Description
Lot #1252.1 - This is not a Hemi-Cuda. This is thee Hemi-Cuda. Perhaps the best known factory sponsored race team in the mid-west was the group of factory engineers from Chrysler, known as the RAMCHARGERS. They started racing in 1959, and dominated Super-Stock and Funny-Car drag racing throughout the muscle-car era. This car could be the only surviving RAMCHARGERS Team Car known to exist. (It is believed that all others have been lost or destroyed.) This 'Cuda is an original BS23R, Hemi-Cuda. It was raced by the RAMCHARGERS from 1974 to 1986. This car is authorized to use the trademark RAMCHARGERS. The owner of the trademark name has given authorization to continue to use the name RAMCHARGERS, Candymatic, and the distinctive candy-apple red and white paint job, on this car. The car is equipped with a stock, 426 cubic inch Hemi (60 over). It has been extensively race modified by RAMCHARGERS and team member Dean Nicopolis and produced 691 horsepower on the Dyno. The car has run the quarter mile in 9.97 at 132 miles per hour. It has won 37 major class championships, running in SS/DA class, where it reigned as the class champion for years. The car was retired in 1986, and restored 10 years later by Dean Nicopolis and Jack Ottino, the last remaining members of the famous RAMCHARGERS racing team. The car has won numerous car shows, and has been on loan to the Walter P. Chrysler Museum, where it was displayed with such famous cars as "Color Me Gone: Richard Petty's Mopar Daytona 500 winner, and numerous other world famous Mopar racers. The car was featured on the steps of the Chrysler Museum when they hosted the RAMCHARGERS reunion during the Woodward Dream Cruise, in 2003. At the present time this could be the only actual surviving RAMCHARGERS Team Car known to exist.
