New chapter on the 67 hemi gtx...

[black69]

I never knew the first days of my car, until this past weekend, when I got to speak with the best friend of the deceased original owner.

He said they both managed a dragstrip in southern IL from the 60s to 70s and my car is very well recorded in pictures (it was always at the track when he was working). They staged all the cars that ran at that time between the 2 of them. That was the first good news as he gave me the name of the person that collected all the pictures.

I also learned some interesting stuff too, about how my car was ordered in 67. The best friend was associated with the building of 1 of 2 factory special built 65 barracudas and helped him get the car at cost (he worked at the dealership).

Chrysler supplied the local dealership with one of the 2 cars made (twice the body welds, special brakes, etc) and he did the engine in that car. Both those cars did very very well in 1965 SCCA racing (I think they captured the championship title). That car was silver with black stripes, hit 140mph at meadowdale with a bored out 273. My car's color scheme was inspired by 'that' car (picture attached, look for the black stripe on the roof)and came from the same dealership that managed the silver car.

How cool is that! Thought I would share. And as always, my wife rolls her eyes...(again).

-bob

[mockingbird812]

Good stuff Bob. Congrats!

[black69]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: mockingbird812</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Good stuff Bob. Congrats! </div></div>

thanks sam. It took me quite a while to find a picture of the 65 barracuda, and it was actually on the meadowdale site. That car seems to be 'lost'. Once you won something (like these guys did), chrysler gave you all kinds of cool stuff (engines, brakes, etc). He said some stuff would just show up and the factory guys would say 'try this'. But it did not exist on the market yet. Must have been fun. Would be cool if that was Smokey standing by the silver car but I dont think that is him. Hat looks right.

[Postsedan]

Bob,

Great Stories, Thanks for sharing. I`d say that is Mark Johnson
standing next to that silver car [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/naughty.gif[/img] (Looks just like Mark)

Dan