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While brute power is good, the rebuild did include
an upgrade of the underpinnings, as well as some
decent rubber fitted to the rear — Wheel Vintiques
wrapped with 275/60R15 BF Goodrich rear tyres
to be exact; just the thing to give the car the
right stance.
With a Hurst shifter in hand, connected to a five-
speed Tremec box, Steve was running the car at the
annual Wanganui Street Drags back in 2015 when
disaster struck — but there was an unexpected silver
lining.
“I fired it up and managed the burnout fine, hit
second, and bang — I grenaded the 440 block,
crank, and cam. It was a fresh build, but we’d reused
the factory six-pack rods and one decided to dance
around a bit before exiting out the side of the block!
“Unfortunately, it was my turn to be the guy leaving
parts and fluid on the track that should have beennicely contained within my engine. Despite my
causing another delay to their race start, the team
at Wanganui Road Rodders were an awesome
help in getting my car sorted and back to Welly,”
Steve states.
Lesson learnt: stock rods may have been good in
their heyday, but that was more than 40 years ago,
“So, to make good of a bad weekend, the Hemi plan
was hatched,” he added.THE ORIGINAL SEATS ARE PART
OF THE QUALITY FINISH OF THE
TOP-TO-BOTTOM RESTORATION
Air Grabber
Chrysler’s Air Grabber hood scoop may well be
one of the coolest factory-fitted accessories on
the planet. Although the ’70’s scoop was flapping
in the breeze when Steve purchased the car, these
scoops usually work on manifold vacuum — hit
full load and the scoop rises up, allowing air to go
directly into the carb.