'69 GTX
Revived & Revved
"I have been a lifetime Mopar guy. As a kid, I swept the showroom floor and washed cars at our family's Chrysler/Plymouth dealership in Utah," says owner, Kelly Painter. There are two types of people in the muscle car world: People who own Mopars, and people who wish they could own Mopars. Kelly is the more fortunate of the two.
This '69 GTX was signed away by his salesman father back when it was new, but it wouldn't stay away forever. For whatever reason, the owners traded her in for a brand-new '77 Chrysler Cordoba. The car spent the next decade in storage, waiting for some attention from an appreciative owner. It wasn't until 1988 that Kelly was able to rescue the car. The original owners weren't as kind to the car as they should have been, so there was a mess to clean up. The 20 years of abuse and neglect did a number on it.
Kelly gave it a whole new life. He got
PHR contributor Steve Dulcich to put a fresh 572ci stroker motor together to replace the tired factory 440. The new motor makes over 700 hp and propels the car into the low 11s at the drag strip on pump gas. One pass was all he could make because his bone-stock-looking interior didn't house the rollbar needed to run these numbers. Aside from the track, this car spends a lot of time on the street, where it was built to live.
| BY THE NUMBERS |
| 1969 PLYMOUTH GTX |
| Kelly Painter • Gilbert , AZ |
| Performance: 716 hp |
| 11.3-second quarter-mile |
| ENGINE |
| Type: |
572ci big-block |
| Block: |
Mopar Performance Mega RB |
| Oiling: |
MP high-volume oil pump, 6-quart pan |
| Rotating assembly: |
stroker crankshaft, |
|
Eagle H-beam rods, |
|
10.5:1 Ross pistons |
| Cylinder heads: |
Indy CNC-ported |
|
SR 285cc aluminum |
| Camshaft: |
COMP solid, .634-inch lift |
| Valvetrain: |
COMP roller rockers, 1.6:1 |
| Induction: |
ported Indy single-plane manifold, |
|
1,000-cfm Holley |
| Ignition: |
MP electronic ignition |
| Cooling: |
custom four-row aluminum radiator |
| Fuel system: |
Carter high-volume pump |
| Exhaust: |
TTI 21/8-inch primary headers, |
|
TTI three-inch mandrel-bent exhaust, |
|
Flowmaster 40 Series mufflers |
| Fasteners: |
ARP |
| DRIVETRAIN |
| Transmission: |
Torque Flite 727, |
|
Hughes 2,500-rpm converter |
| Rear axle: |
Mopar 8 3/4;-inch 3.23 sure grip |
|
with custom axles, narrowed housing |
| CHASSIS |
| Brakes: |
Master Power 11-inch rotors, |
|
single-piston calipers |