The interior is deceptively stock looking. New white skins were installed, but there’s a lot of creature comforts built into the cockpit. Both front seats feature internal warmers, there’s multiple layers of sound deadening material under the carpet, the doors are sprayed full of sound deadener, and the power windows are activated via switches located conveniently in the console. A Pistol Grip shifter was modified to fit atop a Slap Stick shifter mechanism, a Grant wheel faces the driver, and behind the stock radio face is a modern AM/FM cassette digital job hooked to a six disc CD changer and a half-million watt amplifier. The whole sound system is controlled by a remote control, so the knobs don’t even turn on the stock looking radio face!
As far as the convertible’s overall presence and personality is concerned, obviously this one’s far from subtle. In addition to the blinding Curious Yellow paint with multiple coats of clear on top, the boys opted for the killer white reflective billboards to compliment the white top and interior. To make things a bit more different, Dave opted to paint the grille in dark textured Argent Silver, along with the Shaker bubble and taillight panel, so there’s some fantastic contrast provided to the highly reflective paint. The wheels are huge custom-made 17" Rallyes, which, interestingly use stock Argent painted center caps. These biggie-sized rollers give the convertible a very business-like stance.
Finished up just after the first of the year, Wayne’s curious convertible made its shakedown cruises in the frigid temps of eastern Pennsy in January and February. To everyone’s absolute delight, the convert handles and performs better than anyone dared to expect. The 472" Hemi can boil the tires on demand or it can provide enough power to enable long distance cruising at far above legal highway speeds without breaking a sweat. The ‘Cuda clone handles like it’s on rails, the stereo is capable of making your ears bleed, and at least during this winter, those warming seats are pretty darn useful!
Watch for this bright Hemi mover to be just about everywhere this year, as Wayne and Dave have plans for the car which will literally have it cruising from California to all over the east coast. And don’t look for any trailers, this one’s built to drive and it’s going to be driven - hard! The big event will be the Hot Rod Power Tour, of course, but the ‘Cuda will also be at most major Mopar events this year and will likely be a frequent flyer at those shows in the years to come. Wayne has a number of stock Mopars he shows, but after getting his first taste of how much fun a high-tech muscle car can be, he’s going to keep this one eating up asphalt.
Still, you’ve gotta’ appreciate the irony that Dave Ferro will be doing the Power Tour this year in the car he traded for the car he drove in the 2005 Power Tour - follow that? Truth is indeed stranger than fiction. Congrats to Dave, Carl and the gang at Totally Auto for boldly going where most people fear to tread.
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