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Dick Landy Challenger pics

11K views 14 replies 9 participants last post by  The 1 
#1 ·
I thought some would be interested to see how an old Pro Stock car was built. I took these pics of Dick Landy's '71 Pro Stock Challenger when it came to my buddy's shop for paint. Notice the dash inside the car, it was a fiberglass copy of a "real" dash. It was light as a feather. I'm sure we've all lifted body shells by the bumper, I could lift this car myself and it was clearly lighter than a "normal" shell. Dick Landy came out and verified this was his old car and signed papers saying so before he died. It is now in Todd Warner's collection.
The car:



The rear, set up for link-type suspension, looks like ladder bars?:





 
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#3 ·
The body was acid-dipped so thin it looked like it was pinholed from rust in some areas but the car wasn't rusty, it was just paper thin. Made it tough to weld. Notice the little brace they made for the roof skin and how much body was cut away like under the rear window. When they cut the cage out of this car it had rolled up Dick Landy posters in the tubing to make it sound thicker if it was tapped with something.



 
#4 ·
They put a piece of duct tape over the original colors before it was blasted so they could match the paint:



Here's the underside of an original Hurst Hemi Barracuda that was also done at my buddy's shop. Notice it's got the same pinion snubber bracing on the floor the Dick Landy car has:



Interesting stuff! 0/
 
#6 ·
Nice piece of history. Thanks for the pics.

Looks like some type of GM style upper ball joint. It would be interesting to know what spindle they used. The steering arms look quite custom as well. Do you have any other pics of the front suspension?

Pat
 
#7 ·
Sorry, no other pics of the front suspension. You can see where the tie rod hooks up though - it's definitely not the safest-looking setup. lol

It's funny, some of the homebuilt stuff on this board gets slammed but it looks safer than this stuff. There was an altered wheelbase Sox & Martin car in my buddy's shop not too long ago, holy moly was that thing cobbled together. It's hard to believe that car went 100+mph at any time. He's had some later Sox & Martin cars in there ('73 Duster (their last Pro Stock car) and a 'Cuda) and those were really nicely done.
 
#15 ·
man those old pic's bring back memories when I was a little one with my Dad and Uncles almost brought tears to my eyes,especially the ones from Union Grove.Thanks for the stroll down memory lane. ;D
 
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