The Last 1967 Super Stock RO23 Hemi Belvedere II

The plan for the 1967 Super Stock Package included the building of 55 Dodge Coronets and 55 Plymouth Belvedere II 2 door hard tops. The first digit of the VIN was R for Plymouth, and W for Dodge, the second digit in the VIN was an O which designated the car as a factory Super Stocker.

(example) Photo courtesy of Jim Schild

(example) Photo courtesy of Jim Schild

Originally aimed at the A/Stock NHRA class but quickly ending up in the B/stock class, these cars were not as radical as their factory lightweight predecessors, gone were the high compression pistons, cross ram intake manifolds, radical cam shaft profiles, and unique header like tube steel & cast iron exhaust manifolds that adorned the 1964 & 1965 Race Hemis. Also missing were any aluminum or lightweight thin steel body panels, in fact the only obvious outward difference from any other Street Hemi Belvedere was the bolt on steel hood scoop which was an RO/WO only piece.

All of the RO/WO cars were painted white and had black interiors; all of them were undercoating, sound deadener, seam sealer, radio, and heater delete. The engines were basically 10.25:1 compression Street Hemis with a few small changes leaving further modifications to the racers. Other engine changes included opening up the intake inline dual quad plenums using the "Vanke" modification, the solid 4 blade fans were exchanged in favor of a clutch style 5 blade unit, and a complete transistorized "Prestolite" ignition system with brick red solid core spark plug wires was incorporated.

Cast iron Street Hemi Exhaust manifolds along with a complete Street Hemi exhaust system were employed. The battery was relocated to the passenger side of the trunk. The cars were delivered with the stock Street Hemi round chrome dual quad air cleaners but had the special open style flat steel dual quad air cleaner with hood sealing foam gasket and aluminum under hood plate delivered in the trunk of the car.

Unlike Street Hemi Belvedere's and GTXs the RO cars had optional wheel sizes, 14 x 6.5 K #2122468 or 15 x 6 K #2781585 steel wheels were available (Street Hemi cars were limited to 14 x 5.5 all Steel or all chrome Road Wheels). Standard rear gear ratios were 4.86:1 with the automatic 8.75 equipped cars and 4.88:1 with 4 speed Dana 60 equipped cars. Heavy duty shocks were standard as were 11 inch rear brake drums combined with 10 inch drums in the front. They were delivered with no hub caps or wheel covers.

These cars were all first scheduled to be built on the same day, February 12, 1967 at the Lynch Road assembly plant. The initial run was to be 30 cars but was eventually increased to include 55 Plymouths and 55 Dodges.

It is believed that the “Mule car” for this program was the 1967 Judy Lilly 1967 Plymouth Belvedere I Hemi 4 Speed 2 door sedan. Her car was built in November of 1967 under the watchful eyes of the Ramchargers team including; H. Dale Reeker, who was responsible for special project cars, Tom Hoover and Dick Maxwell. Mr. Hoover informed me that the engineering teams and marketing group would always debate which car was to be built and raced based on the “Win on Sunday Sell On Monday” theory that you will sell more of the cars that you win races with. Engineering wanted to build the RO/WO cars based on the lighter weight and stiffer body design 2 door sedans, while marketing wanted to sell more of the higher priced hard tops. Well, marketing won out on this one and the rest is history. So, what we have here on these sister web sites are in essence “Book End” cars, the very first “unofficial” RO mule car, and the very last RO production car.

The RO car being restored on this web site has the highest VIN of any other on record (source Galen Govier) of either an RO or a WO car. It is believed to be the very last 1967 factory race car built by Chrysler. It is also very odd in that it’s the only known RO car with special wheels and tires, why this came to be remains a mystery. We will add more to this story as we restore the car and gather new information.