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I get to work on some stuff that's pretty cool from time to time and last week one of my customers stopped by with the 1965 Plymouth factory race car that he and his brother have restored. I did block and cylinder head work on the engine. The car was bought new by a friend of their uncle when he was 16 years old and wanted to get into drag racing. His mother signed the papers hence the name, "Mother's Mistake". He raced it for a couple of years and then it got sold down the road.
The current owner found it in a classified add in Pennsylvania when he was there for work. It was only 40 miles away so he checked out and bought it. The owner at the time told him that he found it as a mostly empty body at an abandoned drag strip out in Colorado.
They think that the car was bracket raced into the '80's, probably with a wedge engine.
The car came with a column shift reverse pattern Torqueflite automatic, 426 Hemi engine, and deletes on sound deadener, radio, heater, rear seat etc. It has thin window glass, a metal hood scoop and lightweight but not aluminum sheet metal on the front clip, bumpers and doors. Oddly when the cars were sold they came with a 2.73 open rear end and a single exhaust system. The car has a VIN and a title but it has never been licensed or street driven.
It has been restored as close as possible to original, color, interior, etc. Engine is an aftermarket Hemi block with a 4.25 bore, 4.250 stroke. 482 Cubic inches. Heads are original '65 aluminum "race Hemi" and the cam is a Racer Brown flat tappet. The factory intake has two Holley carburetors that are correct too.
I thought that it was interesting that the interior has carpet and not a rubber mat but that's how these were built. They told me that it is thought that Chrysler built about 100 of these cars and a bit over 40 of them survive which seems like quite a few.
No, this one isn't one with the altered wheelbase. According to the story this car was altered in the back only later in the '60's but since that shortened the wheelbase a whole bunch it didn't drive all that great with the Hemi engine. These guys converted it back to the original wheel base.
