Buried for Over 30 Years, A Former Magazine Project Car Gets a Second Chance At This Year's Hot Rod Drag Week
Drag-and-drive events can bring together new and old enthusiasts, common and unique rides, and a wide range of performance levels, all in the interest of successfully completing the combination of street miles and drag strip passes.
We’ve seen some truly unique and interesting rides in 2024, and this week will no doubt bring more to light.
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With 2024 being the twentieth edition of Hot Rod Drag Week, we’ve already gotten a glimpse of some familiar rides on property, as well as some new ones, including this 1969 Plymouth Valiant.
Discovered as a time capsule car a few years back, Ken Robinson saw it for sale on Facebook Marketplace in the spring of 2022. Originally built as a ‘Street Rat’ as ‘Uncle’ Tony DeFeo penned in the Mopar High Performance magazine article on the car in 1985 (that first issue came out in early 1986), the car didn’t give any indication it was a bruiser, other than the scooped hood.
The ’69 Valiant was a manual steering, bench seat, no radio, no carpet, bare bones car that most wouldn’t give a second look at. But Kurt Childs had a different vision for it, stuffing it with a 440-cubic inch Mopar big block, backed by 727 3-speed automatic transmission, and an 8-3/4-inch rear end.
Then life happened, and the car got put away. For a long time. “Kurt, the guy who built it, moved from the Detroit area to Traverse City back in the late 1980's,” said Ken Robinson. “And since there really wasn't a car scene, he put the car away.” That ‘put away’ turned into 30 years. “Sat untouched until he took it out of his garage,” said Ken. “All those years.”
Ken picked the car up looking just like it did in the magazine, which he didn’t even know about. “The only reason I even knew anything was once it was loaded, his kid said ‘hey this car was in a magazine,’” said Ken. “I found a copy of the magazine at Mopar Nationals.”
“The car was advertised as ‘did not run, but the engine turned over,’” said Ken. Despite the long period it sat, the engine was in “superb shape” according to Ken. He did have to go through the fuel system and ignition to get those up to operational status, as well as a little bit of wiring touch up.
Ken swapped the Magnum 500 wheels for a set of period correct Center Line wheels, cleaned off the dust and dirt, and rolled into National Trail Raceway today for the start of Hot Rod Drag Week. “Achievement unlocked. Passed tech and got my sticker,” Ken said today. Will the Valiant survive the week?
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Ken Robinson.
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