This is one heck of a story and its one that we had never heard Tommy Lee Byrd tell until we watched this video. You know Tommy Lee Byrd as a contributor to loads of magazines, websites (including here!), as a writer of books, as a photographer, and as someone who is generally better at all of that than we are. In this video Tommy gives us the in-depth version of an incredible story which includes a collection of Chryslers that will boggle your mind, drag racing history, mild-paranoia, and a Hemi car with a twist in the basement.
You may remember seeing the Drag Addicts ‘Cuda on the pages of Hot Rod Magazine a while back. Tommy wrote that story. What this video does is allow him to go into greater depth about the history of not only this car, but of the Drag Addicts racing team which campaigned a bunch of neat stuff over the years. You’ll see things and here of details you just don’t have the room for in a print magazine. The coolest part for us is the “update” on the state of the car today, the owner, and what has gone on not only with the ‘Cuda but with the rest of the stuff that the guy had amassed.
Getting these stories is hard and Tommy is the kind of guy who is respectful, knowledgeable, an persistent enough to find them. Lots of people who have stuff like this aren’t really too enthusiastic about chatting through its history. You really have to work to get to that level. Here’s proof of how good Tommy is at it.
I’m from Chattanooga, raced some in the summer of 67, and after I came back from service in 71, 72 and 73. I have seen them at the track. I bought a 66 black Hemi Satellite from Reliable Motors on Rossville Blvd. in Chattanooga in 67 that they had bought for one of the owner’s son. It was a 4-speed car that had 500 miles on it when I got it. The son didn’t like the 4-speed apparently, and ordered the GTX convertible shown here. It had bucket seats, no console, automatic on the column, dog dish hubcaps. It was a dog on the street. I ran him once on Brainard Road going under I-75 and beat him. He didn’t like the convertible, and Reliable Motors soon put it on the used car lot. It sat there for years. When I came back from service in 71′ it was still there. In Feb of 72 I drove it (it had between 5 and 6 thousand miles) on it. It was driven by the salesmen to go get coffee, etc. I offered $2,600 for it (they wanted $3,000 but came down to $2,800). I didn’t buy it, and soon after it was bought by these guys. For years I wondered what happened to it.
Wow 2 great stories.
That is the best, and I mean the best ever, vid of a car guy talking about a car story. Tom Cotter could learn a lot from Tommy Lee. Hands up if you smiled after watching this…..Nicely done Brian………….