By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Honestly, I had nothing to do with this. I know FuryPaul from Moparts, and he has provided us with some great photos of the Retro Dealership at the All-Chrysler Nationals and the Bay Country Region VCCA Fall Blow-Out. So I was pretty stoked when I learned that the guys had picked his big C-body (entry # 1490) as this week’s Amoco Ultimate winner!

29 years ago, in 1979, I bought my first car: a 1967 Plymouth Fury III with a 383 and non-functioning factory air. Two years ago, I found this one on eBay and won it after a momentary lapse of impulse control. Same year, model, body style, power train and color! Cleaner and straighter than my first one, though, with only 76,000 original miles!

Enjoy your $250 in free gas, Paul!

There are still more chances to win, so if you haven’t already thrown your hat into the ring, make sure to enter the Amoco Ultimate Your Car Is Worth It Photo Contest!

Scott Smith came back from the Toledo 24 Hours of LeMons with some great footage from the race. The in-car video is a bit choppy because Scott was literally shooting with one hand and driving with the other (I’m not sure our buddy Gary Faules will approve). So here it is, edited together by Andy Hanson, our hot shot video guy. Scott also provided some commentary, which I pasted after the jump. Enjoy!

Continue reading "CarDomainTV: Team Size Matters at the Toledo 24 Hours of LeMons" »

Tom and Mike from Rocket Restorations loaded the big C-body onto a trailer yesterday in Olympia and headed east to Toledo, Ohio for the "Detroitish" edition of the 24 Hours Of Lemons. This will be the forth Lemons race for the Fury, which is sporting new wheels and tires. Be sure to check out their "new" fiberglass hood after the jump, which was taken off an old Duster race car. They are currently short a driver, so I’m working to see if we can get Mr. Angry in the car. Stay tuned…

Continue reading "Team Size Matters Headed East for the Detroit 24 Hours Of Lemons" »

Last weekend, Team Size Matters took the big Mopar out to Portland International Raceway in preparation for the Toledo 24 Hours of Lemons race on September 13 & 14. The track day was put on by the Cascade Car Club of Portland, and was more of a training day for new drivers. But it was a great opportunity for Team Size Matters to do some testing and tuning. Here’s the full story from Tom at Rocket Restorations:

We took the car down to Vancouver, WA the night before to do a little tweaking to it. For this race we put the radiator behind the driver instead of the front of the car like before to balance the car out. As most of you know a big block C-Body Mopar is not a 50/50 balanced car. After some tweaking including bolting two cylinder heads into the passenger side of the trunk we got the car so it is almost a 50/50 weight balance, the car is amazingly balanced and easy to drive. I know nobody will believe us, but ask anybody who has driven the car. Continue reading…

Continue reading "Team Size Matters Prepares for the Toledo 24 Hours of Lemons" »

For their third outing in the 24 Hours of LeMons, Rocket Restorations Size Matters team went with a CarDomain orange paint job and changed their number to 67. They also decided to go with a 440 instead of a 318. Scott was worried about the hit they’d take in gas mileage, but it wasn’t a problem. Once again, they had the biggest car in the track (there was one other Mopar C barge–piloted by David Freiburger of CarJunkieTV–which finished toward the back of the pack). In the end, the Fury placed 12th overall, and would have placed even higher if they hadn’t taken a black flag on Saturday for being hit by another car. Still, that’s not bad out of 96 cars, especially for a two ton, 40 year old car on junkyard tires.

It wasn’t all fun and games, however. As was reported on Jalopik, there was a fatality at the race on Saturday, when the Gulf 39 team’s Volvo 240 driven by Cort Summerfield plowed into a wall. Our condolences to Cort’s family and friends.

I have a ton more pics after the jump–all from Saturday. Scott is planning to get me more from Sunday so stay tuned.

Continue reading "Team Size Matters Places 12th at Altamont" »

Not many cars can survive two 24 Hours of LeMons and then go back for thirds. But that’s exactly what Scott and the Team Size Matters Fury are doing. They are doing the final prep now for next weekend’s race at Altamont. David Freiburger will be running a ’73 Fury in the same race, so the ’67 Fury won’t be the only C barge. Stay tuned for full coverage from Scott. One more pic of the mighty Fury after the jump.

Continue reading "Team Size Matters Getting Ready for Altamont" »

I just heard from my buddy Scott, who was driving the ’67 Fury III in this past weekend’s 24 Hours Of LeMons at Thunderhill. Apparently the old C-body was only the second oldest car in the race this time (the oldest being a ’65 Mercedes), but the team was still awarded the prestigious "Index of Effluency" prize. Here’s the word from Scott:

We entered a field of 71 cars, among a field dominated with Miatas, RX7s, Honda Civics, Acuras, 3-Series BMWs, Porsche 914 and 944s, and about every other good handling import you’ve ever seen, and we finished in 12th! (That is a serious win for us!) We only had one mechanical issue, a bad alternator, it cost us about 7-8 laps. I got black flagged for not seeing a yellow and passing a car (woops!) and was parked for about 10 laps. And one of the other drivers, Mike Tucker, was black flagged because he got hit by an aggressively driving BMW (no fault of Mikes but when two cars connected BOTH were black flagged off the track, strict rules) and that cost us about 8 laps. We were in 10th position prior to those incidents so who knows how well we could have done without the penalties! We had 5 drivers and all ran competitive/similar times, average laps were in the low 1:30s. On Sunday I somehow managed a 1:27 best lap speed but while out hammering on it a sway bar end link broke and it slowed us a few seconds a lap for the rest of the day. All things considered it was a REALLY fun event and unlike previous Lemons races, it was more like a real race than a destruction derby, there were some SERIOUS cars on hand running VERY fast times!

When I asked Scott how our CarDomain decal got smudged, Scott wrote:

The door was already pretty bad from a Ranchero with a 460 plowing into it at the last race at Altamont…… However, the damage was "touched up" by a couple of us giving the tire barriers through the chicanes a little "rub" on the way through……. Sort of like threading a needle with a tow rope! We also had a few wheel to wheel side swipes from other cars trying to squeeze by in corners…. Most didn’t try it twice! LOL!

Scott also added this tidbit:

A 944 Porsche was lapping the field ($500.00 car….Uh yea RIGHT!) . He had just passed me in the front straight and cut back hard in front of me then promptly blew up the engine sending back a GIANT cloud of "James Bond quality" oil smoke. I had to slow to a near stop just to see again, it was a comforting feeling hearing his connecting rods and other engine internals bouncing harmlessly off the bottom of the Fury’s giant American steel underbelly.

More pics and (hopefully) video soon! For now here’s one more pic of the car and a pic of the team (that’s Scott in the black driver’s suit). The other team Size Matters drivers were Tom, Mike, Sam and Gary. All of these guys did a killer job keeping the old Mopar in the mix til the very end.

Back in October Team Size Matters took 23rd place at the Altamont 24 Hours of Lemons with their four door, 318-powered ’67 Fury III, despite having the oldest and heaviest car on the track. Chalk that up to good driving and a bulletproof Mopar drivetrain. Right now the guys down at Rocket Restorations are getting the old C-body ready for the Thunderhill edition, which is less than two weeks away. Since cars in the 24 Hours of Lemons must costs $500 or less, changes are minor: new brake rotors, fresh tires, driving lights, plus some drastic weight reduction–basically removing anything possible to lighten the land barge up a bit. And this time around my buddy Scott Smith will be behind the wheel (go Scott!). Be sure to check out their ride page, with lots of pics of the Fury, plus a page of shop pics for Mopar fans (I’d love to see what these guys could do with my Satellite). We’ll keep you updated, and of course Scott will get us tons of pics and video from the event.