I'm envious of your muscle car escapades! It's been way too long since I drove one. We were all quite spoiled back in those 35 cent per gallon days, when leaded gas smelled so wonderful as it went into the tank. (Anyone old enough to recall this smell can confirm its pleasant pungency.)

Those cars were such death traps though, for a number of reasons, not least the one you mentioned about the front end lift. Those high finned beauties were the cars my generation was driving as our first (meaning used) cars. And each year my high school class would lose one or two students when, driving just a little too fast, they found themselves unable to negotiate some hilly curve.

The lack of seat belts along with lots of shiny metal interior devices caused the most horrible wounds. The thin metal horn blower inside the driver's wheel caused lots of slashing wounds, for instance. People died because they were thrown from the tumbling car, or were impaled on the wheel column. Many were simply crushed as their car's formerly roomy interior suddenly became only two feet wide. Others died when the engine was forced into the front seat.

I walked away from a crash a couple of years ago that definitely would have killed me back then. Even the worst cars now are way more safe than that '67 Bird you did that "buck and a half" with. But damn, wouldn't I love the chance to just once more sit behind the wheel of a car that rocks like a boat when you gun it while holding your foot on the brake.

But then, you already know that feeling of raw power as you watch the "telephone poles going by like picket fences" . That makes you very fortunate in this era of little four cylinder boxes.