Table of contents for December 2020 in Mopar Action

IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T noticed, there’s been another merger involving Chrysler and yet another name change. This time it’s a 50-50 fusion of FCA and Peugeot S.A. (Groupe PSA). The newly-formed entity is called STELLANTIS, which wipes the longstanding Chrysler identity as well as Fiat off the table. According to FCA media, STELLANTIS is rooted in the Latin verb “stello” meaning “to brighten with stars,” if that’s any comfort to you. ’Course all you tattoo fans who ’too’d’ a big red X over their Pentastar and had “FCA” ’too’d in its place will need another big red X on their arm or wherever, and ink that “PSA” on any available bare skin that’s left. So what’s the deal? Does ol’ W.P’s name get swept into the dustbin of history? Maybe…

WHAT A DIFFERENCE a few months can make. The last time we had been on the Mecum Auctions trail, it was in sunny Florida in January, believing all the world was right. Then came news of the invisible enemy, a feared virus that could be highly contagious. That same world suddenly shifted seemingly overnight. In lockdown, the days became weeks and then months, and when I made my annual trip to Dana Mecum’s “Spring” Indy event, normally in mid-May, it was late July, with masks and social distancing now part of the auction action. Are things finally moving forward again? That is, of course, the biggest unknown right now. I’d like to believe so, but seismic changes are still echoing through the economy, as well as society itself. The truth…

WANNA DROP a big bad Hemi into an A-body and have the car look like a factory build? Easy peasy. NOT! Just ask Bernie Chicoine. He’s done a couple—the last one, a ’67 Barracuda notchback, swallowed a ’03 Ram 5.7 Hemi when that engine option first came out. That swap provided valuable experience for the ’72 Scamp project you see here. Unlike the Shivvy guys, Bernie doesn’t just swap drivetrains and call it a day. He wants the entire car to appear “factory,” and that includes the interior and all the modern amenities. Hey, it only adds 15 minutes to the job, so no big deal. If you believe that, we’d tell you to go get a Chevy magazine, except they all went out of business. So read on, friend.…

AMELIA SUMMERS had her 2018 Octane Red Blacktop Package Charger wrapped with Luxe Auto Concepts Galaxy graphics. This thing is one big nebula that wraps around the car and looks like a paint job. Luxe is able to match all the Chrysler colors with his designs, and the wrap matches the Octane Red perfectly. She also opted for brushed metal black to match the Blacktop exterior accents and dash. Luxe also offers a very realistic carbon fiber wrap. Since offering the Galaxy product, Luxe is working on a Universe design wrap, but you’ll need a double-semi for that.…

NOW FOR OUR HAPPY “CARLISLE OR BUST” TRAVEL SIDEBAR in the land of Pan…demic. Hawk Sorman always dreamt of driving across the country in a classic car. His dream car was a ’70 Road Runner with the Air Grabber hood, and Hawk’s father-in-law had one—a 383/4-speed, no less, and Hawk pestered him until he sold it to him. In 2015, Hawk put his dream into action by putting the beeper through a rotisserie restoration. His goal: look factory stock but stand up to the trip in reliability and comfort—sort of a hi-zoot version of E-booger’s Beeper3. Hawk opted for fuel injection, A/C, Bluetooth radio and ice maker (only kidding about the ice maker). He upgraded the stock suspension for better handling and he set off from Pennsylvania west on his…

WE LIVE IN THE BEST OF TIMES, you know. The phoenix of performance rose from the ashes of the past to bring back Hemi Mopars hotter than ever, with factory superchargers, cool options and a renewed sense of still being king of the hill. So whatever the big company’s name might be now, we all know the genetic lineage remains strong. Guys who drive these late-model cars find an able place to run them in the Modern Street Hemi Shootout series, which tours around the country with a group of weekend races focused on Gen 3 Hemi packages. We are going to give you more background on these events in the future, but you are probably wondering right now what this ’64 Dodge is doing here. We thought you’d never…

CLASS OF 2020 NORTH SALEM HIGH SCHOOL in NY made national headlines with their groundbreaking and unique approach to holding a “drive-in” graduation at an actual drive-in amid the ongoing global Covid-19 pandemic. Seeking ways to make this year special for its 2020 graduating class, the school caught the attention of National Public Radio (NPR) and major news network NBC. Senior Brianna Gallo, daughter of Mopar Action Advertising Director Dan Gallo, was among the high school graduates attending, cruising in appropriate drive-in style with Dan’s original 1966 Dodge Dart GT convertible (Charger 273 car, RR1 Yellow with Goodyear 6.95-14 Blue Streak tires). The Dart’s color scheme fit in perfectly with North Salem High School’s yellow and blue school colors and even earned special coverage on NBC’s “Today” Show segment on…

SEEMINGLY SIMPLE: A degree of rotation is a degree, no? Well, not always. See, if your distributor has 12° of mechanical advance, that’s 24° at the crankshaft, where the spark meets the piston meets the conrod meets the crankshaft. This is 4-stroke 101 lesson 1, since the cam runs at half the crank RPM. Look, however, in any Chrysler FSM, and all you’ll see spec’d are distributor degrees at distributor RPM. Stay focused, remember to double these numbers for at-the-damper realism.…

NOT TOO YOUNG TO SMOKE? Rick–Please help! I put in a replacement alternator in my 1966 Newport, everything was good then some smoke around the firewall near the regulator now no juice to the ignition or anywhere. What did I fry? No visible sign of burnt wire. Dugald Stermer Via email Dug–Best guess: Chinese alternator shorted out and blew the fusible link (usually located at the starter relay). The test: Hook a DMM (or test lamp) to the alt output stud (key off!). Reads zero? I’m right! If you wanna try it before you replace the alternator, remove (and tape up) the large lug from the alternator output stud. Rig up a 32cp bulb (tail-lamp—1034, 1157, 1156, 1073, etc.) and connect where the fuse link was. Be sure everything is…

WE LOVE FAMILY STORIES here at Mopar Action, especially those that include the family cat, dog or gerbil. Tony Fusco doesn’t own a gerbil, but we cut him some slack regardless so we could run his story in our mag. It all begins at 9 a.m. on a Sunday. Tony is hastening his family to get ready for a fun outing. They all pile into his 1970 ‘Cuda, and Tony hits the key. The destination is not the beach, or amusement park, or a hot dog stand. Today it’s the Lebanon Valley dragstrip in Leb Valley, NY where Tony’s gonna knock off a 10-second pass, then make a quick stop at the ice cream stand on the way home. Sure beats the hassle of beach traffic and parking and getting…

HOLD ONTO YOUR FILLINGS, GANG, here comes the quickest, fastest, baddest new factory mass-produced pickup of them all—the Ram 1500 TRX. With 702 mother-loving horsepower, this on/off road beast will make sure your pizza won’t get cold as you blast over hill and dale back to your nest and hungry chirping family. With PaMopar Hellcatting everything in sight about the only choice left was to drop the supercharged 6.2L Hemi into a Fiat 500 and make it a Corolla beater, or the Ram 1500 and make it a Raptor eater. We think they made the right decision. So what’s the deal on the TRX? Glad you asked or we’d have to end the article right here. Some high points: First off, the TRX is more than just an engine swap—a…

IT’S 1970 . You’re into cars, you read all the car magazines, and you lust for a new car—the ultimate muscle package—a Hemi anything with a 4-speed manual transmission. There’s only one problem: no money. No one is giving away cars and your lottery tickets all end up in the trash, What to do? Settle for a crapped-out Toyota? No way! The solution: To the rescue (cue up calvary bugle and galloping horses in the background) comes… Mom. Yep, it’s the ATM machine with a head, two arms and legs, and a wallet. We don’t know what Ralph Thorn promised his mother to convince her to drive on down to the Shreve’s—the local Chrysler-Plymouth dealer (wash the dishes for a week, mow the lawn every other month, walk the dog),…

CHRYSLER ONLY MADE 3 DY3 Cream paint Challenger T/As with the saddle-tone interior—2 automatics and one 4-speed. Norm VanderVeen owns the one-of-one 4-speed. The Dodge sold originally in California to a serviceman who shortly thereafter shipped out to Vietnam, leaving the car for his wife to drive. When he returned, they moved to Wisconsin where Norm lives. In March, ’76, the T/A was sold to the second owner who was newly married at the time. After 3 months, the new owner sold the car to Norm because he needed money to build a house (ah, well, marital priorities). The Challenger had a bad vibration at highway speeds so Norm pulled the engine and took it apart. What he found was a mindbender—since new, the engine apparently had a crankshaft missing…

BEEPER3 is, as the name implies, the third Mopar Action Road Runner project car. As with our original 1972 Beeper project car, this is a very mildly tweaked 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 is now connected to a sweet 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, USCT chassis stiffening kit, and a well-used 1969 440-6 mill, which was very mildly hopped up 25 years ago (or so said the seller, anyways!). 11.75" Disc-O-Tech cop brakes and original 15X7" rally wheels completed…

THE RODEO KING unfolds what you would want to call a Michelin road map. He smooths out the creases, pointing. “We’re here.” Then, pointing again: “Over here is the FEBA.” FEBA is Forward Edge of Battle Area. In other words, where we are going to find a target-rich environment. He traces out our route. “It’s a good area for it. There will be plenty of those liver flukes and their krautwagens out there. Let’s go fire up the Sopwith Camel and see if we can find the Red Baron.” The “Camel” is a bright red 2013 SRT8 6.4L Hemi Challenger, with black stripes, all immaculately waxed, paint appearing to be a quarter-inch deep. He pops the hood for a look. With what we are going to ask the motor to…

MOST OF WHAT COMES TO US in terms of car features is power-related. After all, these are Mopar Action cars. However, sometimes that term is not super-practical—having two blowers and a 500-HP nitrous outfit on your 700-CI street mill is not for everybody. When Bob Harder sent us a note on his 2013 Challenger R/T, our first glance showed none of the above. In fact, other than one so-called engine dress-up, Harder’s R/T Plus still retains its basic 5.7L architecture right from the factory. It was the rest of the car that caught our attention. That story begins on the Brampton, Ontario assembly line for the car, and the convertible world for Bob. Now, he is not some money guy with vintage Hemicudas, but he’s owned various Mope droptops for…

WHO DOESN’T LIKE side stepping a clutch, power shifting, and getting off an intense launch that could make NASA jealous? The problem is, when you’re obsessed with thoughts of red line debauchery, safety usually goes out the window. What? You don’t drive like that? Ever? No burnouts? Bumping the rev limiter? Cool, turn the page now to avoid any nightmares. The rest of us (a majority of people out there) enjoy hammering on their Mopar, street/strip/whatever and why not? You turn the wrenches, you make the payment, you deserve it! Depending on your level of “enthusiasm” you may want to invest in safety as well. Yeah! Safety! It’s cheap insurance like checking your pockets for a condom when they announce “last call” at the local bar… better to have it…

THOUGH COVID CONCERNS cancelled the annual Mopar Nationals this year, the one-weekend hoedown in the foothills of Rockingham, North Carolina was a great time for folks living a little further down in Dixie. Oh, Rock track owner Steve Earwood was being careful, telling people to personally distance and not greeting everyone with his usual handshake. Luckily, this track is out in the country and has enough physical land space that it could qualify for attendance far above 20,000 using the current CDC distancing standards. While not that many people were on hand for this event, the serious Mopar guys and gals of the southland showed up. Mopars at the Rock was also later than normal because of the pandemic fears but hosting it in the heat of July did not…

THE SUPERBIRD in many ways represents the true level of commitment by Chrysler to racing success. While many other racing package cars were assembled offsite by industry subcontractors like Creative and Hurst, the sheer volume of ‘Bird production (almost 2000 units based on new mid-1969 ACCUS competition rules) required them to be done in house. Moreover, pending headlamp operation changes on the federal level and NASCAR’s homologation standards meant all ‘Birds had to fly from the factory by January 1, 1970. In the end, the build process called for the use of two assembly line areas and a unique group of restrictions to ensure the cars would be completed on schedule. This feature will give a consolidated view of the background now understood to have made that possible. Plymouth’s huge…

“CHECKING ANY BAGS?” “No, all I need is in my pants.” I’m traveling light on American Airlines, trying to stay ahead of the Camaro-19 virus that’s been canceling Mopar shows left and right. MATS in Vegas—scratched. Mopar Nats in Columbus—scratched. Thankfully, the Chrysler Nats in Carlisle, PA dodged the bullet and I’m on my way. Now, if that old lady that I always seem to sit next to on the plane doesn’t elbow-wrestle me for the armrest, I should be OK. So far, I’m 4 out of 6 in the airplane armrest wars. This time, I’ve upped the ante with spiked elbow patches. Last year’s attendance at Carlisle was a record breaker. That won’t happen this year as the border with Canada is closed, and Carlisle always gets a good…

JASON AMSPACHER has owned his ’74 Challenger 360/4-speed for 9 years. The car had sat in a garage since ’88. A friend of his, a Chevy guy, found the car and wanted to buy it, so he asked Jay to check it out for him. The Dodge had been hit on the left front fender and the front end was off as the owner was going to fix it, but never got around to it. Jay’s friend bought the car, loaded it onto the trailer, and as they were pulling out of the driveway, Jay turned to him and said “we have to talk.” At the end of the conversation, Jay ended up owning the car and holstering his “Dirty Harry” .44 Magnum (only kidding, Jay). The Chevy guy? Actually,…

EVERYBODY here is really, truly into Mopars. Our managing editor has a new Ram Sport, a Pacifica and a LA-series 392" Dart project car. Our Editor also has a new Ram, a 2000 Jeep Cherokee and a PT cruiser. Even our ad guy has a ’65 Dart 273-4, and a ’72 Duster 340, both primo restos that are driven regularly. Yours truly has 10+. Further, Mopar Action has a long history of project cars. The first was the Beeper, a mildly-hotted ’72 RR, 451 CID (original 400-4 car), with factory air. It was (and is) quite close to a restoration, with only the stroker mill, larger brake rotors, 8" wide wheels, and an upgrade to factory XHD suspension setting it apart. Then we had the Green Brick, which started out…

LITERARY GIANTS ROCK AUTO’S LITERATURE THE “LITERATURE” SECTIONS for many vehicles in the RockAuto.com online catalog have grown thanks to Detroit Iron! Detroit Iron makes factory authorized reproduction Repair Manuals and Parts Guides, both high-quality paper and CD versions, for vintage Chrysler and even for both brand C and F, for both cars and trucks. Detroit Iron recently updated their CDs with a fun new bookshelf-style interface that allows for easier searching and document printing for specific repairs, and CDs now also include additional literature, like sales data, parts catalogs, and year specific nostalgia, There are manuals for more than just the extreme classics. RockAuto.com has factory reproduction manuals for both your ’68 Charger and your ’78 Omni! Contact them at rockauto.com for a complete listing. GEAR UP SUMMIT RACING…