colter and i decided to ride out to denver with a friend of mine that was moving there about a month ago. i was bored and looking around on the denver craigslist one night and came across an ad for a 1973 chrysler newport. i decided buying it and driving back to nc would be a fun adventure.

it's an all original car and made the trip no problem. a u joint started making some noise in oklahoma, but it hung on the rest of the trip. we even took it across the tail of the dragon. averaged 15-16mpg cruising at 75-85mph most of the time and totalled about 2200 miles. after i do a few things to it, i'll be giving it to my 17 year old cousin who is battling leukemia and loves old cars.

anyway, here's a few garage related pics of the return trip.


at the colorado dmv




downtown denver




heading south out of denver




coming into colorado springs




hilarious mural on a mustang in colorado springs




garden of the gods










manitou springs, pikes peak highway, and the pikes peak racetrack








southern colorado near the new mexico border




into new mexico








i'll post the rest a little later.

4/21/2008 8:30:08 PM

cool shit

how much was the car?

[Edited on April 21, 2008 at 8:49 PM. Reason : 

4/21/2008 8:49:10 PM

niiiiiiiice

4/21/2008 8:49:47 PM

I was in Denver 4 months ago...and remember being blown away by the scenery when we were in a borrowed car. Nice pictures, I've got to get a break from work and do something like that.

4/21/2008 9:05:05 PM

thats very cool and should be on everyone's list....ride cross country in old, big ass car

4/21/2008 9:09:07 PM

ha, definately on the list to do. That is totally badass man! How many states lines did you cut across? 6?

4/21/2008 9:14:01 PM

across the whole trip (there and back) it was nc, va, wv, ky, in, oh, mo, ia, ne, co, nm, tx, ok, ar, tn. 4300 miles in 7 days.

i've got 7 states left to see out of the 50.

[Edited on April 21, 2008 at 9:25 PM. Reason : .]

4/21/2008 9:24:29 PM

couple more of new mexico












cadillac ranch in texas






old spur of route 66 in texas




leaning water tower on route 66. built that way purposely to attract people.




abandoned gas station and motel on route 66 in mclean, tx. it was really sad to see all the dead towns. also cool to think about what route 66 would have been like when this car was new.

4/21/2008 9:43:14 PM

buying and driving a 40+(by the time it happens) year old mopar and driving it home from the southwest is on my to do list. it'll probably be a slant 6 and no where near as plush as ur c-body. nice ride..too bad the burb has a different bolt pattern, little cousin could be so pimpin


and i was like wtf no pics for a minutes until i realized i had ur images blocked so i could read the gimp thread lol

4/21/2008 9:44:08 PM

an awesome junkyard we found in a little town near the tx/ok border. some cool cars in there. check out all the edsels.

4/21/2008 9:51:48 PM

Quote :

"after i do a few things to it, i'll be giving it to my 17 year old cousin who is battling leukemia and loves old cars."

Awesome.

4/21/2008 10:11:19 PM

Was that the Bates Motel?

4/21/2008 11:32:57 PM

That's cool no matter how you cut it... awesome.

4/21/2008 11:54:58 PM

gah damn theres some sweet shots in there

4/22/2008 12:26:00 AM

nice, looks like fun

4/22/2008 12:39:09 AM

yeah, it was a great trip. I was surprised at how well the newport did. lots of (mis) adventures along the way- broke down in west virginia and I got a speeding ticket in a rental car, visited 3 casino's, lost money at all of them, broke the 100 mile virginity on every car we drove, all night at music row in nashville, cadillac ranch, route 66, etc., etc. it was awesome.

4/22/2008 1:59:51 AM

in case anyone is wondering how you get that good of mileage from such a big block non overdrive beast, it has a freakin 2.24 rear axle ratio. it lopes down the highway and if i wasn't afraid of the tires would go well in excess of 120mph.

okay, continuing on.

windmill farms in oklahoma






random little bar/club on route 66






route 66 mueseum






old oil rig




plane outside of an airport. for some reason every little airport we saw had a plane mounted out front.




going through oklahoma city










sunset around the ok/ar line



[Edited on April 22, 2008 at 2:14 AM. Reason : .]

4/22/2008 2:13:52 AM

Quote :

"too bad the burb has a different bolt pattern, little cousin could be so pimpin"

i came VERY close to buying a set of 22" wire wheels, but decided on something different. it's going to get slammed with some 225's on the stock rims, then put on some cop car style hubcaps i have (the ones that cover just the center of the wheel).

4/22/2008 2:26:43 AM

I've driven to Denver. Beautiful drive.

4/22/2008 1:22:58 PM

Quote :

"abandoned gas station and motel on route 66 in mclean, tx."

You see that a lot on Highway 301 as well. I-95 shut down a lot of businesses. There are tons of hotels/motels up and down 301 that have been vacant for a couple of decades or more and are just waiting to be torn down.

Quote :

"i'll be giving it to my 17 year old cousin who is battling leukemia and loves old cars."

That is very kind of you.

[Edited on April 22, 2008 at 1:37 PM. Reason : s]

4/22/2008 1:35:59 PM

very cool.

give us some insight on the interior of the car. How comfortable was it? I'm guessing no AC or radio.

4/22/2008 5:05:12 PM

very good condition. everything works and is 100% original right down to the annoying ass pressure sensitive seatbelt buzzer. the only flaws are some tears in the seats.

actually, the a/c works better than a lot of newer cars and blows ice cold. this car has a REAL compressor that chrysler used for years. huge v2 cylinder bastard that takes two belts to turn and puts yorks to shame in cfm. it also has a nice kenwood cd/mp3 player hidden in the glovebox hooked to some 6x9's mounted in the stock location under the rear package tray. the original am radio is still connected to the single center dash mounted front speaker and works. hook the antenna to it and it would play stations.

hell, even the speedo is accurate within 2-3mph across the board.

4/22/2008 5:52:37 PM

Wow...seems quite a rarity to find a car in such original condition where everything still works, and works properly!

4/22/2008 5:55:48 PM

yep, gotta love western cars. not a bit of cancer on it anywhere either. original paint too as far as i can tell. it's one of the more well preserved originals i've seen short of stuff that's been hidden away in a garage. someone took good care of it.

here's a couple of interior shots. i'll post the rest of the garage related trip pics later tonight.









[Edited on April 22, 2008 at 6:06 PM. Reason : .]

4/22/2008 6:04:01 PM

wow... the interior looks pretty good for the age.

4/22/2008 7:03:49 PM

Post some pre-Denver pics

4/22/2008 10:48:07 PM

haha, FRED!!! yeah, i'll get some of them up too. just worked out uploading from last to first. i had like 500-600 pics to go through.

4/22/2008 11:35:34 PM