Now here’s something you don’t see every day.
Richard Petty is one of NASCAR’s living legends. He’s got 200 victories to his name and is one of the great ambassadors to the sport–heck, for motor racing in general–but the last time he drove a race car in competition was over 20 years ago.
That’s why it is so cool to see this video clip of Petty driving his ’67 Plymouth Belvedere GTX in the Goodwood Festival of Speed. His run up the hillclimb track was more of a parade lap than anything, but it is still pretty neat to see “The King” back in a fire suit.
And the Petty Blue Plymouth he was driving wasn’t simply some show car with a crate engine between the fenders. It is a car that was originally built and campaigned in 1966 and even won the Daytona 500. The car was updated with a new body for 1967 and Petty says he used it to win approximately 27 of 48 races run that season. This was before the time that teams brought a different car to practically every track, so this car raced week after week, and Petty believes it is likely the winningest car in NASCAR history.
After the ’67 season the Belvedere was retired and placed in Petty Enterprises’ own racing museum. There it sat until Petty decided to bring it to the Goodwood Festival. It is all still original, including the big hemi providing power. Petty says all that was done to prepare the car was to make sure it still had brakes, change the fluids and make sure the battery was charged.
Pretty cool, if you ask us.