In 1965 King Richard thumbed his nose Bill France’s NASCAR Hemi ban and built a Super/Stock Hemi-Cuda.
Chrysler’s 1964 domination of NASCAR racing with its Hemi Plymouths and Dodges pissed off a lot of people in Detroit. And, most just happened to be working at Ford! At the time, neither Ford nor GM had the powerplants to go head-to-head with the latest Mopars.
The unstoppable Richard Petty decided to take his toys to another sandbox: quarter-mile drag strips. Petty’s NASCAR shop created a highly modified Super/Stock early Barracuda, #43/JR, powered by a dual-quad 426 Hemi. It went through a couple of iterations, a second injected B/Altered Cuda, before cooler heads prevailed at NASCAR and Perry was back doing what earned him the title, King Richard.
Photos above, right, from MOPAR, THE PERFORMANCE YEARS, Martyn L. Schorr, http://www.amazon.com/Mopar-Performance-Years-Martyn-Schorr/dp/0982173318/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323720739&sr=1-1
For the complete story, please visit Jon Patrick’s blog, The Selvedge Yard, http://theselvedgeyard.wordpress.com/2011/11/17/1965-the-year-richard-petty-the-king-of-nascar-turned-drag-racer/