Sure, American muscle is all about performance. But how do you deliver that when battling limited production cars featuring more expensive parts, such as the Porsche 911, on circuits across the country? Back in the mid-1970s, the answer to that question came in the form of the IMSA AAGT (All American Grand Touring) racing class, which gave muscle cars a fair chance against their more sophisticated Euro rivals. And now, five decades later, that legacy still stands, as proven by the Plymouth Cuda AAGT, a digital concept coming from SpeedKore.
As the restomod fans among you will point out, SpeedKore’s influence spreads well above the borders of its home state, Wisconsin. That’s because the company likes to build all-carbon restomods whose owners range from celebrities like Kevin Hart to Stellantis head designer Ralph Gilles (this is his 1968 Dodge Charger Hellucination).
SpeedKore builds may be a SEMA favorite, but you’ll see them anywhere, from cinemas (they built the mid-engined 1970 Charger Hellacious of Fast and Furious fame) to Dodge’s official Direct Connection performance parts catalog.
The specialist likes to push the boundaries with many of their new builds and, more recently, they’re also doing it in the virtual world. As such, SpeedKore has asked digital artist Abimelec Arellano (aka abimelecdesign) with rendering the crowd favorite that is the 1970 Plymouth Cuda into an AAGT lap time monster.
What the All American Grand Touring motorsport tier was all about
For the record, back in 1975, IMSA introduced the AAGT class that allowed a tubular frame, which achieve the effect mentioned above, with American machines now being able to fully take on Porsches and BMWs.
The U.S. metal dominated the AAGT charts for a few golden years and while the Chevy Monza became the top dog, a 1974 Dodge Challenger driven by Glen Bunch brought honor to the Mopar camp. And this 1970 Cuda is a pixel tribute to that car!
This Cuda looks like a proper track weapon
With the said tube chassis and acres of carbon fiber proving aero cover for the considerably wider tracks, this widebody Cuda racecar is as menacing as they get.
Arellano, whose love of Americana knows no limits, has even gifted the creation with the front wing air extractors pioneered by the 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona (we’ll get back to this NASCAR icon shortly).
North of the firewall sits a Hellcat V8—grab these before Dodge’s Banshee electric muscle takes over in 2024. And the supercharged Gen III Hemi breathes via a set of side pipes that one could easily mistake for sculptures.
Now, this is Part III of SpeedKore and Arellano’s rendering series. Aptly titled “What If?”, this has dedicated the first two efforts to the ’69 Charger Daytona, mixing the machine with Ford GT40-like bits in a bid to bring the muscle car to Le Mans! Sure, this makes the whole adventure seem too extreme for the real world.
However, knowing how far SpeedKore goes, we wouldn’t be surprised to see a release from this series making it to SEMA later this decade.
