My Hometown Trans Am E bodies all accounted for!

[JH27N0B]

Back in the late 70s when I was in High School, as I got closer to 16 and my drivers license, I had decided I wanted an E body for my first car.  As I read up on E bodies I learned about the Challenger T/A and AAR cuda and thought those to be the best. I only saw pictures of them in magazines though.
One day in 1977 or maybe 1978 I was out working on my mom's Pinto in our driveway when lo and behold a red with white vinyl top T/A ambled down my street and parked in front of my friends house a block down.
I went and got my bike out of the garage and rode down there to admire it.  It belonged to a my friends older brothers friend.
After I got my license I searched and after months of watching the ads found a T/A I could afford, it was red, so then there were 2 red T/As running around my town!
I also saw a purple cuda with an AAR hood and spoiler driving around my town, and eventually met its owner Jim. It was a real AAR.  By 1980 or 81 Jim had the car repainted and put the stripes back on it and rally wheels to replace the mags it had.
I lost track of Jim and the AAR in the early 80s. by sometime in the 80s I didn't see the other red T/A again.
At a show in the mid 90s I saw a Challenger convertible on display and recognized the name as being the owner of that red T/A.  I introduced myself and found he still had the car but it needed restoration, as did mine! The owners name is Scott and we ran into each other often at shows after that.  One day we started talking about Jims AAR.  Scott became a fireman in our hometown and he said one day there was a small fire at Jims parent house, which was vacant, and the AAR was still in the garage.  Also he knew that Jim had some problems and had ended up in trouble with the law.
In July I was at our areas big Mopar show in Belvedere and saw a purple AAR I didn't recognize, but I didn't get a chance to talk to the owners.
Last night I went to a cruise in my town and there it was again!  This time I got to talk to the owner, I mentioned Jims AAR in the late 70s and the owner Mike said this is that car!  Mike owned it before Jim and had to sell it, and his kids somehow tracked it down a few years ago, and they had it restored to look like it looked when he owned it in the mid 70s!
I am pretty excited to find that all 3 of these cars from my youth are alive and well and in my area!

Heres a video of the cuda at the restoration shop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAimqLSNIeE

[JH27N0B]

Here is Scott's T/A at a local cruise earlier this summer.  Scott hated the white vinyl top and removed it not long after getting his car, so I am one of the few who remembers seeing it with the top!
Scott's car gained some notoriety in the early 80s when Monogram models, which was local to our area one suburb south, borrowed his car to use in developing their excellent Challenger T/A model.  The model's decal sheet even included his Illinois license plate at that time, SAS 392.

[JH27N0B]

And here is my car, which I restored to sort of a trailer queen but don't have a trailer.  It would be cool if we could get all 3 cars together sometime.
From my youth I also remember a stock burnt orange cuda who always drove with his parking lights on, and looked really cool, and an orange with A12 style hood scoop and mags 440 six pack 70 Challenger R/T.  The Challenger was owned by a guy I want to say his name was Mark Vince, and there was a picture of his car maybe around 80 or 81 that he sent in to the SIAC newsletter, and at the time he was in New Mexico.  If anyone knows of either of those 2 cars that were in Glenview Illinois in the mid to late 70s let me know!

[Jay Bee]

Wow, what awesome cool stories. Thanks for taking the time to share.

[JH27N0B]

Here's an article on Scott's car that was in Muscle Car Review before that mag went defunct.
https://www.motortrend.com/features/denied-test-drive-bought-1970-dodge-challenger-ta-anyway-40-years-ago/
And one on mine
https://www.dodgegarage.com/news/article/lifestyle/2018/12/long-term-relationships-the-one-that-didnt-get-away-chapter-1.html

[70 Top Banana]

Good story and pretty amazing all the cars stayed local. I have a T/A. Has a few gremlins but we are working on them

[Skdmark]

@JH27N0B
Not far from Glenview, from the 80s and into at least the early 90s there was a Go Mango TA at Milwaukee and Albion between St. Adalberts cemetery and Superdawg. It was owned by a guy whose son I went to high school with. Always wondered where it is now.

[JH27N0B]

I never saw that one though I used to head down that way from time to time to go to Superdawg and the Guitar Center that was near there.
However, believe it or not there is an orange T/A sitting chained down in a driveway not far from me in Des Plaines.
I've been too lazy to go look for it but Ryan @TheAutoArchaeologist has pictures of it.
I wonder if by chance it's the same car?
Speaking of small worlds and cars still owned by the same owner decades later, back in the early 80s I was driving through Des Plaines in my T/A and a guy flagged me down and asked if I'd be interested in buying a set of window louvers for my car.  I was, so went to his house on the far northwest side of Chicago to get them.  He was restoring a hemi cuda he'd bought that had a 383 in it when he bought it. He'd got the louvers for his project not realizing Challenger and cuda louvers are different.
I was telling that story to Ryan and Ryan said he knew the guy, he still has the hemi cuda, and Ryan believe it or not has its #s block, which for some reason the guy isn't interested in buying.

[TheAutoArchaeologist]

I never saw that one though I used to head down that way from time to time to go to Superdawg and the Guitar Center that was near there.
However, believe it or not there is an orange T/A sitting chained down in a driveway not far from me in Des Plaines.
I've been too lazy to go look for it but Ryan @TheAutoArchaeologist has pictures of it.
I wonder if by chance it's the same car?
Speaking of small worlds and cars still owned by the same owner decades later, back in the early 80s I was driving through Des Plaines in my T/A and a guy flagged me down and asked if I'd be interested in buying a set of window louvers for my car.  I was, so went to his house on the far northwest side of Chicago to get them.  He was restoring a hemi cuda he'd bought that had a 383 in it when he bought it. He'd got the louvers for his project not realizing Challenger and cuda louvers are different.
I was telling that story to Ryan and Ryan said he knew the guy, he still has the hemi cuda, and Ryan believe it or not has its #s block, which for some reason the guy isn't interested in buying.

You mean this one?



And the guy does want my Hemi 'Cuda block and transmission.  But I want the car, my Dad bought it new off the showroom floor in 1970.



Ryan

[blown motor]

So many cool stories out there. Thanks for sharing.