Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Ceasrine
That Cuda isn't the one that won 1968 Indy.
It was Arlen's second car, with a less storied history.
Ouch!
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Ultimately, this Barracuda won the Indy Nationals and set the SS/B class record in 1968. Later that year, it went on to win the AHRA race in Phoenix and won Super Stock Eliminator. Shortly thereafter, it went to the NHRA Winternationals at Pomona where it reset the SS/B record once again, this time with blistering 10.61 run. It also won at the Drag World Open in Columbus. During its short 1-year career with Vanke, it had an astonishing nine overall event wins!
The 'Cuda was sold in 1969 as a Super Stocker minus the engine, and it went through a couple of owners before being taken off the track as a bracket car sometime in the early 1970s. It sat for many years, until Le Hodge of Hodge Restorations in Inman, South Carolina, got word of the Nebraska-based car in 2002. The owner had apparently taken it apart long ago, but for a '68 Hurst machine, all the right stuff was there, and there had been no major changes made to the suspension since the early '70s. The owner even knew it had once belonged to somebody named Arlen, but other than that, its use from 1970 on was unknown. The deal was made, and Hodge brought the carcass home in bags and boxes.
Along the way, Hodge and Arlen got together on the car's restoration and Arlen was able to contribute both in terms of historical accuracy and with priceless vintage speed parts ranging from the Firestone slicks to a Stahl/Moroso tach-drive tachometer mounted on the underside of the dashboard hood. Cragar custom built the replica wheels just for this project, using the same offset measurements they used in 1968. The front tires are NOS Firestone Drag 500 frontrunners, probably the last such set in the entire world, and never mind how much they cost!