Back in the sixties my buddy Dave was 18 years old. Every Friday night he would do what every other teenager in Detroit did. He'd cruise the drive-in restaurants on Gratiot and Woodward Avenues, testing his tire-smoking 427 Ford in a street race here and there, and hitting on the teenage girls. One night in 1964, he ran into a cute girl from the city named Shirley who had imbibed a bit too much beer and was trying to hitch a ride home. Being the gentleman that he was, he did exactly that: drove her home. Within a year they were married. By the seventies they had babies and a little ranch house. Dave had to sell his hot Ford and settle for a cheap little family car. The bad years for the US auto industry killed cruising, and the lights went out on Woodward and Gratiot. But Dave and Shirl never forgot. Over the yers Dave became one of the best Dodge mechanics in the area and Shirl became a medical technician. They raised their kids, paid for their house and saved some money. Eventually the car biz came back strong in Motown, the lights on Woodward and Gratiot went back on, and the cruise came back. So Dave and Shirl took their life savings out of the bank and built one of the most outrageous street machines the town had ever seen. It's a $100,000 88 Dodge Shadow. It's built on a race car chassis with the best suspension and driveline parts money can buy. The engine is a 9 liter Chrysler Max Wedge that delivers 800 horsepower to the rear wheels. Dave and Shirley are back. Here's a shot of them and their car that I took at the Detroit Autorama last weekend. I shot it with the DA 16-45 at 16mm, f4, 1/15th second. And yes, the car really is that red and Dave and Shirl are still in love. They're wonderful people, and I'm glad I got to know them and their amazing Shadow.
http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=3188583&size=lg
