Muscle cars bring back that passion for power

Glory days, well they'll pass you by.

Glory days in the wink of a young girl's eye.

Kevin McLaren knows that Bruce Springsteen song by heart.

The 47-year-old Puyallup man now can measure his life in decades — married 21 years, with three kids ages 18 to 25. He has worked as an operator at a Tacoma oil refinery for the past 21 years.

But then he turns the ignition of his silver-and-black, 1971 Chevy Chevelle Super Sport with the 350-cubic-inch engine and dual exhaust.

What a sound of power and beauty. You can hear the rumble a block away. And just like that, it's 1979 again. The year he graduated from Foster High School in Puyallup. Friday nights cruising the loop.

Girls. Rock 'n' roll. Muscle cars.

Yeah, glory days.

There are a lot of McLarens in the world. And thousands of them, guys — mostly guys — who love to remember those times of youth, are getting together today through Sunday at the Puyallup Fairgrounds for the 21st year of the Goodguys Pacific Northwest Nationals.

McLaren will be among 2,500 owners showing off hot rods, custom cars and muscle cars on which they have lavished hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars. Last year's attendance at the event was 60,000.

The participants come from throughout the Northwest, although Puyallup is particularly well represented.

McLaren says Puyallup and muscle cars maybe go together because of the old raceway outside of town. It's a development now, but once upon a time hundreds of drivers went there and paid about $8 to drag race.

Now these guys are over 40. And they're willing to pay lots of money to keep those days alive.

McLaren bought his Chevelle for $14,200 in 1998 and has put an additional $8,000 into it, everything from new windshield and new upholstery to new bumpers. He's done most of the work himself, such as rebuilding the transmission.

Last year the McLarens of America put $38 billion into their cars, according to the Specialty Equipment Market Association. And that was up nearly 4 percent from the previous year.

So the mythology of what used to be the bigger, faster American car persists, even as the world turns back to tiny cars with tiny engines.

Can you imagine Steve McQueen driving a Toyota Prius in that classic chase scene in "Bullitt"? No, it had to be a 1968 Mustang GT 390 Fastback.

Once, McLaren took his Chevelle to a racetrack and floored it.

He got to 109 mph. He was just sort of in control of the car, as it was "catching air" and "dancing and drifting."

On a recent afternoon, McLaren and another Puyallup muscle-car owner, Larry Andren, 57, a Tacoma Police robbery detective, met up at Don's Drive-In right across from the Puyallup Fairgrounds.

Andren grew up in Tacoma, graduating in 1968 from Lincoln High.

This day he pulled up in a 1969 Chevy Rally Sport Camaro. It's got the 327-cubic-inch engine and "Hugger Orange" paint, so named by Chevy because the car "hugged" the road.

A cook from the drive-in came out to lovingly peruse the vehicles. A couple of women gave the thumbs up.

A 19-year-old, Blaine Jackson, looked in awe.

"They're beautiful," Jackson said. "They don't make them like that anymore. They're ... they're works of art."

The muscle era lasted from 1962 to 1971, said Roger Johnson, an Atlanta author who wrote "Muscle Cars by the Numbers."

Not every car from that era is a muscle car, of course. To qualify, Johnson said, a car has to have a V-8 engine that puts out at least 1 horsepower for every 10 pounds of vehicle weight. And no four-door sedans here, thanks. Muscle cars always are two-door.

In 1971, Johnson said, Detroit quit making some of the most famous big engines.

"The manufacturers felt the wrath of the insurance companies, emission laws and the energy crunch," he said.

These days, muscle-car owners like Andren and McLaren don't use their muscle cars for daily driving, but to take them to shows and for maybe a little weekend cruising.

Why not splurge a little as you near retirement age?

"When growing up in '68, '69, '70, these were the cars that grabbed your attention in the showroom," Andren said. "But you couldn't afford them. Now you're in the financial position in life where you can step up and get what you want. This is a piece of America."

Says McLaren: "It's about memory."

Memories like when McLaren was 19 and met his future wife, Cari. She was driving a red 1965 Mustang.

"Who's that little redhead?" he asked a buddy. The buddy replied, "Oh, no, you're not playing around with her." And McLaren said, "Yes, I am."

Kevin and Cari McLaren now go together to car shows.

And one night 10 years ago, the couple was having "pillow talk," and Cari suddenly said, "Why don't we buy a muscle car?"

Wow.

"I sat straight in bed when she said that," he remembers. "Then she said we should buy a Chevelle, because she remembered that's what I drove when we were dating."

They've never regretted it.

Glory days, well they'll pass you by.

Glory days in the wink of a young girl's eye.

But that's no reason that a once-young girl can't remember them, too.

Erik Lacitis: 206-464-2237 or elacitis@seattletimes.com