At the time I bought this I was still driving my '74 Monte Carlo, and though it was a nice car, I was yearning to shake off the "Luxo-cruiser" image and get back to a true muscle car.
I spotted this in the "Bargain News" and it called to me. It appeared to have all the ingredients necessary and was reasonably priced to boot!
That weekend, accompanied by like-minded friends, some tools, and some cash, I headed for Hartford.  The car was owned by a fellow who had apparently outgrown the hot rod scene and it was taking up space in his Dad's garage.  He had bought it from his dad while in high school and removed the small stock aluminum v-8, 2 speed auto, and highway gears and replaced them with a "rebuilt" Pontiac 389 with a quadrajet and stock cast iron intake, water injection, electronic ignition,  Crane cam, headers, turbo 400 w/shift kit, stall converter, 4.11 posi rear held in place by ladder bars, and finished it off with a white vinyl bucket seated interior from a '67 GTO (including the door panels nicely marked with "6.5 liter" emblems!).  He had also installed 3" lift drag springs all the way around (and coil over shocks) , full gauges, Hurst floor shifter, mag wheels with big old bias ply tires, new floors and trunk metal, and a four core radiator.  Even a fire extinguisher between the front seats!  Pretty much everything I would have dreamed of doing myself.
At this point we were all pretty much sure it was going home with us.  None the less, a test drive was in order.  I guess he didn't think we were experienced enough, so he drove.  At first I didn't understand that..........................
He started the car...there it was, the big thumpy, lumpy, tell-tale "cam sound".  A mere hint of what was to come.   He cautiously feathered the gas and coaxed the car out of the narrow driveway and lined it up ever so carefully in the street.  It was kind of the way a jockey might ease an overly spirited thoroughbred into the starting gate.  It struck me as rather strange for an automatic......
Then we started to roll down the block...thump thump, lurch lurch, thump thump.....rolled through the stop sign and started down the next not quite as narrow street.  Suddenly there was a loud roar and we were instantly flattened to our seats......the car seemed to be trying to paw at the pavement, looking for a spot that had traction, much like I imagine I would do on the face of a cliff if I lost my footing briefly.  No sooner did it find something to grab, and there was another loud tortured scream from the tires (he had shifted) and we were pressed further into the seats and in what seemed like an instant he shifted again with similar results and then jumped off the gas and casually coasted to the stop sign.  This had all taken just a few seconds, and was done in a very short block.  Little wisps of tire smoke found their way into the interior and floated gently past us.   I turned and looked at my friends in the back seat and they were just as I was....flushed, grinning uncontrollably from ear to ear, and their eyes were screaming "buy it!".  We rolled back around the block to his driveway......thump thump....lurch lurch....thump thump.....pulled in and shut off the engine.
To think, we had all been joking and muttering earlier about the seemingly silly front plate that said "Road Warrior" (apparently designed to intimidate the fellow ahead of him and solicit a race) followed up by the rear CT vanity plate which read "No Dice"(kind of an "insult to injury thing" after blowing the victim's doors off and certainly smacked of confidence, if not arrogance).  Now I understood.
 My hand was already on my wallet as I staggered on numb and shaky legs from the car.  His asking price had been $2000 even, and I wasn't going to argue the point.  He seemed surprised.  He then headed to the garage and starting dragging boxes of parts into the driveway and loading them in the trunk.....full set of brakes, new in the box L-88 hood scoop, assorted brackets, accessories, belts, a transmission temperature gauge, two tachometers, and so on.  Even the original tiny (but pristine) radiator.  I was almost apologetic as I handed him the cash.  I could certainly imagine the effort he'd put into this car and the reputation it must have earned him on the streets of the city in "stop light to stop light" warfare, and I was handing him a mere pittance to take it away forever.