[1]
The legendary ’71 ‘Cuda that Ronnie Sox drove in the 1971 NHRA season is heading to the January 26-30, 2011 Mecum Auction in Kissimmee Florida [2]. This is the very car that won 14 times including the Super Nationals, Grand Nationals, Spring Nationals, Gator Nationals, and Winter Nationals! It has been completely restored to it’s 1971 racing configuration with the traditional Sox & Martin red, white, and blue paint scheme and features (of course) a full on race 426 HEMI. The HEMI is equipped with dual-plug cylinder heads and a dual quad intake, and the 4-speed that Ronnie himself ran through the gears is present and intact. It’s certainly a piece of racing history!
[3]Ronnie Sox and Buddy Martin are well known names in Mopar racing history for good reason. They campaigned several famous Mopars, and with Buddy’s promotion skills and Ronnie’s ability to make a 4-speed sing they proved to be an unbeatable pair.
They campaigned a number of famous Mopars and became somewhat of a national sensation during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. Ronnie won five NHRA championships and became the winningest Pro Stock driver in the 1970-’72 “four-speed” era with 9 wins over 23 events. Sox and Martin were initially competitors on the track, but became unstoppable once they became partners.
The January Mecum auction will be the perfect place for the car to go across the block. As we reported to you previously [4] the January Mecum auction has now been bumped up to run five full days, making it the largest of the January classic car auctions, surpassing even Barrett-Jackson. They specialize as being the featured “muscle car” auction house, so the ’71 ‘Cuda should be in good company.