Old Fudd at Stop Light Gran Prix

[Joe Godec]

By the looks at the comments on this site, it seems as though I was campaigning MoPars before most of you were born so I thought I tell you some old war stories back when I was living the life of "American Graffitti." My dad was a car buff and when he bought a '60 Fury 2-dr h/t with the crossram 330 horse 383 in May 1960, it was "meat on the table" for this 17 year-old. I convinced him to put 4.10s in the rear end and Hedmans on the engine and that made it one WILD machine! It ran S/SA in '60, but dropped down to A/SA in '61 when the 413s came out. After some cat in a trailered Savoy 2-dr post wiped me out by God knows how many lengths in the 1/4 mile, I left formal dragging and just "cruised the gut," looking for victims. With the T/F trans and the 4.10 gears, that car surprised even a few 409/409s and 405/406s. My dad gave up on me and it and bought a '64 GTO, but he was shocked when I took him over a block or so. The car was great in town, but the 4-speed Chevys with 4.56s could out- wind it in the "Stock Elimination" runs or drags more than a couple of blocks (it did have problems with blowing freeze plugs at high rpms, particularly when older, and there were a few times when I limped home with rags stuffed in the hole in the engine block). I traded it for a '65 Sport Fury with the 426 Street and a 4-speed, but although the '65 was a fine car in its own right, the '60 remained my first automotive love affair so I had to find another. After some 4-5 years of looking, I finally found another in a barn a couple of years ago. Perfectly stock, it was used probably as a rancher's "Sunday-go-to-meetin'-car." I don't abuse it quite like I did that original '60, but even with 2.93s, last year it blew away a 60s Stang that had hi-po 289 "scare badges" on the front fenders.
However, my best street car was a '67 R/T with the 375/440 and 4-speed. The shift linkage was spaghetti and the clutch was too small, but there was a magnificent episode in Albuquerque when I came alongside a big-block '67 Vette and a '68 GTO. It was spectacular! Engines roaring, tires screeching and burning, air cleaners sucking, and exhaust and tire smoke all over. The Vette had street tires and he lost it, having to back off. The Goat was no match and I think most of them were over-rated (except for the few that Jim Wangers had prepared). The whole effect was tremoundous and it must have scared bystanders to death, but THREE muscle cars at once. . . !

[Cream Corn]

Those are some AWESOME memories, man. Thanks for sharing with us.

[MOPARMANJAMES]

Great stories! I always knew I was born a little too late (1963), I try and tell my kids about what I remember of the 60's, it's just hard to describe the amount of muscle car anarchy that was going on then.
I still remember walking over to my friends house and seeing a '70 challenger bust through an alley fence and proceed to do about 20 donuts in the field. crazy.
I lived about a mile from Smokin' Alamo Dragway and there were alot of very fast cars with not enough tire on them everywhere.
God I loved that era.
Good to have you aboard Joe!

[SUN RA KAT]

Thanks for sharing those great stories! Mopar had the first muscle cars but they didn't know how to market them. It wasn't until the mid-60's that Mopar finally started to market them right.