1971 Hemi Cuda Convertible*

Mike Staveski built this as the first of 3 Modern Muscle cars for me.  He built me this ’71 Cuda Convertible, a ’69 Camaro and a ’69 Mustang.  Mike teamed up with Jason Rutherford to design a line of timeless Detroit musclecars.  I bought the #1 of all 3 cars.

This car features the bodyshell that’s mated to an Art Morrison Max G chassis (www.artmorrison.com). The square tube chassis gives a lower ride height, and provision for the exhaust to mount through holes in the crossmember. The chassis features Morrison’s own-design front suspension with tubular A-arms, and is on the order of a Mustang II setup. Out back is a triangulated 4-bar rear system. Afco coilovers work at all four corners, which is a saving (weight and cost) over cars that come with five corners. The chassis is welded to the rockers, and new floors are fabbed by TM and welded to the frame and rockers. TM’s Musclecar Series uses the stock unibody, cherried out to perfection, and new stock suspension. TM sources parts from the aftermarket, and fabs whatever else is needed to bring the car to “like-new” condition.

Underneath the hood is an HP Performance all-aluminum, 530-inch 2G Hemi. Built on the mild side, the 650 HP mill (with similar torque numbers), sports a Hilborn-style FAST injection system that was set up by Bob Ream at Imagine Fuel Injection. A MSD box handles the sparks. The custom 2ó-in. exhaust is ceramic coated and runs Flowmasters. The mill connects to a Viper 6-speed box, while a 4.56-cogged Strange 60 rear brings up the rear.

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