In 1964 I owned a Pontiac GTO, dubbed by many as the first Muscle Car. Mine had a 389 with tri-power with 2 speed auto trans. I ran it on a regular basis at the old Fremont Drag Strip.
I became very familiar with 1962 and 1963 Dodges with 413 and 426 Max wedge super stock with 727 torque flight 3 Speed transmissions.
However, my proclaimed as they say, first muscle car, that caught the automotive world off guard, could not muscle its way past any 1962 Max Wedge. No matter how I tried to modify it, the heads, carburation, exhaust, a B&M Hydromatic trans with drag kit. Never ever, not once.
Those Dodges were special at the time and dominated the drag strip. Lighter and quicker, big engine. Coming from someone who tried to out muscle them, although at the time, they were ugly. They are beautiful now and hard to come by. In my opinion the first real and true muscle car.
I could give rip about how or why it came on the scene as rambling and speculative about a so called rumor. The Ramchargers are the ones who really changed the automotive world in the early 1960’s.
For that we are forever grateful and the history is colorful and entertaining. 62 to 65 Mopars are special.
When I was just turning 17, summer of ‘68, I wrecked my ‘58 Savoy and was riding in the wrecker to our local junkyard, where my step dad was going to meet me to drive me around so I could find another car. When we arrived, the yard boss (oddly enough both my step dad and the yard boss were named “Junior”) climbed into my car and fired it up. He said he’d give me $75 on it. He asked me if I was a Plymouth fan. Yep I said. He pointed out a ‘62 Belvedere 2 door sedan in the row of complete, titled vehicles. He said it came in for unknown non-running condition. We walked over and he tried to start it but it just spun over fruitlessly. But it did sound like it was good on compression. He pulled the distributor cap and someone turned the engine over and the rotor didn’t turn at all. We pulled the distributor out and the tab was missing from the bottom of the shaft. He got a magnet probe and retrieved the tab from the slot in the oil pump drive. Someone grabbed him a distributor from another 318 and we stabbed it in and eyeballed the timing. That was enough to get it to run and of course a little ear-wise adjustment got the timing close enough. He took me for a ride and I was hooked. So it was by accident to begin with, literally, but I’ve loved ‘62 Plymouths ever since.
Excellent read, (if lengthly), concerning the downsizing of Dodge & Plymouths in the early '60's. By the way, forty years ago I thought '62 B bodies, from an aesthetic standpoint, were horrendous. Now, if I had more garage space, they would be #1 on my list.
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1962 to 1965 Mopar Clubhouse Discussion Guidelines:
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Please address private email -- email of interest to only one person -- directly to that person. That is, email your parts/car transactions and negotiations, as well as other personal messages, only to the intended recipient. Do not just press "reply" and send your email to everyone using the general '62-'65 Clubhouse public email address. This practice will protect your privacy, reduce the total volume of mail and fine-tune the content signal to Mopar topic. Thanks!
1962 to 1965 Mopar Clubhouse Discussion Guidelines:
http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.org/mletiq.html and
http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.com/general_disclaimer.html.
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