This Weekend's Question: Your First Street Car  

1971 Monte Carlo - Bought in April 1977  which gave me 4 months to do some stuff before I was old enough to get my NJ license in August.  Bought it for $1600 from a private owner on Davidson Mill Rd in South Brunswick NJ..  350ci, 2bl... Car was completely stock, and was a real pretty blue with a black vinyl roof.  It had stock wheels & hubcaps when I bought it.  I wasn't worried about going anywhere fast... but just worried about looking cool going everywhere!

I put air shocks on it, dual exhaust, and Appliance wheels, G 60's in the back and 70's in the front.... all before I could get my license, and then parked it on my front lawn so all the kids riding the bus could see it (Wasn't being too obvious, right?)....

Then when it came time to get my license, I put the stock skinny tires with wheels with the stock hubcaps back on it, and let some of the air out of the air shocks, so it once again looked like some old guy's Monte, so that the guys at DMV wouldn't give me a hard time when I went for my behind the wheel driver's test.  It worked... I passed, and as soon as I got home, the cool tires and wheels went back on, and the back end was once again raised to just the right height with a few lbs of air.

The car really put me on the map....  Felt like my popularity increased overnight, as did my dating prospects!  (Yea... I can admit it... it was the car....)

This one is not my car (below) but this is the exact blue and black vinyl roof combo that mine had:

What happened to it?......  Unfortunately, the car got totaled when a guy crossed lanes on Hardenburg Ln in East Brunswick (still remember... it was 11/24/79) and hit the left front pretty much head on.  The Monte did it's job as all 3 of us in the front seat of the Monte (none of us were wearing seat belts back then) got out pretty much with very minor injuries all things considered.  

Always thought I'd get another Monte just like it at some point in life, but never did... But the '70 - '72 Monte's are still probably my all time favorite cars.