“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.”
