Full disclosure: usually magazine features are fairly sterile things, devoid of much emotion and full of endless details about the build. The author typically refers to the magazine as an entity, like “we saw this…” or “we asked that.”
At RPM we’ve worked to change that over the past 17 years by building personality into our features, but this will take the experience that much further as the views and opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of RPM Magazine. Instead, they’re all mine.
The first time I laid eyes on retired auto mechanic Terry Podschweit’s beautiful 1967 Mustang you see here, I was blown away. At the tender age of 11, I had been to the 1986 Street Machine Nationals in Du Quoin, Illinois and fell absolutely head-over heels in love with prostreet. My dad had taken me to the show, and it required a total of about 30 seconds to realize I was enamored with pretty much anything with fat tires tucked up under the quarter panels.
The next spring, my dad purchased a well-executed pro street build of his own: a blue metallic 1966 Nova with a mildly cammed 350. We hit the show and cruise circuit later that summer of 1987, frequenting several local events within driving distance of our hometown Harrisburg, Illinois, less than 50 miles from Du Quoin.
Also within that 50 mile radius was the small town of West Frankfort, Illinois, home of the Redbirds—and Terry Podschweit. At one of the first shows we attended, I spotted the compact and wiry Podschweit and his blown and then black classic ’Stang from across the fairgrounds. With flawless gloss black sheet metal, polished Centerlines, and a whining Dyers supercharger poking through the hood, I was pretty sure my dad’s car had lost the pro street class before the judging even began. I was right. Not only did Podschweit beat us at that show, it seemed like he was at every other show we attended that summer, too. And every show, the result was the same: Podge’s Mustang: first place. Everyone else: thanks for coming.
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