Like most of us, I always thought it would be pretty cool to have a car worthy of being in a magazine. Of course I hoped it would be a car that I built and I sure didnt have anything to do with building the Coupe or its history. When I bought it, I had no idea that Gerry Burger was putting together the story for Hot Rod Deluxe. HRD is one of my favorite magazines and this edition was the first one I received with my new subscription. The article does a great job of telling the Coupes history and the pictures are great. I especially love the old racing shot. I ended up with the Coupe because of a very unfortunate circumstance. David Turner, listed in the article as the current owner, was diagnosed with a form of brain cancer not long after the HRD pictures were taken. He is fighting hard and still working most days at his paint and body shop in Ringgold GA but he decided to sell the Coupe. For the first few weeks after I got it, I would go out to the shop at night and look it over and find something else that would just crack me up. I couldnt imagine hitting a 100mph in the qtr. in this thing. I know there have been a couple of other threads on the Coupe from back in the summer but I thought you guys might like to see some more pictures.
I just read that article, very cool car you are one lucky guy, unfortunate to hear about the prevous owner. What are your plans for it? drags? street? both?
The story on the tape on the front axle is that the car was being run at a track that did not allow drilled axles.
You sure don"t want to destroy the history or patina by making it safe to drive L.O.L. Unfortunatly "back in the day" this was the rule rather than the exception.
Installing tape on a drilled axle is like seatbelts on a motorcycle, man thats crazy thinking! Glad to see you get it!
A few more shots. Lightening holes in the front fender braces, channel/block in front crossmember (check out the all-thread instead of a u-bolt), same mount for rear ladder bar and front bone, shock mount w/ gusset, front bone mount on axle.
That car is so cool! I love it!! I'd put a "Dodge Wedge" in it, but then again, I'm a "Dodge Wedge" kinda guy!!
I loved reading the article, especially that this bad boy ran a Pontiac motor. The best part of the story is when he launched in second gear (Ford toploader 3 spd.) to keep the rearend together...and then just shifted into high. Awesome. By the way, my '69 GTO has the standard 3 spd. behind the 400. It does launch hard.
I bet that car would clean up really well with some oxcyllic acid or CLR. What was your buddy's plan to do with it? I hope he's hanging in there.
I think that David wasn't sure what he was going to do with it. When he found out about the car he knew that he couldn't pass it up.
The Jalopy Journal
