“In 1968, I bought a new car and the payments – over $100 a month were killing me. So in 1969 I spent $1700 for a used GTO, and all my friends thought I was crazy – paid too much for it,” Haskell beamed.
Jerry Haskell is typical of the owners of classic cars that show up every year for the Woodward Dream cruise as an estimated one million of those similarly inclined watch the parade. Haskell is in the business, working at a Company called Special Projects, which does custom work for Ford Motor. However, this weekend he is looking over his parked Pontiac GTO on a hot August weekend. What caught my eye and prompted my query to him were the red wheel well inserts?
“Oh, they were a $27.95 option,” the affable craftsman said. Out comes from the trunk a copy of Car Craft magazine that lists all the options for the original GTO.
“How did you end up with the car?”
“In 1968, I bought a new car and the payments – over $100 a month were killing me. So in 1969 I paid $1700 for a used GTO. All my friends thought I was crazy – paid too much for it,” Haskell beamed.
Well, he still has it, and over the years, it has been cared for. The car was repainted to a stock color, buffed and fluffed. The glass was replaced and the interior redone.
“I’ve been a car nut for 65 years,” Haskell admitted. “My mother said when I was four that I had carburetors for brains. Well, no kidding, now I have Tri Power.”
About Ken Zino
Ken Zino, editor and publisher of AutoInformed, is a versatile auto industry participant with global experience spanning decades in print and broadcast journalism, as well as social media. He has automobile testing, marketing, public relations and communications experience. He is past president of The International Motor Press Assn, the Detroit Press Club, founding member and first President of the Automotive Press Assn. He is a member of APA, IMPA and the Midwest Automotive Press Assn.
He also brings an historical perspective while citing their contemporary relevance of the work of legendary auto writers such as Ken Purdy, Jim Dunne or Jerry Flint, or writers such as Red Smith, Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson – all to bring perspective to a chaotic automotive universe.
Above all, decades after he first drove a car, Zino still revels in the sound of the exhaust as the throttle is blipped during a downshift and the driver’s rush that occurs when the entry, apex and exit points of a turn are smoothly and swiftly crossed. It’s the beginning of a perfect lap.
AutoInformed has an editorial philosophy that loves transportation machines of all kinds while promoting critical thinking about the future use of cars and trucks.
Zino builds AutoInformed from his background in automotive journalism starting at Hearst Publishing in New York City on Motor and MotorTech Magazines and car testing where he reviewed hundreds of vehicles in his decade-long stint as the Detroit Bureau Chief of Road & Track magazine. Zino has also worked in Europe, and Asia – now the largest automotive market in the world with China at its center.
