I remembered I had driven a car back in 2003 that really had impressed me. It had been during a visit to my wife's grandparents in Clearwater, Florida that I had stopped in at a ford dealership and was tire kicking when a salesman asked me if I would like to take that Terminator I was staring at for a ride. Of course I accepted the offer; I could remember diving into the throttle, as we drove from red light to red light and hearing the whine of the supercharger and the pull of the motor (I was impressed!!).

So, my search was on for the ultimate Terminator. I was looking for a low mileage car with some mods preferably. I found the car in New Jersey where a collector had purchased the car four years earlier from the original owner. the car had 4800 miles on it and was showroom new. The original owner happened to be Roger Sorel of Shelby (SAI). Roger had modded the car himself and had it tuned by Lou Manzo of Tasca Ford. Well, needless to say with the condition of the car and the history, I bought the car right then and there. Funny thing though, when I bought the car and uttered the words sold I vaguely remembered a conversation I had had with my wife before I left to go look at the car, "You're not buying the car right!! Um, No honey, I am just looking." Remembering this small and at that moment insignificant earlier conversation, I knew when I got home this topic would not be insignificant and I had to think fast (Experienced car guys have this hurtle in check but I was a rookie!!) Well, needless to say it was two weeks of hell at home, but with all wounds, they heel over time. My wife is great and I respect her very much, but when it comes to cars, motorcycles, etc. you just have to stand your ground as a man! She still says I got off easy with the car purchase; at times I am not so sure (Honey-Do lists seem to have doubled!!)

Regardless of all the issues surrounding the purchase of the car, I truly love the car. And this spring, I actually got to meet Roger Sorel (Original owner) and talk cars. He is a really cool guy and an ultimate car guy. I know my next hot rod is going to be a Mustang 5.0 built by Shelby in Las Vegas. As I stated earlier in this post, I once was more of a Chevy guy, but since I started really researching and learning more about the newer Mustangs, I have become very impressed with Ford.