History Richard Petty's Drag Barracuda

That's the pic I was talking about. When Petty's hauled it, they had there Dodge truck with "PLYMOUTH" on the side.

 

Hmmm....looks salvagable.





NOT!~I think if someone cut the little part of the stripe out above the rear window....it would make a nice rebody. Then it could be sold at Barrett Jackson for a ton....

 

Someone sent me this photo of the recreation..

 

I have a picture taken at Bristol of the altered wheelbase car in the very early 70's at the Springnationals. Wonder if this could have been the Petty car?

 

The crash did happen at Southeastern Drgway in Dallas Ga.MY dad was there and said Mr. Petty walked away cussing the car that he hated.Supposedly he keep saying "I'll never drag race agian".Local lore also says that Mac Moates keep trying to buy the car and he said that no one would ever have it.

 

People would sneak into the back lot while they were racing & steal parts

& one day a guy got cut on an old door & tried to sue.

Richard then buried a lot of old cars.

The car Lee went through the guardrail at Daytona is in

Memory Lane Museum in Mooresville NC,

one of the greatest collections of everything you can find anywhere.

http://www.memorylaneautomuseum.com/

 

The rumor arond here was any time an engine went south it was chunked in a hole behind pettys shop,and that several hemis are in that hole along with anything else that was deemed junk at the time also. Everybody wants to go digging at the Pettys!

 

There ARE cars buried "out back" of the old Petty Garage. I have done a bunch business with the Pettys and before the most recent expansion was built (and since not used), I spoke with Dale Inman (Richard's crew chief for a ton of years) and he actually took me back to the "hill." Could not see a lot, but Dale swore that damn near all of their "bent" stuff was buried there. No mention of the drag car. I was lucky enough to see the old Randleman shop before it was "transformed"...what a treat. I bought Richard's last road course car (was rebodied for 5 years!) and rebodied it back to 91 configuration....what a great time and experience. It is now in a museum. Richard and Dale are the best racers (and people) I have ever met in racing. CLASS!

 

Don't give me any ideas!!! I just bought this for $600 AND i really DON'T need to be building a drag car right now, lol.

 

yep...the Hemi was the only motor to be banned not once - but twice in Nascar...1957 and 1965...

 

Damn thats a great story, i was so excited to go tell my dad about it but he already knew of course

 

Considering what that car would be worth, it's not hard to see a guy taking what's left and combining it with a decent one and trying to keep enough of the car to still call it original when it rolls across the block at Barrett Jackson.... moot point of course, but shit, it's just metal, you bend it one way, you can bend it back.

 

You've got this, and I've got this:



I've been slowly (read no money!) looking for a donor Barracuda, or even a Valiant to marry this drivetrain to. Altered wheelbase, straightaxle Mopar mayhem.

Dale

 

A little known trivia fact is when The King had other commitments to attend, another very famous driver used to fill in for him......

 

I also seem to remember the drag car killing a spectator before he gave it up.I could be mistaken.too many gorilla biscuts in the 70's!

 

I guess I should read the whole thread,someone already mentioned it,guess you cant teach old dogs new tricks.

 

Is that Toonces the cat?

 

Great picture ^^^^^

 

What he said !

 

Thanks for the memories, I was at Cedar Hills Raceway (Bristol) when I first saw 43jr. I was an impressive build for us country boys and the pettys were there selling excess hemi's from the NASCAR operation.

 

I am new here but i know some about 43jr. I live in High Point about 15 miles from the old Petty shops. I have known RP for a long time. A few years ago they were forced to dig the pit up as some whiney moron said it was bad for the earth to leave all that old rusting junk in the hole. A lot of the stuff when to DH Griffin in Greensboro NC. But a few old things went to some big names. when they dug up 43jr she was not much. but i did hear she was sold to someone. I know for sure that a few other wrecks were sold to people to restore them. I know there were a bunch of stuff in that big hole.

 

Cedar Hills is/was in the Richlands, VA area (Cedar Bluff community). The Bristol facility is called Thunder Valley. I grew up about 30 miles from the Cedar Hills facility and now live in Kingsport, TN - about 20 miles from the Bristol track.

 

was at Dallas that day running my A/MP 55 Chevy

 

and the story continues .......

 

Anyone know the history of the Petty Flatbed pic? From what I"m gathering, none of those guys is a Petty. Could this have been '67? The aluminum mags ???

 

FWIW, what I have heard is there were actually 2 barracudas. One was wrecked and the other was this one. It was sold to the Ratliff family who raced it briefly. The ramp truck was the Ratliffs who painted it Petty Blue. The photo was definately post the Petty drag racing era.

PS--sorry I am VERY late to the discussion, I joined HAMB not that long ago.

 

Since it was exactly 50 years ago this project was conceived I believe it is time to bring this thread back out of hibernation.

 

Dodge built the Daytona and would not do a Plymouth version. Petty went drag racing with Plymouth. Crashed and killed people. Quit dragging and drove for Ford till Plymouth did the SuperBird.

 

Huh?