*CAR LOCATED!* Was Searching for my late Uncles Pro-Street 1975 Camaro
 

Searching for my Uncles 1975 Pro-Street Camaro


I'm looking to find the whereabouts of this car which my Uncle built and sold over 2 decades ago. It belonged to my Uncle, Ken Martin (R.I.P.), who was from Summit, Piscataway, and Wall Township, NJ. He had dozens upon dozens of drag cars and street cars over his lifetime but this one was the last one he built...and the one he kept the longest. This car started stock and was built into the first stage and painted by my father in the very early 1980's. My father painted it the candy apple red and added the black stripes that you see in some of the photos and articles attached. My uncle did all the engine, drivetrain, and other work himself and with a crew of his buddies (Dennis Bedrosian and Bob Bickel...and other local drag racers at Englishtown NJ in the 1970's-1990s) It stayed looking like this for a few years and was called "Quarter Flash".

Then, of course my Uncle Ken decided to take it to the next level....with a 4-link, narrowed rear, tubbed, sheetmetal interior, tube chassis, nitrous, bored out engine, and the new paint job. My dad laid down the main colors again and the car was striped by Glen at Circus Custom Paints (famous in central NJ). The car stayed in generally this configuration until it was sold sometime in 1994ish.



I'd love to find the location and current setup of the car. All my teenage and adult life I've always dreamed of seeing it again or somehow coming up with a plan to get it back to the family. My uncle passed away over 7 years ago and years prior to this, his wife and he had boxed up all the paperwork related to the car and either gave it to racing buddies or purged it. I'm doing all I can to try to come up with a VIN # for the car, so far with no success. The license plate that was on the car was transferred to my aunts daily driver(s) over the years, but then she retired that plate and got another license plate...but maybe I could have some success finding a VIN for the car in the license plate's history. I know it's been about 25 years since the car was sold, but I'm really hoping someone might know of it or know someone who knows/knew something about it...especially from the NJ area. The stripes were very unique. It also had the words "MEGA BUCKS" airbrushed on the rear section of the front fenders(by my dad). It was featured in Popular Hot Rodding January 1988 in it's final stage, and in the initial stage (the paint my dad did and non-tubbed) was featured in Super Chevy December 1984 and Chevrolet Camaro Magazine Summer 1983. I have not seen a 1975 pro-street car like it, so its kind of recognizable if it still appears somewhat the same.




If anyone has any leads or ideas on how I can track down info in this car, that would be great. My direct email addresses are Viper6916@aol.com and Martin.dave3@gmail.com use both please. Thanks guys

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anything, anything at all would be helpful, thanks fellas

Circus and Glenn did amazing jobs on cars!

Hope you find it!

So, great news. I know this is an old thread, but I felt that I should update it.

About a year ago I got an email from a guy who was certain he knew the owner of the car. He had apparently seen one of my threads on the various web-forums I had made..just like this original thread). We exchanged a few emails back and forth and he was absolutely sure he knew the car to be in southern NJ. After a while he filled me in on the owners name, to which I was able to find an email address for the owners business. I then sent him a long email explaining who I was and the stuff I mentioned above in post #1.

Just yesterday afternoon I got an email from the owner of the car telling me that he was definitely the owner of the 1975 Camaro named Mega Bucks, and that he bought it from my uncle Ken some 20+ years ago. Apparently the owner was/is so fond of the cars setup that he has not changed one single attribute of it over all these years. It has been washed and waxed occasionally, and he did bring it to car shows many years ago, prior to getting too busy with family responsibilities and life's priorities. Therefore the car has sat untouched for over 10 years, in a trailer... but has not been forgotten.

The owner sounds very nice and I offered to send him color copies of some of the magazines and photos I have related to the car. He said that he has some of the magazines which my Uncle gave him at the time of the sale, along with trophies he won with it many years ago. To say the least, I am SUPER excited to finally know the whereabouts of the car, and even more excited to know that is is in exactly the same condition that it was built by my late uncle. The icing on the cake to this story is that the car is still in New Jersey! He even sent me an old photo of the car at a car show with a babe in a bikini next to the car.

Man! Many many years of wondering came along with a very good ending to it. Ok thats all for now

cool story !

ttiwwp
well

cool story, with a very nice looking car.

Sooooooooooo, are you gonna buy it back?

That's great to hear.

Damn. Tree'd! :rofl:



That's awesome that you were able to successfully track the car down. Has it sat for 10 years strictly because of the owner doesn't have time to take it out anymore or because of a lingering repair that needs to be done?

How cool would it be to get this thing out to a meet/show and take pics of it side-by-side with your Camaro? ...Work on that.

Thanks guys. I am totally still in shock as to how this all played out. As per the owner, the car needs nothing. It might need some air in the tires from sitting but he knows of no work that it needs. He mentioned he was going to hope to get it out and around this year... who know, maybe my email perked him up a little bit.

He sent me this photo, and as I said it is over 10 years ago that this was taken. It is a cell phone photo he took of a framed photo he has (you can see the cell phone reflection in the glass). I blurred out the name on the sign (which in all likelihood was hand-lettered by my father), but the area I blacked out was repainted to show the current owners name and not Ken Martin as it originally did. I also blacked out the lady's face since for all I know it could be the owner's wife and I wish to respect their privacy. This photo is old for sure, I can't remember the last time I have seen women posing in front of cars at events.. but you know what.. I sure wish that would happen again as it did back in the 80's an 90s. The woman by the car is not my Aunt, so this photo serves as a good form of proof. Along with the text of the email he sent me, I know that without a doubt the car really is where he says it is.

I included just a few of the awards that I happened to have taken photos of on my uncle's wall long long ago. I have looked through my old Super Chevy mags for photos of the car, since Super Chevy often did include photos of their events in the back of the magazines. I seem to be missing some of the mags from the years mentioned on the awards, and I know that my dad has some up in his attic so I'll have to look deeper there. If anyone has old copies of those month/year mags and felt like looking for me, that would be AWESOME.


The future plan is to establish a good chain of communication with the owner in hopes that he may keep me updated about his plans for the car. If he is to get it out and cleaned up and plans on bringing it to a show, i will gladly make the trip in my car and bring a camera and the photos/mags/media I have for him to see. I plan on sending him high quality full color copies of what I have as well. I don't want to get ahead of myself or make him feel like I am hounding him, so I am going to go about this delicately. As you guys could assume, I would jump at the chance to buy this car and I would find a way to find the finances. If he is not selling it, no problem. I will leave my contact info with him in hopes that he would consider calling me before ever putting it on the open market.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2937/3...5f0712cb_z.jpgMEGA BUCKS My late uncle's 1975 Pro Street camaro. Found 25 years later by David Martin, on Flickr

https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3943/3...db7eb875_z.jpgMEGA BUCKS My late uncle's 1975 Pro Street camaro. Found 25 years later by David Martin, on Flickr

https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3694/3...480de04a_z.jpgMEGA BUCKS My late uncle's 1975 Pro Street camaro. Found 25 years later by David Martin, on Flickr

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/708/33...eab9670a_z.jpgMEGA BUCKS My late uncle's 1975 Pro Street camaro. Found 25 years later by David Martin, on Flickr

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/688/33...ce8cd072_z.jpgMEGA BUCKS My late uncle's 1975 Pro Street camaro. Found 25 years later by David Martin, on Flickr

https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3838/3...a0c3886f_z.jpgMEGA BUCKS My late uncle's 1975 Pro Street camaro. Found 25 years later by David Martin, on Flickr


https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3855/3...245d9c84_z.jpgMEGA BUCKS My late uncle's 1975 Pro Street camaro. Found 25 years later by David Martin, on Flickr


https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3874/3...38745464_z.jpgMEGA BUCKS My late uncle's 1975 Pro Street camaro. Found 25 years later by David Martin, on Flickr

I remember those magazine articles about the car, and thinking how cool it was that the car was from Jersey. Very cool thread! :)

A super chevy show award back then was a big deal. So much bigger then

Sorry to bring back an old thread, but I just have another update for anyone who had thought this was a neat story

I went down to NJMP for the Optima Ultimate Street Car event this weekend. Since the town where the car's owner has a business is 20 minutes away from NJMP, I decided to stop by and just say a friendly HI to him. I wanted to keep it short and polite, and just let him know how thankful I was that he had taken time to converse with me via email. Turns out the dude is REALLY COOL! I ended up staying there for 45 minutes talking to him about the car, hot rods, and all sorts of stuff. he Said that if I wanted to I could setup a time/day in the future to come by his house and see the car. When I first introduced myself to him he goes. "oh! Hey man! Nice to meet ya! Did ya bring an envelope full of cash?" jokingly. I go "I didn't know it was for sale!!" and he says " To you, it could be ." That almost caused me to pass out. He showed me a hand-written card with the camshaft specs on it and everything. We spoke in a round about way about how if he ever did make the decision to part ways with it, that he would first reach out to me first. Things are looking good. THINGS ARE LOOKING REALLY F'N GOOD!.


First, I would just love to see the car. I would want to go down there with my dad too since he had painted and worked on the car 25+ years ago and it was his brothers prized possession (R.I.P. Ken). IF it does come up for sale.. I will do whatever I need to do to collect the cash. I don't care if the Pro-Street car era is long dead or if nobody likes it. I think it is real cool and I would certainly love to own it.

For now... I am totally so happy that I spoke to the owner, he has my info, and he is a cool dude. I am glad to be ME in this story.


oh, and then after I left his shop, I went to NJMP for the USCA weekend and had the time of my freakin' life ! .... that happened too

I think it's time you really lean on the guy to get this in your hands. You had the convo so call him in a week to see if you guys can strike a deal. It's never bad to have a number tossed out there (from him to you lol). It will at least get him thinking so you know where he stands.

Good luck!!

Really cool story, I hope you're able to bring it home one day

That's great to hear Dave. Did you start thinking about value or loan cost? If not, I would do that before you call as per Brian's suggestion.

thanks guys. appreciate it!

yea. I will probably reach out to my Aunt to see what is was sold for. even though that was in the mid 1990's it would be a good ballpark figure to know. i would definitely want to see the condition of the car too before locking into a price range. paint, wiring, tires are prob dead, all the polished aluminum interior tin work, etc etc

I am kinda NOT in a rush to get a hold of it since I only have one space in my garage for a vehicle at the moment. I have also been paying my wife's tuition in full each semester for her second bachelors degree at college, and this should be ending soon upon graduation and completion of her required internship that you HAVE to pay to do.

I have family members and areas I could keep it at, but I am almost wondering if it would be a possibility to buy the car and the trailer it is currently in and keep that somewhere not at my house. then even though it might be a hassle, I could swap that car out for mine in the trailer and the other one in the garage. kinda like a rotation .

I know I am getting WAYYYYY ahead of myself talking about that scenario, but just thoughts I've been considering.

This is amazing.

Get after it, Dave!

Yesterday I went to Atco Dragway for day 3 of the Hot Rod Power Tour. it was awesome. there is a thread about it. Additionally, a few weeks ago I reached out to the guy who I tracked down after learning that he bought my uncles car (above) and asked them if I could come down to see the car after being at Atco. They said I could, so I did.

I got there and Ross brought me to the long enclosed white trailer and opened the back. he pulled the cover off of the rear and the wheelie bars and rear wing appeared. I was elated and knew right away, that is the car! 10000% confirmed.

He took the cover off of it, but it was still strapped down in the trailer. I contorted my body in various ways to view inside, underside, and as much as I could. I took a few photos, but couldn't get good lighting or angles due to it being strapped in the trailer (photos will be added in the next few days).

The car has sat for "about 14 years" according to Ross. He retold the info he told me 2 years ago that he loved the car exactly the way that it was when he bought it in 1994. he brought it to a lot of car shows back then and built a massive multi colored chevy bowtie display for it for the indoor shows, Had young kids and after a while had to park it. Put it in the trailer and occasionally took it out to big events, sometimes trailering it, sometimes street driving it. Around 2005 (which is oddly the same time when my uncle passed away), the car was put in the trailer and sat in there ever since.

It is in FANTASTIC SHAPE. I was shocked that the paint didn't crack or lift over the years, tires were low but held air, etc. steering wheel had some mold, oh well. the car was a little dusty, the cover was dusty, but it damn well was in fantastic shape. a time-capsule for late 1980's pro-street cars.


The owner, Ross, only changed two things on the car. He changed the hand painted owners name on the display sign, and he converted the exhaust pipes from dual dumps before the axle, to be a rear side exit after axle exhuast. he mentioned that he and his wife had a problem with the exhaust fumes. while I don't like the shape and the angle of the pipes, I understand why he had to do it. it is super easy to fix if need be.


Some things I remember, and some thing I also learned. The dual custom built fuel tanks were awesome. one for race fuel and one for pump gas. 1 piece aluminum wheel tubs, dual batteries with a "hidden" on/off kill switch, 12 bolt, sprung wheelie bars, 4 link, etc. the front bumper was tucked in and I never realized that.


We did not take the pin-on hood off and we both agreed that the car would not run so there was no attempt to start it. he and I agreed that the carb and fuel system would have to be fully freshened up. brake system too. all fluids, etc.


I asked him what he planned on doing with the car and in a round about way he told me that he would love to find the time to get it back to being roadworthy. He told me that he has several other fun cars that also need parts and attention (66 nova, 68 camaro, chevelle, and a challenger hellcat). We discussed that I would of course love to buy the car, but I was not in any sort of rush and I was just happy to see it for now. No prices were discussed and we left everything at a pleasant understanding that if he or his wife do decide to part ways with the car, they promise to reach out to me. I was thrilled to hear this, as I am not in any financial spending situation to afford it, but hope to be able to do so one day.

photos will be posted on here in a few days

it was a damn good day

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...31d01196_c.jpgIMG_3631 by David Martin, on Flickr


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...4b0b7b14_c.jpgIMG_3630 by David Martin, on Flickr


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https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...4e48a892_c.jpgIMG_3625 by David Martin, on Flickr

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https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b8896ea1_c.jpgIMG_3657 by David Martin, on Flickr

wow that is amazing! looks like it was just built

Definitely amazing, love the story. The "jerk off" switch is great, kirk made me that back in the day for mine too haha

Ditto!

Bringing this thread back up only because I got an email from the owners just a few days ago which had great news!
The owner wanted to let me know that he finally got around to getting the car out of the trailer recently. He said after a few basic tlc things he was able to crank the engine over and it fired up and ran with hardly any issues. He then went on to let me know that they plan to take the car to a big car show at NJMP on September 9th called "Fuel Fest". I had never heard of it, but I now am planning on going.
https://fuelfest.com/new-jersey/
Looks line a new era style event, with drifting and probably a lot of imports and exotics, but what the hell...I'll give it a whirl and make the drive if it turns out that they are able to get the Mega-Bucks car there.

Anyhow, just figured this was worth posting about.

That's pretty sweet. I could probably make it.

Bad ass, definitely worth going