I bought my 1965 Plymouth Belvedere II in 2001 as an all-original cruiser and am technically the second owner. I even have the original 1965 dealer frame on the rear license plate! I did a few minor upgrades like a four barrel and intake, cleaned it up a bit, replaced a few bent/twisted things, then I took it to Willow Springs on a whim. My only upgrades were an A-body front disc brake upgrade, a dual quad FAST EZ-EFI, and a set of Hellwig sway bars. On one lap, I found myself catching the tail end of a Porsche Carrera coming out of the fast sweeper (Turn 8).
It became a magazine project car, and I started doing upgrades and going back to Willow Springs to report on my improvements. After 7 trips, I was a little over 10 seconds faster around Big Willow than when I started. By then I had a full coil over suspension, big brakes, fat tires, and was still running the EZ-EFI but on a single setup. I was still catching Porsches and caught a Cayman GT in the tightest part of the track.
I was supposed to have a new Stroker Small Block built, but two shops jacked everything up; the first shop delivered the fresh build with no oil to the cylinder heads, and left a key plug out and I had no oil filtration. I tore it back down to the bare block, bought new parts, took it to a different shop, and he delivered it with less than 5psi at idle. So, the car sat for a while so I could figure out what to do next, then an opportunity presented itself to me: I bought a wrecked Hellcat Redeye, and plan to install that drivetrain, hopefully this summer. I tore the engine down to the long block, did some painting and detailing, and added some aftermarket/performance parts, and am just about ready to start on the Hellcat Swap.
I renamed the project "Windstorm" and got my personalized "Hellvedere" vanity plates (HLVDERE). I still need to get a few more things together, but it's close. I even designed new Dakota Digital gauges (HDX) to mimic the Hellcat Redeye gauges.
