Growing up we had all kinds of vehicles around the house. Cars, trucks, motorcycles, semi trucks, imports, domestics, vintage, new, beaters, show cars, you name it. Many of my favourites we don’t even have photos of but here are 10 of the hottest cars to come out of the Calette garage.
396 Big Block, 4-speed
I remember loving the all red interior of this car.
Power Pack 265 V-8, 2-speed Powerglide automatic transmission. This was my mom’s daily driver for awhile, one of her favourite cars.
454 Big Block, Turbo 400 Automatic transmission.
This Nomad was featured in a car magazine before my dad bought it. At the moment he can’t find the article but is hopeful he will find it in one of his many stacks of magazines.
Pops built a pretty healthy 283 for this car, you could hear him round the corner a block and a half away on his way home. You can’t help but notice my brother Rodney’s truck in the background, that’s some heavy steel all bent out of shape.
I remember my dad coming home made one day, he had just lost a street race. He had a fast engine under the hood but the stock gear ratio was too tall. Being the 283 could handle higher RPM’s he installed some 5:14 rear end gears immediately. The car launched pretty good after that!
302 V8, dual carbs (the 1969 Camaro Z/28 engine was ordered by my dad’s buddy directly from GM), Muncie M22 4-speed, 4.88 gears, 10 bolt posi. Dad said there wasn’t a day this car didn’t see 8000 RPM. I was a fly on the wall one day out in the garage when my dad was telling some of his buddy’s in great detail how he outran the cops the night before. Oops.
Here I am sneaking into the photo of my favourite car. One of my dads favourite stories is when he raced a motorcycle in this car. My older brothers Mark and Rodney were standing in the front seat (this is before safety was a thing) and they flew into the back seat when my dad launched out of 1st gear. They emerged from the rear seat safely screaming with joy and excitement!
455 Big Block/360hp, Turbo 400 Auto. Bone stock factory muscle car. That’s my oldest brother Mark giving the car a wipe down, he had an auto detailing business for awhile. This would probably be my second favourite car I had the privilege getting a ride in. The fact it was so rare made it special.
I remember cruising around in the passenger seat admiring the light woodgrain touches sprinkled throughout and beautiful white interior. The car was a beast when we hit the highway though. The torque was incredible, it sucked you right back into the seats. The rear tires chirped hard shifting it into drive at 80 MPH.
455 Big Block, 4-speed. One of 943 produced. I was too young to really appreciate this car but in hindsight what a cool and rare car to be around.
Canada has some unique cars that differ from the American models like this Pontiac here. It’s a Chevelle body basically with a few twists. My brother Mark had a 1963 Pontiac Acadian Beaumont Sport Deluxe (there’s a mouthful for you) which had Chevy Nova sheetmetal. Really cool how it had the trademark split grill like this Beaumont here. Neat trim pieces that were different too.
Apparently the original 396 wasn’t strong enough so my dad swapped it out with a 454.
427/425hp, Turbo 400 Auto, 4.11 gears, bucket seats. This is some rare air we are breathing right here. A COPO Camaro is rare enough but this bad boy was outfitted with a COLUMN SHIFTER! I’m not sure why someone would order a car like this with the column shift option but they must of had their reason.
396/375hp, Muncie M21 4-speed. This was just before my time but my older brothers got some quality time on the hood.
My dad and auntie Connie looking good in their youth!
427/390hp, 4-speed. One of the many Corvettes my dad owned. This Big Block convertible is nothing to sneeze at.
This car was headed out to the dragstrip after this photo was taken, you’ll notice the racing slicks tucked in the rear quarters.