Story by Geoff Stunkard

“Back in 1969, my dad took me to the Talladega race, and that was when I became interested in the Bobby Isaac Daytona; when that Dodge was going around the track, it just permanently became ingrained in my mind. I never dreamed that someday I would own the real car and drive it, especially not in Germany and at Goodwood and places like that.”

While many people know the Wellborn Musclecar Museum for the terrific collection of 1971 Hemi Chargers there, the aerodynamically-enhanced 'wing car' models from 1969 and 1970 have also been part of the collection since before it started. As Tim states, his attendance at that first race at Talladega played a huge role on his impressionable mind back in 1969; as a result, the car he drove in his high school years was a real Dodge Daytona. This car, Hemi Orange with a 440 and white interior, was his regular driver, but in 1979, it became an even larger tribute to the car Bobby Isaac had piloted back on that September on the high banks of Talladega.

“I found a 2100-mile ‘68 Hemi Road Runner that been totaled, and took the engine, K-member, wiring, everything, and just swapped it right into that Daytona. It all fit perfectly, I got everything needed for a B-Body Hemi, and my goal was to make this into a tribute to Bobby Isaac and the K&K car. So I decided to letter it up, and had the call-out letters, ‘Dodge’ lettered on the nose, and pinstripes painted on it.”

He drove the car for a couple of more years, but money was tight; when he made plans to get married, the Daytona was sold to a gentleman in Atlanta, and Tim lost track of it. As things became better economically, Tim wondered whatever happened to it. Ironically, it came back to him 22 years later.

“I’m getting ready to load up for Barrett-Jackson on a Wednesday night, and I get a phone call. It is the owner I had sold that car to,” he recalls. “I asked him some questions and he says, ‘do you want to buy it back?’ I said, ‘absolutely,’ and I drove straight to Atlanta that following Sunday afternoon when I returned, wrote him a check, and brought it home. It came back showing just 312 miles since the day I had sold it.” Talk about preserving history…

By now, Tim and Pam had already purchased a few other Daytonas and Superbirds. In fact, they were able to purchase the original K&K Insurance Daytona that had been part of the collection at the International Motorsports Hall of Fame. This car had set records at Bonneville, and, through Tim’s efforts, got the very first 528” crate motor Hemi from Chrysler. Tim, licensed to drive at speed, then toured the car in exhibition races across Europe, driving it at 150+ mph speeds at places like Germany’s legendary Nürburgring and Goodwood’s Festival of Speed. This car has been on display in the new NASCAR Museum in Charlotte since the day that facility opened.

One car in particular does stand out. This was a Charger Daytona that Tim had found and bought from the owner’s ex-wife, and it has a story. The car was sold through the Lenox Dodge franchise in Atlanta; its origins of its ordering are lost; it was likely bought by the owner Tim found out about through Lenox’ used car department as a repo. CONTINUED

“This guy had been sent out to buy a refrigerator, and came back with this car. His wife was not very happy about that,” Tim laughs. “So, as you can imagine, that marriage didn’t last, and when they split up, she kept this car basically to spite him. Then it sat out under a tarp in her yard for a long time.”

Tim got a call from somebody who found out about the car, and soon made plans to go see it. It was rough; the car had been repainted Petty Blue and was showing a large amount of surface rust, though the substructure rust normally feared about was non-existent (great trunk, floor pans and cowl). Seeing the car initially, he was pretty skeptical at first glance, until he saw the 999 paint code on the fender tag. Then he pulled the back seat up to see if the build sheet was in it.

“When I saw that color, my heart jumped,” he says.

Omaha Orange was never a color offered by any of the major manufacturers; it was a color used for taxi cabs running around the Haight-Asbury and other San Francisco places at the time. To date, there is only one other Daytona painted that way, and its whereabouts are questionable. Tim gave the unrestored car to Roger Gibson, who spent a couple of years reworking it into one of the most accurate restorations of any wing car.

As built, the car got the special paint, the 440 Magnum, four speed transmission, and Dana 60 rear. It got deluxe bucket seats, console, and AM radio. Like the interior, the wing was black. Most of these cars were built as sales bank cars and very few got special ordered. This one is unique for all of those reasons. The car originally came with 15” body-color painted rims. While Gibson restored the original set, Tim has chosen to use a set of the rare 15” Kelsey Hayes wheels that were recalled almost immediately due to failures; they fit the car perfectly.

The museum also has other Daytonas beyond these two and the #71 racecar – one is a 6000-mile Hemi survivor and another that is 440 powered, now stored is among the ‘barn finds’ displayed in Alexander City. The Hemi with be at the upcoming Musclecar and Corvette Nationals in Chicago on Nov 16-18.

The following year, Plymouth used a similar group of changes to build a group of cars that helped bring Richard Petty back into the fold. These cars were modified from Road Runners and used sheetmetal pieces from the redesigned 1970 Dodge Coronet to get even more streamlined. The slippery pieces developed for the Dodge were reworked with some improvements and, unlike the 500 cars built by Dodge, NASCAR now required one for every two dealerships – over 1900 units.

As a result, the Plymouth wings are found in more variety and abundance than the Dodges. The museum has three Superbirds, one Hemi-powered, one Six Pack, and one using the 440 combination (those were the three engines available in the model). The unrestored Hemi Superbird will also make its first public appearance away from Alabama at MCACN.

The museum’s Charger 500, the first aero-styled redesign that preceded the ‘nuclear option’ Dodge Daytona release, will also be at the Illinois event; it too is Hemi powered.    ]]> http://wellbornmusclecarmuseum.com/index.php/2012/11/12/wings-over-alex-city/feed/ 0 http://wellbornmusclecarmuseum.com/index.php/2012/01/12/tim-and-pam-wellborn-love-life-and-musclecars/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tim-and-pam-wellborn-love-life-and-musclecars http://wellbornmusclecarmuseum.com/index.php/2012/01/12/tim-and-pam-wellborn-love-life-and-musclecars/#comments Fri, 13 Jan 2012 02:49:49 +0000 QMPEditor http://wellbornmusclecarmuseum.com/?p=804 The Convertible E-body: 1970 440-4 'Plymouth Cuda

Musclecar Milestones by Geoff Stunkard

Text by Geoff Stunkard / Photos by John Stunkard

 “My dad had Fords, and my first car was a Mustang, so I was not a Mopar girl when we first met; in fact, I had never seen a Hurst Pistol Grip until our first date when I climbed into Tim’s Charger. I saw it and said ‘what is that thing;’ my first thought was that it was some aftermarket redneck part.”

Pam Wellborn was laughingly recalling her first encounter with Chrysler’s legendary musclecar options. Tim Wellborn and Pam Twilley had known each other in high school, and Tim had arrived in a 1970 Charger for their first date that occasion. While the two enjoyed those carefree days, career and life choices would cause them to go their separate ways into other relationships and responsibilities after graduation. Pam moved to Birmingham to get her nursing degree, while Tim ended up beginning his serious work responsibilities at the family business, Wellborn Forest Products.

The ‘cuda seen here had originally came from the Phoenix, Arizona, being sold new through the well-known Town & Country franchise out there. It was the mid-1980s, and Tim had purchased it as part of a growing group of classic Mopars he owned. Partial to Chargers and NASCAR-oriented B-Bodies, it was the only E-body he owned at the time he and Pam’s relationship reignited in 1986.

“There is something about that car,” he says. “Blue, white top, big block…” “Yes, do you remember we drove that car to the Mopar Nationals in 1988 in Columbus?,” Pam replies. “We got married in 1987, and we had four or five cars at that time, including the Jamaica-blue 1970 Charger we had dated in a few years earlier. Now, I love convertibles; Tim loves the 1971 Chargers.”

As things worked out, the financial requirements of Tim’s family-owned cabinet business in Alexander City, which he took over when his father passed away unexpectedly in the early 1990s, eventually resulted in the painful separation of virtually their entire collection, saving just one wing car (a yellow Superbird) and the Tawny Gold Hemi Charger that Tim’s late father had owned. However, those lean years were time and money spent wisely, and, once back on solid footing, Tim and Pam were able to reacquire the droptop E-body from its then-current owner in Canada.

This car is unique, as most people forget that the only year you could get a 440 four-barrel in the Plymouth ‘cuda convertible was 1970. No 440 convertibles were ever built on the A-body platform, and in 1971, the final year of production, the 440 high-performance motor was offered only in Six Pack trim. The standard 440 option allowed A/C to be installed on this car; only 34 1970 440-4 ‘cudas converts were constructed. Moreover, it is fairly high-optioned: EB5 Blue Fire Metallic paint, color-coded Elastomeric bumper, racing mirrors, hood pins, AM/8-track, and side-sill-deck moldings. Pam, for one, is very glad to have it back.

“Yes, I have had an impact on our collection with the cars I’ve picked,” says Pam with a big laugh. “If it were up to Tim, we’d have mostly 1971 Chargers!”

Tim laughs and nods in agreement. Though Pam might have not been overly impressed with that Pistol Grip and the brawny Mopars at first sight, she was a quick and thorough study. Tim’s previous serious relationship had not been very happy; having admitted that his car interest was a pretty important part of his life, he wanted to make sure that any other woman he became serious about having a relationship with ‘got it.’ So, within a short time of their reacquaintance, Pam was learning.

“Tim gave me all these reference books when we first started dating, and I really liked him, so I studied them,” Pam says. “Back then, a lot of them were little guides listing options and parts. Pretty soon, I had memorized a lot of details, and eventually I was actually doing judging at some of the events we went to. Of course, I had a great teacher.”

As mentioned, this car was sold in 1994 to help keep the business moving, and went through a number of owners before returning to Alabama. When it came back, though pretty unmolested and still garage kept, the unrestored numbers-matching machine was showing its age. To this end, the Wellborns turned it over to restorer Andrew White of Apex Autosports, who did a spectacular job of bringing the rare metal back to award-winning status.

Meanwhile, Pam’s interest in convertibles resulted in some other cars that have come into the collection, including their W30 4-4-2 ’70 Olds and their Ram Air IV GTO Judge, both outstanding droptops even if they are not Mopars. The couple also has a 383-cid Challenger R/T convertible in the museum’s holdings. These rarities have become part of the museum’s best-known holdings, and remain an important part of the heritage of the musclecar era.

Why not a Hemi? Well, beyond the addiitonal cost and maintenance associated with it, you could not get air conditioning with the 426. Indeed, this would also go away in 1971 on this model, as it was not available with the Six Pack design, either...

One unique aspect of this car was the single 4bbl carb, a Carter AVS model that was superceded in 1971 with the 3-2 Holley Six Pack layout on Chrysler's performance 440 engines, making the 440-4 'cuda a one-year only offering.

The blue interior in the E-body was augmented with the dictaphone recorder, plus bucket seats with a console-mounted automatic shifter.

The rocker moldings along the bottom edge were an extra-cost option that only a few 'cuda owners chose to purchase. These and other styling cues were typical for American performance cars that year.