.Additional Owner Comments

I bought it from the original owner, a 36 year old IBM'r in Feb, 1972 with 9,100 miles on it for $1,700. It came with gloss black painted hood (sans decals), headers, chrome slotted wheels with new Sunoco Kelly Springfield tires, new 7'' x 29.5 slicks, full length Lakewood traction bars, a Hurst Competition Plus shifter with the long handle and white ball, vacuum, fuel pressure, oil pressure and water temp guages  cut in the dash (2 in the radio blockoff plate and two in the dash pad under the radio blockoff). The carbs had mechanical seondaries and

the original distributor was set up for full mechanical advance at @1200 RPM's.

It ran 12.7 at 109 all day long and got 17 mpg on trips.

I drove it about 9000 miles the first year and then put 4.88's in it and put Crager S/S's all around. The Summer of 1973, I built another block with +.030 12.5's,915 heads with 1.88 Stage lll exhaust valves and a .626/310 solid cam for street racing (13.6:1 compression with those heads). It ran 11.25@120.0 mph! I could not get any street runs so it ended up being a bracket car that I towed to the track. I blew that motor because of a broken motor mount. The engine reared back and sheared the oil pressure relief spring plug out of the back of the oil pump in the middle of a run.

I was hooked so I decided to build the original block up with the same setup except floating wrist pins and a .750 lift Cam Dynamics roller cam. This was going to be the first full size B-body in the 9's. However, when I got it in the car, I realized that I could not enough tire under it for traction and I was not going to cut up a nice 18000 mile car to fit big tires. (I guess that was good foresight?) It would spin 11.5 x 30" tires all the way thru three gears and still run high 6 seconds in the 1/8 th! It was a mind blower. So I put a .626 cam back in it (326 degree duration on exhaust) to run in the Road Runner. I have pictures of the telltale showing 8200 RPM with this setup.  However, I started looking for another body so that I could run the roller cam.

I found a 64 Dodge 330 aluminum HEMI S/S body with a 5.13 Dana and an 8 point roll cage for $400. I set it it up with 14.5 x 32" tires, a Doug Nash pro shifted Hemi 4 speed and gutted the trunk, etc. I never lost a race when I made to the finish line with that car (when it didn't break something on the starting line). Unfortunately, the motor came apart after 16 runs. A rod came thru the side of the block and the cam broke in 8 places. The passenger side head broke away from 3 head bolts! This was the original motor to the black car.

It was off the road from 1973 -1983. When I put it back on the street, I had a 65 Race Hemi block in it with street Hemi guts, the 4.88's, Doug Nash 4 speed, Milodon 10 qt pan, chrome rear Spicer cover, Lakewoods and Cragers all around.

The first car show that I went to, I found an original Hemi 2x4 air cleaner base for a Hemi ordered with the T/A hood option for $115.00! It looked perfect on the Hemi with the lift off hood. I showed it like that for 6 years before I put a 440 back in it. When I did, it cost me $600 to repaint the hood, engine comparment and front valence. All the stuff on the motor and the trans were number matching. That summer, I found an original set of G70x15 Goodyears from a guy with an A4 sixbbl Roadrunner. The spare still had the blue on the sidewalls. I went from a cool custom Hemi A12 car to an all original car for about $1200 total including the wheels and tires. The paint had a little repair done on the left  1/4, the cowl and front fenders but was mostly original as was the interior. These are the same tires I have today. It was featured in Mopar Action December 1990 center fold Reference Restoration article with the front wheel discs. I was the first to display a car like this that I know of.

In 1992, it was certified unrestored factory stock at the Nats in Columbus. I also set a National record at the NMCA meet in Maple Grove in August that stood as the world record in my class at the end of the year. It ran 12.6 at109 with street legal (sticky) tires in D/TS. The other cars in the class could run slicks, headers, electric fuel pumps, cool cans and any size factory block by the same manufacturer (ie. a 65 GTO with a 455).

I sold it in 1995 for $21, 000 and bought my Platinum A12 hardtop for $7,500. I figured that I could get it painted and running and have enough left over to  finish a Hemi car project. Little did I know!! I sold the A4 in 1997 for $11,500 with the tires. In 2004, I still had not finished my Hemi project. I sold it and talked the guy into selling me back my A4 for $23,000. He had done nothing to speak of with the car. I got my tires back and the title was still in my name. I guess this is what you would call fate. I got the A4 apart, rotisseried and back together in 13 months... and you know the rest of the story.

-JD

Original spare in the trunk never on the

ground.  National record holder in D-Stock MPH. 

Original exhaust. Mopar Nats Winner Chrysler@Carlisle

Winner Chrysler Classic Winner. We now show the

car with the Mopar Suvivors.

This

car is UFS certified original unrestored factory stock.