Ratty Muscle Cars
Remember when old cars were just
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MotorTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:11 Remember when old cars were just old?
00:13 When doing burnouts was encouraged by your buddies?
00:16 And when ripping your Plymouth Cuda through an Alabama field
00:18 was good, clean fun?
00:20 Well, I don't, because I'm from Brooklyn.
00:22 But Austin Griggs here, the founder of Riding Muscle Cars,
00:25 not only does he get it, but he's making it his mission to
00:28 show the rest of the world how it's done.
00:30 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:42 I always had a Ratty Muscle car.
00:44 Before the name was coined, that's what I exemplified.
00:49 And all of my buddies did it, too.
00:51 I've got many friends that have had these things sitting
00:53 around, and they have dream cars.
00:55 These are people's-- the cars that people want,
00:58 and they wasn't doing anything with them.
01:00 So I kind of felt the need to just kind of showcase
01:04 what people had that could be driven.
01:08 He's probably one of the nicest guys you're ever going to meet,
01:12 and he grew up wrenching on and driving stuff like this.
01:15 This is a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda.
01:19 It's a very fun, rewarding car, man.
01:21 And I don't worry about what's going to happen to it.
01:25 If I break it, I'll fix it.
01:27 It's a '72 that I own it, and I can turn the key of it
01:30 and take it wherever I want.
01:31 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:37 Austin didn't want just any Barracuda.
01:39 He wanted this Barracuda, because this car actually
01:42 has some pretty cool history.
01:44 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:48 I got this car just over like 2 and 1/2 years ago,
01:51 but I've been after this car since I was 16, 17 years old.
01:54 When I met a now friend of mine--
01:56 has been for a long time--
01:57 used to sit out in his yard.
01:59 And I'm not kidding when I say this thing
02:01 had goats on it all the time.
02:02 There would be goats running around, jumping on the hood
02:05 and on the roof.
02:06 It broke my heart to see it always sitting on flat tires,
02:09 but every time I would think that it was down for the count,
02:13 he'd crank it up, put air in the tires,
02:15 and take it to some local show.
02:17 And I wanted the car so bad.
02:19 One day when the car finally went for sale
02:21 and I knew it was going to a different owner,
02:23 I had to steal it out from underneath him.
02:25 And he knew if I kept it, it was going to stay local,
02:28 and it was going to stay looking just like his car forever.
02:30 And he could drive it whenever he wants,
02:32 so it kind of worked out for him.
02:35 Austin, he always wanted an AAR Cuda, which AAR,
02:38 if you don't know, it's All-American Racers.
02:40 That's what it stands for.
02:41 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:44 The AAR Cuda was meant to be in Treads and Series Racing.
02:48 It's a racing car.
02:49 That's what it was for.
02:51 So even though it's not a real AAR, I've made it an AAR.
02:54 [ENGINE REVVING]
02:57 I use it for racing, and I like to beat the dog out of it.
03:01 [MUSIC PLAYING]
03:05 Austin knew he was never going to be
03:10 able to afford an AAR Cuda.
03:12 I mean, those cars right now bring big money,
03:16 and they're really tough to find.
03:17 And while this car, at first glance,
03:20 kind of has that double AAR look, it's obviously not.
03:25 But look at some of the things that he's got on his car.
03:27 He does have the cowl hood on this car.
03:30 He managed to get the hood off a real AAR Cuda
03:33 when that particular car went through the car wash
03:37 with the hood pins pulled out of the hood.
03:39 The hood, once he got back on the road, flew up.
03:42 It broke the corners off the hood.
03:44 And well, kind of Austin got it for a good deal.
03:47 The rear spoiler on the back, that's also off an AAR Cuda.
03:50 If you look at it, it's got a big crack down the middle.
03:53 But it doesn't matter, because it looks cool.
03:56 It's a factory white car with blue interior.
03:58 But over the progression of its life,
04:00 it changed colors many a times.
04:02 It's been black.
04:02 It's been blue.
04:04 I honestly, I think it's aged well.
04:06 And if you were to paint this, I think it would be a travesty.
04:09 [ENGINE REVVING]
04:12 [ENGINE REVVING]
04:16 [ENGINE REVVING]
04:19 I beefed this up, and I didn't finish my job there.
04:24 When you look underneath the car,
04:26 you look at the sheet metal.
04:27 And then you look at the sheet metal screws
04:30 that come through the extra sheet metal that
04:33 was supposed to be there when the new sheet metal was screwed
04:36 into the sheet metal that's missing,
04:38 if that makes any sense.
04:39 Basically, a lot of this car has been replaced
04:40 with sheet metal screws.
04:42 Well, sheet metal.
04:43 There's even a license plate under this thing.
04:46 As far as functionality, what we're talking about
04:49 is a small block 340, a 727 with a reverse manual valve body
04:54 in it, an 8 3/4 rear end with 355 gears, and that's it.
04:59 It's a motor and a transmission and a rear end,
05:02 three gauges that attack with a Cuda body on top,
05:05 with steering.
05:06 [LAUGHING]
05:10 It's so much fun, and it's so rewarding
05:12 to lay in the throttle.
05:14 340s don't get a whole lot of credit,
05:16 but when they're just warmed over just a little bit, man,
05:20 I challenge any warmed over big block
05:22 to come tango with this thing, because it'll run.
05:25 It runs really good.
05:27 It's intoxicating to hit that pedal, you know?
05:29 [ENGINE REVVING]
05:32 I have to mention that one of the guys that Austin gets
05:34 his inspiration from is his buddy, Mike Kobach.
05:37 C28s have the R8s?
05:39 You go to his place, and it is just a mecca for old stuff.
05:44 You'll look at it, and you will see cars
05:49 that will blow your mind--
05:51 old Impalas, and Camaros, and Darts, and Dodges.
05:56 Things are kind of lining his property that you're like,
05:58 oh my god, what are you doing with these things?
06:01 He has had big block Chevrolets, and he's
06:05 big block Chevrolets, strolled around since I've
06:09 met the guy in my teens.
06:11 He's constantly chucking motors in cars
06:14 that are just dilapidated, ratty muscle cars.
06:17 And I've been watching that since I was a kid.
06:20 Why did we pull the tire off that bridge?
06:22 Is it your car's fault?
06:23 Hey, Austin.
06:24 Yes, sir?
06:25 How much tire pressure you want in these?
06:27 And it's been inspiring to see, because I've
06:30 seen him just stroll down the road,
06:33 baking tires in a car that I've watched come out of the field,
06:37 get a big block that he pulled out from underneath the work
06:40 bench, into it, jam a four-speed in it.
06:43 Like, you'll be like, oh, yeah, I'll just--
06:45 I'll change that, and this, that, and the other.
06:47 And oh, OK.
06:48 You talk to a normal person regularly,
06:51 when they tell you that, you think six months,
06:53 there's going to be a car on the road.
06:56 Give it two days.
07:00 One of the cars that we kind of played with a little bit
07:02 is Mike's red Camaro.
07:03 Now, that car is a 1968 Camaro Z28.
07:08 And it kind of follows the path of Austin's AA Arcuda,
07:13 where this was like a Trans Am clone that he made.
07:16 Mike Gobeck's Z28 is a real Camaro Z28.
07:21 But when you look at it, it doesn't
07:23 look like any Z28 that ever came out of the showroom, right?
07:27 It sits like a 4x4.
07:28 It's got these cool, old kind of centerline style
07:31 foam dial wheels from the '80s.
07:33 The tires on it are probably 30 years old.
07:36 And it's got this crazy tunnel ram with dual carbs on top
07:40 and an intake that's just to die for.
07:43 Going to a place like Mike Gobeck's house is like,
07:49 I don't know, going to a family member's house.
07:51 I mean, we've known these guys for a day or two,
07:54 and they already treated us like family.
07:56 Everybody's huddled over the hoods of these cars.
08:01 Everybody's trying to fix stuff.
08:03 Everybody's asking questions, drinking beer, laughing,
08:07 and just generally having a good time.
08:09 And the cars are always secondary.
08:12 And then stories come out about when they busted this knuckle
08:15 or broke that foot because a tranny fell on it
08:18 or something happened like that.
08:19 The car is the catalyst for that.
08:22 All the importance of my friends is huge.
08:24 I was the silly one.
08:25 It was like, I'll just buy a bunch of muscle cars.
08:28 I've had them forever.
08:29 We'll wrench on them, and people are
08:31 going to love to see them.
08:32 My friends come from states away, fly in, drive in,
08:36 just to lay under these things and come out
08:38 and enjoy these things with me.
08:41 I can't say enough for my buddies Tim Heck and Randy
08:45 Gauss and my brother David and my buddy Anthony Former.
08:48 These guys, they've turned wrenches night after night
08:51 just to ensure that my cars make it.
08:55 Sometimes you just don't know how to thank somebody enough
08:57 for that.
08:58 Hey, it's sucking that lower radiator hose shut.
09:01 Oh, damn it.
09:02 I'm very appreciative of it, but they
09:04 know that when their cars are down, whatever they got going
09:08 on, I'm right there for them too.
09:10 Austin's ability to amass a crew, keep them together,
09:14 and create a ratty car movement, well, part of that talent
09:18 stems from his time in the Armed Forces.
09:20 Looks like he's ready to drive.
09:22 Austin was a crew chief for an F-16 in the Air Force.
09:27 Well, maybe join the Air Force.
09:29 I'd just gotten out of high school.
09:31 I didn't know how I was going to make any money to do anything.
09:34 I've always had hot rods, but I couldn't afford them.
09:37 I remember I worked at a grocery store,
09:39 and I bought an expensive aftermarket distributor
09:42 for my Monte Carlo.
09:44 It took everything I had.
09:46 I had worked for weeks, saved after paying my bills.
09:50 I'd worked for weeks to buy a distributor.
09:52 And I was like, I can't work three weeks at a time
09:55 to buy one part.
09:57 So I needed a career.
09:59 Airplanes and automobiles go hand in hand.
10:04 The core principles of them is the same.
10:08 And it's fun to wrench on something
10:10 and get to go watch it dance around in the sky.
10:13 I was an F-16 crew chief.
10:15 What you do as a crew chief is you change engines,
10:17 you change landing gear components,
10:19 hydraulic components, troubleshoot
10:21 any of the aircraft systems.
10:23 And you're also responsible for an airplane.
10:26 And they are the protection of this country.
10:28 So if it needs to be called on, it has to be ready.
10:32 A pilot gets in that thing, and he
10:34 can't make it through his mission,
10:35 and more importantly, can't make it home, there's a problem.
10:39 What that did was that told Austin, you know what?
10:42 When I go home, I don't want everything to be perfect.
10:45 I want to relax.
10:46 I want to unwind a little bit.
10:48 And I want to play with my cars.
10:50 The whole time I worked on these airplanes, my '69 Dart
10:52 was sitting right there at the flight line.
10:54 I could be at my jet working.
10:55 I could look out and see my six-pack hood
10:58 sitting on my 318 Dart with the big 275 60s out back,
11:02 just in eye shot.
11:03 There's my hot rod.
11:04 Get out, turn my toolbox in, get my ragtag muscle car,
11:08 and just thunder down, get it till I get off base.
11:12 Can't act a fool on base.
11:13 But as soon as I'd hit that gate, man,
11:15 I mean, it wasn't nothing but black marks
11:17 as soon as I'd cover the bridge.
11:19 What?
11:20 [LAUGHTER]
11:21 [ENGINE REVVING]
11:22 [MUSIC PLAYING]
11:25 [ENGINE REVVING]
11:27 Time and time again, we'll get submissions for this show
11:30 where people go, I would love for you to drive my car,
11:33 but I don't think it's nice enough.
11:35 And the fact is, well, what is nice enough?
11:39 To you, even if your car is a bit on the rowdy side,
11:42 it might be the nicest thing in the world.
11:44 And to us, that's really all that matters.
11:46 I can park right up front at the grocery store.
11:49 It doesn't matter to me.
11:50 If somebody door dings it, adds character.
11:53 Don't care.
11:53 I'll remember if there's a red mark on this thing
11:55 from something else that's sitting next to it.
11:58 And when I'm mad, I'll just go, damn.
12:01 Oh, well.
12:02 [ENGINE REVVING]
12:05 Austin's philosophy was so great, in fact,
12:08 that we flew across the country to Alabama
12:11 to check out his event called the No Shine List.
12:14 [ENGINE REVVING]
12:17 I felt the need to make some cruises, make some races,
12:23 just kind of showcase what people had that could be driven.
12:28 I don't know why you're here, all right?
12:31 I don't know how many times 100 Hot Rods gets out,
12:35 but I have never seen this before.
12:37 He figured that he was going to get 30 or 40 cars that show up.
12:41 We showed up this morning.
12:43 There was like 105 cars.
12:45 We're going to keep doing this again.
12:46 [APPLAUSE]
12:50 Man, it's humbling to see how many
12:53 people have shown up, grassroots pickup, you know,
12:56 out of the automotive world.
12:57 All right, so what we're going to do
12:58 is we're going to pull out of here as organized as we
13:01 can without hitting each other.
13:03 Remember, these are ratty muscle cars.
13:07 Make sure you're giving room.
13:09 Don't drive up somebody's tailpipe.
13:11 Don't do anything stupid.
13:14 Let's not get hurt today.
13:16 When we get to the drag strip, it's all skinny pedal,
13:19 all day.
13:20 [ENGINE REVVING]
13:23 When you have a ton of muscle cars and muscle trucks
13:26 and Hot Rods rumbling down the road, that's a sight to be seen.
13:29 There were a couple of guys from South Carolina,
13:31 a couple of guys from Virginia that rolled in,
13:33 and their cars were far from perfect.
13:35 One guy showed up.
13:36 His car didn't have any windows.
13:37 There were a couple of rat rods that they
13:39 didn't have any windshields.
13:40 There were cars that were pickup trucks.
13:42 There were cars that people drug out of the weeds that
13:45 hadn't been moved in 25 years, and they got them
13:48 ready just for this event.
13:50 We built this car together when I was 14 years old, literally.
13:53 Fathers and sons, we had sons and daughters.
13:56 We had cousins.
13:57 We had brothers.
13:58 We had friends.
13:59 People came together around this ratty muscle car movement
14:03 in cars that a lot of people would look at and just kind of
14:08 discard and be like, well, why would you drive that?
14:10 Why don't you paint it?
14:11 Why don't you do this?
14:12 And I've been in that position where somebody comes up
14:14 and they'll look at one of my cars
14:15 and be like, well, don't you think you're going to paint it?
14:17 And it's like, man, F off.
14:18 I don't have to paint a damn thing.
14:20 I just paint a car.
14:21 We came to the Mecca for a Saturday morning
14:30 to bring together 105 cars that all kind of look like this,
14:37 sounded like this, were kind of dirty like this.
14:42 If you don't think people are having fun
14:44 enjoying these old cars in the states that they're in,
14:48 you guys are crazy.
14:49 This is nice.
14:50 [ENGINE REVVING]
14:55 I need you to look closely at the individuals
14:57 and the vehicles you saw today.
15:00 Look at the camaraderie, the smiles, and the sense of family
15:04 and then consider this.
15:06 These are not show cars.
15:08 They are not objects of status or wealth.
15:11 But instead, they're an outlet that
15:13 helps one leave the problems of the daily grind
15:16 outside the garage door, which is exactly where they belong.
15:21 [MUSIC PLAYING]
15:25 [ENGINE REVVING]
15:28 [MUSIC PLAYING]
15:32 (whooshing)