1965 Plymouth A990

A brash young man named Herb McCandless was tearing up Lakeland Dragstrip in Memphis TN in 1964. In October of 1964, John Moore, an executive with Chrysler, came over to Mr. McCandless one day and asked if he could drive a 4 speed Hemi car. Dad, having no lack of confidence spouted “I can drive a 4 speed anything!” At the time, Dad was racing a 1957 Chevy Wagon with a 409 Z11 setup he had purchased from Dyno Don. That week, Dad was signing papers to order his first factory race car, a Plymouth Belvedere A990. That same car was the only black 4 speed model produced. This 65 was campaigned shortly in Super Stock, winning its class at the 65 Winternationals, but quickly switched to A/FX specs. In the southern part of the country, 3k/lb. heads up rules dominated. In 1965, Dad won 63 out of 71 races he entered with the car. This is the car that started it all!

This car is a clone of Dad’s original 1965 Plymouth A990. The original car was recently found in a barn after sitting for over 35 years and can be seen from this link. Greg Fernald of SS A/FX in Phoenix, AZ did the restoration work. I’m grateful for his time and effort in making this an incredibly accurate model of Dad’s 1965 A990 car.