This 1000-hp “Christine” tribute is one helluva Hemi build
We all knew Christine would need some extra help resurrecting herself, especially after being compacted into a tiny cube. Still, who could have predicted the cursed 1958 Plymouth Fury to come back snorting three times more horsepower than her dubbed-over Cobra Jet soundtrack ever boasted, thanks to a Hellephant powerplant?
Stay your knees from knocking long enough to greet this Hellephant-stuffed ’58 Fury, brought back from the dead by the stars of the Graveyard Carz TV show and on display at SEMA this year. The automotive reality show brings Mopars back to life on the condition cars aren’t simply wrecked, but “beyond repair.” The shop’s MO is a far cry from concours-style restorations according to period-correct blueprints—they like to take some chronological liberties, in spectacular fashion.
We’re not too concerned about what was left stock in this Fury, since this Christine brings a pop culture star to life in true hot-rod style, marrying awesome technology with creative imagination. The same imaginative liberties, by the way, were taken with the Christine movie; King wrote Christine as a four-door Fury, but director John Carpenter used a two-door (though over 20 cars figured across different scenes, Furys and others).
In a build less fantastic than this we’d be sad to see the original 350-cubic-inch Golden Commando V-8 leave. Only 5300 Plymouth Golden Commandos were built in 1958, and only 41 remain, according to the car’s plaque at SEMA; but a 426-cu-in supercharged Hemi pumping out 1000 hp is in this case not too shabby of an upgrade. Neither is the color change, from Sand Dune White on Beige to PPG Spectra Red (the movie crew did a similar repaint for the 1983 flick).
We dig the combination of movie tribute and Mopar muscle. The Hemi roars through a MagnaFlow exhaust and sends power to whitewall-wrapped chrome wheels via a Silver Sport four-speed overdrive automatic and a Eaton Truetrac differential.
Body by Plymouth, soul by Hellephant.
