Table of contents for February 2024 in Mopar Action

Climate Control Solution GREEN THIS, GREEN THAT. Who wouldn’t want to live in a world with air as pure as it seems in a Disney Bambi cartoon. But alas, we have to deal with reality. So many sources of pollution and global warming. Yet all the climate control regs and restrictions on life on this planet are as ineffective as a drop in the ocean when dealing with natural disasters such as major volcano eruptions and asteroid hits. Then what about all the explosions in the wars currently playing out that provide good YouTube clickbait? We need regs for ordinance that kills combatants but does not foul the air while doing so. You don’t think the pollutants from all the guns, military and civilian, being fired don’t add up? So…

IF THE CHRYSLER NATS AT CARLISLE gets any bigger, they’re gonna have to bust out the fences and relocate the Pennsylvania Turnpike. In a word, the event was simply smashing—not for the sheetmetal but the turnout, which set yet another record—the third in a row. The Carlisle folks tallied 3,156 Mopars (you know, the cars that are the stars) pouring through Gate 3 headed for the showfield. Not included were the paying spectators nor those low-lifers who concealed themselves inside soda coolers to beat the price of admission and risk hypothermia while buried beneath ice cubes. With the weather gods smiling all weekend, temps were a bit high but still in the green zone. As usual, Carlisle is a non-stop event. If you happen to stop to catch your breath,…

EXCLUSIVE COLLECTIBLE DEPT THE COLOR OF MONEY THERE WAS SOMETHING about those old-school Hurst cars that made them stand out from the crowd. When they were not in primer with Race Hemi power, George Hurst's people were marketing geniuses who understood the value of black/gold, which made the Hurst vehicles instantly recognizable. One glance and you know what they were from a block away. Know even then as the "gentleman's hot rods". Hurst packages packed a serious punch and looked great doing it. For the past nine years, the Mr. Norm’s team has honored the legacy by designing and building a string of contemporary Hurst Heritage by GSS Limited Edition vehicles that feature the same visual impact as their famous forebearers. As an example, in 2018 Mr. Norm’s debuted the 50th…

"YEAH, I'VE JUST ALWAYS HAD 'EM. Back when they were cheap, we always had yard full of them. Love the E-bodies. The bad part is I love the B-bodies, the A-bodies, too. It's a sickness!" Yo, this is our kinda guy! Seriously, Wes Haga of Lenoir, North Carolina was relaying some of his background to us as a Mopar owner and racer going way back. As he noted, there's been many cars, street and race, and he honestly thinks he has done some 12-15 builds during his four-plus decades of wrenching. Everything from 340s to 440s, 4-speeds, automatics, you name it. The car here, however, is his first foray into the 3G HEMI world. No, this Challenger was not a 426 Hemi R-code to begin with, It began life as…

RAREST MODERN MOPE? EVERYONE HAS HEARD OF THE HELLCAT, the Redeye, the Trackhawk, and even the SRT8, but have you ever heard of the Dodge Magnum “Red Badge?” Only 320 people in 2007 and 116 people in 2008 chose the 29r Road and Track “Red Badge” package, making it arguably the rarest modern Mopar of all. The 29r Road and Track package includes all of the same performance options as the SRT8, with the exception of the Brembo brakes and the larger 6.1 Hemi, although the 5.7 Hemi still packs quite a punch with the SRT performance upgrades. Referred to as the “fat man’s Corvette”, it combines outstanding performance and handling, and the comfort of a luxury car, with room for the entire family. Scott Vreeland, from Washington, Georgia owns…

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED on the way to this column. As me (yes, Managing Editor, wise guy), I had just read boss Cliff’s piece on the climate masters. That was the last thing funny about this, however. These are not businessas-usual times for our nation or our hobby. Forces like CARB are very smart albeit diabolical true believers in their cause. Like the totalitarian leaders they often seem to want to emulate, the ends justify the means. Caught in their crossfire? “Oh, well, sucks to be you, but we have a planet to save.” Not as often mentioned is 90%-plus global depopulation is also part of thier same philosophy, but I won’t pull the pin to throw that one, at least not here and now. Take the “save the earth”…

FLIPPED OUT Richard– I had my mechanic rebuild the steering coupler on my 1971 Demon. Now the steering wheel is upside down! He says he put everything back correctly. I said it was fine before, but he is standing firm. The car is drivable, except the turns signals now don’t switch off automatically after a turn. We agreed that we’d defer to your expertise. Pat Nelson Houston, TX Pat- The error is clear: He installed the pot coupler body inverted. If you are not familiar with Mopars, this is easy to screw up. The coupler body will have a coupler housing. scribe line, notch, or paint stripe which must be aligned with 12 O’clock “high” on the s/wheel. If you can’t find this, the “always there” high noon indication is the…

BY THE NUMBERS WELL DOCUMENTED: There were 4 A/FX cars built in-house, and 7 additional fullyaltered entries, all sponsored by Chrysler in early 1965, plus a Plymouth test mule that was eventually scraped by Chrysler Engineering. Acid-dipped, all four A/FX cars became full AWB team race cars and included in the well-advertised number of a total of 11 cars, with 6 Dodges and 5 Plymouths. Arguably, the 4 A/FX-competing teams were the most highly visible Chrysler-backed teams at the time, though Ronnie Sox and Dick Landy would move the popularity needle hard later that year… THE MID-'60S was a time like no other. The car factories and private builders were fielding crowd-standing A/FX (Factory Experimantal”) and altered wheelbase (AWB) drag cars that pushed driveline and suspension technology up to and…

WE GET LETTERS. Lots of letters; This reader asked a question we’ve seen repeatedly: I have owned a ’70 Coronet since 1997. It is just a 318 automatic 4-door, but I love driving it. The one annoyance has always been that the remote mirror on my door can never be adjusted low enough to be useful. Can this be fixed? Thomas Wright Riverside, CA Tom– Maybe! To give this a try, you’ll need to remove the adjusting mechanism from the door and see if there’s enough cable length to allow you to work on the adjuster, if not, remove the mirror with the cables attached, this is not a difficult job. First, how it works, from factory data: “The remote control outside mirror is controlled by stainless steel wires attached…

THE NAME WILKESBORO, North Carolina, has a long association with motor racing, as it was once the site of NASCAR professional duels in the ½-mile track off of Rt 421. That is east of town. West of town tucked into the piedmont ridges is an ⅛- mile of pavement that was first raced on in 1955. So still old-school in many aspects, Wilkesboro Dragway was the destination on September 2nd for those who wanted to relive the past. The 8th Annual Don Carlton Nostalgia Pro Stock Shootout hosted by the Southeast Nostalgia Pro Stock took to the track on Saturday, September 2nd. Organized by Jeff Rudisill and Gena Ellis-Rudisill, this year the display again included the 1972 Motown Missile in honor of Carlton, who died in a crash during a…

WANT TO BE COOL? Contact Dan Gallo, Advertising Director (845) 505-7479. dgallo@moparaction.com THE BIG BLOCK BIG PORT SEE PG. 17 TRICK FLOW R-SERIES INTAKE MANIFOLD FOR BIG BLOCK MOPAR DESIGNED FOR LARGE CUBIC INCH ENGINES making peak power in the 3,500– 7,500 plus RPM range, Trick Flow’s R-Series Intake Manifold for Mopar 440-based engines features a CAD-optimized design with a large open plenum and one-piece single plane runners. Integral bosses in each runner can be drilled and tapped for nitrous oxide nozzles, and there is plenty of material around the port openings for port-matching or full porting. Trick Flow PowerPort® 270 Cylinder Heads or cylinder heads with 270cc or larger intake runners are recommended. Check out all the products at Trick Flow Specialties, www.TrickFlow.com. 1-330-630-1555. STRETCHED TO THE LIMIT SEE…

CAR GUYS IN GENERAL are like the Hatfields and the McCoys sometimes. They tend to stick with their own “kin folk” and crap on everything else. I am not talking about being brand specific…because that is a whole ’nother war that isn’t going anywhere, either. Anyhow, if there ever was a place on the planet with more “cliques” in it than high school had, it’s definitely the Mopar world. High School… jocks, greasers, stoners, geeks, and so on… I’ve been outta high school a lil’ while so don’t ask me what the list is made up of now. Even back then, when it came to cars, everyone, well… almost everyone, managed to get along without killing each other. Today, cliques can involve anything and everything from wheels to paint, to…

THE IDEA OF BUILDING A CAR for the sake of winning events may be focus for some people, but we must admit. that's not way we roll. We like the idea that it is more organic, that quality is simply a given and, if your peers give it recognition, even better. Hey, with this Dart, we gave it reconition, as we took pictures of it twice, forgetting the first time we did so a couple of year back. A regular at the Carlisle's yearly Chrysler show Rick Arrbrose of Ligoier, PA was patient enough to humor our cameras again. While we gave our normal Jake Blues "there was a flood, tornados, locusts, etc." excuses. "There was a deadline, a phone call, a print malfunction…" He tells us, "I've gone to…

WHETHER YOU’RE GOING FOR A PLATINUM-LEVEL RESTORATION or just want the personal satisfaction of a meticulously-correct Hemi, it’s the correct-to-year details that make the difference between a correctly restored and a “nice-appearing” engine. To get the scoop on this, we went to the expert-Frank Badalson who has 55 years examining in detail unmolested original and survivor Hemis, many of which (99% original) he has personally owned. Hemi restoration is not a “one size fits all,” as changes from year to year make them unique. Frank’s previous Hemi resto looked at the ’71 Hemi which you can find at https://tinyurl.com/ycxa5ydj. Here, we’ll be putting Frank’s own original’68 Hemi from his ’68 Super Bee under the microscope. Why 1968? Think about it. The first year for Road Runner and Super Bee, the…

In this, the finale of our Design trilogy, Dennis Kline opens up, in his own words, about birthing the Chrysler LeBaron. “ONE OF THE MORE INTERESTING AND EXCITING programs that I worked on at Chrysler was codenamed the F22. When the F-Body platform coupes (Plymouth Volare and Dodge Aspen) were designed, the company held back on developing a Chrysler variant for an additional 18 months. One of the key reasons was there simply was not enough tooling money. By staggering the development programs, more budgetary funding would be available that would allow us to push the styling envelope for a Chrysler F-body version that could be considered a bold styling vision. In addition, the F22 would be a platform for future materials innovations like single piece flexible urethane integrated bumper/…

WHEN WE LAST FELL ASLEEP at the keyboard, we had trial-fitted the 392 crate engine, mated to a smallblock clutch housing and a 10-year-old (but NOS) Tremec TKO 5-speed, to our A-body front clip (a trial-fit mule). We had decided to pass on the complete Holley swap kit for several reasons: First, it moves the entire powertrain forward 1¾ʺ inches, not great for handling. Second, this relocation made the A-body-mod’d Tremec an impossible fit (note that with an A727, A833, or Passon’s A855 5-speed, this would be no problem). Third, the kit includes an alternator and A/C compressor, neither of which would be part of this swap. Fourth, it is very expensive. This turned out to be a smart move, as the former Holley headers, which the kit was designed…

IT HAPPENED DURING A BREAK at our last editorial meeting. We were trying to see if it was possible to outdo ourselves in further plumbing the depths of automotive journalism. We had 10 minutes for our coffee break, and Al Dente brought up the subject of the current state of affairs in the auto industry. Sure it seemed like a big problem, but every problem has a solution (so they say). And where to go for the answer to the biggest quandaries in the galaxy? That’s right—Niklaus & Wilhelm (Nik and Bil) Bruntczynowski a/k/a TheBruntBros—our non-English speaking resident, nonresident token illegal… “undocumented” aliens. No, we meant “immigrants.” Anyhow, we outlined the problem to them through our translator while they were busily working on a Polish jigsaw puzzle (one piece). True…