1967-68 SS/C-D Hemi B-Body: Cold Air or Flat Hood?

[DeuceCoupe]

Well as if 427 Ford and 396 Chevy NHRA Factored Horsepower wasn't confusing enough, I'm realizing that not all B-Body SS/ SuperStock Hemis had cold air hoods.


I gather that ALL the Street Hemi's were factored to 480 hp from 1966-1970, maybe down to 455hp in 1971?


But then, there's the hoods. The 1967 RO23, WO23 cars all ran in the SS/C=7.00 class with cold air hoods.


But what about say Sox' 1967 GTX in SS/D=7.70? Cold air or flat hood?


What about the 1968 SS/D=7.70 B-Body Hemis? Which ones ran cold air vs a flat hood, and did that affect the 480hp factor? It seems like if you could run cold air "for free" (no factoring), then who wouldn't? Unless NHRA didn't allow it.


A lot of funny rules affected the cold-air vs flat-hood 427 Fairlanes so this is why I'm asking about the 1967-68 B-Body Mopar Hemis.


Math!
Thanks for the help and memories.

[Steve Stasko]

It depends on what you're running.

In 1966...Everything had a flat hood.

In 1967...Belvederes and all Coronets (except WO) had flat hoods. GTX's had a twin scooped hood, and the RO/WO got the big scoop.

Today...Everything can run the big RO/WO scoop. Doesn't matter if it's a '66 or '67. Not sure who gave the okay on that...but it's bogus...and I'm a Mopar guy.

[Frank Castros]

The SS/D Sox & Martin car was a RO23 with a GTX grille and GTX lettering.

[DeuceCoupe]

Originally Posted by Frank Castros

The SS/D Sox & Martin car was a RO23 with a GTX grille and GTX lettering.

I've seen those photos too & that gets to my confusion & question.
If the cars were really RO23 Belvederes with W/P=7.59, it seems they'd have to run in the SS/7.00 (W/P) class. That was SS/B in 1967 or SS/C in 1968. It wouldn't matter to NHRA if they had GTX or Imperial or Chevelle painted on the side, its still an RO23 car so would have to run in the W/P=7.00-7.69 class, right?


Now, a real 67 Hemi GTX would have W/P=7.75 so It would run in the SS/7.70 class. That was SS/C in 1967 or SS/D in 1968. But either way, you'd have to run a GTX hood with no cold air. IIRC you couldn't just add cold air induction to a car model that didn't come that way, right?


So my thinking now is, to run a B-Body Hemi in the SS/7.70 class, it had to have a flat hood without Functioning cold air- UNLESS, maybe I missed it, was there a factory cold air option for the 1968 Hemi GTX and Coronet R/T?

[Steve Stasko]

Originally Posted by Frank Castros

The SS/D Sox & Martin car was a RO23 with a GTX grille and GTX lettering.

Sox & Martin had two '67 Hemi cars. One was a plain Belvedere, and the other an RO23. Both were run with and without GTX trim at times. The plain Belvedere was kept by S&M through 1968 and ran with the twin scooped GTX hood at times...most notably at Englishtown.

The RO/WO cars were not produced until March of 1967. Sox was at Beeline and Pomona that year with a Hemi Belvedere. Ronnie seldom ever drove the RO car...always the plain Belvedere...which was trimmed as a RO car later in the year after the parts became available.

[Rat Patrol]

Steve Sasko - here lies the problem

O23 cars built 12 Feb 67 - 55 of each. Not March.

S&M had THREE 67 Belvederes - Not two.

1. The Belvedere RO23 is the obvious one.

They raced in SS/B in 67, one class slower than the 65 A990 Race Hemi cars. One anomaly…S&M ran their RO23 in SS/C at the Winter Nationals…a clear error by the NHRA techs.?

I have results lists showing Myl, Vanke, Sullivan/McCandless & Sox all running these cars in SS/B for the bulk of the season...so what happened at the Winters?

2. Flat hood car - The main flathood car is harder to pick…but a close inspection reveals Belvedere upper sill trim, a rear Belvedere trim panel and a bench seat. The car was a 440 and ran in SS/E in 67.

3. The 3rd car was purchased later…and ran as a ‘flat hood’ ‘GTX’ . Pictures show a Belvedere rear panel…but no Belvedere upper sill trim. Again it is believed to be a Belvedere and known to have run a Street Hemi…and with the flat hood ran in SS/D against genuine GTX’s in 67.

Its a tribute to S&M marketing that these cars are still believed to be ‘GTX’s’ today.


Moving on.....

There is a widely syndicated picture of the S&M ‘cold air’ car at the 68 Winters running in SS/D. (Attached)

The ‘same’ O23’ type car was run in SS/C (68) by Rudy Schings and Wiley Cossey.....,so why was the Sox RO run in a slower class at both the 67 Winters (SS/C) and the 68 Winters (SS/D)?

My only conclusion is S&M ran an air cleaner...conning NHRA into thinking it was the same engine as a factory GTX - which of course it wasn’t. (Blueprinted, bigger carbs, modded intake)

I guess we’ll never know....but its a heck of a curve ball!

[Steve Stasko]

They didn't run the R0/W0 cars at the Winters, because they weren't built yet!!! The NHRA Winternationals were 2/5/1967. This is why the Belvedere ran in C at the Winternationals, and B the rest of 1967, AFTER they received the parts to convert it to R0 trim. Does it not click in your mind that NO ONE else was running an "R0" car at the Winternationals?

The dealer pricing info was sent out on 2/10. The sequence numbers were assigned on 2/12. There is generally a one month difference between the scheduled and actual build date. The earliest ship date for a '67 R0 Plymouth that I have documented is 3/23. The earliest '67 W0 Dodge date I have seen is 3/27. This is info coming right from Chrysler IBM build cards. I've been researching '67 R0/W0 cars for quite a while now.

If you go back to my comment, where you're trying to disprove me, I stated Sox & Martin only had two '67 HEMI cars. I know there was a third car. It was a 440 GTX, with white interior. We've been through this numerous times, in different places, but you can't keep or get your facts straight.