1964 Plymouth Savoy

CHILLICOTHE, Mo. — Myron Hoyt introduced Jim Chapman to two things that he loves: Mopar cars and his daughter, Connie, who is now Chapman’s wife.

 Mopar is a nickname for cars built by Chrysler Corporation.

 “I always had Fords,” Chapman said, “but Hoyt, who hauled cars and was familiar with all brands, convinced me that Mopars were the future. He was always a Mopar guy.”

 Chapman, of Chillicothe, Mo., owns an over-the-road trucking and truck repair business, so being interested in cars comes pretty naturally.

 His recently restored 1964 Plymouth Savoy is one of his treasures. He found the car in Kansas City in early 2002. It had a six-cylinder engine and a three-speed transmission. The Persian White body was the perfect base for Chapman to create a clone of a 426-cubic-inch Max Wedge muscle car.

 Chrysler engineers coined the term Max Wedge as a short version of the official name, Maximum Performance Wedge-head V-8. With hood scoops, dual carburetors and “Ram Horn” headers, this engine produced a conservative 425 horsepower, good enough to accelerate through the quarter-mile in about 12 seconds with a top speed of nearly 120 miles per hour.

 A lightweight two-door Plymouth Savoy with the Max Wedge engine, no heater and no radio, made an ideal factory-built drag racer. These special Savoys had 3-inch exhaust pipes with built-in dump plugs so racers could uncork the exhaust in minutes. The battery was mounted in the trunk for better weight distribution and the interior was as sparse as Mother Hubbard’s cupboard.

 Even though Chapman’s car was in pretty solid shape when he bought it, he undertook a complete restoration. He mounted the car on a rotisserie frame so it could be turned upside down to facilitate work. Aaron Blankenship, who worked in Chapman’s truck business at the time, did most of the body and paint work.

 Chapman finished restoring his Savoy about a year ago, and the bark from its exhaust lets you know why these cars were so fierce on the drag strip.

 Chapman’s car will be one of nearly 400 at the 18^th annual Chillicothe Lions Club car show on Saturday, July 15, at Simpson Memorial Park. A cruise night will be held on Friday, July 14.