This Plymouth was originally a 1964 Plymouth Savoy lightweight with the
13.5:1 426 Max Wedge and aluminum front end. The first owner was
stationed at Ft. Benning, Georgia. Heck of a car to tool around base
in!
The second owner was Joe Ralph Thompson of Rison, Arkansas. He
had three cars that he raced with two other drivers. This car was
driven by Derwood Reep and ran in B/A. Joe Ralph drove the Dodge. The
B/G car was another Plymouth that a different driver, Ron Cheisher,
drove to a B/G class win at the 1968 U.S. Nationals.
Somewhere around 1966, the car lost the aluminum front end and
got the fiberglass '65 front end and plexiglass windows (including the
bubble front windshield), was converted to the altered wheelbase
configuration and had swapped in an injected Hemi for the Max Wedge
engine.
The car went through several hands until it was bought by a
friend of mine, Fred Ott. Fred restored it back to 60's condition by
scouring the local swap meets for vintage parts. I bought it from Fred
in late 1995 and sent it to Don Garlit's Museum of Drag Racing in
Ocala, Florida for a ten year display. The car is on display for
several more years. If any of your visitors are in the Ocala area, stop
by for a visit to the museum.
The engine now in the car is a 471 CID Plymouth wedge: 400
block, stroked 440 crank, 1962 Stage I MW heads, Indy blower manifold,
6-71 Blower, Enderle hat and Hilborn pump, and a Vertex mag. There's a
2-1/2 gallon Moon tank for the methanol. Just enough to make a run and
get back to the pits before it runs out of fuel (most of the time).
The above pictures show the car sitting in Don Garlit's Museum of Drag Racing in Florida. I didn't have a suitable place to store it, so Don is giving me free storage for ten years.
Right now the car sits in the same building as the 1973 Mopar Missile and one of the Chi-Town Hustler funny cars. Pretty good company I'd say!
Thanks, Jim!
That sure is a great piece of drag racing history!
Sure shows how these cars were used and adopted as the drag racing sport evolved in the '60's.
