TBT…

Original brochures…

If only we could go back in time and bring one of these cars back…

A little over $4000 in 1957, granted that was a lot of money in the day, but dang… First year of the T-10, first year of fuel injection (in the US), first year of the ‘small block’ 283 with 1HP/cu.in.

57 vette

And this is the other one… I’ve always liked the Nomad, especially the ones with the 283.1957 Nomad

I know, I know, if wishes were horses, beggers would be riding, but still… To buy two of these cars today would easily run well over $100,000 for ‘good’ ones.

Comments

TBT… — 21 Comments

  1. I bought a much used Fiat 850 Spider in ’77 for $ 400.00. I kept it for two years but rusting and a well deserved reputation for unreliability meant it had to go. We got $ 400.00 for it and thought we did well.
    I just took a quick cruise on the internet, and if we had repaired the car, and kept it in good running order it would be in the ball park of 10 grand today.
    But I really wish I had bought my friend’s 1966 GTO when he sold it in the seventies. Sigh.

  2. Neighbor had a 2 door Nomad that had the front end removed, the frame bent into a trailer hitch. That was their camper!!

    Had a chance at a 68 Roadrunner for 800, Dad wouldn’t help me buy it. He’d worked a 4 fatality accident a couple months back where one had hit an oak tree sideways.

    Had another chance at a 69? SuperBee, with a spare engine for 500. Might as well have been 5 million.

    Oh well….. Live moves on…..

  3. My two favorites are the ’57 Chevy two door hardtop (no post) and the ’64 Ford Mustang rag tops. Rides I coveted in the day but could not afford. but, still, good memories from both rides (that friends owned.)

  4. Once owned a 1958 Fiat Abarth Zagato (the double bubble one). Reality? It was a toy. My daily driver was a 1984 Chevy Apache panel with just a drivers seat.

    Say the Abarth is “worth” $100k today. The money I spent on it, put in a blue chip stock, would probably be three times that.

  5. My ’68 Dodge Super Bee with the 383 Magnum originally sold for $3,885. A few years ago, they were going for $60K – if you could find one. Sometimes, life just ain’t fair, ya know?

    • Ah the joys of late 60’s horsepower. We had a Fury III three row station wagon that somehow got a 383 Magnum motor at the factory but sold as a 383.. Thing was the fastest wagon in Phoenix when my brother was driving but it only ran well on high-test gas :-).

      We had no idea at the time, my brother got the car and was wrenching on it when they found it had the Magnum motor instead of the base…

  6. If I had a time machine, I’d go back to the 1930’s and bring back a bunch of Colt SAAs, early Winchesters, and maybe a couple of Parkers. It would sure make retirement a lot more pleasant.

    Or, I’d go back about 20 years, buy all the .22LR I could move with a wheelbarrow, and bring it to today.

  7. All- Agreed with ALL of y’all. Ironically, I had a 66 GOAT and sold it for $800 in 1970, when I went in the Navy. Similar car (389 tri-power, 4spd, no power, no air) was $66K when I was looking on the net last weekend.

    Brig- Why does that NOT surprise me? LOL

  8. I have been having the classic car ‘wants’ for a while now. Had managed to put it out of my mind, until today….

  9. It isn’t just the price of those beauties, it is the promise of adventure, the cool of America on display.

    My two brothers and me got into wrenching on cars. By the time I was a half through high school, with my older brother I’d already rebuilt two engines and half way through a third. Most were Mopar but some (redacted US mfg) an even a Sunbeam and Datsun 1600.

    But my younger brother exceeded our efforts. At any give time he owned Challengers, Barracudas, Road Runners, Super Bees. Yes, plural. Not having enough storage room, his cars were kept at friend’s houses, dad’s front lawn, he’d even park them on the street then have to move them every couple of days. The guy was a real motorhead.

    One of many great stories is he had just finished a Challenger with a stroked 383. After a few short test drives he and me took it into town. Returning on the 1 mile drive back to home I coaxed him to go faster, ever faster. We were already doing 120 and he pushed it up to 140 on a two lane highway. The car was as smooth as butter, not a shimmy or shake and still just loping along. I wanted more and tried my earnest to convince him to really open her up. We were doing 160+ when we passed the highway patrol (usually never to be found).

    I said, Don’t slow down, speed up, I got a plan…if we can just get to the turnoff six miles ahead…. Of course the HP was coming after us. We were nearly 180 and HP was catching us! My brother screwed up and took an over pass instead of the underpass I wanted. I said we are caught you dummy so might as well shut her down. We coasted into a parking lot and I went inside to buy some cold beers. I came out to see the HP had his car nose to nose with my brother’s with the hoods popped open. They were carrying on comparing engines. HP did ask if we knew how fast we were going, I said about 170. HP smiled and said over that. He thanked us for the chase and made us promise to not do that again. No ticket.

    The Nomad turns like a DC-3, eventually she’ll come around. While cornering she rolls lee rail down. Fun car though.

  10. Randy- Sorry! 🙂

    R- Yep, you COULD do amazing things with certain small blocks… 355s pushing 800hp without nitrous, and the right gearing would easily get you 150mph, the drawback was always tires…

    • ‘She’s real fine my 409…’ What made her fine was gearing. While other manufactures went after HP, Ford went with gears.

  11. Hey Old NFO’s

    I would like to get a 1971 Torino with the dogdish wheels. I remember that car being young along with the galaxie 500. The surviving examples are real pricy now.

  12. Ron: I had a Datsun 1600, also and like John, a Fiat 850 Spider.
    I remember wrenching on both of them more than driving them.
    There was a Sergeant in the Base Auto Hobby Shop at Shaw AFB that I was friends with who had a Nomad.
    The paint was beautiful deep (22 coats with clear) Candy Apple Red and when he let me take it for pizza, the front wheels came up in second. I never told him that.

  13. I can remember my Dad going to the Chevy in 1968 dealer looking at an Impala. I only had eyes for the Stingray with 4 on the floor and a price tag of $4995. The Impala was $2495 as I recall. We wound up with a Mercury in the end.

  14. GB- Heard of them, never actually SEEN one!

    Mike- Oh yeah… sigh… I at least ended up with a used GTO.