My Cameo White '71 455 H.O. T-37 was ordered by Mr. Warren Young of Holiday, Florida, specifically to drag race. I am the third owner of the car, and purchased it in January 1996 from the second owner, who was only able to provide me with the Protect-O-Plate. I was lucky that most of the ultra-rare original drivetrain was still intact, minus the air cleaner, distributor, and original PQ-code transmission.
Being the "dead-nuts-on" fanatic that I am, I quickly tracked down and replaced the missing components. The T-37 has a mere 14,000 miles on the clock (mostly a quarter-mile at a time), but was severely weather-beaten when I purchased it, so a restoration began almost as soon as I brought it home.
When I dismantled the interior, I removed the passenger-side door panel and discovered the original buildsheet taped to the back of it-in mint condition! As a result, I performed an accurate restoration, as I knew all the proper mechanical components, paint codes, and so on, which were included in that extremely important document.
The underside of the T-37 was pristine, with its original gray primer still intact, so I saw no reason to pull the car off the frame. Its blasted shell and sheetmetal were sent to the body shop, while the engine was sent to be assembled soon afterward. The heads, meanwhile, went to Southern Style Racing and Machine in St. Petersburg for machining.
Paint and bodywork were completed in June 1999 by my friend Don Leach, a 30-year-veteran painter, working at Larry's Auto Body in Port Richey. The Sandalwood (code 238) seats and headliner were completely redone from scratch with N.O.S. materials from SMS Fabrics, as there are no seat or headliner kits for Tempests. The original door panels were mint (fortunately), and so was the rubber floor mat. (Yes, it has a rubber floor mat-no carpet!)
A very unique item on my car is the hood tachometer. To date, my good friend Dan Jensen has only documented two Tempests with factory hood tachs. Dan has also documented that my car is 1 of only 15 hardtop T-37s produced with a factory-ordered 455 H.O., and 1 of only 6 equipped with automatic transmission.
The car's original code XVK 12-bolt posi rear was still intact, but it had 4.10 gears instead of the original 3.55 gears. It was sent out and rebuilt, and the 3.55s were reinstalled, as was a new Eaton posi chunk.
I uncovered (and documented) the original yellow and green inspection splotches on top of the pumpkin as I pressure-washed the rearend, so I duplicated them as close as possible before I reinstalled the rear.
I installed the correct 25-inch-shell-length Walker Dynomax Super Turbos and a fresh aluminized exhaust.
Back in January 2004, I drove the car to the original owner, Mr. Young, for him to see. He was taken aback by how original and correct it had been restored, and gave me his approval. But the best part of my visit to his house was the vintage photo that he supplied me of my car back in 1971 at our local dragstrip-pulling the front wheels at the starting line!
Included in this restoration were all N.O.S. badges and lenses, some of which were near impossible to find. I added a power trunk, trunk lamp, a rare '71-'72 N.O.S. underhood lamp, as well as a super-rare N.O.S. '70-'72 Formula wheel. All of the original racing components were removed and stored for authentication, such as the rear coilspring airbags, driveshaft loop, and Hurst Line-Loc, to name a few.
My thanks to Mr. T-37 Dan Jensen for providing me the valuable information I needed on this restoration and supertuning my T. His work paid off as it ripped off a 13.10 at 104 mph for the win light at the Pure Stock Musclecar Drags at Mid Michigan Motorplex in September 2004.
The car has been shown many times to date and won many Firsts, including three AACA events and a Second Place at the 2004 GTOAA Nationals. My dream is to show my T-37 at Amelia Island due to its rarity and rich racing history.
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