My brother Edmund wanted to by a super car for his 17th birthday in August. We lived in New Orleans and everyone in the neighborhood had muscle cars. There were Fairlane GTA’s Comet Cyclone’s and a good friend of his just bought a 1967 GTO. He was leaning toward the Pontiac, but I was a NASCAR fan from the age of 11 and Richard Petty was on a hot streak in ’67 with the GTX, so I convinced him to look at the Plymouth. I remember driving with him his ‘61 Corvair Monza around town to all the dealers looking for a GTX.

This was in late July and most were already sold. Can you imagine what they must have thought when a 13 and a 16 year old came in asking if they had any GTX’s. We went to about three dealers that day and finally we stopped at Howard Motors. The salesman took us seriously and told us that he may be able to locate one. He came back into the showroom and said that he had found one in Baton Rouge about eighty miles away. We asked the color and options. He said that they had a white/copper four speed car with an AM radio and center seat. No power steering, brakes, AC or anything. To us that was the car. Edmund gave them $700 cash he had saved for the down payment and bought it sight unseen.

Of course it had to be purchased in our mothers name so on Monday July 31, 1967 we took the St. Charles streetcar to Howard Motors to pick up the GTX. While my mother and brother took care of the paper work, I went to the new car get ready area to see the GTX for the first time. The porters were washing it and it was sitting there with that big lumpy idle, water splashing off the twin angle cut exhaust tips. When all the paper work was done the sales manger took us for the first ride. With him behind the wheel, I can remember his words. “This is a very powerful car and it is like a loaded gun, it can kill you or someone else.” I guess he felt a little uneasy selling it to someone so young.

We got home with it and it made all the new car sounds. The exhaust was making that tink, tink, tink noise when it cooled off. My bother could not wait until 500 miles rolled by, the break in period. After that he raced it every time he could, but the car was only on the drag strip once in its life. Those 7-75x 14 Goodyears really took a beating. I think they only lasted about six months. When I was a senior in high school my brother let me drive it to school everyday.

In 1973, I restored the GTX. I repainted it white, and had the engine rebuilt. A few years later, around 1977, I repainted it blue added the white stripes and did the interior in black. It was showed it at the World of Wheels in New Orleans for a few years and the car always won first place in its class.

My brother lost interest and one day put the car in the garage where it stayed for 23 years. His second wife wanted to extend the living room into the garage area and wanted him to get rid of the car. He told her that the GTX was his first new car; it took him to his prom, brought his daughter home from the hospital and took him home from divorce court, once already. She got the point!

I always wanted him to let me have it to restore and shortly after Hurricane Katrina in September of 2005 he called me and asked if I wanted to take the car. His house only had a small amount of water damage from street flooding because he lived on the other side of the river and the levy system held. They didn’t evacuate the area and were living on MRE’s and running on generators for a month after the storm. Our mom, who was technically the first owner, passed away from Alzheimer’s the evening Katrina made landfall.

It took a while before any one could get into New Orleans. When I went to pick it up he told me that he had to drag it out of the garage because one of the wheels was locked up. The car was sitting so long that one of the torsion bars had broken from all the stuff he had stacked on it. It still had the trophies and display ropes from the last show in 1982. I also found a good bottle of Mirror Glaze in the trunk.

Throughout the years I managed to hang on to all the paperwork for the car. Owner’s manual, bill of sale, window sticker, payment book and mortgage. I had the original matching number Carter AFB in a box since the motor rebuild and all the paper work in the plastic envelope that came with the car. My brother had the first metal license plate in the trunk. He also kept the car registered for forty years, never missing a renewal.

I had the matching number carb rebuilt, put in a new gas tank, torsion bars, fuel pump and battery and believe it or not the car started right up. I remember when he stored the car he poured motor oil down the carb while it was running until the engine stopped. That’s was keep everything from freezing up. The car is all original down to the exhaust manifolds.

I plan to refinish it in the WW1 white and restore the interior to its original copper. Some have suggested a rotisserie restoration, but the car is so nice an solid I don’t want to go that route. It is a true survivor in more that one sense of the word. Since the car surfaced many people have asked if it is for sale. I guess you already know the answer.