My old pal, Gary Guffey passed this week on Wednesday. None of you here knew him but for several years in our twenties we ran together, some of it in the most beater white '72 Pinto wagon you can imagine. We used to drive it as a field car on the lakeshore or in a huge high school parking lot in roundy-round ice storm racing. We drag raced (street raced too) a LOT using his '70 Boss 302 Mustang or my AMC Javelin and AMX cars. He would have fit right in here if he had known about the site. I still remember coming down a mountain one night in his brand new Firebird through some of the wildest curves and loops I've ever gone through, he drove over the edge but never lost it. I was white knuckle terrified, no way can I drive that fast around corners, there were maybe 10-12 on the way. We used up BOTH shoulders 100% to stay on the road within inches of cracking up and never got less than 105 mph (my job to watch as we got faster and faster every time we did it) all the way down. Most of it was at 120. I would have never dreamed a factory stock '74 350 inch low spec Firebird had that amount of performance in it and he used every last bit. Back in town we set up a race down the mountain when two Mustangs started lipping us off later. We went right back out and raced again, passing the two Mustangs up almost instantly; within 3 turns their lights were gone. When they didn't show up we went back to find one had flipped several times, narrowly missing any bad injuries but scaring the living daylights out of the 4 un-seatbelted people in the car. It was a sobering reality check but the point is, Gary had the stuff. Other things like Boss 305 inch motor at 8000 rpm and 6.20 gears and 32X14 inch slicks all at once and the resultant millennium falcon tunnel vision that acceleration does when it bleeds the blood out of your brain come to mind. We did lots of stuff like that. The 454 Corvette with one of the first sets of Manley BBC outboard pin boss pistons ever made, it ran in the nines with a two speed ATX. Hairy, man! GTX 440 with Kendig (Predator CV carb). A 12 second 1/4 mi. dead stock GTO w/400 and ATX, NO BODY, the frame only to make an awesome bench seat dune buggy. The 402 BBC Chevelle with Vega converter that ran twelves. The '63 390 Galaxie. Man we had an entire stream of multiplatform hotrods to play with. Every time I saw him he had a new project car........... ..and he was pestering me to help him do something to it.
At the funeral home gathering tonight I discovered that most of our youthful exploits are legendary with the extended family, many who heard my name treated me as though they'd known me forever even though I'd never met them before. Gary had been spreading those stories for years. What a guy. I'm putting this out there in web-land because if I don't I think I'll explode.
I am mostly by nature a loner but this guy was that one friend you get that can never be replaced ever. I gave him flak at times yet he always came back and I didn't deserve him as a friend. He greatly stimulated my mind; that allowed me to produce things and results I would have never dreamed of. I hope he forgives everything I've done to him, I know I sure do him, and miss him greatly. And you're right Gary, Ford DOES beat AMC, but only until the next time.......... .............. ........I got these new carbs, see......and.. .......wait 'til you see what I'm gonna do to THEM.......... .......