JKLNHYDE
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My 63 Maxie made it into Hot Rod Magazine
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djbr459
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Beautiful Car
Congratulations
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outstanding car!
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Nice!
Frickin AMAZING!!!
Awesome
66ChargerHI-PO
Well-Known Member
Congratulations, well deserved!
Saw your 66 Hemi convertible at Lebrecque Autocraft. Did they do your 63 Max Wedge?
JKLNHYDE
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Mike Mancini did the Maxie’s assembly - interior etc. John’s Restoration did Paint, Mike Bonsanti HP Motors did the driveline. It runs cool and smooth as a 318 until you mash the pedal…silly fast, actual scary! When are you selling me your Hemi ragtop ?
Fast Savoy
Active Member
Nice car! Where did you get it?
And do you want to race?
And do you want to race?
Congrats
JKLNHYDE
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Thanks, but no thanks! Great shot of your Maxie btw!
Last edited:
I agree, super nice car!!
Somebody better videotape that one!
Thinking soon.
Congratulations
6PKRTSE
Well-Known Member
Perfect car and color combo. Congratulations on the ink.
66 Sat
Well-Known Member
This is the article (pt 1 of 2)
1963 Dodge 330 Max Wedge Stage II: Is This Rare 750-HP OE-Restoration the Sickest Street Car Ever?
Built to win, restored to perfection, and driven with joy, you’ll either love it or you’ll love hating it.Johnny HunkinsWriterJohn MachaquerioPhotographerJul 15, 2025
Talk to any Mopar fan under the age of 70, and they’ll know chapter and verse about ’60s and ’70s muscle cars. But if you probe a bit deeper into the random Mopar person’s knowledge prior to 1964, something interesting happens—there’s not much in the memory bank. It’s to be expected. The year 1964 represents a watershed. Except for a very small cohort of drivers between the ages of 16 and 18, most car buyers before 1964 were part of the silent generation, not the baby boom one. The term “muscle car” was not part of their vernacular. And yet, there is a very curious subset of high-performance cars that have the look, sound, and fury of a muscle car but were built before 1964, distinctly before the muscle car as we know it came into existence.
AI Quick Summary
John Piazza's restored 1963 Dodge 330 Max Wedge Stage II boasts a 750-HP engine and is a rare pre–muscle car icon. Despite modifications, Piazza retains its original essence. Though intended for racing, it mostly dazzles at shows due to limited track access.That subset of high-performance machinery was known collectively as the Maximum Performance Wedge, or Max Wedge, and both the engine and the few competition-spec Dodges and Plymouths they were placed into were known by the same name. The Max Wedge V-8 was based on the then new wedge-headed overhead-valve V-8 engine that bowed in 1958 and used the taller RB-height cylinder block as its starting point. The B-/RB-series big-block wedge was an excellent springboard on which to base a new high-performance version that appeared in 1962. It sported freer-breathing cylinder heads featuring larger, raised ports and bigger valves, a revised short crossram manifold with twin 525cfm (later 750cfm) carburetors, and unique ram’s horn exhaust manifolds.
Max Wedge engines were available from 1962 through 1964 and came in two basic flavors: low-compression (11:1) and high-compression (13.5:1). In its first year of production (1962), these were 413 cubic inches in displacement and were rated at 410 hp and 420 hp, respectively. Dodge engines were called Ramcharger 413, and Plymouths were called Super Stock 413, regardless of compression. In 1963, displacement went up to 426 cubic inches with an increase in bore size, bringing power up to 415 hp (11:1) and 425 hp (13.5:1). Early 1963 variants were called Ramcharger 426 (Dodge) and Super Stock 426 (Plymouth) but by late ’63, minor improvements were reflected in a name change to Ramcharger 426 II (Dodge) and Super Stock 426 II (Plymouth) with no discernable difference in performance. The Max Wedge got a final name change for 1964 (Ramcharger 426 III for Dodges and Super Stock 426 III for Plymouths) with no change in power output but a reduction in compression ratio from 13:5:1 to 12.5:1 (the low-compression Max Wedge remained the same at 11:1).
Max Wedge–equipped cars could be optioned with a special lightweight hood, fenders, front valence, bumper, brackets, headlamp buckets, and grille, which were made of aluminum to cut weight, but John Piazza’s Max Wedge came with the standard-weight production components.
But a large, powerful engine by itself doesn’t make a muscle car. Putting one into a lighter-weight midsized or compact model was the trick to making a car truly muscular—what was known in the pre-muscle-car era as a “supercar” by those closest to the fire. With Plymouth and Dodge introducing all-new midsized B-Bodies for 1962, the new Max Wedge would make a terrifying combination that would rapidly propel Chrysler into the top ranks of NHRA competition. The muscle car formula for a lightweight midsized model with a hi-po big-block V-8 was set two years before Pontiac hit on the idea of targeting baby boomers with the same idea in the GTO using a much lower price to bait the hook.
If you’re getting the impression the Max Wedge is a significant car that few people are in the know about, you’d be right. John Piazza, a 55-year-old chiropractor from Staten Island, New York, is one of those “youngsters” who has immersed himself in the pre-baby-boom proto-muscle-car mystique of the Max Wedge, and his ’63 Dodge 330 Max Wedge Stage II, the one you see here, is about as perfect a car as a hot rodder could own. “With collectors typically, there’s a very small group of people, a niche who likes the Max Wedge cars,” Piazza said. “You know, the ’70s, ’71 ’Cudas, they get all the fanfare. But I believe the purists, the true muscle car hot rod guys, love the early Max Wedge cars. Just like I do everything with cars, I do it once and do it right. I didn’t want to half-*** it, so everything had to be perfect correct where if I took it to a high-level show—besides the Dana rear—the car was perfect. From the outside, historically, the car would score well at any show. I wanted to make it concourse level and correct, but I did want to enjoy this one.”
“I just love nostalgia,” Max Wedge owner John Piazza said. “I just love the fact that I can have a piece of American history. They don’t make them like they used to. The new cars today probably perform a lot better, but they don’t look nearly as cool. The chrome, the finish, I’m a sucker for old things.”
Piazza’s Max Wedge might be just one of 162 built in 1963, but the implications around “wanting to enjoy this one” would have a bit more to do with why Piazza made the interesting—and some would say ill-advised—move to swap the original 4.56-geared 8 ¾-inch rearend for a similarly geared Dana 60. Or the equally interesting move to replace its already rare enough T3 manual transmission with a four-speed unit from a 1964 Hemi car. (The three-speed TorqueFlite automatics were the ones considered the biggest threat in their day.) Piazza makes the argument, “The only thing I did off of being original, as you know, the Max Wedges didn’t come with Dana rears, they came with 8 3/4s, but I put a Dana rear in it, but it has the factory 4.56 gears, and I did convert it to a four-speed [883] so I could drive it and enjoy the car as opposed to the T3 three-speed, you know? I have a ’64 Chrysler Hemi four-speed crash box in it, so it’s correct for Chrysler in 1964, but it’s basically a four-speed instead of a three-speed.” We’ll swing back around to the “enjoy” part of our story in a moment.
Piazza tells HOT ROD he always wanted a Max Wedge, and he picked up the scent for the ’63 when he bought a ’69 Hemi Charger 500 from a dear friend of his, Ed Cook, who is well known in the Mopar world. Cook purchased the Max Wedge car and was planning to run it in the F.A.S.T. class (factory appearing, stock tire), something that also appealed to Piazza. “So Eddy had this black and red Max Wedge car to sell,” Piazza said. “He contacted me, and like most car guys, he wanted to make sure the car went to the right home, and he knew I was the right home for it. And I gotta be honest, it’s so ugly and good-looking at the same time, in the same breath so to speak, the car to me is my favorite. It’s just mean-looking. Classic ugly Mopar that’s all business.”
The 10,000-original-mile car had been raced pretty hard early in its day. The story has it, it was originally from Pittsburgh and was an original factory 13.5:1-compression Max Wedge three-speed manual 4.56-gear car. According to Piazza, what made it really interesting was its black exterior with a red interior, a beautiful combination. It was patina’d a bit, and the motor was out of the car, but it unbelievably had the date-coded Max Wedge with its original block. The original interior was in it, and the car was solid. The floors and sheetmetal were perfect, with one exception: “The only thing it needed really, I guess back in the day, it had factory fender-well headers, like they used to do with the Max Wedge cars they would do the cutouts in the fender wells,” the good doctor said.
As we dig out the information on Piazza’s Max Wedge, we take an interesting side journey—a scenic-route shortcut if you will—that will inform you of the intensity of Piazza’s quest. It started with a small comment: “It sat around. I had the car since 2008 and my wife and I had our first son, Maximilian, so I put it on the back burner.” Hmmm. Max is his name, you say? Did you name your son after the Max Wedge V-8? Piazza laughs. “Kind of, sort of!” The play on words was too good to pass up. “My son’s name is Maximilian [Lee Piazza]. He’s a professional actor, and the plates on my cars pay homage to him. This particular license plate is MAYHEMAX. I have a Hemi Charger that says HEMI MAX and a Shelby convertible with SHLBYMAX. All my cars, some way, shape, or form—although he’s only 16 and sadly he has very little interest in cars—pay homage to him.”
“I had a ’66 Hemi Belvedere convertible that I had restored in a shop in Connecticut by Mike LaBrecque, and I know Mike [Mancini] did Instrument Specialties, he was the guy for the instrument clusters and so forth. I’ve always admired his work and he’s an unbelievably talented guy.”—John Piazza
After the car sat around until about 2012 or 2013, Piazza shipped it to John Ramsey at John’s Auto Restorations in Rome, New York, for some car-show-quality paint and body work. “He’s a phenomenally talented guy, but it was there for a few years,” Piazza said. “He does the Ridler Award cars. Through no fault of his own, it was a combination of him getting sick and me being busy.” Eventually, around 2016, the car was painted, but Piazza knew this wasn’t the right place to make it all correct for the assembly stage. John’s Auto Restorations didn’t know about all the unique insider details to make everything OEM, and this is where Mike Mancini of American Muscle Car Restorations stepped in. “That’s his wheelhouse,” Piazza said. “So I sent it to Mike, and he took the car in 2019. He had it there, he’s busy, so there was a little bit of a backlog on his end, and it was officially done in 2022.”
With the body painted, Piazza knew Mike Mancini and American Muscle Car Restorations would be the right place to put the Dodge 330 back together to be correct to the Max Wedge. “Mike Mancini, he’s, you know, infamous. Probably the best guy out there,” Piazza said. “Mike did the interior over with all NOS parts. He ultimately put the car all back together. All the trim on the car was NOS, everything was rechromed perfectly.” Meanwhile, Piazza had special plans for that Max Wedge powerplant. “I kind of farmed it out,” Piazza said. “That was done by Mike Bonsanti, a very famous local guy from HP Motors [in Boonton, New Jersey]. He built a magnificent engine, and that’s what he does. He’s built for Ed Cook and all the big guys in the F.A.S.T. class, so I put in a stroker motor. We made it factory appearing with the original manifolds that were on the car, the original cross ram, the original carburetors. Everything for the car is OEM-correct.”
“I planned on racing it in the F.A.S.T. class,” Piazza said, “but in Staten Island where I live, in recent years, Englishtown, New Jersey, the track closed. Atco [New Jersey] closed. So at that point I still had the intentions of making it concourse, meaning I wanted it perfect, but I wanted the motor to literally run like an animal.”
Internally, the Max Wedge is anything but stock. When the dust settled, the Maxie put out 750 horsepower and 780 lb-ft of torque, and according to Piazza, it runs magnificently on the street in traffic without overheating. “Mike’s a master,” Piazza said. “He’s a professor. I had a 4.15 Callies crank put in it, Childs and Albert rods, and it’s 477 cubic inches, but he was able to get 750 horsepower, so he’s a magician. He’s well known over in the engine-building world. We didn’t skimp on any of the engine components internally. It runs on race gas, like 116-octane. Even though it’s an original 13.5:1-compression car, I didn’t want to detune it. I felt guilty making it 11:5:1 or 11:1 like a lot of people were trying to make me do. I wanted the car to be original because it is a factory Stage 2. I was adamant about that, and many people tried to talk me out of it. I’m stubborn, so I didn’t. I kept it at 13.5:1 compression.”
66 Sat
Well-Known Member
This is the article (pt 2 of 2)
1963 Dodge 330 Max Wedge Stage II: Is This Rare 750-HP OE-Restoration the Sickest Street Car Ever?
https://www.hotrod.com/features/1963-dodge-330-426ci-max-wedge-4-speed-restoration/photos
Fast-forward to American Muscle Car Restorations, where Mancini was wrapping up the Bonsanti engine installation, all the proper detailing, the chrome, glass, and OE-style assembly using all NOS parts. “This is the one car I wanted to have some liberties with,” said Piazza, who often has to justify his departure from the standard OE-restoration practice. “There’s a lot of times on one of these cars. Sometimes they don’t run well, and what I always do to all the cars that I have, they have to run well. And in this day and age, you have your average family four-door running 12.8s, you can’t go up to the light with a Max Wedge car and be a pushover.”
If there’s a downside to this story, it’s that projects like this often move at a glacial pace, and upon the Max Wedge’s completion in 2022 a lot had happened to change how Piazza would use the car. When we asked John if he’d driven it much, he responded: “I have, but unfortunately, not enough!” As only hot rodders in New York City can know, if you want to race locally, you have to go to New Jersey. Or at least, that was the case. Piazza’s original plan—to run the Max Wedge at F.A.S.T.-style drag racing events—fell on its face. Piazza laments, “You know, I never took it to the track yet, and I haven’t because locally, there’s nowhere to take it. Englishtown is closed. Atco is closed. I live in Staten Island, which is a pretty busy area, but I do drive it. I took it to two local shows and won Best in Show in both. I planned on putting it on the show circuit, but I haven’t had the time.”
Piazza says for the time being his goal is to just drive it. “You know, I’ve had a lot of concourse-level restorations, and I was heavily into the Mopar Nationals in Ohio. At Carlisle. I would love to, if time permits, take it to one of those shows. For now, it’s comfortably resting in the garage, and I take it out locally when I can. My work schedule keeps me quite busy, and have a 16-year-old who is an actor and does a lot of traveling, so I was planning on taking the car out because he might be filming in California. I was going to take it out if he’s there long-term. Take it maybe to Bob’s Big Boy. That’s a great place. That would be my dream. That’s the place where I would really feel at home. Whether it gets accolades, it’s never really been my main goal. But I do like to make them perfect because I’m neurotic. Ultimately, I’m a hot rodder at heart.”
John Piazza would like to thank Ed Cook, Mike Bonsanti, John’s Restorations, and Mike Mancini for making his dream car a reality!
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