My dad used to have a 62 Sport Fury Convertible that he special ordered with the 361 4bbl. He used to love racing down the 1/4 mile as he was a lefty and liked pushing the buttons down the track. Then after he got his, they came out with the 383 in them.
The only time that he lost is when the Hawaiians put him in the wrong class after he had the car shipped with him when he went into the Navy.
My mom once outran a Honolulu detective one late night on a curvy ocean road in that car while he was out at sea...
He came up behind her and tried to pass her. Mom was a paranoid worry wart that grew up in a big city and did not trust anyone (especially when dad was out at sea and she was alone). When the guy tried to pass her, she just stepped on the gas and pulled away from him. Then finally sees a gas station and pulls into it, and he followed her (verifying her paranoia). She told him that she was going to call the police. He replied, "I am the police"....
They had a really great mechanic at the dealer in his college town where he bought the car named Ronny Jones. Ronny could work magic on cars. He would tell dad, "Let me know when you are going home to the big city (Chicago), and I will give you a tune-up so you can run with the "city boys"... (Ronnie was a redneck - not that there's anything wrong with that, but he had that cool southern accent). So the first time he brought the car home from college after buying it, grandpa asked him for the keys. Grandpa pulled out of the driveway and did a 50 foot burnout. And when he came back with the car, all he would say is, "the car has a little of pickup..." LOL!
Another time, back at college, he raced a guy with a 409 Chevy and barely lost. The guy asked him if he had a 413 under the hood. Dad told him that it was a 361. He didn't believe it, so dad lifted the hood and showed him the 361. When he told the guy that Ronnie Jones tuned it up, he said, "That figures. Please don't tell anyone about our race..."
Ronnie was so well known around the small college town, dad said that whenever Ronnie went to the race track, people would call him over to look at their cars and see what was wrong. He would get so caught up helping people in the pits, that he usually didn't get to see much racing.
The dealership owner also told us that Ronnie and his brother built a 273 (I don't know what car it was in) that beat every big block Chevy that they raced.
Ronnie also bet a guy that he could take apart an engine and put it back together blind folded, and won. He rebuilt a Chevy 327 blindfolded and it ran afterwards...
Dad loved his old 62 Fury. He sold it in Hawaii after he put in his time in the Navy and moved back home. (They shipped it over for him free for signing up as an officer). It was the very first of many Mopars that he bought new.
When he got home, he bought a new 67 Barracuda fastback Formula S 383 4-speed. He loved to embarrass the GTO's with it. But that's another story...
