This Lemon Twist 440-4bbl automatic is one of 61 FY1 lemon twist GTXs in the registry.   50 of those 61 are 440-4bbl cars, with 35 being 4bbls with automatic transmissions.  25 have of the 50 have black vinyl tops while 20 also had the charcoal bucket seat interiors.   Only 4 of the 50 automatics had factory A/C.   Only 6.2% or 443 GTXs were painted this bright yellow paint in 1970.

In the fall of 2013 I went on a rod run with about ten of my Mopar buddies. I was driving my 1966 Satellite at the time. I had plans to pull the poly 318 out and replace it with a beefed up 440. I had already purchased a stout 440 from a guy who has a reputation for building strong 440’s. The old drum brake system had been replaced with disc brakes. This is where the story begins on my GTX.

We left my bayside home of LaPorte, TX headed for Galveston which is only a thirty minute drive. Once there we drove down the entire seawall grabbing a ton of attention with a 69 426 Hemi Satellite, 69 stroked Roadrunner, and a stroked 408 Dart to name a few.

We pulled up at ‘Cherry Hill’ to take a break and I walked up to the guy I had purchased my 2000 mile old 440 from. I told Robert that I had heard he had one fine 1970 GTX in his garage for over five years and asked him if he’d sell it to me. I completely expected to hear him say, ‘No way’, but to my surprise about ten seconds later he shrugged his shoulders and said, ‘Ok, I will.’ He said to meet him at his house the next day to discuss a price, so I did.

The car was on jack stands on all four corners with no interior or drivetrain in it. The paint job (Lemon Twist yellow) had already been done on it and looked like it was still wet even though it was @five years old. The car has all the original sheet metal and the professional appraisal I had on it showed that it had one small spot of body putty on the passenger door about the size of a dinner plate. He told me a complete rolling car for $???? and it was mine. I couldn’t get the word ‘Yes’ out of my mouth fast enough. After that Texas gentlemen’s agreement I sold my 66 Satellite to use as a down payment.

I won’t bore you with a long story, but in short Robert was still working twelve hour shift work and could only work on the car one day a week and sometimes two, if he could. He would occasionally work on even after he had put in a hard twelve at his job. So in June, 2016, I took possession of the car and was pleased to get it.

We dropped the 440 I had purchased in it along with a beefed up 727 and a (489) 3:23 suregrip. The original 440 numbers matching motor has only 89K miles on it and sits on a pallet awaiting a rebuild. The car was stripe delete when built, has factory A/C, pwr steering/brakes, light package, buddy bench seat, AM radio, remote driver mirror, max engine cool, 3spd wipers, hood pins/lanyards, black vinyl roof, premium trim charcoal black,and hood mounted turn signals. 

August 2016

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