The summer car shows bring a lot of very nice machinery out of the woodwork. For example, the Carlisle All-Chrysler Nationals gets a large entourage of Mopar enthusiasts from north of the border. When we saw Andre Soubliere bring his super-clean 1967 GTX out for a workout on the Mopar Muscle-sponsored Dynotech DynoJet Chassis Dynamometer, we decided to give it a closer look.
Andre's car is one of 340 Hemi GTXs produced that year, and it sports just 60,000 miles on the odometer. From every angle, it looks to be a bone-stock example of how Plymouth was "making it" that year. The Street Hemi powerplant was only a year old at the time, and the GTX would not benefit from things like fresh-air induction until the 1968 models came out. Nonetheless, Andre wanted this particular car, and he waited quite a while for the chance to put it in his own garage.
"I wanted this car mostly because it was so original," says the 50-year-old contractor. "Plus it was a Hemi car. I knew about it for 15 years and I waited." That was because the car was then owned by collector Ray Dupius, who lives right next door to Andre in Ontario. Dupius has a nice selection of Hemi cars, including a rare 1967 RO-package Plymouth drag car that was built during the same 1967 model year and was featured here on the pages of Mopar Muscle years ago.
Andre has owned, at various times, a '71 Hemi Charger R/T, a '70 440-6 Challenger, and a Hurst-built super stock AMX (the latter ended up in Otis Chandler's collection, which should give you an idea of how nice it was), but the GTX was his dream date. So, for a decade and a half, Andre reminded Ray quite often that if the car was ever to be sold, he would like a shot at buying it. In the end, he gave Dupius a lot of money, and Dupius gave him a lot of car.
Looks can be deceiving, and the numbers-matching 425-horse motor has been specially freshened in the last year by noted Canadian Super Stock racer Don McCallum. The engine was left "stock" in appearance, though McCallum did apply a few tricks from the Super Stock world to the rebuild, resulting in a documented 588 horses on McCallum's dyno. One thing that Ray Dupius had done during the 22 years he owned the car was take the cast-iron distributor and rebuild it internally with electronic ignition parts. You have to look hard to find the wiring that couples it to the MSD control box, which is mounted well out of sight up under the dashboard. The result is problem-free timing and no worry about gapping the old dual point. This style of modification is indicative of what else can be found in the engine.
Behind the engine is a 727 Torqueflite, which was rebuilt by Doug Miller at Fireball Transmissions. This uses the stock stall converter to keep the car tame in traffic, and the streetability is further enhanced by a highway-winding 3.23 gear in the 8¾ rear end. Due to the car's originality, Andre only moves the numbers on the odometer about 1,000 miles a year, though that didn't stop him from testing the beast's rear tire output at Carlisle.
Inside, the original interior remains in place, with clean, unrestored white vinyl seats (with the rare headrest option), a center console, a performance dash cluster with a 150 mph speedometer and the rare 1967 sport-type steering wheel. This wheel is unique, as it was a recalled option: Corporate studies showed that it might break at the center and impale the driver (yikes!) in the event of a serious accident.
The body retains its as-ordered GG1 code green paint, although the exterior was repainted 20 years ago, right after Dupius took possession of it. Trim includes the GTX and Hemi badges, including the seldom-seen small "HEMI" moniker on the edge of the deck lid. The original vinyl top still covers the roof, and Magnum 500 rims with 225R15 redline tires complete the car's appearance.
Unlike a lot of cars, Andre didn't need much to bring this example up to par after he finally bought it in 1999. With its mildly-warmed elephant mill and clean, original appearance, we have to agree-it's a survivor. And as his dyno results indicate, only the strongest survive.
1967 Hemi GTX
Owner: Andre Soubliere
Power at the tires: 335hp@5,750 rpm, 364 lb/ft@4,000 rpm
Interesting Features: 1-of-340 ’67 Hemi GTXs, it has only 60,000 original miles