“The only way to do that was to get a real one, make a mold of it, attach it to the front end, make another mold of that, and then have the final part made,” Carinci explains. “So that mold was made in house and Joe Van Overbeek actually produced the part for me, as well as several other carbon-fiber parts like the hood, decklid and wheel tubs. There’s no actual tin on the car, other than what NHRA requires, which is under the driver, the firewall, but everything else is produced in carbon fiber which I handmade at home.”
Carinci, who owns three coin-operated car washes in the Toronto area, says he was “very fortunate” to get into buying rare Mopar muscle cars before their costs skyrocketed. Still, he says building and maintaining his fleet of classic Cudas is “difficult” because there are limited parts available. “Plus the engine combination I’m running (in the racecar) is extremely rare, so it’s hard to get parts for that, but it’s unique and intriguing, I’ll say that.”
After taking seven months to rebuild the car, Carinci made his debut with it in Super Street/Outlaw 10.5 trim in June 2006 and within a couple of months it ran its best quarter-mile time so far of 6.97 seconds at 200 mph at Toronto Motorsports Park. Carinci is justifiably proud of being the first in Canada to achieve a six-second pass on 10.5W tires in that configuration.
He’s also pleased with the reaction from fans to his Plum Crazy Plymouth. “There’s a lot of people who recognize it because the overall shape and appearance still resembles an original ’70 Hemi Cuda, right down to the hockey-stick stripes on it. Now the scoop is obviously far from the factory shaker, but it still has that silver argent look that I was trying to imitate.”
Carinci credits Xerxes Surkari at Zex Racing and Gil Zeneri at Speed Wire Systems, both in Toronto, for helping him get and keep the Cuda on track. Invaluable pitside help comes from sons James, 14, and Justin, 11, along with close friend Steve Lazzaro. “Without those guys I’d be lost,” Carinci states, “and I have to thank my wife, Teresa, too. She puts up with a lot.”