During my trips through junkyards, I found the occasional retired race car, but most of them were fairly recent machines. Today's Junkyard His Gem is another kind of Racing His Remnant. Supposedly he's an ancient dart his track beast last used over 40 years ago and was discovered in a yard in the Denver area last summer.
It's really just a visceral shell that sat outdoors for decades after the final competition, but it offers a glimpse of its past amid rust spots and peeling paint. .
The rear quarter clearly identifies it as a 1965 Plymouth B-body 2-door sedan.
The 1965 B-body Plymouth was marketed in three models: the luxury satellite, the mid-level Belvedere II and the El Chipo Belvedere I.The shadow of the Belvedere badge on the fender inside the car is at least fender It came from the Belvedere I (the way race cars, especially those competing in the dirt, bump into each other, which we can assume is the 19th Fender affiliated with this car).
Belvedere fenders were easy to find in junkyards until about 40 years ago. A faded sponsor sticker indicates that the car was last raced around that time. By the way, you can still buy the new "Turbo Action" valve bodies for Chrysler automatic transmissions.
Similarly, CRC 5-56 lubricants still exist. The "OZONE SAFE" label on the can suggests that this sticker is from his late 1970's to his early 1980's.
The roll cage is certainly old-fashioned, especially without door bars. The Denver area once had many race tracks, including Overland Park and Englewood Speedway (both very close to this last parking lot in Plymouth), but they closed long before the 1980s . Lakeside Speedway was in operation until 1988 (and still is), but its dirt oval primarily hosted midget racing during his final three decades of operation. Colorado Springs International Speedway, which closed in 1985, was probably the car's last race venue.
There is one sponsor that suggests a distant origin from the mountain time zone. I don't know the name of the company (except for what I believe is a snippet containing "oluce") but it appears to be an organized food business located in Houma, Louisiana. It may have been taken to the range and rusted in the garden or field.
There isn't much left, but it's one of the many kinds of automotive history I'd like to document in this series. His one of my favorite road racing cars is the Belvedere (no, it's not). this So we knew we needed to document the final chapter for this car.
There are still some cars like this today. Wait for the beer, the old Belvedere is on the move!
If you're old enough to remember the new '65 Belvederes, you're old enough to remember the filmstrip.
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