Sports cars meet Sportsmen

The Dallas Morning News ran a feature story on Feb. 2 about sports celebrities and their muscles.

No, not the ones on their bodies - rather, the ones in their garages. The story, titled Dallas Mavericks' Dampier big on muscle cars, featured Dallas Mavericks all-star Erick Dampier.

Dampier has wise words for those seeking advice that I myself would suggest when shopping around for a car you plan to restore:

"A lot of [muscle] cars cost a lot of money," he said. "If you go buy a car and it needs a lot of restoration to it, that's where a lot of the money comes in. But if you find one with a good solid body that you don't have to do a lot to, you just give it a little care, and you can turn it into a project car."

Also, I would add traveling to northern states and checking online at www.collectorcartrader.com and related sites are instances where you might come across a real ruby in the raw.

The reason for checking the northern United States is because many older people have cars like these in their garages that they no longer use (the weather there isn't as kind to old joints as Florida's tropical climate), so they're usually in pretty good condition and the older folks tend to be more reasonable in their pricing too.