Pavillions 17 Feb 07

[Canuck]

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Terrific and rare car owned by Don Petty (Richard's cousin). He had a crowd the entire time around this car. There were only about a dozen of these put together. This has the 413 cu. in. "long-short ram" induction system with 2 four barrels and develops 400 HP. The car has a console mounted FOUR speed. Chrysler did not have an appropriate 4 speed for all of this torque, so they went to the French to provide this. Lines on this car are other-worldly. The dash instrumentation is known as the "juke box" configuration. My photo has some glare, but it is a very unique way to present engine data. Mr. Petty has an extensive collection of '300' cars including a convertible twin to this.













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I have been to Don's house and seen his impressive collection of 300's and some rare Hemi Mopars.
The car pictured here is one of 9 factory 4 speed cars that were preparred by Chrysler that would be considered prototypes. 6 were placed in the hands of selected owner/race driversfor the 1960 Speed week at Daytona to compete in the flying mile. These cars averaged speeds of 145 MPH with the record going to Greg Zigler of Illinois with a top speed of 147.

A 7th car was used by Andy Granatelli for several years and competed at Bonneville and achieved a speed of 194 MPH when fitted with dual Paxton Superchargers. Cars 8 and 9 were a hardtop and a vonvertible built for two high profile customers of Chrysler Corp.

See this link for more info.

http://chrysler300country.com/300F_special.htm