DRESSED FOR SOX-CESS – SEAN TIPPET 1970 VALIANT PACER
Impressed by his four speed shifting ability under full throttle, Buddy Martin teamed up with Ronnie Sox during the early 60s, stating that Sox’s driving skills were gifted. Combined with lightning reaction times, he was dynamite down the quarter mile and together they created history.
In 1965 the Sox and Martin team made a brand switch to Plymouth, where they successfully campaigned a Hemi-powered altered wheelbase Belvedere. Banned by NHRA from running in Factory Experimental class racing, Sox and Martin went match racing, achieving the first-ever nine-second pass in a naturally-aspirated, full-bodied car with their 426 Hemi running a Chrysler-designed, Hilborn-built fuel injection setup at Pennsylvania’s York U.S. 30 Dragway. Ronnie’s favourite race car has been historically noted as the 1968 Plymouth Barracuda Fastback powered by a 426 Hemi that he piloted to numerous prestigious wins during ’68, and honoured as being named AHRA’s Driver of the Year. 1968 was also coincidentally Plymouth’s best sales year in yonks. Win on Sunday, sell on Monday, it seemed delivered.
The remarkable Sox and Martin story is only upstaged by their vibrant and colourful cars that dominated the track and captivated fuel fed audiences globally. The instantly recognisable livery has been immortalised and revered by Mopar fans ever since, which brings us to this locally produced 1970 Valiant Pacer coupe owned by Sean Tippet.
Sean is a second generation mechanic whose earliest childhood memories of his dad Peter, were growing up around cars.
“Dad was a mechanic and raced old Holdens with grey motors and eventually went speedway racing,” he fondly recalls, “mum even raced at the speedway a few times,” he adds.
While his dad was happy to go round in circles at speed, Sean chose the straight and narrow path down the quarter mile. Following in his father’s professional footsteps, Sean served his mechanical apprenticeship working for Mazda.
“I’ve had every rotary that they made bar an RX2,” he scoffs, “multiple RX3s and R100s, an RX4, RX5 and a couple of RX7s. I then gravitated toward Skylines and had a 10 second car.”
While quick times down the quarter filled the need for speed, he adds that it was really only street meets and the like contended, without getting too serious. When he did get serious about muscular horsepower though, the rotaries made way for Chevys and Fords with an under-bonnet blown ’67 Camaro being the last bowtie before his Mopar addiction took hold.
“In 2013 I sold my Camaro and went on holiday to the States with intentions of buying an E body Challenger or Cuda, but nothing panned out,” he explains. “We stumbled across a Mid-West hot rod show and got talking to a couple of blokes in a bar and told them that I’d love to find such a car, then one said to the other, ‘doesn’t your brother have one of those parked in his shed?’ His mate turned to him and replied, ‘yeah, it’s a 1970 440 with six pack and 4 speed.’ I was thinking how awesome if it was for real! I followed them to have a look and the car was everything that he said, only it was in need of a full restoration.”
Apparently the brother bought it after he returned from a tour of duty and drove it, raced it, and eventually parked it many years ago.
“He wanted restored money for what it was. I thought about it and looked at a few more. I had knowledge of a Dodge back home that I thought was too expensive, but after having something to compare it with I bought it as soon as I got back.” Sean confesses.
The Melbourne based Mopar was soon snapped up and filled the recently vacated garage. Finished in envious green, the 1970 Dodge R/T Hemi Challenger boasts a 472 crate mill and although a tribute to the real deal, it’s Sean’s Holy Grail of the breed. Since that purchase, a 1960 Plymouth Barracuda 318 fastback has also followed him home and wife Anita now commutes to work in a 2014 SRT-8 Chrysler 300.
Which leads us to the featured Valiant gracing the glossy pages before you. The story goes that Sean went to see a known Chrysler collector about a diff when the eye catching Pacer distracted his attention.
“I asked what was for sale and he yells: “everything!” I walked around it a few times humming and harring and came home and talked it over with my wife, who said that if I thought it was worth it just do it. I think the diff is still there!” he laughs.
With Anita’s blessing, Sean didn’t hesitate to add one more Mopar to the growing collection of Chrysler products, and spent time researching the potent Val’s origins, eventually contacting the previous owner responsible for its current guise.
“It was pieced together by a guy in Darwin by the name of Mike Fawcett,” Sean shares. “It changed hands a couple more times but was never raced or modified since Mike sold it.”
Further correspondence revealed a full internet available build-up of the car that confirmed all the quality drivetrain components Sean hoped he was purchasing. Decals and paint are dazzling to the eye but don’t make a hill of beans if they are only skin deep! Underneath the famously familiar dressed sheet metal is an overindulgence of Mopar go fast goodies that ticked all the right boxes for its new owner. A super stout Chrysler 360 grabbing air through a Holley 700 Dominator is backed by a 727 transmission that’s been manualised to a reverse pattern delivering torque to a Strange equipped Ford 9”.
With the main focus of the rebuild directed to performance, the majority of the Pacer’s suspension components have been refurbished to factory spec with the addition of Comp Engineering race shocks to help with weight transfer on hard launches.
While in Mike’s possession, the picture perfect Pacer was piloted to a best of low 12s down the blacktop quarter. Since Sean had tinkered and tuned he’s cracked into the 11s with 114mph at Perth’s Motorplex.
“It was built to race but had a fuel problem when I bought it. I pulled the carby down and cleaned the tank out. I eventually put a new fuel cell in it and it’s better, but still not perfect. I’m playing with fuel pumps at the moment.”
He is also very confident that there is more speed to be found, but is now unsure if he should redirect his efforts to attain rego and unleash the mighty Mopar into modern mainstream.
A Sox and Martin on the street, now that would be cool.
