Hello,
There has been some discussion on the VIN of the hemicuda Nicolas Cage owned. It is BS23R0B184309. I know because I owned this car from 1978 to 1993.
I bought this car for $4000 and it had 22,000 miles on it. Sweet ride & never been beat on the street!! 4:10 Dana & 4 speed really worked well.
Mick
Welcome to the site from Michigan! Sounds like a really cool car! Pictures? :veryexcited:
Yes, I did buy that car when I lived in Fargo, ND. It was originally sold by Trenda Motors in Grand Forks ND. I was the 5th owner of the car and have the complete list of prvious owners. When I bought the car it had slicks on it. The previous owner raced it.
One of the first things I did was remove the original trans and engine and stored it. I had another hemi and 4 speed that I put in. I was afraid of damaging the numbers matching stuff. I used the doner engine for the entire time i had the car right up before I sold it in 1993.
One other interesting fact on this car: when I bought it it had white interior. I found out one of the previous ownwers swapped it out with another guy with a T/A Cuda. When I sold it it had the white interior. I sold it to a guy in New Jersey and about a year later he sold it to a Guy in Maryland who called me asking questions about the car's past. He told me he was going to make a 100 point restoration on it.
Boy.....do I wish I had that car today!
Mick
Pictures of Cage Cuda from the early 90's
More pic's
sweet cuda from back in the days :)
Good looking car.
Quote from: Cuda Cody on March 12, 2018, 11:12:57 AM
Welcome to the site @micklan (https://forum.e-bodies.org/mlist/micklan_1551) :welcome: Tell us more about the Cuda. Did you really buy a Hemi cuda for $4000 in 1978? :bigmoney:
I also had an opportunity to buy a 1970 TX9 (Black Velvet) 4 spd with 4.10 Hemi Cuda in the early 80's for $6000 CDN but didn't have a place to store it as I already had my AAR and didn't want to part with it.
It didn't have the numbers matching block in it at the time, but I knew who had the block and he would have sold it to me....
Also could have bought a 1970 TA, numbers matching FT6 (Burnt Tan) Automatic with Original Paint in the early 80's for $5500 CDN....
That would have been an awesome stable of E-Bodies.... :banana: :banana:
If only we knew how collectible these cars would become..... :bricks:
Sure wish I would have bought them...... :Thud: :Thud: :Thud:
Quote from: micklan on March 12, 2018, 10:47:10 AM
Hello,
There has been some discussion on the VIN of the hemicuda Nicolas Cage owned. It is BS23R0B184309. I know because I owned this car from 1978 to 1993.
I bought this car for $4000 and it had 22,000 miles on it. Sweet ride & never been beat on the street!! 4:10 Dana & 4 speed really worked well.
Mick
:welcome: from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada :canada:
You have found your E-Body home, the best E-Body site in the world...
Very nice looking car.............
:welcome: From central New York! :wave:
Welcome from New Jersey
Cool story about the Cage Cuda
:twothumbsup:
Welcome from Sylmar, CA
Welcome from CO! What a great car with a great history!
Welcome from Colorado, had to be tough to sell that car
:wave: Welcome from Ontario :canada: . Ya know what they say, hindsight is 20/20.
Welcome Mick , awesome car to own :twothumbsup:
Some of our younger members goggle at our not buying that 70 or 71 Hemi Ebody for $5 or 6000, but you've got to remember that those cars were $5500 to $6000 brand new back in the day and in '71, I was making $2.oo per hour or $80 per week before taxes and that was also when the gas crunch hit and you could 've bought those cars a hell of a lot cheaper , then!!Hindsight is always 20/20, eh? :crying:
I remember when I tried to get a $4000 loan to buy the hemicuda, the banker who didn't know the difference between a slant 6 and the hemi, laughed at me. He said no loan because the car was just a 70 plymouth and only worth $1800 according to a value guide book he had. I had to send my Father down to the bank to convince the guy on what the car was worth. Back then you could buy a new car for just a little more money. This car I was trying to get a loan for was 8 years old in 1978. The banker finally gave me a loan provided we gave him collateral worth the same amount. I think my dad had to give him the title to his pickup until the loan was paid off. Muscle cars were plentiful back in the late 70's because of the gas price surge. No one wanted to pay $5 everyday to go back and forth to work when you were making $3.25 an hour. People were selling those cars that got 10 miles per gallon for cheap, and buying 4 cylinder cars.
I remember buying a running 426 Hemi engine with carbs and exhaust for $2000 because the owner of the hemicar it came out of wanted to put a 318 in it for better milage. I know it is hard to believe but it is true.
I used the hemicuda as a daily driver because it was the only car I had, and I really liked it. Gas was 65 cents per gallon for 98 octane premium and i only lived two blocks from work. When saturday night came around I always had a few friends who would chip in on the gas so we could street race the hemi. I took the 'hemicuda' emblems off the shaker hood scoop (because no one wanted to go up against it) and told people before the race that it had a 383 'with a 4 barrel' so i could get them to race. Back then any Camaro 350 owner 'knew' they coud beat a mopar 383. By the time I shifted out of 2nd gear they were 5 car lengths back.
The good old days.....I wish I had a time machine!
Mick
Great story, thanks for sharing.
I too had the chance to buy a similar car in 1977 here in Michigan.
A co-worker had a friend selling his fathers 1970 Black Hemi 4speed 20k mi. no Rust.
They would not go less than $6k - at the time I told him he was nuts and way too high!
At the time I had a 69 GTO Conv worth half that price ( was my argument )
I too remember the loan thing... have went to a bank, also a credit union asking for $3k loan
( offering up Titles to 6 cars worth 10 - 12k ) both had said - Nope - we are not
in the auto business. :alan2cents:
Wow what a sweet Cuda.. I am getting an inferiority complex with my 340/4 speed '73...
There were two that got away from me back in the day.. a pristine 340 4 speed for $1500, I passed on it because I was able to get a '70 Cobra Torino for $1000 as my first car in 1985.. Not that it mattered either way, three years of abuse and neglect and the car was hammered.
I had a chance at a 440 6 pack charger and just didn't have any place to keep it while living in an apartment. Guy wanted $2000 for it in 1996. It was a rough survivor, complete, in-tact, all there, but in need of restoration work. I went back for it three years later when I got my house and the car was long gone.