My father bought and
raced one of the three 1967 Hemi Satellites that were built. In
1966 we went to Tyrell Chrysler Plymouth in Rochester, New York to buy a
Hemi car. The salesman showed us a used 1966 red Belvedere post car. The
engine block was not painted, the salesman said the service manger's son
blew it up and the short block was replaced, so I told my dad not to buy
it. We went to George B Doyle Chrysler Plymouth in Rochester to order a
new Plymouth Hemi. It was July 1966 and the salesman was not sure which
body the Hemi would come in, but we ordered one anyways. In August we
received a certified letter from Chrysler that they were going to make a
new car called a Road Runner, please check the boxes below. We returned
the letter stating yes, a Blue Hemi 4 speed Dana car.
In September we received
another certified letter stating Chrysler was not going to make the Road
Runner in 1967 but a GTX was available. Once again we sent the order
back. At the end of September or early October George B Doyle called us
and said your car in in. We went up the see a Blue 1967 Satellite in the
wash bay. We were stunned, yep a Hemi 4 speed Dana car. The salesman
said it was a Silver Special. My father signed all the paper work and we
drove it home with large smiles on our faces. My father drove the car
that fall and put the car away for the winter. My father talked to Ed
Miller on a construction job about building the car for drag racing. Ed
Miller had a few Max Wedge cars and a 1965 A990 Plymouth car, and later
had one of the 1968 Hemi Cudas that Chrysler basically gave him. I
remember going with Ed and my father to the train depot to pick the car
up. We got Webster Chrysler to sponsor the car and raced it in 1968 in
SS/B when the 68 Hemi Darts and Cudas hit the track we were moved to
SS/D Most of the cars in this class were 1966 Chevelles with the 396, no
match for our car.
We took the car to
the 1968 Super Stock nationals in Cecil County Maryland and saw Dick
Landy with about 5 cars and Sox & Martin with about 6 cars they were
campaigning for Chrysler. Sox & Martin had a 67 GTX that ran in SS/C and
they wanted to know why our car was in SS/D, being a Satellite it made
the weight brake into SS/D. Shortly after that Sox & Martin made a clone
SS/D Satellite. We raced the 3,000 mile Satellite on occasion till 1971
and then my father traded it in on a 1971 Plymouth 340 Duster. The car
ended up on used car row and disappeared. I was walking thru a junk yard
in 1975 and saw the car on top of a stack of 3 cars high. I removed the
Cure Ride 90/10 and 50/50 shocks and left knowing I would never see the
car again. Our car was Dark Blue Metallic, Dark Blue Interior with
Bucket Seats with a Folding Arm Rest, 4 Speed Street Hemi with a 3.54
Dana Rear End, Full Wheel Covers, Red and Blue Streak Wide Oval Tires,
Power Front Disc Brakes, not sure if it had Power Steering, and below
the lower chrome trim the body was painted Silver, with the 426
Emblems on the front fenders.
On the cover of vol 4 # 4
issue of Muscle Cars, November 1986 "1967 Plymouth Satellite 3 ?" I
opened up to the article and there it was, my fathers 67 in black &
white photos that Mopar Muscle got from Chrysler of the car at the
Chrysler testing grounds. The article stated that they knew about the
Red and Gold 67 Satellites but were not sure of the color of this car
from the photos. I wrote a letter to the editor and he said he could not
write a story without documentation. My father and I dug thru his old
papers and did not find anything except some pictures of the car in race
trim, and drag race newspapers. I tried to contact George B Doyle
Chrysler Plymouth but they were out of business, also I tried New York
State Motor Vehicles, but no luck.
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