Interior: Here's where Super...
Interior: Here's where Super Stock meets 21st Century. AutoMeter gauges fill the smoothed dash, while custom covers on '64-vintage buckets add a touch of Polara 500-inspired style. The shifter is a B&M Star gear changer in a console that Terry made himself.
In Mopar racing history, the early ('62-'65) B-Bodies are famously known for their dragstrip successes. Thanks to the Ramchargers, "Dandy" Dick Landy, Al "Lawman" Eckstrand, plus dozens more Plymouth and Dodge drivers across the U.S., Stock and Super Stock classes at strips across the country were filled with Mopars--not just in the pits and staging lanes, but in winners' circles, too.
Even when newer, more advanced ChryCo cars came on the scene, the '62-'65s were still racing--and winning--in the doorslammer classes. That was before nostalgia racing, spurred on by NHRA's California Hot Rod Reunion, made racers seek out those original quarter-mile screamers and return them to their original glory. It also inspired Mopar folks to build street and strip friendly versions of their own, like Terry Toth. Back in 2007, he heard out about an early B-Body hardtop that was for sale. The '64 Dodge 440 hardtop that he found was far from a complete, ready-to-run car, he recalls. "It was started by a gentleman back in 2005, and he didn't quite get it done, so I took it over."
Engine: A bored-out 383 uses...
Engine: A bored-out 383 uses iron 425 heads, dual 625 Carters on a cast-iron factory Mopar intake, a Comp cam, MSD ignition, and tti headers to break into the high 12s on the strip.
What he got to start with--and finish--was the stuff of Mopar builders' dreams. "You couldn't have asked for a better car," he says. "The car was in perfect shape." A look into the '64's history showed that it was sold new in Tucson, and later moved to another dry Southwest city. "Some old lady in Vegas ended up with it, and it sat in a garage for like 34 years." That means the only salt the 440's original steel likely ever saw was that spilled at a drive-in burger stand, plus it also avoided the ravages of the strong Southwestern sun.
Once Terry got it, he decided to turn it into a Super Stock look-alike, with some modern-tech features in it as well.
Power comes from a modified low-deck big-block, bored out to 395 cubic inches and equipped with a combination of vintage parts (like the 425-casting iron heads) and new stuff like a Comp Cams 284 hydraulic roller camshaft and tti headers. Backing it is the choice of champions who win automatically: the 727 Torqueflite. Terry looked to B&M for a shift kit and converter, plus a Star floor-mounted shifter to replace the original 1964 "typewriter" pushbuttons on the dash. That wasn't the only upgrade to the '64's cabin. "On the inside, it's got AutoMeter gauges, and I put an S&W Race Cars chrome rollcage in it," says Terry. Not a one-size-fits-all kit, but one that he'd bent the tubing (with the tube bender in his shop) after making a plastic-pipe template that fit the interior just right.
Two other race car–inspired upgrades also grace Terry's Dodge: Competition Engineering wheelie bars, and an S&W Race Cars parachute. Nearby Southwestern International Raceway had a 50th Old Tucson Dragway Reunion, and he ran 12s there. When we talked with him, Terry was in the process of making his '64 even more of a Super Stock look-alike. "At Mopars at the Strip, I bought some A990 seats and brackets," he says of his next planned update. "I'd built some brackets out of steel for it, that A/FX look. I didn't like the way they turned out, so I got those aluminum ones." Once those are in, Terry's 440 will be that much more like the Mopar Super Stocks that are still going strong--and still winning!
Fast Facts
'64 Dodge 440 two-door hardtop
Owned by: Terry Toth, Saddlebrook, Arizona
- Engine: Much-modified 383 (bored out .060 inch to 395 cubes) provides '60s Super Stock looks with gobs of power, thanks to iron Mopar 425 heads, Comp Cams 284 camshaft, dual Carter 625-cfm four-barrels atop a Mopar intake, MSD ignition, and Hedman Hedders.
- Transmission: The same one that the Dodge Super Stock guys used way back when to win automatically: the 727 Torqueflite. Terry's has a B&M shift kit, 2,500 stall converter, and B&M Star shifter.
- Rear: A stock 489 rear housing is filled with 31-spline axles and a 3.23-geared Sure Grip.
- Suspension: Modified stock '64 Dodge, with torsion bars up front, competition leaf springs in back, Edelbrock shocks all the way around, and Competition Engineering wheelie bars.
- Brakes: 11-inch Mopar drums at all corners brakes provide the stopping power, along with an S&W Race Cars parachute on the back.
- Wheels/Tires: American Racing Wheels Torq-Thrusts wear blackwall Goodyear radials all around (P215/70R14 Regatta 2's in front, P275/60R15 Eagle GTII's in back).
- Paint/Body: Original '64 Dodge B-Body two-door hardtop unibody escaped the ravages of time and weather, so all of its original steel and glass is there and intact (along with a fiberglass Max Wedge hoodscoop). Paint is two-stage DuPont ChromaBase Scarlet Red.
- Interior: Terry fabricated the rollbar from an S&W Race Cars kit. Seats are A990-style front buckers and the stock rear bench (with custom covers), and gauges are by AutoMeter.