How one family found unity in a Ford Mustang
Three brothers bond over their shared passion for iconic muscle cars. They frequently travel to car shows around the country together.
Fox – 13 News
Editor’s note: Laura Lane is on vacation this week, so we visited the My Favorite Ride archives for this classic column from November 2024.
David Bisch, a retired geologist from Indiana University, was part of the team that invented the portable X-ray diffraction device that NASA deposited on Mars to analyze minerals on the surface of the solar system’s red planet.
This Bloomington, Indiana resident has two great cars in his garage. One is a pristine, original 1967 GTO parked next to a 2008 Copper Mica Red Mazda Miata. He has driven the ragtop 15,000 miles since purchasing it in 2010.
Bish enjoys the nimble two-seater, and not just on sunny days. Heck, on a 30-degree sunny day in January, you might see him driving from top to bottom with the heater in his Miata on its highest setting. gloves. hat. coat. A refreshing cold air swirls.
“I don’t understand how people can keep their cars away all winter,” he says.
Next is GTO. Scientists might expect to drive a more practical car, such as a Volvo. Well, he is. Bish and his wife own a reliable 1994 Volvo 850 sedan that they purchased new in Santa Fe, New Mexico, before moving to Bloomington.
They keep their Volvo parked in the garage attached to their home. The Miata and GTO are always under cover and stored in a second garage along with a 1958 Seeburg hi-fi jukebox that loads and plays a selected 45 rpm record when you press two square buttons (first a letter, then a number).
I listened to Bruce Springsteen and Aretha Franklin. I had to select a song and press a button. It was like traveling back in time to the 1960s and 70s when jukeboxes provided musical entertainment. 10 cents a song, or 3 cents a quarter. Sometimes 1 nickel each.
Back to GTO. Bish started looking for classic cars in 2008 without much in mind. “I’ve always been interested in it, but I’ve never had it,” he says. He drove a 1967 Buick Special through high school, college and graduate school, and sold it in 1984. It was a 17 year old used car with 220,000 miles on it. Nothing special.
“I sold it for about $2,000, which is what I paid for it new,” he said. Bish bought a new Toyota Camry.
A year into their search, when they found a 1967 Pontiac GTO for sale in Cleveland, Bish and his wife, Karen, drove 360 miles to see the car in person. They took it for a test drive. “My wife said I was smiling the whole time I was driving,” Bish said.
The seller offered the car a fair price and told Mr. Bish that he would receive a personal check. When Bish offered to arrange for the car to be taken to Bloomington, the man said he would be able to safely drive the mechanically sound car to his new home.
Bish enjoyed seven hours on the highway, getting thumbs-up from other drivers. The car was built with most of the General Motors extras available in 1967, including power steering, power disc brakes, and air conditioning, so the ride was smooth.
When purchased new at Weaver Watson Pontiac in Clinton, New York, the base price was $2,935, plus a $61.20 destination charge. Additional options added $1,131.86 to the price of the well-equipped muscle car.
Since purchasing the vintage Pontiac in 2009, Bish has tracked down some special memorabilia related to GTO’s beginnings. An old leather key chain engraved with the dealer’s name, a 1950s metal license plate frame from the dealer, and yes, a book of matches from a Don Watson Pontiac. He buys a matchbook online for $2 and keeps it in his ashtray.
Back in October, Bish was tempted to buy another vintage car, a 1979 Avanti II he had seen at a winery car show. He has admired the avant-garde design of Studebaker’s Avanti since the 1960s. But he left.
“There’s no place to park that Avanti,” Bish said. A Miata, GTO, and Volvo take up all the space in his garage.
Want to talk about cars and trucks? Contact My Favorite Ride reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.
