My first car fooled a lot of people. Got a lot of derisive remarks too until you went for a ride with me or saw it take off from a standstill.

I had a 1979 Chrysler LeBaron Town and Country Station Wagon. It was cream colored with the wood trim and actually pretty good tint on the windows. Turns out after checking the VIN that it had the same high performance engine and transmission package as the highway patrol cars of that year.

I think I have a pic of it somewhere.

The only mod that I did to the car was install air shocks on the rear to raise the low rearend that was typical for those cars.

It was a lot of fun to drive too. On a remote road once from stoplights, I beat a mustang not once, not twice, not three times (he tried a rolling start), but 4 times! By the time we got to the 5th light he was really giving the car a visual once over and scratching his head.

The only irritating thing about the car was that it used double belts on the engine. There was just enough gap between the a/c compressor and alternator (if I remember correctly) to set up a slight vibration at idle with the a/c on. Just enough to drive you crazy. At one point I was going to try and find a dual pulley arrangement and weld it on the engine to fix it, but unfortunately never got the chance.

With a lot of highway miles I averaged 13 to 14mpg. On one trip I got 18 and was thrilled (must have been a lot of down hill, lol).