Another time I was there, I went with my buddy, Ross. He had his 1967 Silver Special Belvedere II hardtop. Ross raced it in Hemi S/S with a 572" cross-rammed aluminum block Hemi, pro-built 727 automatic with 904 guts, and 4.30 geared Dana 60. It had a full cage, and Ross figured he took about 500 lbs. out of it, when he was building it. The body work and dark green metallic paint were flawless. I always said it was too fast to be a show car, and too pretty to be a race car. Ross is a meticulous tuner and records keeper. He knew what worked, and what did not. The car eventually ran high 8's at over 155 m.p.h. Anyway, we show up there, and unloaded the Belvedere from his trailer. As Ross was staging his car, the track announcer said that he did not understand what this car was doing at the track. He had seen it earler at the Carlisle show,and thought it was one of the cleanest cars there. Ross proceeded to lay down the 2nd. quickest E.T. of the night. The announcer was dumbfounded. Tragedy struck a few years later, when the car did a hard right turn into the wall at Norwalk, in the speed traps. The Belvedere was totalled, Ross was banged up really bad, but the safety features in the construction of his car saved his life. He now has another ultra-nice '67 Belvedere that he is happy to just cruise in.
