The 1966 Plymouth Belvedere I Wagon was a lovely grocery-goer for most of the car's production run of 4,726. However, two of those wagons were very different inside – both in the cabin and (especially) under the hood - and gained quarter-mile fame at the height of the muscle car golden age.
The last detail gives it all away. Yes, the two wagons came with the 425 hp 426 CID (seven liters) V8. Being a Plymouth, that number spells one thing and one thing only: Hemispherical. HEMI, for short. That's right; a pair of factory-made Belvedere I Wagons came into the world with one thing in mind: drag racing.
And boy, did they race! The Mopar Hall of Famer Lee Smith got this featured here four-speed manual wagon – courtesy of Chrysler sponsorship – and thrashed competitors in the Super Stock quarter-mile runs in the 60s and 70s. Liveried in a colorful and unmistakable rainbow pattern, the Wagon made a name for itself through the decades.
After changing hands several times, it came into the possession of an avid Mopar enthusiast, who currently owns it and takes it to car shows across the U.S. The car's latest appearance was at the Carlisle Events in Pennsylvania this weekend, and there is a video of it posted on Lous Costabile's YouTube channel.
The car runs and drives beautifully, as we can all admire, and the restoration was as significant as the TLC the current owner treats his beloved Belvedere with. Bare-stripped for the race, the interior is comprised mainly of what's in front of the steering wheel – the dash and seats are original. Still, the racing instrumentations were upgraded several times before the car retired to a garaged life. Most importantly, the four-speed manual transmission was replaced with an automatic that still moves the vehicle around today.
Yes, it sounds like the blast from the past that it is, and that distinguishable roar of the engine is one majestic tribute to the car's untamed raw power. The owner has a photo album of the Belvedere's glory days at the dragstrip. We can see the wheelie takeoffs the unruly HEMI was capable of pulling from the awkward-looking, devastatingly fast Belvedere I body.
To hint at exactly how fast it was, we'll drop just two figures here: 9.90 and 10.79. The first value is the number of seconds it took for an average Pro Stock race car to cover the standing quarter mile. The second is what the Whackee Wagon achieved, and that performance helped it take first place in The Street Eliminator in The World Series at Cordova.
After nearly two decades in news television, Răzvan turned to a different medium. He’s been a field journalist, a TV producer, and a seafarer but found that he feels right at home among petrolheads. Full profile
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