Did Richard Petty ever race outside of the United States? Even if he did, I don’t think he ever raced an Australian VF Valiant. This circa-1970 Valiant (that’s Valiant, not Plymouth) was posted by frequent NZ-based Cohort contributor Bryce. Nice find!
I wonder if this car had the 6 pack Hemi like the Australian Dodge Charger? Or am I seeing 318 CI on the hood? I tend to doubt Richard ever raced down under, what with Nascar having a lot more races on it’s schedule then todays modern era. I believe he also had a drag race team under Petty Enterprises……
That Petty Blue is an iconic color and should be on the modern Dodge Charger as a tribute.
I always thought that Anzac’s were too intelligent to mess with NASCAR.
We had our own NASCAR series back in the late 80s – I actually went to the first race. Despite all the fanfare (and a homegrown Auscar version) it never really caught in here. The banked oval racetrack is still in use these days though.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASCAR_in_Australia
Michael, the local cars are Chryslers, not Dodges. This car could have had a factory 318ci which was the main V8 option, I think it was later models where some had the 360 plus a few with 340’s.
Tribute cars are not that uncommon, I’ve seen a small trend of ‘Nascar’ style builds based on later model local cars.
There was local Nascar racing 10-15 years ago, with one purpose built superspeedway and a couple of other venues. In addition to imported Nascars they also had a local Auscar lower-spec class based on local cars, I suppose there would be an equivalent class in the US.
This one runs a 318 motor the Hemi 6 didnt arrive untill 1971 VG model the next one on from this, Nascar racing never really took off in OZ and not at all in NZ we race on road circuits far more challenging than round a circle.
Good point, the VF Valiant would have a 225 slant six.
Surprising number of the VF and VG coupes still around here, and usually commanding pretty decent money too. Great looking cars, and the paint scheme of the one above really suits it.
this one is a new zealand car and the guy who owns it is con bentley its a factory 318 car but the engine needs a tune up so is running a 273 at the moment