Almost all of our Foundation cars have been located through people I’ve met at car shows or have been brought to specific auctions throughout the country. Very few were owned by people I associated with in my younger days, when I was with several oval racetracks and raced each week at dragstrips throughout New England and even the NHRA Nationals in Indianapolis, Indiana.
I had received my engineering degree in 1966 and then took a job at St. Regis Paper Corp. in Bucksport, Maine. The job was postponed for a year while I served in the United States Air National Guard in Bangor, Maine. But as of January 1, 1968, I started working at the paper mill. That first year I learned three things. First was that I could build a reasonably good race car, second was that I could drive the damn thing, and third was that I hated the corporate atmosphere of large business. Therefore, I quit St. Regis in early 1969 and opened a shop in the small town of Bucksport where I could fix cars and work on my race cars.
As you can expect, the days were spent trying to make a buck and the nights were spent spending that buck on race engines and race cars. Soon, the days were filled with several different products that I tried to sell, ranging from weekly publications for race tracks to ads for the Miss America Pageant to the “Ames Powerpak” (a device to convert your alternator into a 110-volt, DC provider). All these ideas worked but didn’t make money, especially to support drag race cars!
I learned a lot, however, especially from the guys that hung around the shop helping me at night. One of them was only in grammar school. His name was Dennis Boyle. His dad ran a gas station and auto shop and they lived a very short distance up the street. Dennis gave me a lot of ideas that were followed by, “My father would have done it that way.”
Anyway, Joan and I moved down to Marlborough, New Hampshire, in 1975 and I lost touch with the Bucksport crew. In 1989, fourteen years after leaving the area, I got a call from Dennis. Just hearing his voice brought back the so-called good old days.
“Dennis – how are you and what’s happened to you since I left?”
He explained that he had joined the service and was discharged in 1979. As soon as he arrived home, he headed to Dutch Chevrolet, Inc. in Belfast, Maine, and ordered a new Z28 Camaro. He got the 350 cubic inch engine with 4-barrel carb – four speed transmission plus an additional fourteen accessories. He loved the car and left it untouched, but drove it for only one year before asking his dad if he could store it at his house, since Dennis had a new girlfriend. Well, you know what happened. Yup, he got engaged, got married, and then, by 1989, they were expecting their first child.
He had recently heard that I was building a collection of classic cars and he would sell us the car if I would keep it in untouched condition. I was back in Maine the next day. I also loved the car. We checked it out from front to rear, bought it, trailered it home, and stored it in building 2.
Written By Steve Ames, 1999
Addendum No. 1 – The Foundation building, which is a secure, controlled environment – temperature, humidity, light, and fire suppression – was completed in 2012. The Camaro is now in row 1 at the Foundation building and still has the mileage it had in 1981, which is 9,683 miles.
Addendum By Steve Ames, 2017
Last Edited: July, 2024, JA