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 2008 Mopar Nationals   Bob's MoPar Muscle Page    About Bob

(A look back at the first website I created)

My first website was a learning experience. I had never done any website creation before, and I knew "next to nothing" about how to build a website.

Keep in mind, that this was early in 1997... and the internet was not as big as it is now. There weren't many sites that dealt with Classic Chrysler information at that time, and of those that you could find... most of them were only one or two pages with a few pictures, and very little information.

This is the story of "Bob's MoPar Muscle Page"

My equipment was "state of the art" for the times:

Toshiba Infinia Home PC Model 7160
(A Beautiful Machine back in 1996, let alone now!)

(Identical unit to mine, except mine did not have the LCD
screen on the "in touch" module)

Product Specs:
Processor

CPU Pentium
Clock speed 166 MHz
L2 cache  256-KB write-back
pipeline burst SRAM


Memory

Standard RAM 16 MB of EDO DRAM
Maximum RAM 128 MB

Storage

3-1/2-inch Enhanced IDE HDD, Capacity  1.9 GB  (2 million bytes)

User Interface 

InTouch module (Optional LCD InTouch module available at extra cost)

Audio

Audio Support Full-duplex 16-bit Sound Blaster Pro-compatible audio system with SRS 3-D sound, Wave-table Software support

Graphics

S3 Virge 3-D graphics accelerators, 2 MB of high-speed 50-ns EDIO video memory. Supports up to 1280 by 1024 pixels by 256 colors

CD-ROM

Integrated 8× CD-ROM drive

Communications 

28.8-Kbps fax/modem (software upgradable to 33.6 Kbps DSVD), Full-duplex speakerphone Answering-machine application

External Interfaces

One serial (16550 UART-compatible) port
One parallel (IEEE-P1284-compliant ESP-compatible) port
One external SVGA monitor port
One PS/2 mouse port
Two universal serial bus (USB) ports (USB 1, not 2... and not fully supported by Win 95)
One PS/2 keyboard port
One external microphone jack (monaural)
One speaker out jack (stereo)
One line-in jack (stereo)
One MIDI/game port
AC IN plug

Operating System

Windows 95

Single Unit Price  $1999 M.S.R.P. 

I had a Toshiba Infinia 7160 desktop computer, that was only a few months old at the time that I decided to start a website.

It was running the new "high tech" OS of the times. Something called Windows 95 (a.k.a.=Windows Chicago), which was nicer than my previous Windows (Version 3.1).

My Toshiba also had the latest processor, something called the Intel "Pentium" chip. It ran at a blindingly fast 166 MHz speed. It was also equipped with the fastest modem at the time, at 28.8 Kbps. It also had fax and voice capabilities, with answering machine software included ... but I upgraded to a 56Kbps as soon as they came on the market. It had 16 Mgs. of RAM, but I soon spent a bundle of money to upgrade it to 32Mgs. of RAM. The gigantic 2 GB hard drive was very large for that time, but I thought I would need more storage... so I added an extra 1 GB Western Digital hard drive (over $300, when they first came out) from my previous 486 machine. It is amazing to think that they have "Thumb drives" much larger than both of those hard drives added together, for about $25 now. The video drivers let you display a whopping 256 colors! I did add an updated video card much later, when they were available.

I got a hell of a deal on it too... about $1800 including the upgraded 15" black monitor with built in speakers and microphone.

I think you get the point... The website was created on this Toshiba and uploaded via a dial up connection at 56K. State of the art back then... but who could use that setup today?

Just to get internet dial up access where I live (in B.F.E. RURAL Ohio) you had only one choice, without incurring long distance phone charges. It was $19/month for unlimited use, and they provided a couple of Megabytes of personal website space at that price. 

My computer had a version of Microsoft's "Front Page" loaded on it from the factory. So I started learning how to use it by tinkering around with it. The internet service provider offered just enough information in their tech FAQ's to get me started uploading. Later on, I upgraded to "Front Page 98".

I bought Paint Shop Pro... and started learning how to edit images, and make simple animations.

The background you see on this page, was one of the first background images I put together back in 1997. I have seen the same background used on many other sites since then, and just recently came across a website still using my background today. It does NOT bother me that my image was "borrowed" for use on other peoples sites. I take it as a compliment that they liked it so much that they wanted to use it on their site.

I made all sorts of cute animations for the website with Paint Shop Pro's "Animation Shop", so there were lots of those on the pages... an acceptable practice back then as long as the page would load fairly quickly using a 56K modem. Here's one example of an animation I found on the internet, that I "tweaked" to fit my website:

(It's hard to see with the light colored background, the guy is taking a leak on the Ford and GM logos)

The site grew over the next year. There were hundreds and hundreds of pictures added (remember... ALL at 56K!). I also added Information pages, VIN decoder(s), Broadcast Sheet information, Engine specs., and much more. I also added was a very large Classified Ads section, where visitors could place ads for FREE. Not one penny was ever accepted from any outside source, for any reason. All of the classified ads were posted by the webmaster by hand, with no automation... this was to keep the non MoPar content and spam off of the site. You must remember that back then there was no such thing as EBay Motors, so this was one of the biggest classified ad services (related to Classic Chrysler Cars and Parts For Sale) of the time. Some of the classified categories that were large enough to be given their own pages were: Cars Wanted, Cars For Sale, Parts Wanted, and Parts For Sale. There was also a very large section for "Visitor's MoPars". Other minor categories, such as Model Cars For Sale/Wanted, were also offered... but they were smaller than the "main" categories.

Following this paragraph is a link to an actual "Classified Ads" page from the website archives, just as it looked right before the website was no longer updated in 2000. All of the ads were placed in an 8 month period of time, and this is just ONE category. Ads were removed after approximately 9 months.

To view the archived page...  CLICK HERE
DO NOT attempt to write to anyone listed on the Vehicles For Sale page!
(It was published over 8 years ago, and the vehicles are long gone by now)
BUT NOTICE THE PRICES ON THESE CARS BACK IN THE YEAR 2000! 

The site soon outgrew the limited space provided by my ISP, so I branched out to other services that offered "free" space with very little advertising on them. I had some of the content on "Geo Cities" site, and some more content was placed on "Xoom". As you might have guessed, navigation through the site would be tough to follow, since it was split up between three different companies servers. So I placed crudely made navigation icons at the bottom of each page to lead you through the site like these:

(actions disabled, example only)

In addition I added simple drop down menu's to guide you to the exact area you wanted to visit, like this example:

Go to page: Bob's MoPar Muscle Page (entrance page & MOPAR webring) Bob's MoPar Muscle Page (main page) Information Pages Pictures archives Classified ads Latest visitors MoPars Past visitors MoPars Rarest of the rare, Chrysler Turbine car Vanishing Point, and other TV & Movie MoPars Links Page My past MoPars! "About Bob" Bio information
(actions disabled, example only)

The site was no longer updated after June 2000. I had been a Chrysler/Dodge dealership manager for the past 6 years, but I was offered (and accepted) a job delivering cars all over the United States on a car carrier... and didn't have the time required to update the site on my few days at home.

The servers continued to host what had been previously published, well past that date. Geo Cities and Xoom were up some days, and down some days... because of the very high traffic (bandwidth) the site generated. Eventually both Geo Cities and Xoom were sold in the years that followed, so that content went away forever first. The sites "Main" host, ERInet (my ISP, in Dayton, Ohio) was sold to another company in the early 2000's. The new owners changed the name of the company, but kept any websites that were hosted by ERInet up and running through mid 2006, when they finally dropped all of that content... thus bringing an end to "Bob's MoPar Muscle Page".

At it's "Peak", Bob's MoPar Muscle Page" had about 2000 unique visitors each week, from all over the world. As of 9/21/99 (seven years before the site's "End"), the site had visitors from: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, British Indian Ocean Territory, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Czeck Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungry, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Niue, Norway, Old Style Arpanet, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tonga, Trinidad (and Tobago), United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, USA (including hits from Commercial, Educational, Government, ISP's, Military, Networks, and Non Profit Organizations) and Uruguay. It also generated about 70-100 emails to the webmaster each week asking for information, or with information needed to place a classified ad.

Although those figures might seem small by today's "mega site" standards, it was a fairly large website in the mid to late 90's.  It was also about as much as one person with a steady full time job could handle in his spare time... and it was always free of charge to anyone who wanted to visit, or place a classified ad. From an idea in 1997, to what it became in 3 short years... I was, and still am proud of what it grew to be.

Thanks for visiting... and remembering the old site!