Re: {Chrysler 300} Ram Intake Casting Numbers

Hey John

I lived in West Newbury during those years (I think you lived in Andover?) and I did see Richard Rigoli each year at Topsfield when he would bring much of his collection there (and yes, he did have one of each year, ‘55-‘62, and sometimes two, hardtop and convertible.) His collection included a C300 to the white ram 300H that Noel shared the pic of from the 2014 auction. I remember when Dick bought that car from someone in California, I believe. Dick lived in Wayland and had a high-end home building business and I believe he also had a full time mechanic to tend to his cars. That purple ‘62 you mentioned was on the cover of a Mopar magazine around 2005 or so. Dick told me he was inspired to build that car by a white 300F coupe that was heavily modified and used to drag race in New England in the 1990’s (I saw it race at Epping, NH) Some of you New England guys probably know the car - I think it was owned by someone in Connecticut.

I had lost track of the white ram 300H until our 2023 Hershey meet when I saw it in the collection of a father/son that Hank had an arranged near Hershey (I forget their names.)

They were selling the car and club member Dave Larsen bought it.

I think some of Dick’s other Letter Cars also sold at that same 2014 auction that Noel referenced (Dick passed in 2019.)

Keith

On Mar 13, 2025, at 1:56 PM, John Nowosacki <jsnowosacki@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I may have written this before, but I'm old now, so please bear with me.
A long time ago, probably in the early 90's if not late 80's, there used to be a cool car show and swap meet in MA run by the North Shore Old Car Club at the Topsfield fairgrounds. There was even an auction that took place on Saturday, with the judged show on Sunday and swap meet both days.
Anyway, a fellow by the name of Richard Rigoli used to bring multiple letter cars to that show, including a white 62 300H that had blue 'short' crossrams and was said to be a 405 HP car. I didn't know as much about letter cars back then, so I didn't dive in to look at things like what kind of exhaust, manual vs automatic chokes, how power brakes were set up, etc. I was just wowed by the concept, whether it was 'real' or a 'tribute' or a 'What if?' didn't matter to me, and it wasn't for sale, just in the show, so it's not like it mattered, but it was cool. Rigoli had many letter cars, maybe one from every year except if there was a convertible available, then he had one of each from that year. He built a 62 monster drag car that he would trailer to shows some of the time as well.
Interesting fellow. He used to give me grief about the rear of my G coupe being up too high in the air, and also the raised white letter tires I had on it instead of wide whites, so it seemed like he was a bit of a stickler for originality.
I also had a 61 Newport at one time. If I had more free time and disposable income, I used to think it might be fun to build a lightweight, short wheelbase, 300G with a J or K engine setup so I could have an even faster G than Chrysler ever built, and be better looking than an H, J, or K (one man's opinion) because it would still have fins!
I would expect Mr. Grady or Mr. Tom White would have known Mr. Rigoli and his fleet?

On Thu, Mar 13, 2025 at 11:15 AM Nick Taylor <nicksgaragesd@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Someone posted a question on Facebook about ram induction on the 300H, which I believe were only dealer-installed. Someone else replied that they had a set of ram intakes from one of them for sale. I asked for a casting number and they provided the one for the left side of 2129987.

When I search for this number online, it comes up as J/K ram intake.

The club tech page about rams doesn't list full casting numbers.
https://www.chrysler300club.com/uniq/allaboutrams/allaboutrams.html

Is there a definitive list of casting numbers?

In an article on my own web site contributed by Wayne Graefen, he states that the '60-61 intakes are different from later ones but also includes the casting number mentioned previously.
https://300f.com/4speed.htm

I know that the '60-61 exhaust headers are different from the J/K ones. But what would a 300H have used?

Since it is commonly reported that the ram parts for a 300H were included in the trunk, I doubt they put a whole new exhaust system in there. That would be required to work with the cast headers and provide the full 405 horsepower rating. There are other things that make this "parts in the trunk" concept unlikely. What about the other mods to the engine? Camshaft? Valvetrain? Compression ratio? Any mods to the transmission?

There was a 300H sold at auction that claimed to have the dealer-installed ram system, but only one picture and no VIN is shown.
1962 Chrysler 300H | Auburn Spring 2014 | RM Sotheby's

Thanks for any feedback.

Nick

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