Happy New Year to all my fellow Thunderjet fanatics! Having recently had my “Doctor Strangelove moment” where I learned to stop worrying about tournament numbers and love all my elimination runs, I can start racing all my ever-growing fleet of muscle cars in groups of 32 rather than rotating some in and others out to keep the number of cars in a tourney constrained to 64….and that means more cars! And what does your humble blogger always say? Altogether now: “More cars is always good!” What a great way to start a new year!
A while ago I added a 3rd Auto World ’70 Plymouth ‘Cuda to the fleet because I just couldn’t resist it; it looked so good in that “spectraflame” aqua with a matte black Shaker hood, just like a Hot Wheels “redline,” that I just had to have it. And since I bought a 3rd ‘Cuda, I was then naturally forced to buy a 3rd Dodge Challenger, because you can’t have uneven numbers from both Chrysler divisions; that would be asymmetrical! So, here is that 3rd challenger, purchased as a body-only and just out of the build shop riding on a slightly used but still very strong Ultra-G chassis.
Every muscle car fan in the world loves the Mopar E-body: it’s such an awesome looking car, and it’s so flexible in its ability to accept any drivetrain configuration the company made-which it was designed to be at the outset-that the nearly limitless combination of power options, color choices, and accessories makes it impossible not to get excited about them! I’ve put a different set of wheels on each of the now six E-bodies in the fleet, all of which look great in their own way while giving each car its own style and attitude. The aqua ‘Cuda got the Road Race Replicas #815 “Bullets,” while this copper challenger got the #819 “Stones” (which I always call Torque Thrust II’s) and is shod with a set of RWL Goodyear Polyglas GT’s. While I love the color on this car-which we can figure most closely approximates code FT6 “Burnt Tan Metallic,” I’m not as sure about the white top; I almost think it would have looked better with a black top or just having left it in the body color. It does give the car a unique look compared to the others, though, and since vinyl tops in both white and black were popular options on these cars, we can go with it.
The ‘Cudas show some variety in the motor-vation, with the “Moulin Rouge” car being a 340 small block while the “Plum Crazy” and “Ice Blue” cars are 426 Hemi’s. However, all 3 of the Challengers are equipped with T/A callouts on the stripes, making them all the rare one-year-only high performance 340 models. No problem there, to be sure, since the power to weight ratio of the race-spec small block was spectacular! While I might wish for a 440 or Hemi powered Challenger, those engine options are well-covered by the squadron of 4 Dodge Chargers (which you can bet will also just continue growing), so fear not: all the great power plants of Chrysler Corporation are ready to hit the track at Drag City!
Which brings us to the all-important Lore for these two recent additions to the muscle car fleet! The aqua Hemi ‘Cuda is named “Lady Ice,” who headed to Wardglenn CA after a cross country trip (in covered transport, of course) from her native Florida under the care of Douglas “Bullet” Benton of Pensacola.
Our Challenger is a native of the opposite coast, and gets christened with the name “Copperhead.” The race-spec 340 6-pack with the pistol grip 4-speed and Dana rear axle is piloted by Clark “Cannonade” Kavanaugh, and is packing at least “time and half” the laughable “official” horsepower figure of 290. Although the car’s interior looks stock at a glance, it has been gutted of all unnecessary accessories, so it has no heater, no radio, no sound insulation, and runs through a set of barely muffled headers, making for a car that sounds as mean as it looks. It’s street legal, but its all business…and “Cannonade” has come to do business!
Long live Mopar Muscle! The glory days just keep on going even into the new year at Drag City!
Wow, that photo of the interior takes me back to those color interiors! The detailing on these is superb and I bet they look terrific as they tear up the track at Drag City!
Yeah, its pretty amazing in a world where all you can get now is black or gray interior that there was a time when you could get just about any color you wanted. But that’s “progress,” right?
I had memories of the burgundy vinyl interior of my grandmothers Oldsmobile Omega. I remember not caring for it at the time but looking back now I will absolutely say it had “character”!