Note: Another post from my friend, Mike Batch Kirouac! -TK
On the Saturday before Christmas of 2012, my son and I went into town to pick up some last minute items for supper at the grocery store. As we walked through the parking lot, a beautiful, shiny white ’65 Plymouth Satellite rolled in, drove past us, and parked at the back of the lot. The burble of the engine told me it had a hopped-up big block.
My guess was the owner had just bought it, and wasn’t quite ready to store his new toy for the winter despite the near-freezing temperature. We walked over to investigate, and my suspicions were confirmed.
The proud new owner removed the hood pins and lifted off the fiberglass hood to show us the dressed-up 440–which, combined with a four-speed stick and 4.10 gears in the diff, made this car what he said was the fastest he’s ever owned.
I’m not surprised; one look under the hood makes it clear that this car is built to go!
He said he had to go in and do his shopping, but that the doors were open if I wanted to check out the interior. How could I refuse? It was just as clean as the exterior, but I imagine low-speed maneuvering could be a chore with the small diameter aftermarket steering wheel and manual steering and brakes!
That looks like a great car. Just put on some disc brakes (if it doesn’t have them already) and you’re good to go. That would be a fun car for an older adult otherwise that 440 makes too much power for a young man brimming with testosterone–speaking from my personal experience. Maybe a younger version of Jack or Bark would express more self control with that sort of power than I did in my youth. Luckily the only damage I did was to my self esteem when I pulled a few unintentional 180s in traffic. Great find.
My Dad bought a 65 Dodge Coronet 500 new off the showroom floor. In 69, he pulled the 383 and dropped in a 440 big block from a wrecked GTX. He still had it in 1980 when I hit high school. Once I started learning, he got the hot rod bug again and we souped that baby up.
So yeah, drum brakes. It’ll stop. Once. I glazed over several brake pads doing emergency stops from 120 plus. Got pretty good at swapping them in parking lots in the middle of the night.
Burned up several clutches. Put an auto in there, destroyed several of those. Trashed a differential. Twisted several axles. Shattered some u-joints, twisted a drive shaft. But on drag slicks with good pavement, I could get at least one front tire off the ground. On street tires with the 4-speed, could light the tires at will. Under hard acceleration could break them loose on the 3-4 shift at 120 mph. That’ll wake you up when it goes sideways at speed.
New cars may be faster and more reliable, but not near as fun.
I had a Coronet of similar vintage when I was a kid. Pushbutton transmission, 318 V-8. Loved that car, wish I still had it. Looks a lot like this one.