My 1970 Plymouth GTX
just the ticket for the Sunday drive.. a quarter mile at a time...
2016: Back in the saddle again.
The GTX returns to the track after a 20 year hiatus! I spent weeks going over the car replacing hoses, servicing the 20+ year old drive-train and making sure everything was 100% Along with all that I hooked up the nitrous system which has only seen street action and that was a very long time ago. Come the morning of September 24th 2016 we loaded up the car and headed for Lebanon Valley for test and tune during the Dover Drag Strip 8th reunion..
In the pits making jet changes..
(Car number 635 is the GTX)
The car ripped off a pair of 12.1 passes at 112 mph like they were nothing and then due to the huge crowd size (there was over 330 racers) fired up the nitrous system and ripped off a stout 11.0 pass at 121 mph. Nitrous jet size is set at 52's which Holley states is 150 hp and I calculate more at 109 hp based on the cars performance. After being hollered at by a track official I made 2 more non-bottle passes and by doing some carb tweaking was able to shave another tenth of the cars performance and added another mph and ran a pair of 12.0's at 113 mph before packing up and calling it a day.
The GTX really needs a good torque converter to improve the short time and I think I'm going to pop for one and make another trip to the track with it. This was suppose to be its last trip to the track as I'm going to convert the car back to 4-speed and power steering and use it exclusively on the street. You know how this things go...
Here are some track videos; I'm waiting to hear back from a few folks who might have caught the 11.0 pass on tape. I had my dash cam in the car but the device over wrote it =(
Dash cam view of last 12.0 pass
External view of same 12.0 pass.
The first 12.0 pass
A Youtuber caught the first pass on camera, 45 second mark.
2015: Minor upgrades and repairs.
Yes it gets out in the winter if the roads are nice!
Brake upgrade at last! 11.75" rotors, no more drums!
Picture of the fleet before the root beer GTX was sold.
2013: The makeover. GTX makes trip to the body shop for its original B5 blue paint and the tunnel ram is reinstalled.
As of late August 2013, have not installed the new stainless exhaust tips yet.
At a local car show.
Directed to park in a handicapped spot by a guy in a wheelchair, was rather bizarre I thought.
Car is sporting the raccoon mask on the rear for the first time in over 25 years! Was missing when I picked the car up in the 80's.
Hanging out at the Berlin Turnpike.
Interior all spiffed back up. I pulled the tic-toc-tach since I wasn't using it and I'm going to use the spot for something else.
The kids love it!
Test fitting the hood, it took days of work to get decent! Was in tough shape.
Cruising down RT. 11
Berlin Turnpike 2013
2010-2012. Time to break out of storage! The whole car had been gone through; intake gasket was replaced, new headers and exhaust system, new brake lines, fiberglass bumper repair (cracks) the 3.23 gears were pulled and 4.10's popped back in, new tires all around, grill had been refurbished, interior thoroughly cleaned and repaired where needed, fuel lines replaced, rear brakes upgraded to 11", new wheel cylinders and brake cables, the Thermoquad was reinstalled, various leaks fixed, etc. When the car was repainted (2013) the vinyl roof was stripped and the tunnel ram was pulled from storage, carbs spruced up and disc brakes up front installed.
What the car looked like when it was pulled out of storage in 2010, it had been sitting for close to 10 years.
Yuk!
A might dusty but it ran!
Some specs:
Weight, 3800 lbs. with driver
Engine, 30 over 1971 440, forged 10.5 TRW pistons, stock rods (blueprinted with ARP rod bolts) stock steel crank, 1977 heads ported by incomparable 440 Mopar guru Herb McCandless, oversize valves, titanium retainers with Chrysler battleship tool steel triple springs, max wedge mechanical rocker gear, Direct Connection 528 lift 284 duration camshaft, Hooker 2" tube headers with 2.5 dual exhaust, tunnel ram with Carter 500 cfm carbs. Good for excess of 600hp.
Transmission, 727 transmission with B&M manual valve body with a bone stock 1972 340 factory torque converter.
Rear end, 8 3/4 with 3.23 gears (Normally 4.10's) Car ran 12.65 at 108 with 3.23's
440 cubes of badass mopar- Best pass of 11.27 at 124 mph.
The GTX in the 11/98 issue of High Performance Mopar.
It starts...
Here's a little more....
Now were cooking!
HEHEHEHEHH! Big Blocks are FUN!
The GTX wasn't always so... lets say clean...
These photographs were taken sometime around 1984-1985
It's come a long ways...
I used to drive this car to work
everyday and then to the track to race!
I was lucky it never broke while I was racing!