Innehållsförteckning för August 2020 från Mopar Action

THEY DON’T DO IT ANYMORE . Rental car companies don’t rent classic performance cars to anyone with a driver’s license and a credit card anymore. Maybe they learned a lesson from me and Joe Oldham. See, back in the late ’80s National had a program they called California Classics—special rentals that were almost all ragtop performance models and only available from National’s LA Airport location. We had reserved a 1962 Chrysler 300H convertible, one of only 123 produced, and formerly owned by Karen Carpenter, the late singer. We had 3 days to put the Chrysler through its paces for a magazine article. The tab for Nat’s time-warp tin was $49.95/day plus 30 cents/mile—all on the expense account. The Chrysler, a rare original piece, was quite correct with the notable exception…

SPARKER Hi Rick-In an answer to a Mopar Action question, Dec, 2011 page 92 you said, “as long as your spark requirements have not exceeded the limits of the stock system, E.G. blower, 13:1 compression ratio, etc., there is nothing to be gained by an ignition upgrade. Nothing.” I have a 1970 Plymouth Fury III convertible, that I am swapping from 318 to 440. I was considering a DUI system, but doing my research trying to save money, I found your comment in one of my magazines. My question is: when the ignition system is in run mode, why would the 9V Chrysler ballast-resistor system produce as much voltage as a 12V HEI system? Put another way, why is the 9V system enough? I need to buy an ignition kit…

THE MOPAR 10 was a 2010 special edition Challenger that came loaded with a boatload of Mopar accessories including Katzin leather upholstery, performance hood with hood pins, 20x8 alloy wheels, front and rear spoilers, strut tower brace, fuel filler door, appearance package, T-grip shifter and car cover. Too bad Mother Mope couldn’t come up with any more goodies. Anyway, Dave Prince from Merrimack, New Hampshire was interested in buying a new Challenger in 2010 but they were hard to get. By February ’11, dealers were marking down the ’10 models, and Dave saw this car on the lot along with a fuscia-color 392-CI Challenger. Dave knew what the Mopar 10 edition was all about having done his research, and a test drive sold him on the car. Stickered for almost…

NOBODY MESSES WITH BILL GOLDBERG , world wrestling champ… not unless they wanna wind up twisted like a pretzel and get rushed to a body shop’s frame rack to get straightened out. So, what kinda car do you think big bad Bill keeps in his stable—a Kia Soul? You bet. He uses it for bench-press warmups. Fifty or so of those, and the li’l Kia gets tossed in the corner with the other gym equipment. Bill then strides outside and folds himself into a man’s car—a 2016 Challenger Hellcat 6-speed stick. Now, would you expect a guy like Bill to punch the Start button of just an ordinary Hellcat—of course not! That would be more in fitting with lesser celebs liike Pee Wee Herman. So first off, Bill asked Speedkore…

WOW , so how do we want to start this story? Do you talk about the car, or the owner, or how he found it, or how he scored it? Nah, that’s not important. I’d have to say this story’s beginning was the cute Dodge spokeswoman at that time, Joan Parker. Slim with a Hollywood smile, Joan was the Material Girl, errr…make that Dodge Material girl, of the 1968-1969 ad campaigns, appearing in print and television advertising. We can’t tell you how many Chargers she may have helped sell, but young men appreciated the fact that if she liked the car, she might like them, too. OK, ok, so maybe that is a little sexist. But let’s be honest, if the spokesperson had instead been regional curling champ Mr. Nord…

WE’D LOVE TO SAY that Todd Stanton spent the better part of his prime years hand-building this 2010 Charger pickup. Then we could get into all the details of how he cut, bled, drilled, spliced, welded, stretched, and went through thousands of dollars while spending untold hours toiling away and even going to bed without supper at times to create this unique custom… But we can’t. That’s because Todd bought the pickup conversion as a complete kit that cost $29.99 on sale at Pep Boys Auto Parts. It snaps together in about 20 minutes and you’re good to go in an hour and a half. Er… let me check my notes again. OK, let’s back up a few years. Zooming in through Todd’s living room window, we see him streaming…

THE RENOWN RITES OF SPRING don’t show up for most people until March or so. That when the bluebirds chirp and little daffodils bloom, and you can lay down in your van down by the river and think about… “Yo, Zoo, sober up and write about the cars—Boss!” So, if you need to get your fill of Mopar action earlier than that, like during the first two weeks of January, you head south to someplace like Kissimmee, Florida, where Mecum Auctions starts off the new year’s auction action with a lot of hot iron. We were there, and so were thousands of others who came to take in the spectacle of the world’s largest collector car auction. Indeed, Friday was literally sold out this year, As you probably heard, that’s…

“...AND YOU THINK I CAN REMEMBER all the way back then? I can’t even remember what I had for breakfast!” At least that’s what the Boss said when I mentioned that Joe Oldham’s story on his March 1969 road test of the ’69 M-code was available up on www.forabodiesonly.com. Truth be told, this thing flew with Gromer on the loud pedal after some tuning hi-jinx courtesy Al Kirschenbaum, Rockville Centre Dodge and some speed equipment from Motion Performance. To fit the massive RB 440 Super Commando into the Barracuda’s A-body engine bay dimensions required some compromises. Power steering? Nope. Power brakes? Nope. Whadda mean, you want A/C! A 440 A-body requires respect. There are no second chances if you get this thing into trouble at speed. At the time, Gromer…

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“YO, ZOO. When are you gonna get your phone fixed?” It was the Boss. Cliff had tried to call me, only to again get the ominous message, “the person you are trying to reach has a voicemail box that has not been set up yet. Thank you. GOOD BYE.” Click. Well, that sort of thing comes with a new phone, right? I had just been talked into this purchase by the young hipsters at the Verizon office when I went in to pay my bill. Still, I probably should have waited, as other tech problems were on my headache list as the year started. You see, right after the phone swap, my “good computer” went in for repair as well. Because I have an all-inclusive warranty package, a new Geek…

PLYMOUTH DIDN’T SEE the handwriting on the wall in 1970. Or they chose it ignore it. A full-size musclecar in the form of Plymouth’s C-body Sport Fury was not what Mo’fans were licking their chops for—not with 440 and Hemi B- and E-body fixes available to satisfy their penchant for performance. Perhaps Plymouth should have learned a lesson from Chevy’s ill-fated attempts of going down the full-size muscle primrose path with their ’67–’69 fiasco 427 Impala and Caprice. Pontiac and Ford likewise got burned with their attempts at full-size muscle, and all had pulled the big muscle plug by 1970 when Plymouth either thought they could buck the market or simply ignored industry sales numbers. To Plymouth’s credit, they did it right—offering the ’70 GT with a 440 Six-Pack option,…

JOHN D e LAP’s restored 1956 Plymouth Fury Limited Edition was a standout and our Editor’s Pick at Lebanon Valley. John had been looking for a ’56 Fury for a couple of years as he had owned one when he was dating his future wife, and found this one in Hemmings back in 1990. The seller said “the first one here with a deposit gets the car,” so John jumped on the Amtrak from Albany, NY to Delaware and met the seller at the train station. He even packed his coveralls so he could crawl under the car to look it over. He liked what he saw, so John came back with his son and a U-Haul trailer to bring take his prize back to Albany. The Fury was complete…

YOUNG GUN KENNY MATLOCK has been lucky enough to call South Florida his lifelong home, and even luckier to have been raised with a heavy right foot and a bionic eye for building cool hot rods and muscle machines. From the start, Plymouths would be this young-gun’s brand of choice, supplying him with hot muscle that would go on to fulfill his street-driven dreams for years to come. Showing him the way into the Mopar world was his dad Dickey. You see, Pop owned a sweet 383-CI Road Runner, a ride he bought right off the showroom floor back in 1968. Without a doubt, this Mope was the first car that made an impact on the youngster. “I remember every day at kindergarten when he dropped me off, I would…

“I WOULD SAY the statement that Bill Goldberg is a car guy is an absolute understatement. I was into cars ever since I could remember. When I got into high school and saw all the cool sixties and seventies musclecars that my friends and older brothers were driving, I thought to myself ‘one day, I’ll be able to get that Shelby GT 500.’ That was the only thing that gave me a smile when I went to my orthodontist’s office. I could look out the window and see a Highland Green Metallic Shelby 500 GT. “But it was Mopars that really stuck in my mind in the beginning. My first car was a ’68 GTX convertible 440/4-speed that I still own today. My second one was a ’70 440-6, a…

DAY 7—FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12–CARSON CITY, NV to CASTRO VALLEY, CA–294 MILES WHEN WE LEFT YOU two issues back, we had just hustled across most of the continent. Now we had made it to Carson City, the capitol of Nevada. This place retains its old-west charm, despite being only a few dozen miles from Lake Tahoe, the ritz-resort capitol of the area. Bucks up! It was amazing to see the differences in the political systems from Nevada, where the officiial billboards proclaim proudly: “Don’t fence me in,” to tightly controlled, cop-packed California. In Nevada, the coin-op car wash was a simple concrete shed, attached to a downscale convenience store; in Cameron Park, California, a similar place was twice the price, with fancy useless extras on offer. Welcome to California! Still, Brian…

IT COULD BE ARGUED that MaMopar was a bit late to the vinyl tape stripe party, sticking with enamel pinstripes longer than most. When, however, she arrived, she did so in style—dressed to the nines. By 1970, Dodge and Plymouth musclecars could be had with an almost dizzying array of vinyl, with combinations that went all the way from the ridiculous to the insane, and the ’71 Charger and ’Cuda were, arguably, the zenith. One example that I remember well: In 1968, I talked a coworker friend of mine into cancelling his just-placed new Camaro order, then he and I spec’d out a ’68 Dart GTS (340). Bright red—with red bumblebee stripes. It was one of those things you hadda be very observant (or a real Mopar guy) to appreciate.…

WE SHOWED UP on Wednesday morning to find John Hammer at the Dodge display giving driving lessons. A new program by the company allows select customers a chance to actually autocross in Hellcats and Red Eyes, using the normal ride-along drift course set up specifically as a short autocross during the opening morning of the Thrill Ride exhibit. The response was incredible, with invited spaces filling up for Mecum Kissimmee’s open spots in less than a half-day of being announced. If you are a current owner or have filled out a form at a past event, you might be getting an invite to the program.…

KELVIN MYTROEN from Assiniboia, Saskatchewan, Canada owns a 1970 Road Runner in Limelight green and a 2007 Dodge Charger in Sublime green. When his daughter was married a while back, both cars were part of the wedding party. Kel’s ‘Runner is his third musclecar which he bought after selling his Panther Pink 1970 Challenger R/T SE, said to be the only one known to exist. (and boy does he regret selling that one). Prior to that, he owned a ’69 Charger. The Road Runner is not numbers-matching but is well-restored (90% complete when purchased). The car came with a 383/727, power steering, bucket seats, vinyl roof, Go-Wing, AM 8-track, and rallye wheels, and of course that bright green paint. Ma Mopar built 1650 2007 Charger Daytonas in Sublime (150 for…

“FOR PAINT? Directions, schmections- ahhh, who needs ’em? If I have any questions, I’ll go to Google or my favorite expert on YouTube.” Good luck with that, Bob Ross. I see this now more than ever; nobody wants to read past the first 3 sentences and when it goes to hell (which it will), they get online and start bashing the manufacturer. Bottom line—before you pry the lid off, read the directions! I see guys spending good money on paint and primer, deciding they are gonna try it themselves. Hey? Good for you! Now with money outta pocket, ya may wanna read the directions in full, more than once! And talk to a few experienced people in the trade. How about this one? You got some leftover old reducer and…

What’s a good engine paint? THUMB’S UP? Richard–My son and I just got a 1970 318 Barracuda in restorable condition. It will take us years to get it done, but it does run and drive and we are loving it. My question: The radio has two ordinary knobs on the left side. I though these cars all had thumbwheels, no? Can you explain this? Jason Brown Louisville, KY Jay–The base radio, a killer 2-watt RMS “Music Master” had the knobs you describe. The dial will be inscribed “Chrysler Solid State,” and the data plate on the left fender apron will show code R11. ’CUDA CALIPER Rick–Do you have one of your factory blueprints for the hockey stick stripes on my ’70 ’Cuda? It would be very helpful if you did!…

THE 2ND ANNUAL MOPARS AT THE VALLEY event sponsored by Mopar Action magazine at Lebanon Valley Dragway was in stark contrast to the previous year’s inaugural event. Weather was the major factor that made all the difference. It was snowflakes to sunshine, bone-chilling cold to Florida warmth (well, almost) which meant more Mopes—a lot more—came flooding onto the showfield and the staging lanes. Even E-booger, who made a 5-minute cameo appearance in 2018, came early and stayed late this year. The boog was accompanied by Beeper 3 compadre Brian Dowell and his lovely wife Faye. The booger even managed to show up with 3 (count ’em) of his cars—the former project 1972 Bold Beeper, his amazing ’62 Savoy and his spectacular Aussie-built 1972 Chrysler Valiant Charger R/T that came in Second…

AL GAVASCI, from LaGrange, NY remembers the Challengers from the ’70s. So, when Dodge came out with their late-model version in ’09, he was impressed with their incorporating styling cues from the classic era. When he told his wife how much he liked the new cars, she insisted that he get one—almost taking him by the hand and dragging him down to the local Dodge dealer. Al had made up his mind that he wanted a Shaker model ’cuz he’s a Shaker kind of guy. Knowing that he was going to modify the car (he’s also a mod kind of guy), Al ordered as basic a 2016 Dodge Challenger Shaker R/T as he could, and then contacted High Horse Performance in Delaware. They upgraded the entire drivetrain—engine to rear. Mods…

This abridged excerpt is taken from Geoff Stunkard’s upcoming book published by CarTech “Chrysler’s Motown Missile: Mopar’s Secret Engineering Program in the Dawn of Pro Stock,” which will be available from booksellers within the next 30 days. While earlier chapters recount Chrysler’s racing program through 1971, this selection will focus on testing the 1972 ’Cuda and winning at NHRA’s race in Gainesville. An unabridged text selection covering this period in more detail is at moparaction.com. FOLLOWING BILL JENKINS’ DOMINANCE at Pomona, the Motown team immediately moved to regroup. Testing was serious, with one development being the Crane R290 roller cam, so named for the 290° of duration. Harvey Crane had designed this for Chrysler on a computer, measuring several features from the factory’s proven P9512725 flat-tappet design and then adopting…

IN OUR CHASSIS DYNO TEST of our 408" stroker LA in the last issue, we promised a follow-up on dyno testing. Hence, this prosaic work. As a preface, you must understand that a dynamometer—any dynamometer—only measures torque. You also need to well understand that term (torque) itself. “Torque” is simply a twisting motion. From turning a doorknob to a propeller on the Queen Mary, the concept is identical. Picturing that doorknob, imagine that the knob is locked. Twist as hard as you can, but it won’t budge. You’re locked out, and no “work” has been performed. Therefore, while torque has been applied, no power has been generated. If unlocked, however, and you turn that knob and open the latch, you have “powered” your way in. Another example I have used…

BEEPER3 is, as the name implies, the third Mopar Action Road Runner project car. As with the original 1972 Beeper (circa 1990), this is a very mildly modified resto-mod, with only a few upgrades as a tip of the hat to modern drivability, handling, and braking levels. Starting with a true V-code (440-6), Pistol Grip (which will now be connected to a SST 5-speed), Super Track Pack (4.10:1 Dana axle), Air Grabber, B5 blue 1970 RR, we’ve taken this bird from gutted rusty shell to better than new—literally. The powertrain is the original Dana 60, a new killer Silver Sport OD 5-speed, and a well-used 1969 440-6 mill, which was very mildly hopped up 25 years ago (or so said the seller, anyways!) 12" Disc-O-Tech cop brakes, and original 15X7"…

THE SCENE OPENS with a video walkaround of a red 1964 Dart. Mark Kaufman is passing the time watching YouTube vids of cars on cars.com. He’s not really looking to buy, mind you, just sorta window shopping to see what’s out there. The camera rolls for over 9 minutes, starting with the owner backing the car out of his very large detached garage. Out in the sunlight, the car is videoed from every angle—exterior, interior, engine, trunk. Narration is very sparse. It seems to Mark that the owner had a buyer coming over in a day or so to pick up the Dart, and he wanted the video to remember it by. The guy shooting the video asks, “it’s pretty quick?” The owner replies, “yeah, I’ve got 460 horsepower and…

“YEAH, she worked in some way for General Motors, but she was a street racer and wanted something fast. That was why she bought it.” Bill Watkins was relaying the story about his 1969 Barracuda, or, since you’ve already looked at the photos, ’Cuda. This was the first year the factory actually referenced the street slang name for their popular Plymouth A-body as part of its on-vehicle marketing (the name was decaled on), and the first year and only year the A-body fish was offered with a 440 Super Commando mill as OEM equipment. Bill and his wife Barb have owned the ‘Cuda since 1989, but Bill’s attraction to the design goes back to 1971, when he bought his very first car, a 318-CI 1969 Barracuda. “My dad was a…

“POLY LANOUE” (as he calls him or herself) shows all your readers his or hers current toy—a 1967 Barracuda convert. Powered by an LA-series smallblock, this sharp A-body rolls around Great Barrington, MA on small bolt pattern rallyes wearing new redlines. Poly says he (or she) has 40 large invested in this ride as it has a newly-rebuilt front end from firewall to bumper, plus new top, brakes and lines, gas tank and more. The owner says the fish rides (swims?) and handles extremely well.…