2007 Mopar Hemi Challange Results.

[Lee Stewart]

Mopar Hemi Challenge title goes to Houser




Twenty-three years after his last class win at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, Rick Houser struck again, driving Jim DeFrank's California Car Covers '68 Barracuda to a thrilling 8.65 to 8.70 win over Jim Pancake in the final of the NHRA Mopar Hemi Challenge. When Houser won his last Indy title in 1984, there was little fanfare, but this time, he received a hero's welcome as he drove back up the O'Reilly Raceway Park return road and accepted a $10,000 check from Mopar Performance

http://www.nhra.com/content/news/23722.htm

Nice to see one of each in the final round. Usually it's two Barracudas.

The fastest muscle car ever offered to the public . . . sort of - you had to know someone to get one but they were sold out of a dealership where the public bought cars, so I believe that qualifies.

[rbinck]

Yep, you could get a lot of discussion on that point though. There have been many counterfiet Hemi-Cudas too, but the first really bad Hemi-Cudas were introduced in 1968 just for drag racing and were not street legal. They were joined by about 50 Dodge Darts with the 427 Hemi were a reaction to the Ford Thunderbolt drag car that was street legal and would run in the 11's off the showroom floor with only tire change. At the time the Hemi's were running in the 12's off the showroom floor with tire changes.

Now that's not to say the Hemi cars didn't have more potential than some of the other muscle cars at the time, because they did. Obvious by the fact that the challenge was in the 8's! I don't think a Thunderbolt has ever seen 8's unless modified beyond what would be legal for class. But I'm really talking about tests done at the time when they were new and virtually unmodified.

[Lee Stewart]

The 100 SS/A Hemi Powered Chrysler cars were built to do just one thing - to win SS for Chrysler (and they did). They came with the full race hemi (13.5 CR) with the cross ram intake manifold - no glass side windows or hardware - fiberglass bucket seats, slicks and NO warranty whatsoever.

The Ford T-Bolt was also built for the same duty in 1964 - to win SS - and they did. It was just the issue that 4 years later the hemi became THE drag racing engine and the 427 Ford had disappeared. It did continue duty in NASCAR as did the hemi in the fastest NASCAR car ever to race - the Superbirds and Dodge Daytona - 250 MPH in the straightways of the super speedways. The Boss 429 hemi also did very well in Nascar but did nothing in Drag Racing with the exception of the famous Boss 429 SS exibition car run by the lawyer with the car being called "The Lawman" This car is now the only existing one of it's kind and owned by wresler Goldberg - a noted musclecar collector.

OBTW - a real 68 Hemi Dart sold for $550,000 at the last Barrett-jackson auction in Jan.2007!

[rbinck]

Ford disappeared from drag racing because after the 1964 season NHRA upped the SS quantity to 500 units. Ford was taking a loss of $1,500 to $2,000 per car, so they dropped out of drag racing because they didn't want to build 500 Thunderbolts.

The Thunderbolt was a pretty unique car in that it was street legal, something most of the cars built for drag racing could not claim.

Here is Ford's webpage for the Thunderbolt:
Fans Celebrate 40 Years of Thunderbolt

[Lee Stewart]

Originally Posted by rbinck

Ford disappeared from drag racing because after the 1964 season NHRA upped the SS quantity to 500 units. Ford was taking a loss of $1,500 to $2,000 per car, so they dropped out of drag racing because they didn't want to build 500 Thunderbolts.

The Thunderbolt was a pretty unique car in that it was street legal, something most of the cars built for drag racing could not claim.

Here is Ford's webpage for the Thunderbolt:
Fans Celebrate 40 Years of Thunderbolt

The T-Bolt is definitely one of THE best Drag cars ever built. I am lucky enought to have seen one at a car show. Have pictures with me in the car with a helmet on! Owner was a real nice guy. This was 15 years ago and he told me that he had turned down $150,000 for the car. Today it is worth at least the $550K that was paid for the Hemi Dart.

1964 - the year of the first GTO and the official start of the musclecar wars. . . . 7 years later - gone but never forgotten. Damn insurance companies!

[rbinck]

Well not just the insurance companies the NHRA had a bit to do with it. They up the quantity for SS to 500 and run Ford out of the game and later in 1967 or 1968 reduce it back to 50 under pressure from GM and Chrysler threatening to pull out too. Then Chrysler wins the '68, '69 and '70 SS world championships with a guy (I can't recall his name) that was campaigning a '64 Comet in the '64 season as I recall. He switched to Mopar because of the Ford pullout. This is as I remember so the exact years of the championships may me off a year. No doubt Chrysler was intending on putting their stamp on both drag racing and NASCAR back in those days.

It was nice to see the Gartlett interview on ESPN2. He was a big Hemi proponent. I think he was the first to break 7 sec., although they really didn't say that in the piece. Hasn't had a beard since!

[Lee Stewart]

Originally Posted by rbinck

Well not just the insurance companies the NHRA had a bit to do with it. They up the quantity for SS to 500 and run Ford out of the game and later in 1967 or 1968 reduce it back to 50 under pressure from GM and Chrysler threatening to pull out too. Then Chrysler wins the '68, '69 and '70 SS world championships with a guy (I can't recall his name) that was campaigning a '64 Comet in the '64 season as I recall. He switched to Mopar because of the Ford pullout. This is as I remember so the exact years of the championships may me off a year. No doubt Chrysler was intending on putting their stamp on both drag racing and NASCAR back in those days.

It was nice to see the Gartlett interview on ESPN2. He was a big Hemi proponent. I think he was the first to break 7 sec., although they really didn't say that in the piece. Hasn't had a beard since!

The late 1960's were truly the golden ear of drag racing. I got a real charge from watching that 5 minute piece on Garlits 1967 win at Indy (6.77 220 MPH) - especially that they push started the cars in those days.

I loved the wheelstanders that were born in 60's and have see almost all of them over my years of going to the tracks since 1969.

It was a time that anyone could make a name for themselves and the budgets were this side of reasonable.

1964? Dyno Don Nickelson? (looked just like Roy Orbison - "coke bottle" glasses. He did run one of the T-Bolts in 64.)

Didn't the team of Sox and Martin and Dandy Dick Landy run SS Hemi cars? I thought they had some wins.

YOU are going to love this - a video on the 2005 Hemi Shoot out!:

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/D...946DB1B287.htm

The Chrysler Factory Description of code B029 - Hemi Barracuda:

http://www.thehemi.com/notable.php?id=001

[rbinck]

Yep it was Ronnie Sox that I was thinking about. I found his memorial website right after making that post because it was driving me nuts not remembering the guy. He won the 1964 EX class with a Comet. For a trip down memory lane here is the link:
http://www.ronniesox.com/history.html
And I was wrong, he won it in '68 and '69. They switched to Pro Stock in '70 and won that!

[Lee Stewart]

Any customer purchasing this model vehicle should be advised that due to the expected use, the vehicle is sold "as is" and the 24 month or 24,000 mile vehicle warranty coverage, the 5 year or 50,000 mile Power Train Warranty coverage, or any other warranty coverage (including, but not limited to the implied warranties of fitness for purpose intended or merchantability) will not apply to the vehicle. The manufacturer assumes no responsibility for the manner in which such vehicles operate.

And there it is - sold to the public - just not usable on the street as you pointed out.

[rbinck]

1964 - the year of the first GTO and the official start of the musclecar wars.

Also in that year or the next was the start of the altered wheelbase match race cars running nitro fuel. Later they became known as Funny Cars. We had a pioneer down here in Houston with a racer by the name of Don Gay he ran a GTO match racer. Later his son, Don Gay, Jr., was pulled out of a funny by the Snake Don Prudhomme:

YouTube - 1989 NHRA Don Gay Jr. Crash

[Emil]

Ah, the good ole days!