{"id":83564,"date":"2024-12-09T09:10:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-09T14:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=83564"},"modified":"2024-12-02T09:37:19","modified_gmt":"2024-12-02T14:37:19","slug":"high-school-sweethearts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/owners-clubs\/2024\/12\/high-school-sweethearts.html","title":{"rendered":"High School Sweethearts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ah yes, high school, the fun days of a bygone era when discovering who we were was a daily occurrence. From those awkward freshmen years to the senior swagger strutting down the hallways, it was an enlightening time. High school also gave us our first kiss and maybe even our first love. While many relationships ended with a breakup letter passed discreetly during social studies class, some survived and weren\u2019t sealed with a ring or a bracelet. Rather it was a pair of headers and a set of mag wheels because in this case, the high school sweetheart was a cool muscle car and not the person you took to prom. At the 2024 Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals (MCACN)<\/a>, they had a special display of vehicles dubbed “High School Reunion”. It was dedicated to those who resisted the temptations of selling the car they owned in high school for college, marriage and other life-changing events.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Meet Clay King, a 51-year-old from the rural town of Brooksville, Kentucky. Back in 1991, he was a senior at Bracken County Schools and was wheeling a yellow 1973 Plymouth Barracuda. The journey of the Barracuda from over two decades ago and how it got into Clay\u2019s hands reads like a novel. \u201cI purchased my 1973 Barracuda in June of 1990 for $800.\u00a0This was actually my second car in high school as I had bought a 1977 Aspen R\/T in November 1989. My dad cosigned for a loan for the Barracuda and my payments were around $75 a month for one year!\u00a0When I purchased the Barracuda, it had just been painted and had a freshly rebuilt 318,\u201d said Clay. \u201cThe motor had not been started, the interior was out of the car and the wiring harnesses were in boxes along with many of the parts.\u00a0It was a true basket case.\u00a0It had fiberglass front fenders and the trunk had been welded shut and the gap filled with Bondo to give it a custom look.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Like many car guys we\u2019ve spoken to, they\u2019re always working on their rides to make them faster or look a certain way. \u201cFrom that first day of ownership, the car has been an ever-evolving project.\u00a0Over the years, I have replaced the floor pans from the firewall to the tail panel, one-quarter panel, a new trunk lid, fenders, hood, inner fenders, etc.\u00a0I had a roll cage installed and it now has a pump gas, naturally aspirated 508-cubic-inch engine based on a Mopar\u00ae<\/sub><\/strong> 440.\u00a0My good friend Luke Howard at Done Right Auto Body straightened the body lines and laid down a mile-deep Lemon Twist paint job in 2019. It turned out way better than I anticipated so I have put it in more car shows than I ever planned,\u201d laughed Clay.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Rather than cruise the high school parking lot or go profiling down his hometown\u2019s main street, Clay wanted to hit his local drag strip and went to Kentucky Dragway. \u201cWhen I first ran the car with the modified 318 in 1991, it ran 14.55 ET in the quarter-mile.\u00a0With the current 508-cubic-inch Mopar big block engine and full exhaust, it now runs 10.73 @ 122 miles per hour. This is an all-steel street car with a full interior, that gets driven fairly often. I like to bolt on the slicks or drag radials and go bracket racing. I\u2019ve won numerous times at many events, including \u2018Moparty\u2019 at Beech Bend Raceway,\u201d noted Clay.<\/p>\n\n\n

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So what made Clay hang on to his super-cool and super-fast 1973 Barracuda all these years? Maybe it was never letting go of his first love that gave him quite a ride. \u201cI\u2019ve owned the car for a long time and it\u2019s part of me. I purchased the Barracuda the summer between my junior and senior years of high school. I almost sold the car when I was in college but I\u2019m so glad I kept it.\u00a0I have made so many friends in the Mopar hobby and built lifelong friendships from working on the Barracuda. I love racing along with showing this car. My wife, Lori, is my biggest supporter when I race and show the car and we enjoy spending time together at car events.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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So after hanging on to his “high school sweetheart” all these years, Clay has no plans to sell it anytime soon. He\u2019s been employed by the school system for over 25 years holding various positions including bus driver, math teacher, assistant principal and principal.\u00a0He\u2019s currently the superintendent of schools for Bracken County School District and drives his high school Barracuda as much as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The outlook of Clay\u2019s Barracuda is good. \u201cMy future plans are to continue enjoying the car with my family and eventually leave it to my twin sons Carson and Cody.\u201d We think Clay\u2019s kids will be fighting over who takes the Barracuda to high school when they turn 16!<\/p>\n\n\n

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Here are more pics of Clay\u2019s awesome Plymouth Barracuda over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ah yes, high school, the fun days of a bygone era when discovering who we were was a daily occurrence. From those awkward freshmen years to the senior swagger strutting down the hallways, it was an enlightening time. High school also gave us our first kiss and maybe even our first love. While many relationships ended with a breakup letter passed discreetly during social studies class, some survived and weren\u2019t sealed with a ring or a bracelet. Rather it was a pair of headers and a set of mag wheels […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":83570,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2624],"tags":[2949],"class_list":["post-83564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-owners-clubs","tag-plymouth-classics"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/HighSchoolSweethearts_Feature.jpg","social_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/HighSchoolSweethearts_Social.jpg","icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83564"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83564"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83605,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83564\/revisions\/83605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}