Oil Embargo of 1973

[rbarkley]

67 GT500 #861.

I talked with the 2nd owner of my car (Kevin Mahoney 1968-73).
Kevin mentioned that he rebuilt the original engine in 1968-69 time line,
but actually removed the engine/trans in 73 and replaced with a small block 289.

He said the gas crisis was a killer on big block cars and he could not afford to pay for the gas.
I don't recall the impact of that embargo as a 14 year old, but I do remember the
1979 crisis as I got into a fight with a line cutter! LOL!

Tried to find a Shelby in a gas line in 73 but the best I could do was a 68
Fastback and 66 coupe.

Anyone else with a Shelby that had a similar fate or story?

Ron

[Bob Gaines]

67 GT500 #861.

I talked with the 2nd owner of my car (Kevin Mahoney 1968-73).
Kevin mentioned that he rebuilt the original engine in 1968-69 time line,
but actually removed the engine/trans in 73 and replaced with a small block 289.

He said the gas crisis was a killer on big block cars and he could not afford to pay for the gas.
I don't recall the impact of that embargo as a 14 year old, but I do remember the
1979 crisis as I got into a fight with a line cutter! LOL!

Tried to find a Shelby in a gas line in 73 but the best I could do was a 68
Fastback and 66 coupe.

Anyone else with a Shelby that had a similar fate or story?

Ron

I bought my first Shelby in 1973 and it was being sold for that exact reason I found out after making the deal. That and he had the engine rebuilt with 11 to 1 pistons which forced me to retard the timing back so that it would not ping and run on premium of the day. I would save up for a 5 gallon can of race fuel to doctor 5 gallons of pump premium so I could advance the dist properly and could terrorize on the week ends. It ran great with the doctored fuel ,not so much with the dist retarded back and pump gas. It was very common in the mid 70's to find a GT500 with a smallblock engine retro fitted . I was helping a older family member hunt down 67 Shelby's in the 73 and 74 time frame and it was more common to find a GT500 in my area of the Midwest with a SB engine then a BB. That frame of mind lasted for a few years.

[propayne]

I also remember rarely being able to afford to completely fill up my Cougar then.

I almost never had a full tank, always limping around on a quarter tank of gas or less.

- Phillip

[Special Ed]

Back then we would only put 2 bucks worth of gas in our cars for fear of wrecking our car with a full tank of gas & on monday morning before school we would cruise to the local wrecker lot to see who wrecked over the weekend bad tires, alcohol & speeding was usually to blame.

[davez]

In that picture I count roughly 49 cars
7 are vw beetles and one vw wagon
Punch buggie red white blue black orange

[Side-Oilers]

Yes, $2 and $3 worth of gas at a time was the norm. Maybe on Friday nights $5.  I still have my old car's log books. 
Keep the weight down for street racing.  (That was our excuse, anyway.) 

In CA they had "even & odd" day rationing, depending on the last digit of your license plate number.  Of course, we just swapped plates around in our group of car buddies, whenever someone needed gas and it wasn't their official day. 

[greekz]

No Shelby back then, but a Boss 302.  Worked for a major oil company and caught a lot of flack from friends and family.  Had to wait on line just like everyone else.  That first embargo gave us(Texaco Inc) the incentive to explore alternate energy sources.  We did extensive research in coal, petroleum coke, natural gas, tar sands, and other heavy oils not suited for making gasoline.  Oil was one fuel used to make electricity and the industry was looking for alternatives.  That embargo actually expanded our research efforts and led us to explore alternate fuels for making electricity.  In later years, we were exploring converting natural gas to liquid fuels using a technology first explored by Germany during WWII.  Also, in the early 2000's working on fuel cell technology.  The 1973 embargo provided the push needed to explore alternatives.

Greek

[zray]

I was driving a '69 VW bug when the the embargo hit. As I recall, it took not long at all, maybe as little as  a few weeks for the gas prices max out and big block car prices to plummet. The uncertainty of how long it would last is what I remember most. 

Being out of step with conventional thinking,  I wasted no time in heading down to OKC's Hudiberg Chevy's used car lot and  traded in my little bug for a low mileage 1970 Olds 442 convertible**,  straight  across.

I didn't care a whit for what gas cost. I was working in the oil fields on a casing crew and could afford it.  There might have been lines at the pumps. If there were I've blocked it out.



Z

PS  that was the first, and last GM product I've owned

[J_Speegle]

67 GT500 #861.

I talked with the 2nd owner of my car (Kevin Mahoney 1968-73).
Kevin mentioned that he rebuilt the original engine in 1968-69 time line,
but actually removed the engine/trans in 73 and replaced with a small block 289.

Know a number of 67 Shelby's that were converted during that period. Some even changed the side stripes to match the new configuration. Just inspected one last years that was local that I never knew was a GT500 until he swapped it back to a 500.

At the same time I bought a fair number of big block cars and parts during the period. Friends in the hobby thought I was goofy for doing that - most were into only the early cars anyway and Mustangs and Shelby's built after 66 weren't very interesting to many of them at that time

As far as price my dad one day tried to impress on me and my brother the cost of being a grownup and the need for a good job by explaining at a gas station that its goign to cost you more that $10 to fill up your car one of these days     Well dad tried

[Steve McDonald Formally known as Mcdonas]

Has jumped up to over $.50 a gallon and I started driving my motorcycle since it got an easy 50 mpg. I was working in a Lincoln Mercury dealership and we used to get the guy with the gas station across the street to fill our cars up every couple of days with. $.05 premium per gallon paid to him directly
So gas was available, it just cost an arm and a leg. Almost bought a 68 KR convertible during that time for $600

[early67350]

The Oil Embargo was the reason I was able to get my shelby.  I constantly talked about those cars ever since I had gotten a ride in a '69 GT 350, that a brother of a girl I was dating had purchased.   I'm sure family and friends were sick of hearing my stories of the impression it left on me.   Well, a year later, I graduated college in May '73.  With debt and no job, I moved back home for the summer.  My dad, who was totally disabled in a car accident (not his fault) in my high school sophomore year, had finally received his settlement from that accident in Sept. of '72.  My parents were able to pay off their debts, their mortgage and still had money to put in the bank for their family of 7.  I guess he was always listening to my droning about how these cars were the best thing going, and one day he saw a for sale ad in the local paper for a 67 Shelby GT 350.  The asking price was steep and firm at $1600.  But, he went to take a look.  He was able to get the vehicle for $1050.  Still had all the parts except the steering wheel and under dash gauges.  When I got home that night he showed me the car and said we were going to "flip it" because he could make some money.  So, he put a $100.00 Earl Schieb paint job on it and set it in the front yard for 2K.  Yeah, that was when the oil embargo hit and no one was interested.  I asked him if he would keep it for me and I would pay him that money, plus interest as quickly as I could get on my feet.  It took me about 3 years but he signed it over to me.  I owned car #0022 for 43 years and it became part of our family of 7 people.  I sold it 3 years ago.  (Got sick of the 4 speed due to my age, but also it was only becoming another place to store stuff).  To this day I still can't believe I was so fortunate to have gotten one, then to find out the history of the early cars, and to have met so many friends because of it. Even though the embargo was something that most people have bad memories of, my memories only bring up these happy 43 years.

[texas swede]

I remember the oil embargo from 73. Lived in Sweden and drove a 66 Mustang with a V-8 that needed a lot of gas.
The Swedish Government issued rationing coupons for each car owner and had no feeling for giving us American car
owners more than the Volvo and SAAB owners got. Drove my Mustang to work everyday so I was very close to run out of
coupons when they stopped this insanity.
Texas Swede

[6s1802]

I worked at a Chevron station. My '57 Skyliner always had a full tank.

[Shelby_r_b]

The Oil Embargo was the reason I was able to get my shelby.  I constantly talked about those cars ever since I had gotten a ride in a '69 GT 350, that a brother of a girl I was dating had purchased.   I'm sure family and friends were sick of hearing my stories of the impression it left on me.   Well, a year later, I graduated college in May '73.  With debt and no job, I moved back home for the summer.  My dad, who was totally disabled in a car accident (not his fault) in my high school sophomore year, had finally received his settlement from that accident in Sept. of '72.  My parents were able to pay off their debts, their mortgage and still had money to put in the bank for their family of 7.  I guess he was always listening to my droning about how these cars were the best thing going, and one day he saw a for sale ad in the local paper for a 67 Shelby GT 350.  The asking price was steep and firm at $1600.  But, he went to take a look.  He was able to get the vehicle for $1050.  Still had all the parts except the steering wheel and under dash gauges.  When I got home that night he showed me the car and said we were going to "flip it" because he could make some money.  So, he put a $100.00 Earl Schieb paint job on it and set it in the front yard for 2K.  Yeah, that was when the oil embargo hit and no one was interested.  I asked him if he would keep it for me and I would pay him that money, plus interest as quickly as I could get on my feet.  It took me about 3 years but he signed it over to me.  I owned car #0022 for 43 years and it became part of our family of 7 people.  I sold it 3 years ago.  (Got sick of the 4 speed due to my age, but also it was only becoming another place to store stuff).  To this day I still can't believe I was so fortunate to have gotten one, then to find out the history of the early cars, and to have met so many friends because of it. Even though the embargo was something that most people have bad memories of, my memories only bring up these happy 43 years.

I'm so glad you posted this! I was going to share your story, but you did MUCH more justice than I could ever do second hand.

BTW - 0022 is living a great life. In fact, I took her out and stretched her legs last night 👍🏻.

[SFM6S087]

During the embargo I would see ads in the paper with big block Shelbys for half of what they were worth. I knew those were bargain prices and the embargo wouldn't last forever. But I didn't have enough money to buy one at the time. Missed opportunity.

Steve