Sourcing a shell

“We needed to build a car to bring this engine back to life, but not any race car, it had to be an exact recreation of the one that started it all for Richard Petty,” Bonutti said. Collectively, they decided to recreate the Petty Blue 1964 Plymouth Belvedere.

Another friend, Wayne Cox — aka Spanky — had just picked up a ’64 Plymouth Belvedere as a rolling chassis. It had a straight body, but no interior or drivetrain.

After telling Spanky about the plan, Bonutti was offered his choice of two Plymouth Belvederes: a red one and a blue one. Bonutti talked Spanky into selling them both of the cars.

Greg Steadman and the team at Petty’s Garage were called and given the news about the availability of the pair of ’64 Plymouth Belvederes. After looking at detailed pictures of both cars and discussing it with Richard Petty, they requested that the red Belvedere serve as the donor car for the build as it had the best foundation.

Soon after reaching an agreement about using the red Plymouth Belvedere, it headed south to Petty’s Garage in Level Cross for the start of the 1964 Petty Plymouth Belvedere race car build. The recreation of #43 was officially underway.

The pieces come together

The Petty No. 43 Belvedere is a combination of the cars that were used in the entire ’64 season. In its purest form, this car represents what was run in mid-to-late-’64. Bonutti ultimately deferred to the Pettys’ expertise in all decision-making, as Richard Petty and Dale Inman, former crew chief and cousin, performed the build.

“These were the original guys who built the car in 1964 — they knew best,” Bonutti says.

This recreation shares characteristics of several versions of Petty’s ‘64 Plymouth, only showcasing the best. For instance, Inman insisted on using painted steel wheels as opposed to the chrome reverse wheels used at the ’64 Daytona 500. Inman complained that the chrome rim’s beads sealed poorly and caused the tires to slip at high speeds. Petty ran chrome wheels during practice and qualifying, but later switched to the painted wheels shown on the tribute car. The painted wheels had more bite and didn’t wear out the tire as fast.
After completing the build, Richard Petty, Dale Inman and Maurice Petty signed areas on the car.
Richard and Dale’s signatures are seen here, on the dash and inner door. Freeze Frame Image LLCThe early ‘64 superspeedway Belvedere had full trim, but as the season progressed, the car began to lose its exterior trim. By the end of the season, the platform transitioned into a clean, trim-free race car. The Petty’s Garage team decided to go with the cleanest and simplest look for this race car.

Bonutti is the owner of the featured 1964 Petty Blue #43 Plymouth Belvedere, and from day one, the driving force that truly motivated him to see this project to the end was the importance of keeping the history of Petty Enterprises and the special Hemi engine alive through this race car. But most important was the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of having Richard Petty, Maurice Petty and Dale Inman — the original trio — involved in the recreation of their iconic #43 Plymouth Belvedere race car.

As the saying goes, there’s more to the story. Pulling off this monumental task required help from others.