Joe Teuton’s “tribute” Hemi Barracuda at Indy 2006; cars built for modern racing are far modified from stock and are safer and faster than the originals ever were. (©2006 by Geoff Stunkard GSAA21A quartermilestones.com)
Meanwhile, the old Hurst-constructed or factory-built machines are being sent out to pasture (read the collectors market) for the most part. In the pits or staging lanes of any of the Hemi Challenge events, one of the frequent questions is “Is it a real car?” coupled with a sense of awe if the reply is positive. This misses the point, however, and in some ways neglects the realities of both modern racing and historical preservation. If there were only X number of cars built back in the day, and those cars are now approaching the cost of a home in much of flyover America, and modifying that car to be competitive in the 21st century would require it lose much of the special equipment that made it unique to begin with, why would you even think about racing it?
Paul Emiro’s real restored Hemi Barracuda on the street in Tampa, 2002, rushing in where angels dare to tread (police officers courtesy sheriff’s office…) (©2006 by Geoff Stunkard GSAA20A quartermilestones.com)
This doesn’t make the participants fakers; indeed, the reality is that the process of building these cars from scratch is what is keeping them in the public eye instead of retiring them for good (when was the last time you saw a 427 Comet or Thunderbolt on a dragstrip). Moreover, while replacing any 1960s era vehicle these days is becoming harder now that we are nearly 40 years out from their birth, if you go upside down or into the guardrail with one of the “tributes,” you are still likely able to rebuild from scratch if you need to. Bend up that vintage tin, and frankly, it’s done for. On that same note, partially modified “real” vintage Super Stock cars are certainly more dangerous at speed than a race-breed cousin as speeds now regularly top 150 mph.
Most people don’t have any problem with these “new” old cars until you paint Ronnie Sox or Ramchargers on the door. That is when you find that there are people who care deeply about historical relevance, and rightfully so. If I own a car that I have built from scratch, even from a real factory race machine, and put someone’s famous name on it, that doesn’t make it THAT car.
For example, one notorious case involved a modified 1965 Dodge built by a gentleman from the Chicago region who portrayed it publicly as “Landy’s Dodge” until the late Mr. Landy legally shut the project down (and the original car was revealed by collector Mike Guffey soon afterward). Sox & Martin cars have suffered the same fate over the years, though, in all honesty, many cars were driven by Sox long after he had stepped away from the Super Stock division. On the other hand, Jack Werst did a tribute to his 1965 “Mr. 5 & 50” Plymouth several years ago for nostalgia racing, but neither he nor current driver/owner Tom Orlando tried to say that this was the actual car that Jack had raced in the 1960s.
What all of this leads to is the need for integrity, especially in this era of stratospheric prices and knowledgeable rebuilders who can duplicate some of the factory fingerprints the original cars show. Unless you are a crook, there is no need to make clones of original cars when so much opportunity exists to build better ones for modern competition. Next month, we will talk about machines in the Nostalgia racing classes.
