The best vehicle I ever owned came into my life in August of 1970. I named it The Green Meanie. It was painted forest green with white hood stripes. It was “mean” only if you were another muscle car at a stop light… because when the light turned the color of my car you were about to smell some rubber burning and have your lunch promptly handed to you.
At this point I should shift into reverse for a little background. If you are a 22-year old kid fresh out of college in the 70’s with a little money in your pocket, hormones and horsepower will find you. You want fast, you want excitement, and you want to feel like that horse running through the pasture at full tilt for no apparent reason. A muscle car is the answer.
Chevrolet automotive engineers decided to build the King Kong of the Automotive World for 1970. Some car companies, car divisions were playing the muscle car game with names like “Hemi”, “Thunderbolt” and “GTO”. The boys at GM Chevrolet decided to take the gloves off and flat out blow away the competition. That car was the 1970 Super Sport Chevelle with the 454 cubic inch, 450 horsepower engine.
I had to have one. I needed to flex some muscle. By day I was a mild-mannered algebra teacher, by night (actually by about 3:30 pm) I was a tire-peeling, gear-grabber that wanted to hear that throaty roar from under the hood. And The Green Meanie could do some roaring! Think about when you were at the zoo and that old male lion decided to let those gawking at him know who was the The King of Beasts. Is that hair standing on your arm? If you were a passenger in my Chevelle, the best advice for you was to buckle up and check your underwear later. My best car would do that to me and I was the driver! It had zero cup holders, the cheap radio (AM only), and no air conditioning. “What, no air conditioning in south Florida?”, Dad would say. Indeed, the air condition option pulled about 15 horsepower and I would tell him “Pops, I’d rather be too warm and fast than comfy and last!” I sold The Meanie about 5 years later, fell in love, bought a 4-door sedan, and reluctantly passed from my youth. If you have a restored Green Meanie, or a Red, or even a Blue Meanie today you have a car that’s worth about $100,000! I have more than that… a 100,000 memories!