This months featured GTX is owned by Cleveland, Ohio resident Rick Gorski. Rick is a married father of two and a 14 year firefighter proudly serving the Cleveland, Ohio community. Recently he and a partner started a business called "Custom Wire Set", specializing in high quality, custom made, high-performance ignition wires.

When Rick's GTX left the factory, it came equipped with a U code 440, 727 automatic transmission, power sunroof, power windows, power brakes, power steering, tach, 6 way seat, AM/FM, Ac, 3.55 gears, and Autumn Bronze paint. Much has changed since then...

Rick bought his '71 GTX for a mere $100 way back in 1982. Sure, it sounds like a screaming deal but the GTX was no creampuff. Its original 440 was gone and the 383 that had taken its place was totally seized up. The car had 102,000 miles on it but as far as Rick could tell, it was wearing it's original doors, fenders and most likely the original quarters too. As an added bonus, it was also "seriously rust free". 

After getting it home, it sat in his neighbors yard for two years before he decided "I'd better get on it". After completely disassembling it, he rolled it into his parents garage and proceeded to roll it onto it's side on top of four mattresses. He began by scraping all of the undercoating off with a torch and putty knife. 

Rick built a mild 440 for it when I was 17 years old, and threw it together as best he could and  and joined the Navy . He drove that thing to Philly and back, twice, from Ohio. 

After getting out of the service in '88 it was parked briefly, then he got the notion to make a racecar out of it. In '89, the GTX was shipped off to get a 10 point roll cage, wheel tubs, subframe connectors and a fuel cell. Shocking? Yes, but Rick never dreamed it was such a rare car. Sometime around '98 he finally found out that Ma Mopar only made 32 1971 GTX's with a power sunroof. 

In his quest for speed, Rick removed (and sold) many of the the original parts to make the GTX lighter for racing. He took out the power window motors, and bolted the windows up. A piece of Lexan was used to close up the sunroof hole. He also sold the original hood, fenders, and mint dash, replacing them with fiberglass pieces! 

After racing it like that for a couple of years, he decided to put it back on the street again. As Rick tells it, "boy did I pay out the nose to replace all I had sold". However, in a stroke of luck he was able to repurchase the original fenders off the car. On one of his jobsites, a guy recognized him and recalled Rick owning the GTX. The fellow proceeded  to tell him that he had bought the original fenders from the guy that Rick sold them to thirteen years prior. Holy smokes!!! To top it off, Rick was able to buy them back for the same low price he had sold them 13 years earlier. They were still rust-free , sitting in his heated attic. Rick proceeded to piece the GTX back together, cutting out the rollcage, but keeping the wheel tubs, frame ties , and fuel cell . After making the decision to paint the shell FC7, he had a friends dad stitch up the seats with custom purple inserts and add some finishing touches to the interior. It took some painstaking work to get the power windows and power sunroof back together and operating perfectly. The Sunroof GTX made it's debut with a "mildly" built 440 at the 2002 Mopar Nationals. How appropriate that the theme that year was "Fun In the Sun". Rick had a lot of fun and "boy did I get a lot of looks, it was great". He even raced it , running 11.40's with slick's. 

Fast forward a few years to 2005. Rick found a 472 HEMI project for sale on Moparts.com. "I sold everything I had to secure that engine for the Sunroof". With the help of some friends, he custom built the non-crate engine, adding a lot of performance enhancing modifications. He desired to use an Indy intake and Dominator carb underneath the custom fiberglass hood, but had never seen it done before. Fortunately Rick's brother John is a metal fabricator by trade. He expertly modified the air cleaner base, making everything fit perfectly. Upon completion, Rick drove the now HEMI powered GTX to it's first show at Norwalk in September of 2005. After making some shakedown passes, he netted a best of 10.98 @126 mph. Over the winter he tended to a couple of finishing details, resulting in his best ever ET of 10.89 @126 mph on Mickey Thompson Drag Radials and through full exhaust. That's an impressive level of performance considering the GTX weighs in at a hefty 4050 lbs. 

In addition to the 472 HEMI, the Sunroof GTX is equipped with a Heavy Duty 727, aluminum driveshaft, 4.10 ratio Dana 60 with a Power Lock carrier, four wheel Wilwood disc brakes, aluminum radiator, March pulleys, 1050 Dominator, Indy roller rockers and 426-3 intake, 650 roller cam, TTI thermo coated headers, TTI full 3" exhaust with X pipe, tubular upper control arms, Cal Trac rear with mono leaf springs, ,Triangle Engineering fuel cell and 5/8ths aluminum fuel line. Exterior enhancements include a custom fiberglass hood, polished aluminum Stockton SWS wheels, Mickey Thompson tires, front spoilers and a Go-Wing.

Rick says "I've started a family now, so the SunroofGTX will be not as active as it once was. I drove it everywhere". But don't worry, he won't be getting bored. He bought a 71 Satellite Sebring Plus from out in Reno, Nevada. He's starting from scratch on it, adding all of the pieces he's collected through the years to it's completely rust-free body. It's painted Hot Rod black, and sporting the Sunroof's old 440, just freshened up a bit.