Ronnie Householder recognized that a McKee race car with Hemi power would provide Richard Petty with an additional choice of race series in 1965, and an order was placed with McKee Engineering for a Hemi powered, tube frame mid-engine sports racer. In January 1965, while attending the Chicago Auto Show, Petty visited McKee Engineering with Chrysler racing executives and was offered the opportunity to campaign the factory-backed racing effort in the emerging unlimited sports racing series, Can-Am. Because the car could not be completed by the beginning of the racing season, Richard drag raced throughout the 1965 season and for 1966 he returned to NASCAR. It was left to Bob Montana to campaign the Hemi-McKee, which was known as the “T & C Plymouth Special.” The Hemi-McKee raced on a national basis from 1965 through 1967 in Can-Am and USRRC races at Riverside, Las Vegas, Bridgehampton, and other venues alongside the McLarens, Lolas, Chaparrals, Ferraris, and Porsches of the era. It is reported that two late-season SCCA victories were scored in 1965. By 1968, the monocoque race car chassis succeeded tube-frame designs, and the Hemi-McKee raced only in regional SCCA competition thereafter.
The car was eventually retired in 1969 and following Bob Montana’s untimely death in 1971, the car remained intact and in storage for the next 35 years until its restoration was completed in the summer of 2004, followed by its debut the Mopar Nationals in Columbus, Ohio. In the summer of 2005, the Hemi-McKee was invited to both the renowned Goodwood Festival of Speed in Chichester, England, and the Monterey Historic Automobile Races at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California. The subject of many articles including one in Hemmings, the McKee remains without doubt one of the most fascinating pieces of Chrysler factory-backed racing history in private hands today. Never available to collectors until now, it will provide the crowning jewel for committed Chrysler collectors everywhere.