RT

RT, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Back in ye olden days, you could buy your family sedan in a number of configurations, from mild to wild. Usually the manufacturer had a special designation for the top and bottom of the lines - the base models would have some sort of fancy name (if anything), and the racy ones would get something...er, racy. GM had it's SS models, Ford the GT, AMC liked to use SST, and Plymouth used R/T, which meant, of course, Road and Track. This one's a '67 or so Belvedere.

AAR

AAR, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Plymouth's Barracuda was the company's answer to Ford's wildly successful Mustang, a smallish coupe or convertible with a variety of engine and interior options to let the buyer customize their car. Pretty much any combination was available, from a basic six-pot economy model to a wild eight cylinder muscle machine.

Like the Mustang, the Barracuda spawned a number of high performance options, particularly later in it's life. One of the rarest is the AAR, a Trans-Am special devised to capitalize on the series. Developed in part by Dan Gurney's All-American Racing Team, the AAR was a fast car but the team didn't manage to win any races in it's inaugural season.

This one's a genuine ex-AAR car, run originally by Swede Savage, and still competes in historic racing today.

A/FX

A/FX, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Factory Experimental was an offshoot of the Showroom Stock class. These were usually cars with prototype engines and other equipment combinations that weren't available from the factory. A/FX cars were even wilder, featuring altered wheelbases that pushed the center of gravity around for better traction. Wild cars.

Valiant

Plymouth Valiant #1, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Originally it's own make within Chrysler, the Plymouth Valiant was the company's entry level range, and had a full range of models. Originally available only with a six cylinder engine, the Valiant was Chrysler's first unit-construction car since the pre-war Airflow.

I spotted this one on a side street in Chicago a few years ago. It was clearly still in regular use-I only saw it the one time in my neighborhood-and I never did get a decent shot of the whole car.

AAR

AAR Cuda, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

One of the good guys in motorsports, Dan Gurney had a long and varied career behind the wheel. Starting off with hot rods on the dry lakes and drag strips of southern California, Gurney soon moved on to sports cars with varying success. His big break came in 1957, when he finished second in the inaugural Riverside Grand Prix at the famed California track that would eventually become synonymous with Gurney's name. This led to a factory drive at LeMans with Maserati, and by 1959 he was in Grand Prix racing with Ferrari.

A true all-rounder, Gurney went on to race in sports cars, endurance racing, stock car racing (he owned the Grand National event at Riverside, his home track), the Trans-Am, and of course on the Grand Prix circuit. He drove for BRM, Brabham, Porsche, and finally with his own Eagle, manufactured by All-American Racers (or Anglo-American Racers for the GP project).

The AAR Grand Prix project ended soon after that historic win in 1967, but AAR continued to manufacture cars for domestic series, such as USAC and Formula 5000. The company also lent it's name and expertise to Plymouth, for it's Trans-Am challenger, the 'Cuda AAR.

This is a genuine Trans-Am car from the early 70's.

Race on Sunday, sell on Monday

Super Stock, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Super Stock drag racing got it's start in the early sixties, and was a very popular class for about a decade, mainly because the cars were the same as the ones you could buy at your local dealer. Sort of.

Factory SS cars were in fact available from the dealership, but they were usually special order only and frequently were stripped out base models. The Plymouth Belvedere pictured here had thin van seats (they were lighter than a bench), no back seat (it's heavy), no heater or air conditioning (it's heavy), no radio (it's not heavy but you can't hear it over the engine anyway), no sound deadening (it's heavy), and no hubcaps (because you're likely to get rid of the wheels anyway). In short, they weren't nice places to be for more than a quarter mile at a time. Modifications were few, and limited mostly to safety equipment.

I have no idea if this Plymouth was a genuine Super Stock car back in the day, but it was very convincing if it's a clone. Everything was correct, and it looked and sounded great.