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1966 was a year of big changes in automotive styling, and Chevrolet’s iconic Chevelle brand was certainly no exception. FoMoCo had axed the boxy Fairlane look for good, finally putting that car on a sleek new platform. Even the Mopar camp had taken their somewhat bizarre Coronet and Belvedere line to new eye-catching levels by doing some serious streamlining. Yes, if you were around in ’66, you were eyewitness to a dramatically altered automotive landscape - and I mean that in a good way!

While someone might feel justifiably proud to own one ultra-rare, vintage muscle car, how would you feel if you owned a pair of them? Twice as proud? Actually, John Daniels has even stronger personal feelings about his two ’65 Z16s, but before touching on that aspect, we should cover a bit of history about this limited run of special Chevelles.

Only a couple hundred were ever built at Chevy’s Kansas City factory (plus one or two prototypes made at the Baltimore plant, depending on which historical source you check). Besides this run of hardtop coupes, there was even a convertible built for Chevy General Manager Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen. It was reportedly later destroyed. (We can imagine that Chevy collectors groan inwardly when thinking about at the tragic loss of this solo soft-top).

“I don’t know how you folks keep finding them like this!” That’s an exact quote from a well-meaning non-car person trying to compliment us on one of our cars we’d spent a bundle on and sweat blood over for years. The ’64 Chevelle SS in the pictures that we all call Midnight was anything but “simply a lucky find.” Three people, Richard, Brad, and Chris were primarily responsible, but their families had to tolerate their devotion to it, and in many cases get in and help significantly.

Richard was the original owner and had ordered it new. He’s also the poor guy who had to wait six weeks after the car was built before he could take delivery. It was still sitting at the Assembly Plant (Baltimore) while a new-car delivery driver strike was being resolved.

“Beautifully proportioned to the classic Ford look” is how the ads of the day described the 1961 Galaxie. Apparently they were right on the mark as the new styling received a design award for “Functional expression of beauty” from the Centro Per L’Alta Italiana.

Taking a step back from the radical look of their 1960 model, Ford’s stylists abandoned the scalloped grille and hood for a concave grille mounting four horizontal headlamps for the 1961 Galaxie line. 1960’s slab shaped sides gave way to a more rounded look in 1961 and Fords trademark large round tail lights returned. Fins made their final appearance on the new Fords and their proportions further complemented the car’s classic lines.

1963 was a good year. Warren and I both graduated from high school in central Illinois. Beautiful cars with big engines were the epitome of having it made. Unfortunately, continuing education took priority for us so owning one of those wild machines would have to wait.

Now that we have our own businesses in Florida, we can afford to fulfill the desires of owning these beautiful cars. Over the years we have owned, restored and sold many beautiful classic cars. Warren wants to collect and keep his favorite cars from the year of our high school graduation.

1969 Camaro SS. We always cherish special times in our lives forever. If we ever get the chance to relive those times it is, like the commercial says, priceless. Such is the case with this old warrior, an exactly restored drag racing Camaro from 1969 and the guys who had built and raced it

Without ever touching a city street, this 1969 Camaro went straight from Berger Chevrolet in Grand Rapids, Michigan into drag racer Dick Arons’ shop in Detroit. There it was transformed into a dedicated NHRA Super Stock/E class drag racing car and run successfully for the 1969 NHRA season throughout the USA and Canada. By December 1969, with its year in the limelight over, this Camaro went into private ownership.