1970 Plymouth Sport Fury GT V Code 440-6 Barn Find

[chargervert]

I had a .03 over rebuild with 915 heads, Crane cam, and the DC modified carbs. The 5.0’s were in the high 12’s. And they weren’t tired or stock either.

Once people started modifying the 5.0 cars they started to get quick. My 440 Charger R/T could beat the stock ones all day. About the time people started moding them,I put my A12 Superbee together and had no problem beating up on the modded street ones too. The ones that were all out racecars were fast. The bee had 4.88 gears,I could beat up on them all night,red light to red light out on the Ave. Until recently you could walk into any dealership and buy a modern muscle car that is faster than all of them and drive them cross country with the A/C on.

 

[440 PHIXX]

Once people started modifying the 5.0 cars they started to get quick. My 440 Charger R/T could beat the stock ones all day. About the time people started moding them,I put my A12 Superbee together and had no problem beating up on the modded street ones too. The ones that were all out racecars were fast. The bee had 4.88 gears,I could beat up on them all night,red light to red light out on the Ave. Until recently you could walk into any dealership and buy a modern muscle car that is faster than all of them and drive them cross country with the A/C on.

Ford still sells a 5.0 with 450 HP. My point was this thread is about a very heavy car with a 440 Six Pack. They didn’t sell many because at that point no one was looking for a full size car that a small block compact would show it’s taillights to. As far as Chargers at the track in the late 80’s… I didn’t see any. I did see a lot of ‘69 road runners with 440’s. They did make almost 100,000 of them. A few ran low 12’s, but the limiting factor was the heads available at the time. Also once you went faster than 11.99, you had to have at least a 4 point bar. A lot of those cars were guy’s dailys.

 

[XS22J8R]

Just for reference, here is a magazine article testing a new V code Fury GT. I wonder what color it was, I assume yellow? And where this car ended up.
Vintage Road Test: 1970 Plymouth Sport Fury GT 440 Six Pack - A Rare Road Test For A Rare Car - Curbside Classic
They're claiming a 16 second 1/4 at 92.5 mph. Definitely not a car that was going to rule the local street racing scene.

 

[Richard Cranium]

Says the guy with the front wheel drive turbo Daytona at that time.

Fixed.

 

[tallzag]

Just for reference, here is a magazine article testing a new V code Fury GT. I wonder what color it was, I assume yellow? And where this car ended up.
Vintage Road Test: 1970 Plymouth Sport Fury GT 440 Six Pack - A Rare Road Test For A Rare Car - Curbside Classic
They're claiming a 16 second 1/4 at 92.5 mph. Definitely not a car that was going to rule the local street racing scene.

Yes it was yellow. Bunch of weird stuff on it too, prob because prototype. Shroud, clutch fan, 26 inch rad, ps cooler, none of the other known v code cars have any of that.

 

[furious70]

Just for reference, here is a magazine article testing a new V code Fury GT. I wonder what color it was, I assume yellow? And where this car ended up.
Vintage Road Test: 1970 Plymouth Sport Fury GT 440 Six Pack - A Rare Road Test For A Rare Car - Curbside Classic
They're claiming a 16 second 1/4 at 92.5 mph. Definitely not a car that was going to rule the local street racing scene.

Gears would matter some, and that one has 200lbs of options loaded on, but it would seem to be a dog. It also had 9000 mi on it the article says. My fury with a 383 and 3.91's did a best of 14.12.

 

[Coelacanth]

I had no trouble with 5-Oh's in my (my dad's back then) '86 GN.

 

[velocityss1985]

This just popped up. Facebook

 

[440 PHIXX]

I had no trouble with 5-Oh's in my (my dad's back then) '86 GN.

I remember a few of them in ‘88-‘89. Low 14’s-high 13’s. Once they figured out how to boost ‘em… the stock 200R4 and potato chip rear said “See Ya”.

 

[chargervert]

Ford still sells a 5.0 with 450 HP. My point was this thread is about a very heavy car with a 440 Six Pack. They didn’t sell many because at that point no one was looking for a full size car that a small block compact would show it’s taillights to. As far as Chargers at the track in the late 80’s… I didn’t see any. I did see a lot of ‘69 road runners with 440’s. They did make almost 100,000 of them. A few ran low 12’s, but the limiting factor was the heads available at the time. Also once you went faster than 11.99, you had to have at least a 4 point bar. A lot of those cars were guy’s dailys.

I agree,the only decent cylinder heads for big block Mopars back then were max wedge heads and they were nearly impossible to find. Nearly all modern aftermarket cylinder heads for big block Mopars are based on the max wedge heads. The weight factor as well as the insurance premiums for muscle cars definitely kept the sales of V code C body cars down.

 

[chargervert]

Just for reference, here is a magazine article testing a new V code Fury GT. I wonder what color it was, I assume yellow? And where this car ended up.
Vintage Road Test: 1970 Plymouth Sport Fury GT 440 Six Pack - A Rare Road Test For A Rare Car - Curbside Classic
They're claiming a 16 second 1/4 at 92.5 mph. Definitely not a car that was going to rule the local street racing scene.

It had to be faster than 15.99 to be in the Plymouth Rapid Transit system, and it was. Maybe the original test car was tweaked,tuned and driven by Ronnie Sox!

 

[Cranky]

I had a NOS hood for one of those in the late 90s. Couldn't give the thing away. Ended up using it as a sled to pull firewood out of the back 40. Then scrapped it. Oops!

I've done a few bone head moves too....especially early on when we had no idea what our cars would become many years later...

Interesting option. But probably not that impressive acceleration. I imagine a built 383 road runner 4 speed would take it. As well as a 340 A body. “No replacement for displacement”… except less weight.

One replacement for displacement is RPM!

Yeah. I don’t remember them being competitive. Typical GM automatic and rear, they were barely up to the task of OEM. The 5.0’s were LX, 5 speed, sans AC. Probably about 2900 lbs. It didn’t take much tuning and parts to get them embarrassing most late 60’s muscle cars.

In early 92 I bought a new 5.2 Dakota with 3.9 gears and LSD. It would beat up on the present day 5.0 'stock' Mustangs. It did beat them up by much though. It only ran a 15.30 at the track. The SS 454 Chevy trucks of the same time were chicken feed. Couldn't believe how slow they were. The SS stood for Super Slow lol

 

[chargervert]

I remember a few of them in ‘88-‘89. Low 14’s-high 13’s. Once they figured out how to boost ‘em… the stock 200R4 and potato chip rear said “See Ya”.

My friend had the GNX,it took care of the weak links that the regular Grand Nationals had. He owned the car from 1987 to 2019 when he sold it to replace it with the much faster 2019 Hellcat Redeye Challenger widebody.

 

[Coelacanth]

There were only 547 GNX's made, and many thousands of GN's and Turbo T's, and somehow they became legendary even with all these "weak links"... ;)

 

[440 PHIXX]

My friend had the GNX,it took care of the weak links that the regular Grand Nationals had. He owned the car from 1987 to 2019 when he sold it to replace it with the much faster 2019 Hellcat Redeye Challenger widebody.

Yeah. I remember 9” and Dana 60’s appearing under the G bodies. I can’t say I ever saw a GNX at the track or the street. The ones that show up on BAT are usually very low mileage. Some less than 15. If I were building a G body I’d go with a Chevy Rat, new tunnel for a 5 speed, and a 9”.

 

[chargervert]

Most so called muscle cars of that era were 16 plus second cars,it's not too hard to be a legend with that kind of competition.

 

[chargervert]

Yeah. I remember 9” and Dana 60’s appearing under the G bodies. I can’t say I ever saw a GNX at the track or the street. The ones that show up on BAT are usually very low mileage. Some less than 15. If I were building a G body I’d go with a Chevy Rat, new tunnel for a 5 speed, and a 9”.

My friends GNX had 8000 miles on it when he sold it. It was a snappy car on a cool fall morning. The turbo loved cold air.

 

[440 PHIXX]

There were only 547 GNX's made, and many thousands of GN's and Turbo T's, and somehow they became legendary even with all these "weak links"... ;)

Lotta bullshit out there. 235HP? Not impressed. THM200? Originally designed fir the 90HP Chevette. And the rear axle was a joke.

 

[qkcuda]

Dave actually raced his V-code Sport Fury last summer at our club car show/race day, and waded through the competition to win his class. The car was running low 14's. Dave is an experienced racer and competent tuner. It must have been disheartening to be beat by such a big car.

I was at the same event and watched Dave race. I registered the Charger in the same class, but after a couple of unsuccessful time trials, I decided not to race.

 

[Coelacanth]

With only some simple mods, GN's easily got into the 12's, and the 10's weren't that hard to accomplish, either. Manual boost controller to get past the stock boost levels was a biggie, better intakes, bigger downpipes and less restrictive plenums, 60# injectors or bigger, bigger turbos, alky injection, programmed chips for certain octane fuel, the list goes on. I don't need to debate this, if you encounter a GN nowadays, chances are it's not stock. There are vids of GN's beating Hellcats.

GN's weren't legendary because of their stock performance in the late 80's, they became legendary because of the crazy performance you got with relatively inexpensive mods, at least compared to many other cars.