Finding a deal on an older car can still happen…you just have to have the right connections and a little luck. In the case of forum member “Cobra_4”, that luck led him to a low-mileage 1964 Chrysler Newport four-door that still wore it’s California black plates and boasted of a barely-used 69,000 miles on the clock. A big-block car with the push-button automatic, it has managed to remain in relatively decent shape over the decades, but Cobra_4 wanted something more out of the car. He doesn’t want to cut it up or do anything that can’t be undone, but the idea for what could be done eluded him until discovering the name Norm Thatcher.

Thatcher was a Chrysler-Plymouth dealer from southern California with a taste for speed, namely land-speed racing. Known for exploits involving some exceptionally stout Mopars in the later 1950s and early 1960s, Thatcher was extremely competitive, even at his elder age…in 1964, he was 67 years old and had enough clout with Chrysler that he was packing a Hemi in a brand-new Plymouth that he was taking to the salt.

This was the spark that started the idea. The Newport is going to be built into a “what-if” Bonneville push car tribute. The build itself isn’t directly accurate to any of Thatcher’s cars, but instead is meant to be more of a tribute to his legacy. We see this as a way to inform hot rodders and anyone who sees the car about the legacy that Thatcher left behind, while getting this classic Mopar driven and enjoyed…and no matter what, any classic car being driven suits us just fine.

Bangshift Project Files: 1964 Chrysler Newport Push Car Tribute