If finding a third-generation Plymouth GTX hidden in a bard sounds like a dream to you, the's a serious chance you might want to find out more about the goodie we have here. This is the body of the Red Dragon nostalgia funny car Tom Padilla used to race, which explains the altered proportions. But why is it separated from the rest of the vehicle?
The question above has quite a particular answer. It all has to do with the Bakersfield March Meet back in 2009, when the fiberglass body of the vehicle was thrown some 300 feet into the air - the supercharger blew up and it appears that the burst panel, a piece specifically designed to prevent damage to the rest of the body in such a situation, destroyed the latch keeping the body attached to the chassis.
Since the shenanigan took place just as the vehicle was crossing the quarter-mile point, the tremendous drag meant the fiberglass shell acted a bit like a paper plane. The vehicle was fixed, receiving a smaller scale body of the same type for the 2010 season.
So we could be looking at the said high-altitude body - as you'll notice in the YouTube clip at the bottom of the page, the shell of the 3,000 horsepower machine remained in one piece after the landing.
The retro-styled body was discovered by an aficionado named Dan. The gearhead, who also got to meet the driver of the beast, decided to take the story to Instagram, explaining that the 'best part was meeting the man himself,' as you can see in the post below (make sure to use the swipe feature).
Will this stunning piece of fiberglass ever see the prepped surface of the drag strip? Here's to hoping the answer is positive, as there are other, more efficient ways of gathering dust in a shed.
In his quest to bring you the most impressive automotive creations, Andrei relies on learning as a superpower. There's quite a bit of room in the garage that is this aficionado's heart, so factory-condition classics and widebody contraptions with turbos poking through the hood can peacefully coexist. Full profile
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