Racing Legends from the Todd Werner Collection Go On the Auction Block
Ellen Richardson
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Images courtesy Mecum Auctions
Hey, race car junkies! Have you ever dreamed of owning your own classic race car? You are in luck, as the best-of-the-best race versions of the coolest muscle cars in existence are going up on the Mecum Auctions auction block. From July 31-Aug. 3, the world’s most historically significant collections of vintage race and muscle cars collected by one of the coolest car collectors out there will roll into the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center to be admired and sold to the highest bidder.
In large part due to the top-shelf nature of Werner’s cars, he has typically held onto the vehicles he acquires, even noting that others have jokingly referred to his garage as a black hole. But bidders should prepare themselves for the opportunity of a lifetime as some of the most amazing muscle cars, famed race cars and more from Werner’s collection are now slated to cross the Mecum auction block.
With more than 40 of the most bad ass race machines/muscle cars on this list, it is going to be pretty difficult to decide what you should spend your life savings on. So, to make things a little easier, your friends here at RacingJunk have assembled a top 10-list that you should definitely save your dough for.
Built to lure “The King” Richard Petty back to Plymouth to compete on the Superspeedway and other big oval races during the 1970 NASCAR season, it’s now available for you to own. This exotic piece of NASCAR history scored NASCAR’s king 18 race wins and 31 top 10 finishes during the 1970 race season. The restoration was performed at Petty’s Garage using original or NOS parts, with the engine built by the equally famous Petty Crew Chief and Engine Builder Maurice Petty and his son Timmy. This vehicle, signed by Richard himself, also includes original or NOS sheet metal inventory that was supplied by Petty Enterprises, and the car’s race suspension has been tuned by Petty’s racing staff to potentially run at 200-plus MPH on today’s superspeedways. Richard Petty later hand-fabricated the arch under the shifter to match photos from 1970. Under the hood of this legendary wing is a Petty Enterprises 426 Hemi V-8 engine with NASCAR intake, Holley carburetor and cowl-induction scoop. This is backed with a 4-speed manual transmission and Dana rear end. Don’t miss out on your chance to own the single most recognized race car in American racing history!
As one of a mere 29 factory V-code Cuda convertibles constructed in the 1970 model year, this particular multi-carb vehicle offers exclusivity in ownership and a solid combination of optional equipment. Of course, beneath the Shaker hood scoop is the 440 6-BBL engine with its trio of 2-barrel Holley carburetors feeding fuel with breathtaking rage when under acceleration. Painted in Sublime green, this car features both front and rear body-color bumpers. The black side hockey-stripe graphics end in 440 callouts on the rear quarter panels, while other exterior cues are the J45 hood pins, dual outside sport mirrors, rocker moldings, valence-exit exhaust tips, road lamps and chrome trim accents. Inside is a black interior with bucket seats, center console, Slap-Stik ball-knob shifter, AM radio, three-spoke steering wheel, woodgrain-trim Rallye dash layout and black convertible top. Wide F60-15 Goodyear Polyglas GT tires ride on Rallye wheels to complete the look of total performance. This convertible is one of the rarest muscle cars in Dodge history and you could be one of its lucky owners.
The 1971 Daytona Winning Plymouth Road Runner is the last stock car to win a NASCAR Grand National championship using a production-based body and engine. One of only two factory-sponsored cars for 1971 and the only one to complete the season with “The King” Richard Petty is now available to purchase. The car that visited the White House alongside Petty in September 1971 also claimed the first-ever Winston Cup Series crown. Now restored to its 1971 configuration, this car features a rebuilt 426 CI Hemi NASCAR-detailed engine with the bathtub intake and cowl induction. Behind this is an A833 4-speed manual transmission with Hurst shifter and an 8.75-inch Mopar rear end. Of course, the gorgeous body is covered in trademark Petty Blue with period-exact lettering and decals. The interior features a black plaid seat and Petty’s cushioned peace-sign headrest, as well as a custom dash, Prestolite ignition parts and taped steering wheel. Chrysler’s torsion-bar front suspension with reinforced A-arms and dual shocks and rear leaf-spring suspension with tubular shocks remain in place. Body changes from stock include the blocked-off headlight and tail-lamp openings, rear-bumper aero covers, a mesh grille and 15x8-inch steel racing wheels. This piece of automotive history also includes an album of restoration photos.
Any 1970 Cuda painted in FC7 In-Violet Metallic was and continues to be an eyeful. Of course, also opting for a Hemi engine beneath the argent Shaker scoop adds to this famed classic muscle car’s mystique and desirability. A fast mover by any measurement, this particular E-body Plymouth also features the desirable A34 Super Track Pak, alluding to the 4-speed manual transmission and 4.10 Dana 60 Sure Grip differential. Like all real Hemi cars, performance-level frame and suspension components were automatically packaged into one of the most desired Plymouth models of its day. Considered a pinnacle of the performance era, ownership of this car’s combination of color, driveline and optional equipment will be treasured by its next caretaker.
The 1970 Hemi Cuda was a huge release in the history of muscle cars, but there is only one factory-built drag-car Hemi Cuda with a VIN that was produced for the Sox & Martin team: this one. By 1970, NHRA was forwarding acid-dipped bodies to its race teams for conversion. This car likely exists because it was rebuilt into a test and clinic car by Ronnie Sox and Buddy Martin, where team driver Herb McCandless and Ronnie Sox successfully took it to a World Championship in AHRA, also winning in several GT-1 PSS wins. Now considered the only professional-level drag-racing E-body Hemi Cuda with a factory Hemi VIN tag, this car is equipped with a 426 Hemi V-8 engine that hosts a rare Chrysler prototype independent-runner tunnel ram with twin 4500-series Holley 4-barrel race carburetors. This serious engine also has a solid-roller camshaft, 13.0:1 compression, Hooker headers, rev-limiter and cool can. The engine is backed by an A833 4-speed transmission and 4.88 Dana 60 rear end with chrome cover. Presented stunningly in the legendary red, white and blue team livery, this car has a black bucket-seat interior, Hurst shifter, cable-driven tachometer and period-installed gauging. Well-known within the Mopar hobby and restored to competition specifications, this car also has Keystone wheels, correct Firestone Drag 500 slicks and an original broadcast sheet. If you are ready to own one of the coolest and most historic drag cars out there, be sure to make a bid on this vehicle.
Also among drag racing’s famous personalities is the well-known “Dandy Dick” Landy 64 Dodge 330. Considered by some to be the first “funny car” due to its wheelbase changes, this 1964 lightweight 426 Hemi Dodge 330 was delivered to Landy in early June 1964 and then won A/MP class honors at the “Hot Rod” magazine race soon afterward, the first big win for the Hemi package. After racing at the NHRA Nationals, Landy converted the wheelbase and moved the front wheels up six inches and the rear axle up eight inches. Discovered by Hemi collector Pete Haldiman, who owned it from the late 1970s until it was added to Todd Werner’s collection in 2015, the restoration of this vehicle left the changes Landy had made intact. Under the aluminum hood is an A864 Race Hemi package with correct K-code iron heads, aluminum cross-ram, dual Holley 770 CFM carburetors and Doug’s Headers. It is backed by a push button-operated A727 TorqueFlite transmission and 8.75 differential. The body features factory aluminum and steel components modified by Landy and painted in his trademark Mercedes silver, with his extra pair of taillights modification left intact as well. Inside this car, the original Landy interior features bright red lightweight Super Stock Hemi upholstery, an 8,000 RPM tachometer, pushbutton shifter, heater/radio-delete plate and upgraded gauges. Despite the restoration, this historic automobile remains a singular icon of the exploding evolution of drag racing in the 1960s.
The Mercury Division had a huge effect on drag racing during the 1960s, and this A/FX entry from 1965 was certainly part of that. This Comet Cyclone—modified during the 1965 season and retaining its outrageous appearance—was one of only four built under contract by Bill Stroppe and released to select drivers by Mercury using the exotic and rare “Cammer” 427 engine. With its paint reconditioned to Proffitt’s design and its wheelbase changes intact, this Stroppe-built A/FX Comet has an authentic SOHC “Cammer” 427 CI engine featuring stacked fuel injection and Jardine headers. Behind the engine is a Ford Toploader 4-speed transmission and Ford 9-inch rear end. It has a white exterior and a “trademark red” lightweight-component interior with a T-handle shifter and period roll bar. The battery is relocated to the trunk, and it rides on Cragar SS wheels and racing tires. Signed by Proffitt himself inside the driver’s door, this car, offered on a Florida title, was restored in its iconic altered-wheelbase configuration. Don’t miss out on owning this rare but kick ass drag car.
Known as the first 4-Link Suspension Car in 1974 and driven by Ronnie Sox under the NHRA Sox & Martin banner in 1974, this vehicle would race as a factory-associated protest to the rules revision in the late 1960s. Under the hood is the cross-ram-topped 426 Race Hemi engine painted blue and featuring Sox & Martin decals, dual Holley carbs and 1970s-era race components. Known as the “Boycott Car,” it has the trademark 4-speed transmission and a chrome-covered Dana 60 differential, as well as period-style Summers Bros. axles, electric fuel pumps, chromed racing headers and era-correct ignition pieces. The outside had been painted in the classic Sox & Martin colors with gold-toned lettering, while the interior consists of the factory-style low-back bucket seats, era-installed roll cage, Hurst ball-knob shifter with Line-Lock and lockout features, and chrome-housed dash-mount tachometer. Outside detailing showcases the huge “Lil’ Boss” hood scoop, external fuel-pressure gauge, polished racing wheels and Firestone drag tires. Of course, Sox was very well known in Pro Stock, and his return to the sportsman ranks in this car would represent Chrysler’s most visible way of stating that the rules had become unfair. In beautiful condition, this ’68 Barracuda is offered on a Florida title and retains the flavor and feel of the 1970s advances in Super Stock, packaged in the same way Ronnie loved it.
Discovered in the Detroit region by a local Mopar enthusiast, the car eventually came to collector Mike Guffey, and was then later restored after Todd Werner purchased it. It retains the original fiberglass, Dana rear end, unmodified firewall and noteworthy front suspension pieces, including the rare stainless-steel K-frame engine support. Originally built at the Sox & Martin shop in Burlington, North Carolina, the expert restoration to its circa late-1965 competition configuration was done and delivered to Werner at the one-time-only 2008 All Hemi Reunion in Ohio. Between the fenders is a 426 Hemi V-8 engine set up to 1965 race specifications complete with short-stacked Hilborn fuel injection, adopted specifically for Chrysler 4-speed drivers like Ronnie Sox. The detailing on it is true-to-form, with Doug's headers, chrome valve covers, forward-mounted surge tank and correct decaling. The outside features the factory-designed wheelbase reworking done by Sox & Martin, Dana 60 differential, paint-code-correct red, white and blue Sox & Martin livery and period aftermarket wheels. Inside is also exact to the era, with a single van-style bucket seat, Hurst ball-knob shifter and gorgeous factory A990 model tan upholstery. This magnificent gem of a ‘65 Mopar Funny Car could be yours for the right price.
Known as The World's Fastest 1965 Dodge, the Dodge Coronet S/FX-1 was conceived and constructed as a tribute to the Mr. Norm’s 1965 altered-wheelbase drag-racing legend driven by Gary Dyer. The Coronet regularly smoked the tires to half track and huffed nitromethane through a supercharger to 8-second 160-plus MPH runs with Brian Kohlmann at the wheel—at tracks such as Atco Dragway in New Jersey and George Rays Wildcat Dragstrip in Arkansas—as part of the 1990s nostalgia drag racing resurgence. The recreation was the Dodge dealership poster car in the late ’90s ahead of the third-generation Hemi V-8 debut, featured in “Hot Rod” magazine as the inset on the cover in early 2001 and displayed at SEMA in 2005. Altered-wheelbase cars relocated the axles for improved weight transfer for better hookup at the hit. The S designated stock and FX stood for factory experimental, and Dyer posted a then-unheard-of 8-second run in the original version at Lyons Dragstrip in 1966. The replica Coronet was painted in red and silver topped by hand leafed and painted lettering from its superlative catchphrase to Quaden Dodge and Racine Harley-Davidson of Wisconsin sponsorships. The Coronet is offered relieved of its Hemi as a roller on mag wheels and Goodyear Eagle tires. The second-time-around drag-racing legend waits for its next owner to install another supercharged Hemi, tip some nitro into the tank, grab the red metalflake steering wheel and pull chutes on tire-smoking, wheelstanding, altered reality and see if it can beat Brian Kohlmann’s stunning 8-second 160-plus MPH runs.
To find out more about these or all the available Todd Werner Collection cars available in Harrisburg, visit https://www.mecum.com/auctions/harrisburg-2019/collections/todd-werner-collection/. Stay tuned to RacingJunk for news about this and other rare auto auctions throughout the country.
