With its fat rear meats and classic Garden State rego plates, Adam Hamilton’s Plymouth GTX was a sweet presence amid the huge Lardner Park Motorfest show ’n’ shine.

We were lucky enough to bump into Adam as the day wound down, and he gave us the lowdown on the car.

First published in the April 23 issue of Street Machine

Nice car! Tell us a bit about it.

It’s a 1968 Plymouth GTX. It’s been in the country since probably the mid-80s at a guess. I’ve owned it for nearly 30 years now.

It’s got an almost-standard 440 in it, and there’s probably not much more to say! We’ve narrowed the rear axle slightly; it runs 4.10 gears in the back of it.

What’s the tyre under it? Looks pretty chunky.

It’s a Mickey Thompson that’s 12 inches wide. It’s actually the smaller version; I normally run a slightly larger tyre – the old Sportsmans – but I’ve been trying out the radial.

It’s been right-hand drive for quite a while?

It was converted in the mid-80s. It’s a good conversion, and at the moment it’s rack-and-pinion. It runs a VK Commodore variable-ratio rack, but I’ve got a power rack that I’ll put in it soon. It steers beautifully and the wheel aligns beautifully.

Prior to us putting that in, it had a steering box, and it was all over the place; it was very hard to get a wheel alignment on it. But the rack-and-pinion has been in there since almost the day I bought the car in 1993.

Do you just cruise it on the street, or have you done some racing, too?

I used to do a bit of racing in it, and then the kids came along.

This car hasn’t been on the track for 20 years, and at the moment, the bottom half of the engine is a borrowed one, so I don’t race it for that reason!

What was its best time?

We used to run it at Nostalgia drag events, and its best run was a 13.5. It was running standard exhaust manifolds, standard cast-iron intake manifold and a Carter 750 on top.

It had a little bit of extra converter in it, and at that stage it was running 3.9 gears. I’d put on a set of sticky tyres and that was it. It wasn’t too bad for what it was!

Any changes planned?

At some stage I’ll have to put my own motor in it, and then I’ll go back to the drags! I’ve got another car at home for racing, though. It’d be lovely to put a fresh coat of paint on it one day, but it’ll have to wait until the other car’s finished.

We’ve got a little bit of rust in the car, but it’s nothing serious; I’m not going to leave it in the shed because of that. I’ll bring it out, cruise it, and have fun with it!