John, welcome! You'll hit 10 fast by just commenting on a few other threads - pretty much like what I did. Crusader101, I gotta ask, does your screen name have anything to do with the F-8U?
While I appreciate the car show section of the hobby, it's not really my thing. I'm more of a driving kinda guy, although I'll admit I haven't driven the Buick very much the past 10 years. I've got other cars I've been spending a lot of time in and should really sell the Wildcat to someone who would use it more and take it out to cruises and shows for people to see.
I'm a member of a bunch of car forums and spend too much time on them! LOL It's easy to spend a couple hours surfing around the various sites to see whats going on. This is post 6, I'm getting there! Pretty soon I'll be a real member! LOL Pics will follow
Good to see that post count ^^^^:beers2: Welcome to the home of the WOTS (Wildcat Owners Team) I am looking forward to seeing those bucket seats, what a cool option!
Please repost the story. It might take a while, but I love reading about the history behind the cars. :TU:
A young man and his dad go to the dealer and order 2 cars. The Wildcat for the son and big Buick for the dad. They own a local oil company. The son wants the cool stuff so he orders all the performance stuff he wants. He's a real picky kid and won't even go into a mall and leave the car unattended, so a friend would have to sit in the car and wait. he doesn't drive it in inclement weather because he can use a truck from work or whatever. The car stays inside most of the time. He installs a tach on the column and an 8 track under the dash and an alarm system. Then he joins the Air Force so the car is rarely used for a few years. He gets out and uses the car to date his future wife, get married, honeymoon etc. Then the wife drives the car for a while. He buys the wife a house and a different car and the Wildcat gets the garage. He waxes it and maintains it, but doesn't use it much. Then waxes and waxes and waxes taking it out a couple times a year. The wife wants the garage but he says NO, its for the Buick. So her car and his other vehicle stay outside. Kids are born and the car gets used even less coming out only once a year to go to a local show in his town. Meanwhile I meet him because he's delivering kerosene to my kerosene heater store (early 80's). He spots the 66 Mustang I was using as a DD at the time and says one day "I have an old car" This is how the conversation went What kind of car? Wildcat What year? 70 2 dr? yes 455???? yes 4 barrel? nod Posi? nod Duals? yes You know what the car is? Yes, I like the Wildcats! The last year with that sloped back is nice. Bring it over sometime when you have it out. Oh, I don't drive it very often. Want to sell it? Naw Now to set the picture this guy shows up every day to deliver in the middle of the crappiest new england winters on sand and slush covered roads with an oil truck that looks like it just came out of a detail shop. It was very rarely ever dirty, like he cleaned at the end of every day and it stayed in the garage over night. So for about 6-7 years or more I inquire about the car occasionally. In the beginning it was "no I only took it out once this summer". Then "no I didn't take it out". Then "no it hasn't been out and wifey wants the garage" Meanwhile his oil truck is now like 15 years old and still looks almost new! And is never dirty. Over the years we discussed his car several times and he related the purchase and history of the car and knowing him I knew it had to be pretty nice. So I continue inquireing once a year. Apparently his wife really wanted the garage as time went by and meanwhile he saw I took nice care of my old hot rods. One year he said "come over and look at the car to see if you want it". I told him how much I could afford so he wouldn't be offended and he said "ok, come look at it". I told him I didn't need to see it knowing him and what the car was, so I would just come pick it up the next day. see next post
So I arrive at his house and I say "lets just get the paperwork done I'll check out the car afterward". Gotta remember, I know him well by this point and he's described the cars life in detail over the years. Then we go to the garage. There's nothing in the garage but the Wildcat, and it's a 2 car garage! I'm talking nothing! No kids bikes, lawnmowers, garden tools! Nothing. There should have been a halo of light and a choir when he opened the door! Not a speck of dust or fingerprint on the car! Not even a shoe mark on the floor mats! There was barely any tire marks on the garage floor even. Like he just bought the house and pulled the car in and parked it. They had 2 nice Mercedes out in the driveway! While the Buick got the whole garage to itself. For years and years no one was allowed near it. He'd built a shed out back for all the garden tools bikes etc just so no one would have to go in the garage! So he let me use his plates for the weekend. I drove straight to a cruise night! LOL People came right up, even though it was a couple towns away from where he lived saying how they knew the car from years earlier and gave me their stories of how picky he was with the car. Some of them knew more than I did about the car! A couple were noticably irritated that I bought the car and told me so. I've had the car quite a while now, some summers I drove it regularly on nice days and other years it barely moved. I installed a 2 1/2" exhaust on it several years back and had it custom bent because the original setup wasn't available. Other than that it got tires or whatever it needed as parts deteriorated. I've kept it the way he had it, and when I bought it I told him he was welcome to come take it for a drive anytime. Just let me know and I'd have it ready and waiting. He came and drove it a few times over the years, really liked the sound of the bigger exhaust. Now I've moved to FL so I'm a long way from him. One time, a buddys car wasn't ready for a track rental day so we took out the Buick, changed the oil, filled it with leaded race gas and ran it at the strip. Car hadn't been out in a year or two. Since we had 2 of my cars we swaped driving both of them a couple times. No tune or anything at all and didn't even flip the air cleaner lid. Ran 15 flat. pics below hopefully, my post count should be high enough
Glad that you took the time to rewrite the story,that's a good one.The car looks great,'70 is my favorite Cat.Welcome to the board.
"There should have been a halo of light and a choir when he opened the door." That is a great story! The car looks great going down the track ... I'd love to witness that sometime. :beer
John, don't know what your profession is, but you could be an author! Couldn't wait to get to the end of the story. That car deserves a nick name, got one yet?:TU:
WOW!! Now that's quite a story and history of a CAT!! Man.. she looks great! Thanks for taking the time to re write the story!! :TU: Welcome to the Wild World of WOT
Welcome John, I grew up with a buddy and his dad had a 2 door 455 wildcat. What an awesome car. Get your posts up so we can see some pics.
