I was into cars since my earliest childhood. At 4, I was already a pro: I "borrowed" my uncle's car and managed to start it and take off (folks, never leave a car crazy kid alone in the car with the keys in the ignition, even for a minute, even if you're just a few feet away). At 14, I started saving my pennies from all the little after school jobs, and at 17 I bought my first car with my own money. It was just a used car, but it was very special to me because it was my first. I drove it for five years until the engine died, and was always sorry for letting it go instead of repairing it.



Since then I had many other cars, including some vintage ones ('58 Bel Air, '69 Catalina, etc.). They came and went, but after a while, I started to really miss my old Monte. In over 25 years, I had never seen another in that exact color combination, yellow with black cloth interior. For some reason, these cars are far more common in 70's colors like polyester pantsuit blue, squished avocado green, generic tan and burned prune juice burgundy. These tend to look dated rather than classic, especially the ones with vinyl interiors and Landau vinyl roofs, which are inevitably found cracked, greasy and peeling. A lot of Montes were also modified and hot-rodded with absolutely no taste or appreciation. So when a couple of years ago I saw this nice, clean, all-original Monte in the exact same colors as my first one, I just couldn't pass it up. What a blast from the past! Quarter of a century later, it's good to have my baby back again. I enjoyed my Bel Airs and Catalinas, but this time it's personal.

The car is bone stock with the original 305 V8. A proverbial southern "little old lady car", it had only 32K miles when I bought it. I'm the second owner. It already gets lots of nice comments at shows - there is always a whole row of Corvettes and '57's, but mine is usually the only '79 Monte.

Third generation Montes are very underrated, I think. They're just the right size. Those classic coke bottle lines look great on them, they have their own understated elegance. And they pretty much define the end of Detroit's golden age. These were the last classic Chevys. There's a quarter century between the two pics. She may not be universally appreciated yet, but time is on her side