Table of contents for December 2023 in Mopar Action

X-RACER Mr. Ehrenberg– I have a 1967 GTX, 440 automatic, that was used as a drag race car only. I bought it from an estate, I have almost no information on it. I did replace the 4.56:1 rear end with a 3.55, and rigged up a temporary exhaust system as I slowly put it back to a street driven car. It only has 13,000 miles on it, I know it could be 113 or 213, but everyone who has seen it agrees that the 13K is most probably true. It never seems to warm up though, I want to address that. I am told that it probably has no thermostat. I know that's easy, and I bought one, but which way does it go in? Also, I am just curious,…

THE ONLY REASON Dodge built the 1969½ Charger Daytona was to be more competitive in stock car racing. It had little to do with competing with the mini-winged 1970 Pontiac GTO Judge and Buick GSX. Or, dominating the top tier of the era's supercar marketplace. It was, however, the first 200 MPH supercar and a certified recordholding racecar. At that moment, Number One on Dodge's hit-list was Ford's NASCAR Boss 429 Torino Talladega. But that didn't translate into sales or making money. Dodge lost money on every Daytona sold; many dealers regretted ever ordering any for inventory. Ford also lost money on every Boss 429 Mustang that was created to homologate the monster motor for NASCAR. Winning on Sunday was not always selling on Monday! Chrysler engineers, led by Special…

WHEN THE CURRENT GENERATION of RAM pickups appeared in 2019, my interest was piqued, especially by their stellar performance—not on the road, not on the track, but in various crash tests. With pickups now being used as replacements for family sedans, with the emphasis on “family”, this is more important than ever. Chrysler was always a leader in safety, going back to the 1930s, so it is heartening to see this data. Still, a 6000-plus-pound pickup truck didn't interest me much. Power-wise, the 5.7L was good, but the 6.4L truck engine, tuned for torque (the poor man's Cummins), generated acceleration performance that was nothing to write home about. Then Mopar pulled the grenade pin: No longer happy with letting the Raptor steal the limelight, the TRX was unleashed for ‘21.…

CHARLES AND TERESA MORRIS really enjoy Six while cruising around the Dallas/Ft Worth area. The shiny, stealthy, immaculate black ‘71 Barracuda does a brilliant job of hiding what is pounding beneath the sheetmetal—6 pistons humping up and down. It all started at a drive-in movie back in 1979. On the screen was the not-quite blockbuster, Phantasm—a horror film about a teenage boy and his friends who face off against a mysterious grave robber, known only as the Tall Man, who employs a lethal arsenal of unearthly weapons, including a ‘Cuda. A good flick to curl up with on a dark, blustery thunder-filled stormy night. Years later, the director and members of the cast would revisit the real star (the movie's car) firsthand and autograph the glove box. What really impressed…

DENNIS: “All of these sketches were from the Charger facelift project to reconnect with the car's performance heritage utilizing a new header panel, bumper face bar, outer hood stamping, with and without rectangular lamps. These were the fifirst attempt to integrate rectangular headlamps into the Charger. The effort was ultimately tabled because we couldn't achieve the desired level of differentiation between the Cordoba and the Charger. Styling wanted more tooling funds to redo the complete hood and front fenders. “Ultimately, funding was approved and the formal program for a more substantially updated look became known as the Magnum. Of interest was that the stacked headlamp treatment that I did for the Charger was decided to be used on the Cordoba. I put the headlights side by side and it let…

THE FIRST HALF of this two-car project has traveled at least 1,000 miles in the US and probably more than that number of KMs down under. Brian has stated repeatedly that he's been 100% satisfified with the outcome, which has met all his stated goals: Quick and responsive, good brakes, excellent road manners and driveability, smooth ride, quiet, dependable. While it is likely quite a bit quicker (in a straight line) than, say, a new 5.7L Charger, due to the fact that it is probably very close to 1,000 lbs. (454 Kg) lighter (we will get around to checking that, as well as recording actual accelerative performance numbers), there can be no doubt that said Charger will run and hide from the Dart when the road turns twisty—the Dart's flflaccid…

DON'T BOTHER KNOCKIN’! SEE PG. 13 CLASSIC VAN ENGINE COVERS FROM STEELE RUBBER PRODUCTS CRAFTED for full-size B and PB-Series vans, this Engine Top Cover Weatherstrip effectively seals against noise, fumes, and debris. The photo of 70-3050WT is showing product placement. This weatherstrip is made from 100% sponge rubber with a durable outer skin. Contact Steele Rubber Products today for purchase information on this and other products, (800) 2307923 or www.steelerubber.com. A-TEAM PLAYER SEE COV. 4 & PG. 21 AUTO METAL DIRECT INTRODUCES ‘68-70 DODGE/PLYMOUTH B-BODY OUTER WINDSHIELD A-PILLAR POSTS AMD HAS ANNOUNCED their all-new Outer Windshield A-Pillar Posts for 1968–70 Dodge and Plymouth B-Body models. This A-Pillar post is the first in a set of components AMD has developed for the Mopar B-Body A-pillars. Engineered to be an exact…

IT WAS IN LATE JULY that I got a quick note from our advert guy Dan Gallo that Atco Dragway, after over 60 years of operation, had abruptly closed its doors a day earlier, leaving NJ with just one dragstrip. Hearing this was almost as hard as seeing the Englishtown track close, another New Jersey dragstrip where I had once been a cub reporter before advancing to Zookeeper status here. Since it was only about an hour from home when I was growing up, I had seen some great stuff at Atco since the 1980s—Ronnie Sox racing Dyno Don Nicholson in nostalgia racecars, flying funny car bodies at the top end, and Brian Kohlmann in the Belle ‘65 Dodge on a nitrofueled exhibition pass. There was a lot of other…

PAINT PROCESS Mr. Ehrenberg– What kind of paint was originally on my 1963 Chrysler 300 (4-door)? Andrew Franklin Schaumburg, IL Andy– It was two coats of baked Ditzler singlestage Acrylic enamel. By 1965, this chemistry was on all Mopars. This was applied over 2 coats of wet-sanded epoxy primer. YELLOW MELLOW? Rick– What was the first year that Mopars had yellow front turn signal lights? My grandfather is saying 1966, is that right? Marty Johnson Tallahassee, FL Marty– According to the parts books, 1963 was the start. The first Mopar (and maybe the first car) that the parking lamps were both amber (never yellow) and illuminated when the headlamps were switched on was the 1964½ Plymouth Barracuda. The original Amber bulbs were painted, #1034A. In the ensuing decades, this was superseded…

“NO RESERVE!” This term in the auction business is a solid call out that somebody new will take ownership of what is being offered. We noted when we completed our August issue that the long-lost Rapid Transit System ‘Cuda was coming up for sale in late May at Dana Mecum's Indy Classic. What we did not note was that this announcement, made only a month before the event, would be a no-reserve offering. In surprisingly spirited bidding for the unrestored show car, two determined bidders pushed the sale price of this low-milage Six Pack powered Chuck Miller-built custom to $2.2M when auctioneer Jimmy Landis hammered it and yelled, “SOLD!” By the time it arrived, it had been washed, mildly detailed, had the missing front Cragar mag reinstalled, and brought back…

SWEET AS HONEY DEPT TWO BEES OR NOT TO BEES THEY'RE BUZZIN’ LIKE CRAZY down at the Dream Giveaway hive, dreaming up a honey of a giveaway. Make that two honeys (yeah, baby!). What they've hatched this time around are a pair of ‘Bees—a ‘71 Dodge Charger Super Bee for you old-school fans and a 2023 Dodge Charger Hellcat Jailbreak, which they call the “HellBee” for you new-school devotees. However. nothing is being offered for you no-school dropouts. Sorry. Not sorry. Check out the sidebars for the spec and option highlights on each of these hot Dodges. If that doesn't get you juiced up, page over to one of Dr. E'Boogers amazing tech articles. Anyway, the ‘71 checks off all the right boxes—big-block, 4-speed with Pistol Grip, High Impact Butterscotch paint,…

THE FIFTIES. Comfort and chrome, room and vroom. The 1953 Chrysler New Yorker Town & Country wagon had it all. Flash—not so much as the '53 Mopars were rather subdued in the styling department. But it had dash for its day, packing Mother's 331 CI 180 HP FirePower Hemi. You, on the other hand, needed cash to cover the wagon's steep price tag—$4077 compared to the $3254 starting cost for a Buick Roadmaster. Only 1,399 of these T&Cs rolled off the assembly line. So much for history. Flipping the calendar forward to the present day, we find the Duttons—Darryl and Jo, residing in sunny California, reviewing their automobile situation. Darryl's a real car guy and likes ‘em all, but he has a soft spot for Mopars. Darryl's set with a…

UP FOR SIX CHRIS POHUSKI loves banging around Reisterstown, Maryland in a 225 Slant Six Duster. Pretty sharp on the outside but nothing like what's under the hood. Chris has owned his Plymouth for some 10 years and it still beats with its original Six. But now it sports triple side-draft Weber 45s, similar to what the Aussies used on the 265 Hemi. He upgraded handling with a full Hotchkis TVS system and Race Engineering wheels. It's set up for autocross, and bucket seats banish the slip ‘n’ slide of a bench in the twisties. Originally, Chris was going to drop in a 340, but then he noticed other Sixes at shows, and the Six gradually grew on him. The convincer was when he went to get a custom T-shirt,…

IGUESS WE HAVE A “SELECT FEW” buying into what they see on the big screen and TV. Sadly, everyone with a TV or cell phone knows exactly what I am talking about. The new trend now seems to be shutting down a few blocks to do donut-type burnouts until someone hits something/someone, all for the joy of the viewer or until the cops send enough guys to end it. Do I love burnouts? My friend, if you have to ask… then we haven't met. But shutting down streets, blocking traffic, and terrorizing some people who are just trying get home isn't the way to go about it. The country is a big, beautiful place and every town has a road off the beaten path with minimal traffic where you can…

“DUDE!” Cubic inches, like some other things that get measured comparatively, usually means the more, the merrier. While, positive MAP aside, it is true that there really is no replacement for displacement, and Mopar upped the ante to a near-industry maximum of 440 cubic inches very early in the game (1966, to be exact). However, the benefits of a low-deck design, with its shorter stroke, potentially decreased reciprocating and overall weights, and lower initial cost, should simply not be discounted. After all, Ma Mopar once stuffed a lot of cars full of both hot 383-CI and later 400-CI combos. The car seen here began life as one of them, in the first year that the 383-CI displacement meant 335 HP, a street heat powerplant installed into Plymouth's new budget machine…

BARN RESCUE DEPT HARRY'S HAMMER OH, IF THE CAR COULD TALK. But since it cannot, we must tell its tale as best we can. The car here was born as a 1969 340 4-speed Dart that was sent to Pohl Dodge, where it sat on their lot with 2.9 miles showing on the odo waiting for its first buyer. That was not to be, as thieves then absconded with the Dart's performance drivetrain right off the lot(!), leaving the remainder of the new Dodge intact but useless. So Pohl Dodge then sold the Dart, sans drivetrain, to Burlington City, New Jersey resident Harry Middleton, for an unknown sum. Harry, in addition to being a wheeler-dealer kinda guy, was a real gearhead — into cars, enduro motorcycle racing, and related motor hijinks.…

WHAT'S NUMERO UNO on the Mopar muscle-era suspension failure list? No question, no argument: Lower control arm bushings. They, literally, go bad while you watch, unless you park your car on jack stands, or a 2-post hoist. Any other scenario has them under constant pressure, holding up the entire weight of the front of your car. Go look at yours—look closely: Dollars to donuts, if they are more than 10-15 years old, regardless of mileage or usage, the shaft (pin) is off center. OK, I did say I would make this easy. “Easy”, however, is a relative term, Yeah, you still need to remove the arms, which entails knocking back the T-bars. The sidebar on page 44, helps, yet this is FSM stuff. If you are smart, you will count…

“I HAD DIFFICULTY with the tech guys on the clear flip-up headlight cover drawings. I said ‘you do flflip-up headlight covers on Imperials and there's a headlight back there. This is just different; the headlights are visible.’ and they couldn't get the concept. So I went back and I did a front end where I had doors on it, but it was different from anything else we had done because there was no kind of flflat, plain, solid colored front ends like this, they all had chrome grilles and I wanted to get rid of that. I did a lot of sketches with slotted front ends with flflat black grilles. There was a period where the product planner said something about the “318” being a weird number for our smallblock…

THE FIRST HALF OF THIS SERIES featured a ‘69 Dart, junkyard 5.7L, utilizing the entire Holley conversion kit that features an all-new front timing cover (which uses mostly, from what I can tell, Chevy LS components such as the water pump), mounts, headers and so on. This kit makes the swap (into an A-body) a pie job, but does contain a few drawbacks, precluding its use for our 6.4L installation. It moves the entire engine and trans forward 1.75ʺ, which both negatively affects handling, and totally screws up the fitment between our A-body version Tremec TKO gearbox and the torsion bar crossmember. Interestingly, in the car's longstanding configuration (LA engine, same mod'd Tremec 5-speed), the transmission was a skosh too cozy with the front of said crossmember already, but the…

PAM AND GARY “THE BATTLING BEINEKES” just can't leave well enough alone. When they're not flipping ‘71 Charger Daytona funny cars, the same way that Mickey Ds flips burgers (see Mopar Action February 2018), they're into altering sheetmetal, adding outrageous wings to hapless automobiles, or ordering pizzas. You can see some of their handiwork on their website, 71wingcars.com, but what you won't hear are the tortuous groans and cries of the cars they bend and twist to their own fiendish desires. We've often marveled at some of their creations, and the readers seem to love it and beg for more. So, here's more. The “Rebel,” as they call it, may not be as extreme as some of the Beinekes’ other efforts, but we've included some other rad features (a picture…