Clinton Bigelow
New Member
I'm new here so I thought I'd post a story about my Sport Fury.
My Dad bought this 1965 Sport Fury new and since I was born in 1969 this car has always been in my life. He taught my Mom how to drive in this thing. By the way, I have never driven it even until this day though I (and my brother) inherited it when Dad passed away in 2012.
To say that Dad loved this car is an understatement. He called it "Big Blue". A man doesn't keep a car for 46 years without having a tremendous amount of love for it. My earliest memories of it were of it sitting behind our house with a mangled left front fender. I don't recall seeing him drive it until well after my brother was born in 1972 so around 1976 would've been the first time. I never saw my Mom drive it either, ever. Weird right? I figured he or my Mom had wrecked it and he had no interest in getting it fixed. It just sat there with it's color fading away, bent up fender and tires going flat.
It gets weirder though. My Dad and his brothers would line up cans a few feet from the front of where it sat and shoot at them, they never hit the car though. By around 1976 the car was a rusting away, wrecked piece of junk that apparently hadn't been moved in or even cranked in years. Then one Saturday me and my brother woke up, ate, watched some cartoons then went outside where Dad was standing around joking with his buddies. He asks them,
"How much do y'all wanna bet that Big Blue will fire right up?"
None of them thought it would, but it did. Obviously this was me and my brothers first time ever hearing it and it sounded perfect. A few weeks later it looked perfect. This was the first time he restored it, in 1976. He drove it for a short while and then it sat for a few years more and he restored it again. Then it sat yet again.
Just before he passed he had started restoring it again and now it's up to me and my brother to finish it. He really did love it, so much so that he preferred to not drive it but instead brag and show it off to his friends which, in the long run, kept the mileage very, very low. In most of the pictures that we have of him guess what else was in those pictures.
Ultimately, we laid my Father to rest with the likeness of "Big Blue" engraved on his tombstone.
I always wondered why it sat for so long initially since it was still fairly modern at the time. Also, what caused that bent fender? Well it sat the first time because he, in his younger years, had a fondness for running from the cops, none could catch him in that Fury either. Usually they chased him and his friends (who also had cars that packed some serious muscle) in attempts to break up drag racing on these remote N. Carolina back roads. Why have a car with that much horsepower if you don't put it to use?
The fender damage was a result of these episodes with the law and the car wasn't just sitting, it was being hidden behind the house away from the eyes of the law and it must've taken years for the heat to cool down to a point where he felt comfortable about putting it back out there. In the mean time, his 1972 3-speed 340 Duster filled in nicely while things cooled down and it is sitting outside here next to "Big Blue".
My Dad bought this 1965 Sport Fury new and since I was born in 1969 this car has always been in my life. He taught my Mom how to drive in this thing. By the way, I have never driven it even until this day though I (and my brother) inherited it when Dad passed away in 2012.
To say that Dad loved this car is an understatement. He called it "Big Blue". A man doesn't keep a car for 46 years without having a tremendous amount of love for it. My earliest memories of it were of it sitting behind our house with a mangled left front fender. I don't recall seeing him drive it until well after my brother was born in 1972 so around 1976 would've been the first time. I never saw my Mom drive it either, ever. Weird right? I figured he or my Mom had wrecked it and he had no interest in getting it fixed. It just sat there with it's color fading away, bent up fender and tires going flat.
It gets weirder though. My Dad and his brothers would line up cans a few feet from the front of where it sat and shoot at them, they never hit the car though. By around 1976 the car was a rusting away, wrecked piece of junk that apparently hadn't been moved in or even cranked in years. Then one Saturday me and my brother woke up, ate, watched some cartoons then went outside where Dad was standing around joking with his buddies. He asks them,
"How much do y'all wanna bet that Big Blue will fire right up?"
None of them thought it would, but it did. Obviously this was me and my brothers first time ever hearing it and it sounded perfect. A few weeks later it looked perfect. This was the first time he restored it, in 1976. He drove it for a short while and then it sat for a few years more and he restored it again. Then it sat yet again.
Just before he passed he had started restoring it again and now it's up to me and my brother to finish it. He really did love it, so much so that he preferred to not drive it but instead brag and show it off to his friends which, in the long run, kept the mileage very, very low. In most of the pictures that we have of him guess what else was in those pictures.
Ultimately, we laid my Father to rest with the likeness of "Big Blue" engraved on his tombstone.
I always wondered why it sat for so long initially since it was still fairly modern at the time. Also, what caused that bent fender? Well it sat the first time because he, in his younger years, had a fondness for running from the cops, none could catch him in that Fury either. Usually they chased him and his friends (who also had cars that packed some serious muscle) in attempts to break up drag racing on these remote N. Carolina back roads. Why have a car with that much horsepower if you don't put it to use?
The fender damage was a result of these episodes with the law and the car wasn't just sitting, it was being hidden behind the house away from the eyes of the law and it must've taken years for the heat to cool down to a point where he felt comfortable about putting it back out there. In the mean time, his 1972 3-speed 340 Duster filled in nicely while things cooled down and it is sitting outside here next to "Big Blue".
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I say, if the 26yo wants to pay... let him... 
