Age of Forum Members

[Royce]

I am 61. My first car was a 63 boxtop with a broken 352 handed down from my parents. My brother and i spent the summer in our first motor change. Outside on the grass with a bottle jack and wood blocks. He promptly hit a bridge with it. I have had numerous 73-76 pickups with 360s and 390s. most recently a 76 F-350 that I converted to a dually and built a 416 for towing. A 63 G code Gal fastback with a  4 speed bench seat.. I restored a 63 M code bird and drove it for about 10 yr. Built a 428 with some of the first Edelbrock heads and was the first FE to hit 500 hp on the R&R dyno with pump gas. That was slated for a Cobra kit car that never happened.

 Alas i am currently FE-less, as my interest has turned to earlier more obscure Ford engines:  MELS, Y Blocks, and Lincoln Y blocks, with a flathead V-12 Lincoln thrown in for good measure. The Cammer is still on my bucket list of engines to own, along with a Boss 9. Always have a warm spot for FEs

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[57 lima bean]

"on the grass with a bottle of jack" You Y and MEL guy's are something.

[Drew Pojedinec]

Well except for the peak itself, my guess is that is the unique age of guys still working too hard to have time for the internet and too old to want to know how LOL

Well, I think it's got a lot to do with finances as well.  Until I hit 30 years old I simply wasn't situated to own a vehicle that wasn't a daily driver.

[Rory428]

I turn 58 next week, 1973 was the year I hit 16 and got my drivers license.My first car was a 57 Ford Sedan Delivery, with a tired 272 Y block and 3 speed manual., being a broke 16 year old, it made perfect sense to swap on a 4 barrel intake from a 57 312, and put dual exhaust on a worn out, oil burning 272, but it did hit mid 17s at 78 MPH back at Mission Raceway! In 76, I bought a 70 Mustang "sportsroof" (fastback non Mach 1) from a local musclecar lot for $2100. It was Grabber orange, black interior, M code 351Cleveland 4 barrel FMX, with a Shaker scoop, rear spoiler, fold down rear seat, ran 14.7 @ 94 MPH bose stock with 3.25 open rear end, with Cyclone headers, welded to the factory pipes and mufflers, and a Ford/Holley 600 from a 66 Fairlane GTa, it ran a best of 14.2@99 MPH. Around that same time, I was having a local Ford Super Stock racer building me a 390 that was origionally going to go in another 57 Sedan Delivery, but when a buddy hurt the 390 in his 66 Fairlane GTA, I swapped a 57 Ford driver (272 3 speed, paid 200 bucks for it) for the non running Fairlane. In 1977, my 66 Fairlane was running mid 12s at 110 MPH, which hooked me on FEs, and in random order, lead to me owning 2 R code 428 CJ 69 Mach 1s (1 auto, 1 4 speed), 1 70 R code 4 speed Mach 1, 2 69 Fairlane Cobra fastbacks, a 67 Mercury M100 shortbox fleetside (352 auto), 76 F350 ramp truck 360, then 390 4 speed, owned 26 years). A few cars that were not available with FEs got them, in 78 the 390 from the Fairlane went into my 64 Falcon 2door sedan, my "other" 57 Sedan Delivery got a 360 from a buddys 72 F250, and in 1986, I bought my 78 Fairmont sedan, which has been FE powered since early 1988 (1 390, 5 or 6 428s, and the current 427 w 428 crank.WhenI got my driver license in 73, the car lots and classified ads were full of cheap used late model Mustangs, Fairlanes etc, yeah, the Musclecar era was dead by 73, but I couldnt afford a new car than anyhow.Back in the mid 70s, Boss 302 Mustangs were $2000-2500, 428CJs were about the same, real bargains were available in used MoPars, 340 Darts and Dusters were EVERYWHERE for 800-1500 bucks, 383 Road Runners not much more, a buddy turned down a 69 426 Hemi 4 speed Road runner for 2500, WITH the Hemi freshly rebuilt! Pretty good time to be a budding car freak, although the horrible Disco music experiance was on the horizion, luckily I had plenty of Beach Boys, Guess Who, Jan & Dean, and other 60s 8 track tapes to keep my state of the art Craig Powerplay tape deck well fed. Certainly no Donna Summer, Bee Gees, or Village People music was allowed in MY cars! I gotta say though, the last few years, the pages of the calander sure seem to turn over a whole lot faster than they used too! Seem to go to a lot more funerals than weddings these days.

[sjmodels]

Old enough to know better but to young to resist! 67 and new to FE's mostly small blocks in my past.