Re: Rigoli Letter Cars - Re: {Chrysler 300} Ram Intake Numbers

On Thu, Mar 13, 2025 at 3:24 PM don petty <donlpetty2@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Oth of my 300 f specials have water heated short rams and cast headers with no heat tubes 4 bolt flange under floor pan

On Thu, Mar 13, 2025, 2:27 PM Nick Taylor <nicksgaragesd@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Also note that the 300H doesn't have fenderwell access panels.

On Thu, Mar 13, 2025 at 1:55 PM Noel Hastalis <cpaviper@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Living here in the Chicago area, I wasn't familiar with 'Richard Rigoli' - that is, until he brought Letter Cars to RM's Auctions America Auction in Auburn, IN at its Spring 2014 Auction. Rigoli ran 5 Letter Cars through that auction - Gauguin Red 300-C, Formal Black 300-F, Formal Black 300-F ragtop, Mardi Gras Red 300-G and this Oyster White 405 HP 300-H that Nick has been mentioning. All were very nice cars. My H photos - attached. H's info board says swivel seats, but we know those weren't factory available post-'61 model year.

It was crazy - a total of 11 Letter Cars were auctioned there - a Platinum C-300, Black 300-B, Tahitian Coral 300-D, Radiant Red 300-E, Gauguin Red 300-C ragtop, Regimental Red 300-C, along with Rigoli's 5.

As a side note on the Rigoli 300s, my local buddy Dave Kirkel successfully bid on the Black F coupe - with its body plate reading WW1 (Alaskan White). The story Rigoli told Dave was that he repainted the white F coupe to match his BB1 black F convertible. Dave still owns it, and we show our Fs together at a handful of shows every year. The exhausts on Dave's F had cutouts, with diagonal pipes running out to the sides of the car, approximately mid-door. This was an early build F, and Rigoli said it had some sort of racing heritage - I assume drag racing. Dave has since had those cutout pipes removed, and gone back to stock configuration. John Begian and Mark Obermann were there with Dave and me as he nailed the winning bid. Rigoli had promised to send Dave an envelope full of documentation for the F, but never followed up. I was kicking myself on the H's sale, as it hammered for only $35,000 - what a steal!

Also interesting is our News-Flite 175 lists a black F ragtop owned by Rigoli running through Mecum's Glendale, AZ Auction next week. I don't know if our Club has shown him as owner since before the Spring 2014 RM Auction, or if he somehow repurchased it, or if it's a different F from the one he sold back at Auburn.

That 2014 auction had the most Forward Look cars I've seen at an auction. Also there were 2 '55s (black 4-door NYer sedan; Johnnie Slayton's black/red Windsor wagon was a no-sale) and 3 '56s (white NYer Newport 2-door hardtop, red/white/black NYer St. Regis 2-door hardtop, white/lavender NYer 4-door sedan). There was also a white '64 300 convertible, advertised as a K, but had the wide Sport side trim, so I don't know what the story was on that car, and it hammered for only $13,000.

Noel

On 03/13/2025 12:55 PM CDT 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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