2011 FNBNY MCACN Entries

[bashton]

Interesting to note, these particular entries are coming in from Wisconsin, Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Illinois.

Bashton
MCACN Managing Member

[vicki.ashton]

<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-size: 14pt">Dominic Presty will be showing this 1965 Corvette Coupe in our Triple Diamond Gallery</span></span>

[Charley Lillard]

We will also have this cool car making the trek to this years MCACN. Lots of stories with this one.

’71 Rallye Red Hemicuda Convertible History (BS27R1B337604) - Summary

The car is #6 of the 7 1971 Hemicuda Convertibles made for the US. There were a total of 12 built, 7 for the US (2 4spd, 5 Autos), 2 for Canada (both autos), and 3 for Export (1 4spd, 2 autos). I am the 5th owner.

It has been authenticated by Galen Govier. He took a picture of the Broadcast Sheet when it was removed, and nearly all of it is intact. The car was covered in the August 2006 edition of Mopar Action Magazine.

The car is a numbers-matching 2-tag car. The motor has a casting date of 7-23-69 (July 23rd, 1969), and is stamped with the VIN ‘1B337604’. The car has the following options:

425hp/426 Hemi engine
727 Auto
Shaker Hood
Black Convertible top
Black Leather interior with bucket seats
6-way Driver’s seat
Black vinyl side mouldings
Super Track Pak, 4.10 Dana
Rallye Gauges
Console with Slapstick Shifter
AM/FM Radio
Light group package
Undercoating
Power Steering
Power Disc Brakes
Power Top


The car was bought at Bill Luke Chrysler Plymouth dealership in Phoenix. Bill Austin, in the tire dept, worked on the car at the dealership and saw it brought off of the transport. It was a big event.
’71 Rallye Red Hemicuda Convertible History (BS27R1B337604) - Details

Morgan got into a bad motorcycle accident. He was paralyzed from the waist down. As part of the insurance settlement he went into Bill Luke Chrysler Plymouth in Phoenix AZ and bought this Rallye Red Hemi Convertible, plus a '71 Hemi Charger for his brother. Because he couldn't use his legs he ordered an automatic, but loaded it with a bunch of goodies like Super Track Pak with 4.10s and power disc brakes, power steering, console with Slap-Stik shifter, 6-way adjustable seat, black leather interior, power top, rallye dash, light package, AM/FM Multiplex Stereo, undercoating, all tinted windows, and vinyl side moldings. When the car arrived the guys at the dealership knew it was a special car, because they had not ordered anything like it before. So when the transport pulled in it was a big event to watch the car being unloaded. The dealership then installed hand controls for the brake and gas pedals, so Morgan could operate the car. On its first outing, Morgan literally drove it across the street and immediately fitted it with headers, traction bars, and mag wheels.

The car became a fixture at the Luke dealership on Monday mornings. Morgan would pick the car up on Friday and tear it up over the weekend. Monday morning he'd bring it back for some sort of warranty repair, quite often with the interior filled with empty beer cans. By Friday the cycle would start all over again, when Morgan would pick up the car for his weekend adventure.

This punishment didn't last long, and Bill and Bob Graham bought the car from Morgan in 1972, for $1700. They wanted a Corvette convertible and couldn't find one, so they bought this car instead. The first thing they did is remove and toss the hand controls. The original transmission was having problems and they took it back to Luke for warranty repair. But the dealership said no, they had had enough of that car, so the Grahams did a swap themselves. They also accidentally left the shaker bubble at a gas station during one long, overheating trip from Phoenix to Reno, and fixed the gaping hole in the shaker hood by filling it with a homemade tunnel ram setup. They also put dirt tires on the rear and turned it into a desert dunebuggy of sorts, and took some pictures of the car doing its thing. In early 1973 they traded the car for a '67 tripower Corvette convertible. The new owner took the ‘vert to the east coast but almost immediately brought it back. In late 1973, again in Phoenix, the car was for sale again, this time for $1900. The Graham's considered buying it back, as it looked the same except for a hole in the rear convertible window, but they couldn't come up with the money.

Charlie Grant then bought the car, drove it for about 2 years, but then put it into hibernation in 1975. It had just 20K miles on the odometer. Being a car guy Charlie thought the car might be rare, perhaps one of a hundred or so, and therefore might be worth something someday. He planned the 'someday' restoration. There it sat, and there it would sit until it’d be unearthed some 30 years later.

Dave Blake, a well-known Hemi collector who had the foresight to buy these cars in the '70s and early '80s, when they were still just used cars, was also a resident of Phoenix. In 1977, when Dave set out to buy any and all of the Hemicuda Convertibles, he stumbled across the Graham brothers, as they were both street-racing types. Dave did not know the exact numbers made, but he knew '71 Hemicuda Converts were extremely rare, so when the Grahams said they used to have one at first Dave didn't believe them. But when they showed Dave an old Insurance slip, with the VIN detailing that this was in fact a legit '71 Hemicuda Convertible, Dave realized this car was real. Dave and Bill Graham became good friends, and they became even closer when Bill was introduced to and eventually married Dave's sister, all due to this particular car. In 1977 Dave went to the Phoenix DMV and, armed with the VIN and with one single dollar, the DMV gave him a printout of Charlie's name and address. Dave contacted Charlie and tried, but Charlie would not sell. However, that started Dave on his mission, and over the next 6 years or so, Dave hunted nationwide and bought three of the eighteen '70 Hemicuda Converts, one of the twelve Hemi Challenger Convert, and one of the other twelve '71 Hemicuda converts. But, try as he might, even though this one was born in and still residing in his own backyard, over the next 30 years he could not pry this one out of Charlie's hands. When Dave wanted to buy it for $20K, Charlie wanted $40K, and so on.

By the early 2000's the values of these cars were going into the stratosphere. As that happened, all of the other twelve 1971 Hemicuda Convertibles surfaced. All except for this one. Because the US production numbers were fairly well-documented by the factory it was known that 7 had been manufactured for the US, but only 6 had been accounted for. Everybody dreamed about finding this renegade car in a barn somewhere, but because the prices were already so crazy mostly everyone believed it had to have been destroyed and crushed over the years. Charlie, being a very quiet and reserved guy, didn't say a word to anyone. Dave also kept quiet. If you knew where treasure was buried would you tell everyone?

But, by 2005, Dave was getting even crazier offers for his '71, and Charlie knew this. So Dave realized there was no way he could actually afford to buy Charlie's car anymore. After nearly 30 years of keeping his valuable secret, Dave finally leaked the existence of the red convertible to noted collector Bill Wiemann. Bill then hounded Charlie, but for several months Charlie flatly denied the car’s existence. But Bill's persistence paid off, and after about 6 months of effort Bill landed the big fish. Its public announcement in the August 2006 edition of Mopar Action Magazine shook the world, as the &quot;Missing&quot; 1971 Hemicuda Convertible had finally been found.

Bill only had the car for about 2 months when I bought it from him. The original motor was still being rebuilt, and the car was just partially restored, but Bill had agreed to debut it at the Chryslers at Carlisle show that was only 5 weeks away. I bought the car and, to meet the show obligation, literally threw it together with about two seconds to spare. Motivated under its own power with a temporary Ray Barton motor it did make it from the trailer to Carlisle’s main exhibit building, and the show was a rousing success, but the ropes surrounding the prize kept onlookers from realizing it was basically held together by only one screw!

On the trip back from the Carlisle show the 'Missing' Hemicuda went missing again. I had 3 cars, this convert and two '71 Hemicuda hardtops, plus a hemi block, on a transport back coming back from Carlisle. Two days into the delivery the transport company, Goldrush Motorsports, went bankrupt. I literally did not know where these cars were for about 2 hair-pulling weeks. When I finally found them, the driver was abandoning the trailer at a TA truckstop outside of East St. Louis, because the feds were coming to impound everything. In what was probably one of the worst days of my life I did cartwheels to rescue those cars. But I was successful. The entire story was detailed in the December 2006 issue of Mopar Collector’s Guide Magazine.

I then had the car properly restored. Because it is a late '71 car it has the proper blacked-out 450 steel wheels, as opposed to body color, a factory change that started around 3/5/71. I chose to put on billboards instead of the vinyl side moldings, and added the roadlamps and dual painted mirrors instead of the single mirror, but otherwise the car is restored to original factory specs. The original motor is now resting between the wheels, although the original transmission is long gone. Because it is so highly optioned it is a 2-tag car, and has both original tags. It also fortunately has its original broadcast sheet, but because the car was sitting outside in the Phoenix desert for decades, with the sheet still in the car, the paper is intact but baked to a potato-chip crispness. Even though the car was abused early in its life it did not suffer any major damage, and due to the friendly weather in Phoenix it still has nearly all of its original sheetmetal. Much of the original paint was still on the car when Bill bought it, but while one side was red the other side was orange, heavily faded from facing the Phoenix sun for all those decades. Today, even though it has now been restored, the car still has its original Rallye Red paint under the interior door panels and carpet, and the underside of the floorpan is untouched, with just a fresh undercoating over the original factory undercoating. It also still proudly wears its original Arizona license plate PTE-971.

With its original motor, original metal, original paperwork, detailed ownership history, heavy performance and convenience options, desirable color combination, and colorful history the &quot;Missing&quot; 1971 Hemicuda Converible is one of the best of its breed, and one of the most valuable musclecars in existence.





Here is Wades fun experience transporting it..

8/7/06
My story, about how the ‘Missing’ ’71 Hemicuda Convertible, and two of his Hemi buddies, when MIA again for nearly 2 weeks after the Chrysler show in Carlisle…

June 21, 2006 (Wednesday).
I call an auto transport company based out of North Carolina that I have used twice before (Goldrush Motorsports), to schedule a trip for 3 cars and a motor. I coordinate this with a reasonable lady (April). The cars are the survivor TorRed ’71 Hemicuda 4spd, the freshly-restored 1-of-1 Inviolet/White Hemicuda 4spd, and the ‘Missing’ Red ’71 Hemicuda Convertible. Big money shipment, no doubt, but I doubt they know this. I schedule that they will pick these up from the Canadian border (from the resto shop), bring them to Carlisle for their show debut, then after Carlisle bring them to my place in California. As I found out later they billed my CC for the full amount on this same day.

July 5 (Tuesday).
All goes well. The driver (Robert) picks up the cars just as planned.

July 6 (Wednesday).
All goes well. I meet the driver at Carlisle and we unload the cars. The show is fantastic!

July 9 (Sunday):
All goes well. The driver reloads the cars, and estimates they will be in CA within 1 week (by the following Sunday). See attached pictures at the end of this document.

July 12 (Wednesday):
A few days have gone by without contact. I call the driver to check status. Nobody answers and I leave a message.

July 14 (Friday): STARTING TO GET WORRIED…
No reply from anyone. I call the driver again and leave another message. I call the home office and from the crackling sound I can tell it immediately auto-forwards to a cell phone or something. I leave a message there as well. I wait a few hours and try both numbers again. Now the driver’s phone is not accepting messages. I leave another message with the home office. I wait a few more hours, and try to leave another message with the home office, and NOW IT is no longer accepting messages! I am getting worried. I call 411 in North Carolina to get the ph# for the local police dept, just in case.

July 15 (Saturday): MORE WORRIED…
No reply from anyone. I call all numbers, no answer. This time I can leave another message with the driver, and I do, this time much more frantic. The home office is still not receiving messages, and is still doing the auto-forward thing. I go to their website and email them, trying to get some form of communication going. I try to convince myself everything is OK. Hell, my cars are supposed to be here tomorrow!

July 16 (Sunday): MORE, MORE WORRIED…
No reply, no email, no cars, no nothing…

July 17 (Monday): PANIC, MY CARS ARE DEFINITELY IN SOUTH AMERICA BY NOW…
No reply, no email. I call all numbers, no answer. I send an urgent FAX to them (the only form of communication I haven’t tried yet) saying they must call me!

July 18 (Tuesday): OH SHIT, CAN THIS REALLY BE HAPPENING?!?…
Its been a week-and-a-half since I last heard from anyone… OK, what is the best possible case… The driver crashed the truck and they are afraid to tell me… Or somebody died… Or they really stole these cars?!?… How can a company act like this? I call the driver, no answer. No fax. No email. I call the home office and the ph# is now disconnected. DISCONNECTED! I literally am calling the police in NC when my phone shows that the driver is trying to call me. YEAH !!!

He starts talking. He seemed like an OK guy at Carlisle, so I am trying to believe him. He says the cars are safe! He says he is in NC, at the main office, and the cars are in his same truck there at the office in NC, and a Ferrari is also on the truck. He says he is scheduled to leave there today to come to CA. He says another driver quit a few days before and he got so mad he threw his cell phone against a wall and broke it, and just got it back today after repair. OK, but in my head I ask myself why he didn’t call me from a land line, knowing I was expecting the cars in CA a few days ago?. He says the company is changing owners and the office phones are messed up during the changeover. I say I am calling the cops unless I speak to someone in charge.

I get a VM message at my work# from the lady at the transport company I originally scheduled all this with. She said she can’t help, and she is no longer with the company.

I get a phone call from another guy (Chris). He says the company is in trouble and so he is buying it and changing it to XT Motorsports, or something complicated like that. He says the lady I originally spoke with has not been invited back to the new company, at least not yet. He says he is sending the driver out now with my cars and they will be in CA by this Friday. I tell him I want to send the cops over, to inspect the cars. He says OK, if I want to. I begin to feel a little better and tell him to get the cars on the road, and that I will call the driver every day. Anyway, its only a few days, what could happen…

July 19 (Wednesday): MAYBE THIS WILL ALL WORK OUT…
I call the driver. He picks up! He is in Tennessee. I ask if we are on schedule for Friday, and he says he now has to stop on the way to drop off the Ferrari, so it looks more like Sunday at my place. At least I successfully reached him. OK, maybe this is OK…

July 20 (Thursday): TROUBLE BREWING AGAIN…
I call the driver. He is at a TA truck stop outside of St. Louis, Missouri. He is out of gas. He is waiting for gas money from the home office, and should be on the road again tomorrow…
July 21 (Friday): ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE. ONE OF THE SCARIEST DAYS OF MY LIFE…
I get a call from the driver. He called me before I called him. He says we got big problems. Boy, did that turn out to be an understatement…

He says the company is basically bankrupt. He says the FBI has contacted him regarding his shipments. He says the FBI has contacted the owners at the home office to confiscate trucks and trailers and to impound all vehicles. He says the company has not kept up their insurance for the last several weeks and perhaps no longer even has a federal license to transport cars across state lines. He says he is on fumes, and the prepaid gas card he got says ‘contact owner’. He says he has no money at all, and hasn’t eaten since yesterday. He says his family is being evicted tomorrow and has to be in Iowa by then. He says if need be he will have to abandon the trailer at this truck stop.

I demand the name of an owner. He gives me two, one of whom is the lady I originally spoke with! I was led to believe she wasn’t with the company, but it turns out she is one of the owners. I try to call her cell phone many times but nobody answers. The other owner is a guy (Nick) in Beverly Hills. I call him and leave a message.

I call back the ‘new owner’ I spoke to on Tuesday, who was supposedly buying the company. He now denies everything. He says he is out of this altogether. He has the audacity to throw out a sentence starting with ‘Hey Bud, I never…’.

In the meantime I get a call from another guy (Ken) from Las Vegas. He is an old owner, who sold the company to the current owners. He says the new owners basically stiffed him, to the tune of about $1M. He says he still owns the truck (not the trailer just the truck, or perhaps vice-versa), and has talked to the driver about having him deliver this before the seizure. It looks like everyone is trying to get their stuff before the feds impound everything…

I call back the driver, asking him how much gas money he needs to make it to CA. He says $1600. Naturally I am hesitant to discuss this, as I am not sure if he is ‘in on this’ or not. Really, I don’t even know if the cars are actually in St. Louis! I suggest that he drive here and I pay him. He says he needs to ask the owners. He calls back shortly and says maybe he can’t. I get the feeling he is worried about driving the company’s truck while they are in this state. Frankly, this is the first time I start to believe that maybe this poor guy is actually in the middle, like me, and wondering if he still has a paycheck…

I finally call the NC police dept. Yes, finally. In retrospect I should have done this earlier, but I always was trying to think the best. I tell the lady who answered that I am having a problem with a local company. She asks what company. I tell her the name. She says she’ll transfer me to Lieutenant Wyman, because he is handling that case. THAT CASE?!? I DIDN’T KNOW THERE WAS ALREADY A ‘CASE’ !?!

Frantic, I begin to call everyone I know, and many I have never met. I concentrate on anyone located in the mid-America region. I call Aloha. I leave a message at Frank Badelson’s, trying to reach Roger Gibson. I call Moviestar Musclecars. Maybe there is another Mopar guy locally where I can just drop off these damn things before they get seized…

Aloha puts me in touch with Kurt at Blue Highways. When I talk with him he has heard about the Goldrush thing through the grapevine, and recommends I get my cars off their truck as soon as possible! He is very helpful, but unfortunately the best he can do is pick up the cars tomorrow. While appreciative I need this done TODAY !!! A backup plan is helpful, though…

Frank calls back. He is trying to reach Roger. In the meantime he suggests Passport (now Fedex-Passport) Auto Transport, because their home base is St. Louis. Moviestar’s call back. They have a guy about an hour south of St. Louis who is willing to take the cars. Roger calls back. He has a driver who will drop everything and go pick up the cars and take them to another local guy’s house. I talk with Aloha again, and Tommy says he will gather enough trailers for 3 cars and drive the 6 hours to pick up these cars if need be. Can you believe how great all these guys are?

I concentrate on Passport. They are theoretically the closest, and anyway I will eventually need to transport them to CA. First things first, get them off that damned truck!!!

I talk to this nice lady, Chris, at Passport. I tell her my urgent problem. She can’t believe it. I tell her the approximate value of these cars. ‘OH MY!’ she says. She says give her an hour or so to work something out. I tell her she can charge me whatever she likes.

Perhaps the Longest Hour of my life trickles by…

She calls back. She can help! The other lady in the office, Cindy, has a fiancée Fred who operates, as it turns out, a local restoration shop (Garcia’s Restorations). Fred’s shop is about 3 miles away from the truckstop, and can store the cars if the driver will bring them over. As a backup plan the only truck they have immediately available is an open car hauler, and they can send this to the truck stop if necessary. Okay, at least we’re getting somewhere…

I call the driver. He again says he is on fumes and cannot drive 3 miles, and has no money. OK, on to Plan B.

I call back Passport. I suggest that Fred take some cash over to the driver to fill up his tank, to make it the 3 miles. Of course they are reluctant. Hell, they don’t even know me!?! OK, they agree.

Fred calls the driver. There is a mistake in locations. The truckstop is 50 miles from Fred’s place, not 3 miles. However, this means the cars are actually in St. Louis and not in South America!!! The driver says that because of this mixup this must mean Fred is out. Fred says No Way, he had promised some guy in CA that he would get these cars safe and dammit that’s what was going to happen. God love him. With this change in distance it is now closer to drop off the cars at the Passport depot, rather than Fred’s. Sounds OK to me.

Agonizing hours go by…

The driver calls. He says the cars and motor are all safe at the Passport depot! Un-freaking-believable. You know, I truly believe this driver was OK after all. He says one other strange thing – he says he filled up his tank for this trip. What?!? I wanted to ask a million questions, but I was just too drained…

At the same time Fred calls. He says the cars are safe. You know, its after 8pm his time and he has gone out of his way for me, a guy he has never and likely will never meet; the fiancée of the lady in the office. Cool. Relieved, I ask him about the gas thing? He also says he has no idea, since that was the whole reason he was involved in the first place! He says that the driver said he did it because he wanted to show me that he was not like the other people at the company. A very nice gesture, for sure, but a little confusing…

One last moment of concern. After I hang up my wife asks if the depot is locked, or is enclosed. She asks if Fred even got the right cars! Dammit, she’s ruining my buzz, but she’s right. I call back Fred.

Fred says the depot is secure. He says the cars are all OK, and describes them in enough detail that I know they are right. In one passing shot he casually says ‘Yeah, one has a 6-cylinder…’, pauses, then says ‘Gotcha!’. Turns out Fred used to own a Hemicuda, that he sold to Reggie Jackson, so he knows cars from cars. OK, I can breathe easy now. Whew… I congratulate Fred on his future wedding plans, and he laughs, wondering who in the world doesn’t know he’s getting married!


END (hopefully !)
I can’t say I know exactly what was happing to that company, but I can say that in my desperate situation everybody, I mean everybody, stepped up to help as much (even more) than they possibly could. The ‘Missing’ ’71 Hemicuda convert and two of his Hemi buddies went MIA again for nearly 2 weeks, but were now safely under control thanks to these people. That is why I say it is the people, not the cars, that make this hobby great!


- Wade

[Xplantdad]

Holy cow...what a read! And another cool car too boot! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/headbang.gif[/img]

[bashton]

Gee...and I was wondering why he was hesitant to ship cars. lol

What an amazing turn of events and incredible story.

And...another reason to make sure you make it to MCACN 2011!

Many thanks to Wade for agreeing to join us for our &quot;Class of 1971&quot; Invitational display with this amazing piece of Hemi history.

Bashton
MCACN Managing Member

[vicki.ashton]

<span style="font-size: 14pt">Darren Costello will be heading up the L78 Display with his 1970 Camaro SS 396 L78</span>

Thank You Darren!

[vicki.ashton]

<span style="font-size: 14pt">Scott Dunlap will have his 1981 Camaro displayed and judged in the Vintage Certification Display by Steve Shauger and his team of judges</span>

[mockingbird812]

Darren is a Good choice! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

[mockingbird812]

'71 cuda cover shot is at B dubs' house. Bill was relentless on his pursuit of this car. He pulled ALL [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/naughty.gif[/img] of the stops out to find this baby. Cool-cool story.- [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]

[vicki.ashton]

<span style="font-size: 14pt">Greg Matarrese will be showing this L78 1970 Camaro in the L78 Display</span>