Random Hemi E-Body of the Week

[Topcat]

Wade's car is simply amazing. One of my favorite hemicuda's made.   


Well there you go; Alan was right.
Even the high optioned performance 70 Cuda's could've came without a hockey stick.

[RzeroB]

Whew! It's going to be really hard to follow up on that double-dose of pink pachyderms!! Those are a couple of uber-cool cars if there ever were ones don't you think?? 

Anyway, continuing on, out in Colorado we have our own "The Owl" pushing to sell his cool '71 Challenger project  https://forum.e-bodies.org/cars-for-sale-or-wanted/8/1971-challenger-project-for-sale-co/5946/

It's not a Hemi, but one of the things that I really like about Owl's Chally is the color - GA4 "Light-Gunmetal" (or "Winchester-Gray" if it's on a Plymouth). I love how GA4 is almost "chameleon-like" in how it looks either gray, or blue, depending on the lighting. It's one of my all time favorite colors along with FJ6, GY3 and FM3 (yes, I really do like FM3).

So to promote the color and thus Owl's cause, our next April entry is one of the few Hemi E-bodies to have been originally finished in that great color. So without further ado, our next car is the former Frank Badalson '71 HemiCuda BS23R1B345763 



Here is the fender tag for this car. I snapped this photo when the car was at the 2015 MCACN show in Chicago as part of Mecum's promotional for it's upcoming auction the following January in Kissimmee.



This HemiCuda is definitely a beautiful car, but from the tag we can see that it really isn't loaded up with a whole lot of options. It has the "plush" SRX9 leather interior, the A33 Track Pack 3:54 geared Dana Axle Package, a thumping R11 2 watt Music-Master AM radio and a R31 rear speaker among the standard HemiCuda options.



Frank Badalson has owned the car twice: briefly in the mid 1970's and then again since 1994. In 2002 Frank agreed to match race his 54,000 mile "survivor" HemiCuda against Dennis Kohr's 1970 Hemi Road Runner concours show queen for Mopar Muscle Magazine. Frank's HemiCuda took 3 out of 3 over Dennis' Road Runner running a best of 14.01 @ 103 mph. Bang it here to read about their "grudge match" in an article on the Hot Rod Network  http://www.hotrod.com/articles/mopp-0203-survivor-hemi-cuda-vs-hemi-road-runner-drag-race/



Eventually the car became part of Las Vegas collector Brett Torino's collection. At some point in 2015, Torino sold off almost his entire collection to Mecum in one monster deal!    Mecum featured most of the cars in their 2016 Kissimmee auction and has been selling off the collection piece by piece ever since then. Here is the text portion of Mecum's ad for this car ...





While it's still up and running on their website, you can bang it here to see Mecum's ad with more pictures of the car here  https://www.mecum.com/lots/FL0116-229801/1971-plymouth-hemi-cuda/   

Or you can bang it here to see Mecum's Kissimmee "catalog" for the auction with this car featured on pages 6 thru 11    https://cdn1.mecum.com/assets/docs/FL0116_Monumental_Muscle/index.html

[Chryco Psycho]

Awesome Hemi Cuda !!

[autoxcuda]

What has wheels, gets your adrenaline pumping, is sexy beyond belief ... and is pink??



Is it Miss Piggy in the back of a stretch limo??



Pleeeaaassseee!! No, it's not one, but TWO Moulin-Rouge pink HemiCudas!!



That's right, were talkin' not one, but a "two-fer" of the only two FM3 pink Hemi E-bodies "known" (seems you always have to caveat things these days with that word cause you just never know ...) to exist! As far as I know, there are no FM3 Hemi Challenger RT's "known" to have been made, so these two pachyderm packing pink 'Cudas are the only ones of their type made in this bold High-Impact color! 



We're splitting the SPD difference today with these two cars with Greg Joseph's Canadian spec car BS23R0B283660 (on the left) scheduled to have been built on March 20th and Wade Ogle's U.S. spec car BS23R0B292542 (on the right) scheduled to have been built on April 2nd. This picture was taken just prior to the "Mopars at the Mansion" show at the Playboy mansion in 2006. This picture is rather unique in that reportedly it is the only time that these two cars were at the same place at the same time since leaving Hamtramck in the spring of 1970 and it's kind of fitting that it occurred at the Playboy mansion of all places (I imagine pink is THEE in color there!).





Though they are the only two FM3 Hemi E-bodies "known" to exist, they are very similar, yet  they have some distinct differences. As previously mentioned, Greg's car is a Canadian spec car sold new in Ottawa Ontario. As can be seen, Greg's car has a H6X9 black vinyl interior, is topped with a V1X black vinyl top, has V6X Hockey Stick stripes adorning it's quarter-panels and is an automatic car.



The fender tag shows us that Greg's pink HemiCuda was equipped with the A01 Light Group Package, A04 Basic Group Package, A62 Rallye Gauge Package, B51 Power Disc Brakes, C16 Center Console, G36 painted LH Sport Mirror, and the AM/8-Track Radio among other nice things.

If you want to see more of Greg's car, visit "PantherPink dot com" here:  http://pantherpink.com/fm3077.htm

Wade's car on the other hand is a U.S. spec car sold new in Elbow Lake Minnesota. As can be seen, Wade's car has a PRXW white leather interior, is topped with a V1W white vinyl top, has no Hockey Stick stripes and is a 4-speed.





A nice thing about Wade is that he likes to provide these very informative display placards for his cars when he shows them. His pink elephant has such notable options as the:  A01 Light Group Package, A33 Track Pack 3:54 geared Dana Axle Package, A62 Rallye Gauge Package, B51 Power Disc Brakes, C16 Center Console, C26 Overhead Console C62 Six-Way Seat, G31/33 chrome Sport Mirrors, M91 Luggage Rack, P31 Power Windows and a R22 AM/8-Track Radio among other nice things.



From the placard Wade tells us that his pink HemiCuda is not only all original, documented, and a survivor - but it is one of the most highly optioned HemiCudas in existence. Story has it that this car was originally purchased by a dentist, who bought not one, but two HemiCuda's at the same time - this one, and I believe an FJ5 Limelight one. The pink car was purchased for his wife, thus all the options, and the second green one was for his oldest son. The story goes the pink car was driven only by his wife and occasionally the dentist himself and lived a pampered life allowing it to survive to this day without any significant restoration. The same can't be said for the green car that was given to his oldest son. Reportedly, that car was thoroughly thrashed by his sons and may, or may not, still be around today, and if it is, it's has gone through an extensive restoration or is in serious need of one!

If you want to see some more of Wade's car, visit "PantherPink dot com" here:  http://pantherpink.com/fm3024.htm

There you go, your "two-fer" of the only two FM3 Hemi E-bodies "known" to exist. Similar, but very different cars. Maybe the only thing they have in common is the FM3 Moulin-Rouge pink paint and the mammoth Hemi under the hood! So to answer the opening riddle of "what has wheels, gets your adrenaline pumping, is sexy beyond belief ... and is pink??" ... it's NOT Miss Piggy in a limo!! No, it's these two powerful pink pachyderm-packing HemiCudas (sorry Miss Piggy!)!! 

Greg Joseph's pink Hemicuda will be on display at Spring Fling next week. Along with a special display of other pink cars: 2 FM3 Challenger T/A's and the Playboy Pink 1968 AMX for the 1968 Playmate of the Year. 

[Morty426]

Absolutely awesome thread

[RzeroB]

Okay, we've enjoyed a good run of some great pics of some awesome cars. Now, I need YOUR help. Today, April 14th, is the day that one of the "elite" cars was scheduled to be built, but I don't really have any good pics of it. The "elite" car in question is the former Bill Drake Sr Plum-Crazy Hemi Challenger RT convertible JS27R0B307215. As we have come to know, JS27R0B307215 is "elite" because it is one of those "rareified" Hemi E-body convertibles of which only 42 (plus or minus) were known to have been built. So dig into your private stash of pics, see if you might have some and post them up!!

Here's a pic of Bill Drake Sr, Tom Hoover and the aforementioned Hemi Challenger RT convertible provided to Cody and E-Bodies Org by Bill Drake Jr

[anlauto]

Why two different VINs ?

[RzeroB]

Why two different VINs ?

Ooops! Fat-fingered the first one ... should be 307215

[RzeroB]

Dug around and found a couple of other pics of 307215 online ...



307215 is in the foreground and the car in the background is another real Hemi Challenger RT convertible 221640. I believe this pic was taken at one of the Mopar Nats in the mid-eighties (Cheslea Proving Grounds in '85 maybe?) when 307215 was still owned by Bill Drake Sr and 221640 was owned by Rene Delisle.

[benlavigne]

Dug around and found a couple of other pics of 307215 online ...



307215 is in the foreground and the car in the background is another real Hemi Challenger RT convertible 221640. I believe this pic was taken at one of the Mopar Nats in the mid-eighties (Cheslea Proving Grounds in '85 maybe?) when 307215 was still owned by Bill Drake Sr and 221640 was owned by Rene Delisle.

René sold 221640 to Otis Chandler, I think it is now in Kevin Suydam's collection? Unfortunately, it was not at the MCACN reunion, would have loved to see it again... Here are back in the day pics, when René was drivving it everywhere!

Ben

[anlauto]

It's still pictured on Kevin's web page http://corvettes-musclecars.com/gallery2/v/al_mopars/1970+Hemi+Challenger+RT+426+Convertible/  but so is the blue 71 Hemicuda which he no longer owns.....

[RzeroB]

My understanding is that Kevin Suydam still owns 221640 (or at least he has until very recently).

As for 307215 ... I didn't see 307215 at the MCACN Hemi E-body convertible invitational. Where it is and who currently owns it I don't know ... but of course my curiosity makes it so I would like to!    The very similar Hemi Challenger convertible 171916 was at the MCACN show as part of the Brother's Collection. This car is almost a twin to 307215 and I use to get the two of them mixed up for each other.

Under Bill Drake Sr's ownership 307215 use to get around to shows and the occasional magazine article like this one:



As we can see, these pictures and magazine articles are from a long time ago. Does anyone have any updated info or pics of 307215 as to where it is and who the lucky owner might be?

[anlauto]

There was four FC7 / Black interior's weren't there ? All four speeds 

[RzeroB]

There was four FC7 / Black interior's weren't there ? All four speeds 

That is my understanding as well. 

Three of them, 307215, 171916 owned by the Brothers, and 229923 owned by the Blakes, also all have V6W white side stripes making them look somewhat similar to each other    but there are minor differences to differentiate each car from the other. 

[Cudino]

There was four FC7 / Black interior's weren't there ? All four speeds 

That is my understanding as well. 

Three of them, 307215, 171916 owned by the Brothers, and 229923 owned by the Blakes, also all have V6W white side stripes making them look somewhat similar to each other    but there are minor differences to differentiate each car from the other. 

You guys have it all 100% correct.  Here's the details on the 4 FC7 4-speeds, and some ways to tell them apart in current configuration:

171715:  V3X, H6X9, V5X, owned by Greg Nelson.  After resto this car had no stripe or V5X, but recently Greg added a V6X stripe.  Came with J45 hoodpins.
171916:  V3X, H6X9, V68, owned by the Brothers.  After resto this car has V21 hood treatment and V6W stripe added, so the V21 gives it away.  No hoodpins.
229923:  V3W, HRX9, V6W, owned by Dave Blake.  No hoodpins.
307215:  V3W, H6X9, V6W.  This car is a near twin to 229923, but one external distinguishing feature is the J45 hoodpins on this car.  The owner is very private.

And Suydam's car is 221640, the last of the FC7s, but it is easy to distinguish because it is an auto and has H6XW interior.

- Wade