Grand Spaulding Dodge, Six Years Later

[@husqv5147]

What a sad end for such an iconic part of the Mopar Muscle Movement! Thank you Mr. Norm for all that you contributed!!

[@StratBurst92]

Even us east coat gearheads had heard of Mr. Norms. One could only imagine how many Challengers, Darts, Demon 340s, & Chargers were sold there., I had a 1969 Roadrunner.

[@johnh6905]

Those were the good old days that is were I bought my 1969 hemi superbird greatest day of my life still have it.

[@Fffooprraacuda]

wow matching number hemi superbird priceless

[@Joesmusclecargarage]

1969 Superbird huh? That’s a good one, owning a car that never existed! Thanks for laugh rube! 🤣

[@raulfuentes4701]

Mr. Norm sold over 400 1970 TA Challengers.... amazing! Since only 2400 TA Challenger were ever built a one year production car.

[@paulbourgeois5712]

I don't even have words for how sad this is...yes, everything changes, but what THIS place meant, the legend that is Mr. Norm's Grand Spaulding Dodge was, in American muscle car history...in terms of Mopar Muscle History, if Mr. Norms did not exist, Chrysler would have had to invent it...Epic Chrysler Legend...My hat is off in deep, genuine respect, to a man that helped to deliver the legacy of the muscle cars we know it today

[@mtngoat58]

I grew up in that hood in the 60,s remember well the smell of tire smoke and the cars coming and going --lot was full of roadrunners and chargers and challengers

[@drblake1977]

+mtngoat58 I really wish that I could have been there to see them days OF ALL THE MUSCLE CARS and tire smoke, at Mr. Norms. Definitely would be a dream come true. I love Mopar.

[@mtngoat58]

yes wouldnt change that part of my life for nothing didnt know it then but now ----lol

[@dicarlo57]

+mtngoat58 i was in detroit to swee a ddrag race in 1972 where a gto got its ass kicked by a superbee. when the driver got out we saw that he was chopped, channeled, lowered, shaved ,nosed and decked and had an aluminum head

[@spitsomefire]

I used to work at a shop by Division And Keeler and i remember going into work this was around 1995 and they actually considered buying the building but they turned down due to the crime rate of that area

[@neilbenoit7042]

Looks like an area you dont want to be anywhere near!RIP Mr Norm.

[@artistmac]

There isn't any place in the six county Chicago area where I don't watch my back, especially carrying video equipment.

[@patrickwayne3701]

@@artistmac I work up there occasionally and I am always on watch for any indication that things are getting 'busy'. Hellish place these days.

[@robertgage7432]

Sad, For a brief, shining moment in time we gear heads had it all. Now it lies in ruins.

[@MikeJBlues]

It should be made into a Mopar museum

[@Fffooprraacuda]

great idea but from the sounds of things you have to have the Navy seals for security

[@nozzledrich]

@@Fffooprraacuda I can see it now, one entrance and just wide enough for 1 person at a time to enter, a no mans land of trip mines overlooked by a guard towers outfitted with M60'. 50 killer guard dogs and black mambas roaming the museum at night. You just have to love people with emotional ambition😍

[@Fffooprraacuda]

what a shame a piece of American muscle car history I never met mr. Norm if I could go back in time I would definitely bought a car off hem or took the Mopar I was driving to him nice to see the Mopar guys saying nice things about Grand Spalding Dodge what a legend and so was Woodward avenue Mopar dominated it to

[@raulfuentes3493]

Norman sold over 300 Six Pak Challengers in the 70s out of this building.

[@dmk7700]

Gritty surroundings - makes me want to come back to my home Chicago.

[@williamtiedje9446]

I worked at G/S Dodge after starting a week earlier at Nickey Chevrolet on Irving Park Road ... The place was a ZOO with Hot Rods all over the place ... Worked in New Car "get ready" was a good place to work at Nickey they treated you like they owned you not so at G/S ...

[@davestampe3835]

I called on Grand Spaulding Dodge in the fall of 1975 as a sales rep for a van conversion company. Wow, it is so sad to see this video. The auto and racing history that was Mr. Norm's is still here. I still recall the awesome radio commercials on WLS and Mr. Norm's the High Performance King! The radio commercials were broadcast on my car radio in South Dakota in the early 70's, it was those commercials that drove me to call on the sales manager at Grand Spaulding Dodge later. This property should be brought back to life. Things do change, I am very sad to see this video.

[@artistmac]

+Dave Stampe This would be the perfect place for a Mopar show. With some persuasion, Norm himself might get on board. It's certainly worked for Nickey Chevrolet.

[@fratzogmopars]

Grand and Spaulding is a very bad neighborhood, not a good idea to hold anything there.

[@retthok]

This is the Chicago not many out of towners see. There are lots of once thriving areas that now look like ghost towns in Chicago. Interesting that those buildings are still standing; wonder who pays the property taxes. Must be a good story behind it.

[@jaysmith179]

This is what happens when the Democrats take over.

[@patrickwayne3701]

Well,,, that city is very storied. But overall,,, yeah,,,, it's a testimony to what the party that brought you the KKK, and fought AGAINST the Civil Rights Act of '64, gave away 86 BILLION dollars of tax payer weapons to the terrorists who downed our towers and killed 13 young soldiers who were sacrificed by an incompetent alzheimers patient who has been a documented plagiarist for DECADES. AND NOW, 7.29 a gallon for the fuel that brings your groceries into your neighborhood. Sadly,, Lori Lightfoot is just one example of what that party produces. I bet if Norm Krause were to speak freely about what happened to his dealership property,,, it has ALLOT more to do with bad government than his willingness to 'allow' history to continue at that address. I have worked on and driven Grand Spaulding Dodges and Plymouths for years. I will NEVER try to return while the Government is against the people.

[@maximuswedgie5149]

Someone needs to purchase that and turn it into a Mopar museum. Like now. Graveyard Cars.

[@janebook294]

F ix I t A gain T ony has no interest in mopar has noop

[@ronnieseamands6]

So sad to see this.

[@jacklong866]

i had a 1972 challager from there damm wish i still had that car

[@raulfuentes3493]

Wow just across the street many documents were stored and were lost on T/a challengers.

[@oreokookie1000]

This would make a good church...they could have a custom rod show on sunday afternoon, and folks could hear some of the word

[@goslonomo]

Can we see Nickey Chevrolet (with the backwards"k")? How about US 30 Dragstrip? There were another hundred memorable (and not so memorable) dealer showrooms up and down Western Avenue. Rotting away like the US auto industry itself.

[@raulfuentes3493]

Norman sold over 300 hundred T/a s from th

[@davidhopson729]

Wonder what the inside of the dealership looks like.

[@artistmac]

Someday, I'm going to screw up the courage to go in. Probably get beaten to death by a squatter, but no guts, no glory, lol.

[@randallgreen6746]

Grand Spaulding Dodge looks like a Ghost town,

[@ronwashburn1978]

1969 superbird ?!!?

[@artistmac]

There were no 1969 Superbirds. Where'd you come up with that one? Previous comment?

[@ronwashburn1978]

That's what I was saying

[@patrickwayne3701]

@@artistmac yeah, a former commenter said he bought a 69 Hemi SuperBird there, and still had it 6 years ago. Just a troll trying to get something started.

[@gregorymeyer6341]

Leave government in charge that's what you get

[@artistmac]

Among the things that happen when you "leave government in charge" are the interstate highways that those 340, 383, 440 and Hemi Dodges wailed up and down on at three-digit speeds. If you have some specifics about how the government brought down this particular car dealer, let's hear them.

[@jaysmith179]

@@artistmac . If you have some specifics about how the government brought down this particular car dealer, let's hear them. Ok ,the Liberal Democrat tree huggers are against cars. Look what is going on today. They are against gas .That is why gas is going up. The Democrats are going to tax gas high and force electric cars on us.

[@artistmac]

@@jaysmith179 So, nothing to do with the fact that people stopped buying the muscle cars that Norm specialized in. Nothing to do with the fact that between 1975 and 1976, Japanese car sales in the U.S. doubled, and they've beein going up ever since.. That's all the government's fault. Got it.

[@patrickwayne3701]

@@artistmac it's very involved. But the government is only as 'good' as the people who compose it. If they fancy themselves better than the Founding Fathers who wrote the Constitution, you get Lori Lightfoot and Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff and Gerald Nadler and Chuck Schumer and it just keeps drilling to hell from THOSE despots. Crooks and carpetbaggers every one. I was a 12 yr old when the General Lee first took flight in 1978. Went to Grand Spaulding in 1989 to pay homage to my car's origin. Even THEN Chicago was becoming worse for people and better for crooked government. I am getting the drift you are pointing to the Jap cars as being 'better on fit and finish' and economy, rather than the Hemis and six packs and 340's of the day... all valid observations and the minutiae can be separated well into the night,,, but bad government is NOT going away by carping about bad design practices or build quality in American Cars.... it's a HUGE discussion and not one we'll fix here... but if your sister or Mother wouldn't be safe to walk home from work at 11pm,,, you have a neighborhood problem. People are not as good at heart as generally, they USED to be. People. Not products. The heart and mind. Run up and clobber the kid with the video camera? Or walk with him, and be a second set of eyes for him to be safe? It's a human nature thing. And in Chicago, the battle rages on.