Echoes from Dyno Cell 13 - How 60's Mopars came by the horsepower to dominate,

{Yes, I know this still needs some cleaning up}

Echoes from Dyno Cell 13

How 60's Mopars came by the horsepower to dominate, as told now by the Chrysler Race Group who did it then.

Transcription and comments by Tom Condran, Mopar Alley member #1249

Special to MoparPages.com

On December 6, 1963 in Building 135 of the Chrysler complex in Highland Park MI, the very first 426 Hemi thundered to life in dynamometer Cell 13. For the outrageous decade of the 1960s, and again in the '80s and '90s, the concrete walls of Cell 13 reverberated to the glorious song of horsepower in the making. From this room first rang sounds that echoed at Daytona, Bonneville, Le Mans, and drag strips and dark streets across America. Power to dominate, for decades, was born in Cell 13.

Cell 13, along with the rest of historic Highland Park, no longer exists. But while it still stood, a small number of very special men gathered there again for a last look at the room, and to speak with one another of what they once did there and nearby. These were the Chrysler engineers, mechanics, and dyno operators of the Race Group, who in the 1960s developed ordinary engines to extraordinary horsepower, to set victory records that have never been equaled. Their success came not from advanced technology and massive budgets, but by brains, work, enthusiastic dedication, and methodical, selfless cooperation.

Let their own articulate words [with my respectful inserts] as recorded at their reunion speak for that era.

*Tom Hoover*, Chrysler Engineering Racing Coordinator, 1961: "Although Chrysler, having introduced the Hemi engine into passenger cars in the 1950's, and having provided customers some interesting performance packages, as the 60's rolled around Chrysler's image among the performance enthusiasts wasn't that great. The performance cars that had been offered were what I would call `gentlemen's cruisers' - like the Chrysler 300 and [Dodge] D-500 and DeSoto Adventurer and so forth.

"There was a major change in the upper management of the company sometime around 1960. Among the new management that took over the company was the new Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Lynn Townsend.

The story is - I am told; there may be some folklore here - that Mr.Townsend had some teen-aged sons who informed their father that the image of his [new company's] products not among `gentlemen', but rather what you might call `street racers' was not very good. So shortly after Mr. Townsend became CEO of the company, he got the word down that we should initiate a race program.

"I had the good fortune to be available at the time. I worked in the engine lab, and I had some experience, high-performance engine-wise, best described from doing the development work on the HyperPak 170 Slant 6 - which was /fun/! Boy, was that neat! I had done some drag racing[1], and a number of friends [also engineers at Chrysler] had done some drag racing with me [as the off-hours Ramchargers Club], so we had some experience along those lines. So I was made the Engineering Race Coordinator.

"We were given `carte blanche' to develop, and very quickly, a Raised-B-engine, multiple-carburetor package for the [upcoming 1962] B-Body[2], which was quite a small and light car at the time.
In a relatively short period of time we did put together a Race Group, of people specifically devoted to carrying on development of what became that Race-B [engine] B-Body package in the '62 model year.

"The real mission of the Race Group was to change the image of the company in the eyes of the buyers - particularly young buyers. An axiom that would have been applicable was, 'You can sell an old man a young man's car, but you can't sell a young man an old man's car.' Ande had some products at that time that didn't fit well into that scenario.

"So the mission was to change that. I can speak passionately to the fact that the Race Group did that very quickly and very efficiently - that is, very effectively for the amount of money that was spent, not to mention the short time."

*John Wehrly*, manager in Engine Development, 1962:
"At our peak, we had in the Engine Development and Design area about fifteen people involved in Development and another six in Design. On the whole, for our vehicle and for our testing, we had upwards of forty people total. But there was involvement by everybody in Engineering, so we probably touched another 200 people who had some involvement.

"But the really hard core [of] people who were involved was very small, maybe twenty/twenty-five people at the max."

*Tom Hoover*:
"Initially, I think, the beginning image was less of winning Grand National NASCAR races[3] than of making something available to our customers, who [then] wouldn't be embarrassed on the highways and by-ways by the Chevrolets and the Pontiacs, the Pontiacs were well-accepted by the performance-oriented young enthusiasts at that time[4]."

*Bill Weertman*, Chief Engineer, 1962:
"We were [next] given the task of coming up with a conversion of the big-block V-8 [Wedge] engine, to putting a hemispherical-type combustion chamber on it. This happened in early 1963. In March of 1963 we assigned that to our lead designer, *Frank Bilk*. Frank, as a brilliant draftsman, was able to make this conversion `on the drafting board'. It applied the same type of head and valves as we had used on the hemispherical engine of the 1950's. That was very important, because we could get the kind of power that was needed on a racetrack from that arrangement.

"With the design [settled upon], we then began to procure the experimental parts for the [new Hemi] engine as soon as each design was available. It was a truly rush program that took all of our energies to get the parts for a build of the first engine in November. On December 6, 1963, the Hemi engine ran for the first time under its own power in the dynamometer cell.

"I was there. A number of other people were there[5]. It was a great sound when that engine fired up with a great big va-ROOM! We knew immediately that we had a potential winner on our hands, and that started the actual test program."

*Tom Hoover*:
"We recognized immediately on the initiation of the real racing program in late 1961 that the capability of the existing [test] equipment that we had available to us was limited. Basically, for high-speed development work we could only use Dyno Cell 40 or 48, as I recall, which had water-cooled eddy-current [dynamometer] machines capable of high speed - and which had been used for the wonderful A-311 program[6]. So very early on, after the initiation of race [engine development], we got the budget and made plans for upgraded, modern race [dyno] rooms which became [Cells] 7A, 7B, 12, and 13.

"7A was basically a high-speed water-brake machine. I forgot the power limit, but the intention was to be able to run endurance [testing] there, like a Daytona Beach cycle - 500 miles at 7500 [rpm], whatever.

"7B was one of my favorites. That was the inertial wheel arrangement.

"12 and 13 were more-or-less conventional dynamometer rooms, with protection in case there were failures that would throw some parts around, that kind of thing[7]. They were both water-cooled GE eddy-current [dynos] for high speed. I think the limit for one was 8000 [rpm], supposedly, and the other was 10,000, both [rated to] 600 horsepower."

*John Wehrly*:
"A few years later, in the early '70s, we upgraded the [dyno] rooms, particularly Cell 13. We concentrated on the instrumentation fuel flow we started to learn more about the air/fuel ratios. In addition we learned that we had to upgrade the bearings for the dyno. In general, we did a complete re-do to [Cells] 13 and 12.

"A lot of people saw us[8] as just socializing [during working hours], because the first thing that would happen every Monday morning was that we would drift either into Room 13 or 12 and gripe about the selection of donuts or the quality of *Ken Heatlie*'s coffee. When that was done, we would kind of talk about the social events [of the past weekend] - what happened, who got hurt on a motorcycle ride, or what airplane got out of control from the model airplane show.

"Then it would get down to the nitty-gritty of, `Well, just what happened this past week[end]? How well did we [Chrysler] do? How well did we do in NASCAR? How well did we do at the drag races?' Then we would debate what the issues were. And then finally it would get down to, `Well, what do we need to do this week? What do we need to do today?'

"There was always a lot of discussion. See, I was supposed to be managing. But these guys, the guys that run the dyno, they would always tell me what we ought to be doing.

"When you stop to think about it, that was probably the start of the `platform system'[9]. Because, even though we were part of Chrysler, not all of us worked on any particular engine development [program]. But we were all interested in racing, so we made [up] a `racing platform'".

*Jim Thornton*, engineer and driver of the Ramchargers SS/A drag car,
now at Applied Technologies Inc.:
"In addition to all the work that went on at Chrysler, inside the dynamometers and on test tracks, there was a lot of work done by people outside of Chrysler.

"The Ramchargers were the team that did most of the development of the cars for drag racing, and in fact were instrumental in getting Chrysler involved in drag racing by appearing at the '61 [NHRA] Summer-Nationals with a Dodge that was competitive with Ford, Chevy, and Pontiac. In fact, we got more coverage in the [car] magazines[10] than the winner Don Nicholson[11] did, because we beat him in a special match race after he had won Stock Eliminator[12]. Shortly after that, Chrysler was in drag racing.

"The Ramchargers continued to race in a stock car[13], and had the first Chrysler product to win in a Super-Stock class and [to win] a Stock Eliminator title, which we did in 1963. We continued on racing in stock classes, and in Factory Experimental and then Funny Cars. We [later] decided as a group, after the 1967 season, that we had other responsibilities, and stopped racing Funny Cars at that time.

"I'm not completely out of it [yet today], because I work for Applied Technologies. We do a lot of design work for Chrysler, including some of the high-performance work."

*Tom Hoover*:
"Greg[14] and I went for a few rides at night [in a stock-looking Dodge that wasn't], and my recollection is that we did pretty well [street racing]. But on one occasion when we were invited to pull over by the local police, I found it rather embarrassing. Because the officer wanted to know what I was doing driving around in that fashion in my son's car!

*Greg Charney*: (to Tom Hoover)
"Do you remember the time that the race was all over and we got off the freeway[15] and the police were in hot pursuit. The police pulled up alongside us and looked inside at us. And then they shook their heads, like `No, it couldn't have been them,' and they took right off!"

*Tom Hoover*:
"I had a hat, too, that I employed for the same purpose [of disguise as a civilian]. It would seem [to the police] like a plain, ordinary Dodge car[16] driven by this `gentleman' with an older person's hat could not possibly have been doing what the police thought that they had observed previously."

*Greg Charney*:
"Especially with [me] the little blond boy sitting there like your son."

*Tom Hoover*:
"I am convinced that we did a lot of good for Chrysler's image among young people with that `activity'. It's gotten totally out of control in the meantime, of course, but those were great times."

*Greg Charney*: "Great fun!"

*Bill Hancock*, race engineer 1963, currently president of Arrow Group:
"We needed to get to 600 horsepower in the [NASCAR Hemi] engine. But to make the car fast, we knew that if we could get into the [wind] tunnel we could get `aerodynamic horsepower' and that would work pretty well too.

"So we tried anything we could do to get there [to 600 HP]. Guys worked
day and night.

�I was down with the Pettys just as we were getting to the critical
stage. We had finally gotten enough parts together to generate some
[HP] numbers, when I get a call from [dyno room mechanic] *Ted Flack*.

� �Guess what,� he said. �They took away [dyno] Room 13 from us!�

� �/Who/ did,� I said.

� �Dean Engle [in Marketing],� he said.

� �You got to be kidding,� I said. �We�re dead here without that Room.
Let me see what I can do.�

�About that time, Lee Petty walked by the office that I was sitting in
down at Petty�s. I thought, �Well, here goes nothing.�

�I tackled him and I said, �They just took away our dyno room up there.
What do you think we should do?�

� �Well,� Lee said, �Why don�t I call Bob McCurray [in Management]? He
told me that if I ever needed anything to give him a call. I think
�Lizabeth sent him a fruitcake here last Christmas. I think now is
about the time to call him.� So he called up.

�About twenty minutes later Lee gets off the phone and he says, ��S�all
handled. You got your dyno room back.�

�I immediately called *Ted Flack*, and I said, �I don�t know what
happened, but you got Room 13 back.

If I were you, I would leave the building for a few days. I suspect
there�s going to be a missile lobbed in from Marketing over to Engineering.�

�Sure enough, McCurray called Engle and we got the dyno room back. And
that allowed us to go ahead [and] do the development. If memory serves
me, they wound up with 607 horsepower, which at the time was enough to
put us pretty much at the top of the heap. With [that plus] the wind
tunnel testing, we went down and ran 187 [mph] at Daytona. It was all a
lot of fun.

�The guys in Room 13 is where it all started, though. They�re the guys
that made the power.�

*Ted Flack*, mechanic in dyno operations 1967, currently a manager in DC
Powertrain Prototype Services:

�In 1965 I started going to the drag races. I was always a fan of
Chryslers, and I was particularly a fan of the Golden Commandos[17]
<#_ftn17> and the Ramchargers. Some of the people [on those teams] were
*Mike Buckle*, *Jim Thornton*, *Ken Heatlie*, *Forest Pitcock*, *Larry
Know1ton*. They were just magazine names on my hero list.

�When I came here [to Chrysler] to apply for a job, the Personnel people
brought me over here [to the dyno cells]. And when I walked into this
room [Cell 12], *Mike Buckle* was sitting behind the console, digging at
a cast that he had just received from his race car blowing up. So I met
him.

�They said, �Gee, the only job we have for you is working in one of the
dyno cells down the hall.� And I said, �Oh. Ok. I guess I can do that.�

�So then I get here and I meet *Buckle* and *Thornton* and all these
other guys, and discovered surprisingly that they were just people.
Heroes yes, but just people � friendly, nice � people who wanted to
race, and this is how they got racing. It was a little eye-opening for
me to discover that these were just regular guys, only racing.�

*Mike Buckel*, engineer, wearing The World�s Worst Tie: �*Ken*
[*Heatlie*] and *Forest Pitcock* were [working] a lot alike. They
worked [the dynos] in Cells 12 and 13 and did all the performance work.

�We always started our runs at 3200 [rpm], and at that kind of speed
they [Hemis] were pretty sloth-like. We probably ran three-four-five
minutes at that lower speed, and they very carefully took down data.
Our air/fuel mixture [measuring] system was bubbling exhaust gasses up
through water, and about a month later you would get an air/fuel reading
that was more or less right. Things were pretty slow.

Then as the faster the engine went, the faster those guys started to move.

�When we were running really �fragile� stuff, the alcohol [Hemis] and
that kind of stuff[18] <#_ftn18>, myself or *Bob Mullen* would be in the
room and we�d share taking the data. And when we got up to 7200 [rpm]
we�d /really/ move fast. We could probably collect all the data at 7200
in about thirty to forty-five seconds.

�But that was long before automatic Data Acquisition Systems, and � in
today�s context � it was long before /accurate measurements/, even.�

*Ted Flack*: �Quite often when we were running engines [in dyno cells]
back in that era we would have explosions, sometimes followed by fire.
One of the highlights of this is [when] we were all standing here [in
Cell 13], *Ken* [*Heatlie*] down there [in the far corner away from the
door] and *Forest* [*Pitcock*] and two or three other people standing
here [near the door].

�We had a _big_ explosion. The whole room filled with fire, and we all
ran for the door. And when /I/ got to the door � the first one who
/would/ get to it � *Ken*, who was /back there/, three people deep, was
the /first/ one out the door. To this day I don�t know how he did that,
but he got past /all/ of us and was the first out.

�We had failures of varying degrees of blowing windows out and having
connecting rods disappear through the windows into the parking lot. One
of my favorites was [when] the three of us were making a power run and
the engine had a pre-ignition failure. It burned a hole through the
piston � /we/ /think/[19] <#_ftn19>.

�*Forest* and I were here, and *Ken* had just walked into the room. And
just as he walked in, the engine blew up and the whole room filled with
smoke. *Forest* and I were sitting here by the door. We couldn�t see
*Ken*, and didn�t know where he was. But we decided that the best thing
/we/ could do was run out and close the door. When the smoke cleared we
went in looking for *Ken*, who was over in a corner, kind of /cowering/
in a corner. I think he still remembers that day.�

*Al Nichols*, engineer[20] <#_ftn20>: �The [new OSHA rules] necessity
was that we had to create a little world that we could hook the exhaust
into so that it didn�t leak into the [dyno] room. So our Facilities
people created a four-by-six-by-eight sheet-metal �world�. We hooked
the exhaust to it and hooked it to the outside wall.

*Kenny* fired up the engine and we proceeded to warm it up. Then what,
*Kenny*?

*Ken Heatlie*, Cell 13 dynamometer operator[21] <#_ftn21>: �Well, a
little water on top [of the box] showed how the engine was vibrating.
[We did] a couple of run-ups and run-downs, and filled up the box with
fumes.

And the box went bang.�

*Al Nichols*: �We should observe that this box did fit /in/ through the
doorway when we started out. Afterward we had to get a burning permit
and the Skilled Trades[men] to come in and cut it up so that we could
get it back /out/ of the room. It had kind of swelled up a little bit
and no longer fit through the door. But it was a noble experiment in
our compliance with all of the requirements of the day.�

*John Wehrly*: �There is a story [involving *Ken Heatlie*] when we were
doing the early Hemi work and we had some consultants. One of them was
Sir Harry Weslake[22] <#_ftn22> and a crew that they brought through.
They came into the Cell to see what progress we were making. Of course,
*Kenny* was busy working.

�We continued talking with Weslake, and it came to be lunchtime.
*Kenny* was very patient. Maybe five minutes had gone by. [Then] while
we were standing by the engine we noticed that all the lights went off
in the room. And out comes some cardboard right here on the bench, and
*Kenny *proceeded to say, �It�s lunchtime, and I am going to sleep.�
And that�s the truth!�

*Bill Hancock*: �There were a lot of �celebrities� [playing tourist
through the Cells]. The heroes were the guys who worked in here every
day. The celebrities were the guys who came in and got their picture
taken and visited. We had, I think, all three of the Pettys in here[23]
<#_ftn23>. We had guys like Sir Harry Weslake [and] Harry Hyde[24]
<#_ftn24>. All of them were colorful in their own way.

�Harry Hyde had a lot of funny jokes. Maurice [Petty] wanted to know
how we got anything done here with so many people and so little action.
Richard wanted to know where the contract was. Lee wanted to know when
lunch was. Mark Donohue was in here. And quite a few others.

�Sometimes the guy would come through and we�d find out later who it
was. A lot of times we never even knew they were here. They�d just
come in, look around, and leave.
�Of course we had the internal heroes, people like [CEO Lynn] Townsend
and various other people up in the organization. The difference with
them was that we�d [first] have to get everything cleaned up and put
away. So we�d lose a day�s work when they�d come around.

�But most of the time it was just �belly to the ground�, and progress.�

* *

*Forest Pitcock*, Cell 12 dynamometer operator: �Some days we�d have to
work the third shift, just to meet the schedules. First [for] the
[oval] track cars[25] <#_ftn25>, then the drag cars. And sometimes we�d
have to clean up the mess when an engine didn�t make it through the
test. But it was all in a good day�s work.�

*Ken Heatlie*: �[The work schedule] depended on what you were running.
If it was cylinder heads, you might run two sets of heads a day. Or
maybe two camshafts a day.�

*Forest Pitcock*: �We used to have to bring the alcohol [fuel] in in
five-gallon cans and make quite a rapid run because we used such large
amounts of it[26] <#_ftn26>. I think we�d burn about 25 gallons of it
in less than 15 minutes. So we would really have to hurry.�

*Mike Buckel*: �In �65 the [A/FX] drag race cars were into the
development of nitromethane fuels, and nobody had a clue as to what was
going on in the combustion chamber � how to do it, how to test it. We
blew up engines in several cars trying to learn about it. So we got a
project to run nitro /in the lab/.[27] <#_ftn27>

�We built an engine with an eight-to-one compression ratio to try to get
some life[time] out of it.

We mounted it on center pivots, one at the flywheel and one at the
crankshaft [nose], so all the reaction torque was taken by a lever arm
with a load cell. We calibrated the load cell to the torque measured
with the dynamometer. We fed the load cell [output] into an x-y
plotter, space-age technology at that time.
�So we could fire up the engine, get it to run, open up the throttle,
and run it on up to about 7600 [rpm], and the x-y plotter would plot, in
essence, the torque curve. We got up to 90% nitro, fuel injected [but
not supercharged], and probably our all-time horsepower record of 1350
at 7200 rpm on EX-12[28] <#_ftn28> in 1966[29] <#_ftn29>.

�We didn�t worry too much [about the racket such engines made in the
middle of the Chrysler office complex], because we were having too much
fun to worry about things like noise. I think it just got to be
something that [other] people lived with. They were [at desks]
thinking, �Well yeah, those guys are making a lot of horsepower back
there.� And let�s face it: /They sounded good/.�

*Al Nichols*: �After work, there were three of us who would get together
and discuss camshaft design and development.�

*Alan Adam*, specialist in Vehicle Testing: �*Al* here and myself and
*Gordon Rinschler* rode to work every day together on the Grand Trunk
Express. We began designing camshafts on the train, using the window of
the train as a light box. *Gordon* was in the [Race Group] Design area,
and he would crank the numbers for the camshaft. *Al* then would
proceed to purchase the prototype camshafts [from a specialty grinder]
and run them on the dynamometer here in Building 135. I would then
complete development of the camshaft at the racetrack, in the vehicle
itself.

�During that era we came up with a number of successful designs. But
one stood for a long time as the standard in the 426 Max Wedge. And it
was appropriately called �The Mini Express�.

�We enjoyed our work, we really had a good time together, and I would
say that this is just another example of [our kind of] teamwork.�

* *

*Dick Maxwell*, manager for Racing Support, 1968: �We worked in
conjunction with a lot of the racers. [By that] I mean that the racers
were doing their own development as they were racing their cars /with/
an awful lot of technical support from us. But in addition to that,
when we had to move racing development outside the corporation, then we
set up with SVI, Specialized Vehicles and *Teddy Spehar*. *Tom
*[*Hoover*] set up that operation, and it really did all of the [drag]
race car development for some time[30] <#_ftn30>.

�We were fortunate in that all of the people on the outside that we
worked with, *Keith Black* and *Spehar* by name, had the same level of
dedication that the people internally did. Spehar�s outfit was here in
Detroit, and our guys got in there and spent a lot of time to keep a
hand on what was going on. And we had guys who spent a lot of time on
the West Coast with Keith Black.�

*Tom Hoover*: �The Keith Black thing was also helpful, because many of
the parts that you needed � to be competitive in those days � were
generated on the West Coast. You could get special manifold castings,
different cam designs, that sort of thing, all within a short distance
of Keith Black�s operation. So that enhanced the contribution /he/
could make, in that way.�

*Tom Coddington*: �Gary, you were with Holley Carburetors then, when
Holley was the performance carb of choice. Could you comment how you as
vendor worked with *Al* [*Nichols*] on the race program?�

* *

*Gary Congdon*, Holley Carburetor race technician: �I was basically on
site here eight hours a day, almost like a Chrysler employee. *Al* and
I had a good working relationship. I was always over in the carburetor
lab, and *Al* would need a carburetor change. We would either be
working on restrictor [plate] engines[31] <#_ftn31>, or it might be
[fuel] distribution.

�We�d make a change to the carburetor and put it on the engine and make
a power run or a distribution run[32] <#_ftn32>. *Al* would go over the
data, then we�d discuss what the next change or our next move would be.�

*Al Nichols*: �This was a little different than the vendor being �just
off-site�, as they talk about now.

We were probably /thirty seconds/ apart, and that�s about how long it
took to get the data to the vendor.

In another few minutes we�d be back to the test cell with some changes,
run them, and have another look at it. During the day we might be able
to do five or ten iterations, and maybe complete the task.

�It was a never-ending chore to try to keep ahead of NASCAR, and Holley
�hit it� every time. We wound up with more power out of the
restrictor-plate motors than we had /before/ the restrictors.�

*Bob Zeimis*, Cell 13 dyno operator, still at Chrysler[33] <#_ftn33>:
�For me, I think, [the best part] was � first � the people involved. A
lot of people had the same attitude as me. They wanted to get something
done. And they wanted to crush the competition. We were in a
direction. It was really fun. That�s what made it interesting to be in
the Race Group.�

�[When Chrysler�s Race Program ended] it was rather depressing. We
were moving away from an area that I think we should have stayed in.
[In 1971] we were getting out of NASCAR. There was a fun kind of time
that they sort of took away.

�The [Race Group] people in general just went to different jobs within
the Corporation. Two years later a couple of them retired. They just
moved on, like that.�

*Dick Winkles*, a current Development Engineer at Chrysler: �When I
started to get involved in Chrysler racing activities, which was [in]
1983, we were not running any of the race engines out in Building 135.
Cell 13 was being used at that time primarily for piston-scuff testing
and catalyst aging, and had been for the previous three or four years at
the very least.

�At that time Pete Hagenbock, who had been at Chrysler probably
twenty-five years and [was] somewhat involved in Chrysler racing
activities in the past, realized that it would make a nice link to the
past to start doing any Chrysler race activities back in Cell 13, with
all of the heritage that it had. It was still a pretty capable cell,
although it still needed some upgrading.

�The dyno at that point was no longer the 10,000-rpm dyno. I think it
had a 6000-rpm dyno. So the dyno was changed to a 600-horse[power],
10,000-rpm dyno. Some of the instrumentation was upgraded in the Cell.
The Toledo scale was not changed right away. That was retained for a
number of years. Then we eventually went to the load-cell set-up and
the DAR system, which was really just a computerized data acquisition
system.

�But initially we just ran the Cell as it had been run in the �60s, with
the Toledo scale and unreliable thermocouples and analog read-outs.�

*Larry Shepard*, for the �70s-�90s, head of Marketing for Mopar
Performance equipment[34] <#_ftn34>: �In 1981 and �82 we decided to move
into the 4-cylinder performance market. Direct Connection, renamed
Mopar Performance in 1987, needed racing parts to be developed for the
Chrysler 2.2-liter 4-cylinder engine. We used Cell 13 to do that. *Bob
Zeimas* was the dyno operator. *Dick Winkles* was the dyno engineer.

�One of the basic problems that we had, after we got past the basic
cylinder head [and] camshafts [issues], was to find an intake manifold
that would make more horsepower than the stock one. We went through
some number. One of the cabinets here used to be full of 2.2 intake
manifolds that did not work. It was very frustrating. We could make a
lot of them, but they couldn�t make any more power, although we could
make ones that made a lot /less/ horsepower, or a lot less torque.

�Finally *Bob Zeimas* got tired of just putting them on. So he made his
own, in the Cell. It was the first [new 2.2] intake manifold that �
naturally aspirated � made more horsepower, about ten or fifteen. So
once they figured that out, he and *Dick Winkles* went off and made an
improved version that made twenty-five [more than stock], so all of a
sudden we were really happy.

�So as they found horsepower, whether it was [from] camshafts, cylinder
heads, intake manifolds, or basic parts like gaskets and bearings, we
would take those parts, give them a part number, put them in stock, and
sell them through the Direct Connection program.�

*Dick Winkles*: �We were involved [anew in sanctioned racing] with Team
Shelby, which went GT-racing with a front-wheel-drive [G-Body] Daytona.
We developed a 2-liter turbocharged derivative of the 2.2-liter. It had
a single turbo, intercooled, with big valves and lots of cam and such.
At twenty-one pounds of boost it made 425 horsepower.

�Team Shelby was a latter-day equivalent of the old Chrysler
Ramchargers. It was a group of Chrysler [workers], primarily engineers
and mechanics, who had been involved in racing to some extent � both
with and without Chrysler. It was initially put together to campaign a
turbocharged [L-Body] Shelby Dodge Charger in the SCCA 1985 Playboy
endurance series. Team Shelby won a championship with a 2.2
turbocharged engine. Then in the 1986 SCCA Escort Series, Team Shelby
again won a championship.

�In addition, Team Shelby did a lot of grass-roots racing support,
developing parts for endurance [road] racing, and with just normal
development work throughout Chrysler. But a lot of the SCCA and IMSA
racers were supported as well with the same kind of development that
Team Shelby was doing. So it really paid off in two ways[35] <#_ftn35>.�

*Dave Zelkowski*: �Team Shelby was an after-hours, all-volunteer group.
We rented a shop off-site. All work in the garage was after-hours.
Typically Tuesday night and Saturday we worked to get cars ready.

�We did have some back-up support from the assembly plant at Belvedere,
which was building the Shelby Charger at the time. If we needed
hardware or parts � or crash parts � they would send us parts that were
already painted and assembled. So if we had damage from, say the
previous weekend�s racing, we had parts ready to go on the cars to
minimize the time we needed to prepare the cars for the next race.

�We had a good time at the shop. We would be there all day Saturday,
and all the guys had a good time preparing the cars. Of course, we did
well too, which made it fun. If you�re on a team that isn�t doing very
well, I�m sure it�s not a fun time working in the shop. But we were
usually pretty fired up from a good showing the previous weekend, and
that made it a fun time.�

*Dick Winkles*: �When the Viper program was launched, Chrysler had only
one dyno in the company that could handle the horsepower that they were
shooting for with the Viper engine � 400-plus horsepower � and that was
Cell 13 in Building 135. The Cell had been running a lot of 4-cylinder
engines prior to that. So it was kind of a big changeover to get a V-10
in there. *Bob* [*Zeimas*] did a lot of fabrication to get a V-10 in
there and get it running.

�Cell 13 really did the bulk of development work on the Viper engine.
[Other places in] Building 135 did a little of the calibration work, but
not much. Cell 13 ran the early, iron V-10�s that were used in the
first Viper mules[36] <#_ftn36>. And then at one time or another all of
the aluminum [test] engines ran in Cell 13. The engine that was used in
the Viper pace car for the 1991 Indy 500[37] <#_ftn37> ran in Cell 13.
I recall that we made that engine make over 450 horsepower, just by
taking off the catalytic converters and doing a little better [fuel
injection] calibration for it.

[to *Bob* *Zeimas*] �Do you remember the first prototype aluminum Viper
V-10 we had running here?�

*Bob Zeimas*: �Yeah. I was working away, with my back turned to the
door. I turned around, and there was [Chrysler CEO Bob] Lutz and
[Engineering Director] Castaine and a bunch more standing back there
with big grins on their faces.�

*Dick Winkles*: �We didn�t have that engine running two minutes when I
saw this car pull up in the alley and out hopped these guys. I remember
Castaine walked in and put his fingers on the exhaust manifold to see if
that [cylinder] was running � it was still that cold.�

*Bob Zeimas*: �As a matter of fact, we still had a couple of them /not/
running yet.�

*Dick Winkles*: �That�s right. It wasn�t right yet, and he picked that
right up. �Oops, there�s something wrong here.� And he felt just where
it was.�

*Steve Warre*, the last Cell 13 operator, who updated it: �Well, first
of all we had to shrink everything.�

* *

*Pat Baer*, currently a manager in Engine Development: �When we first
ran a [4-cylinder] engine at high speed, we had an engine of /low/
inertia matched up to a dyno of /high/ inertia.

�I used to come in and sit through a power run with *Steve* every now
and then. I remember coming in for one run. We were crouched behind the
counter [still /inside/ the Cell], and the engine was singing away and
making all this racket. And there was a flywheel [embedded deep] in the
wall about at crotch level. All I could think of was, �We�re both going
to die!�

�I yelled to *Steve*, �Is this how it /always/ sounds?� And he yells
back, �Yup!� And I yell, �Well, don�t you think it�s a problem?� And,
�Yeah!�

�So we had the dyno rebuilt, switched to a carbon-fiber prop shaft, and
lightened up things in general[38] <#_ftn38>. The one pound-foot [of
torque] that the Viper guys didn�t care about we were very concerned
about. So we disconnected the infamous Toledo scale, because it was
affecting our load cell. We had to make a lot of changes to really dial
in the cell to be able to measure those couple of numbers that the
big-motor guys didn�t have to worry about.�

*Steve Warre*: �We were always trying to find that /one horsepower/ gain
that was pretty hard to find in �the Viper Room�, the room as it was set
up for the Viper motor � which was a much larger scale [than what we
needed] in pretty much every way, shape, or form.

�Myself like the other [dyno] operators, the things we learned in the
race cell about making horsepower we applied to our own performance cars
at home. And, of course, power runs were made on abandoned sections of
road. Plus, [this relieved] the regimentation of working like soldiers
to do whatever it took.

�[The last project in Cell 13] wasn�t a race engine, but a Magnum truck
motor. But the years I worked in the race room helped me to develop the
power in the Magnum motors, which are so popular today in the Magnum
truck series and in production.�

/Later the �60s Race Group got off their feet and settled into a
conference room. Many were well past retirement age, and others are now
managers at Chrysler or CEOs of their own companies. A natural seating
order developed around the table, by accident or design. *Tom Hoover*
was at the head of the table. To his right sat *Bill Weertman*, once
Chief Engineer. To Hoover�s left, field man *Bill Hancock*. Along the
sides former engineers and managers and mechanics mixed at random./

*Bill Hancock*: �We learned that if you stop and consider the odds, you
can talk yourself out of dern near anything. But if you just go ahead
and say you�re going to do it, there�s nothing that you can�t
accomplish. I know [that] when I was just a kid down in Virginia I
always dreamed about coming here to work. Even though I wasn�t sure
[then] what �here� was.

�I�ve likened it to somebody who went to see the movie _Top Gun_ and
said, �Hey, I want to fly planes off a carrier!� not realizing that
there�s 300,000 people in the Navy and only 200 of them get to drive an
F-14. I said, �I want to go work in racing at Chrysler!� not realizing
that there were only seven people that got to do that. I was lucky
enough to be one of those people.

�The day I got hired, the first thing they did was send me down to North
Carolina to work with Petty � which I�ve always said was like sending
B�rer Rabbit through the briar patch. But that was what we had to do.
What a hell of a job! But /somebody/ had to do it.�

* *

*Ted Flack*: �The great thing I got out of the Race Group was that /we
were a small group concentrating/ on winning races. You come forward to
today and look, and we all have �platform teams�. I was never a big
advocate of that. I thought, �This is silly. That won�t work.�

�I didn�t realize when they were forming platform teams � didn�t realize
until much later � that /we were a platform team/. There was a small
group. We did a whole car. We did the engine, the transmission, the
whole car, just like the platform teams do.

�We had a structure, top to bottom, but it didn�t matter. /The lowest
guy and the highest guy all worked together/. /They all had the same
mission/. We didn�t bother who was the boss and who was the other guy.
We just did what we had to do.

�We got beat up for having morning coffee and donuts every day in Cell
13. We didn�t realize it, but what we were doing was /scheduling the
day/, then we�d go do whatever we had to. The rest of the world thought
that we were just eating donuts and drinking coffee, but really we were
having meetings. I don�t think that even /we/ realized how important
that was.

�Even today, when I�m dealing with a group I say, �Hey, let�s get
together first thing in the morning and see where we�re going.� And
then everybody would take off [and do it]. We did that [then] every
day, not knowing exactly what we were doing, but it worked. And all the
stuff we did back then they send you to school for today, just to learn
how to do.�

*Bill Hancock*: �Today we all have Franklin Planners and memory aids �
which frankly some of us need � but back then we had lists.
Interestingly enough, there was a statistic that came out recently that
the CEOs of the Fortune 500 companies only have one thing in common.
They�re from all different economic and educational backgrounds. But
/every one of them is a list maker/.

�And /we/ had lists. We had /calendars/. Where we were going to be and
/who was going to do what when/.

�The other thing that we had � we didn�t know what to call it then, but
today it would be called a �/mission statement/� � a simple, clear,
understandable, and ultimately comprehendible mission statement. *Tom*,
you were the one who stated it so eloquently. Perhaps you�d like to
restate it for the record.�

*Tom Hoover*: � �/Hunt down those Chevies and Fords and crush �em like
bugs/!��

* *

*Consensus*: �And that�s what we did.�

*Bill Hancock*: �It�s interesting, though, because back then we achieved
things that the rules will never permit again. These things will never
be repeated. In 1971 at the [NHRA] Nationals at Indy, the Chrysler cars
won /all seven eliminators/. [Petty won] seven or eight Winston Cup
championships [and] 200 Winston Cup races. That will never happen
again[39] <#_ftn39>. It was dedication that pervaded that whole thing.�

*Tom Hoover*: �I think Dr. Deming, who has become the guru of what�s
called �lean production� would have smiled upon the way things went in
those days. We made an effort to /communicate to everyone/. I think we
were able to achieve a level of �ownership�. /Everybody involved in the
program felt that they were making a contribution, and therefore felt
ownership/ in what was happening. We had definite goals.

�And I think another thing that was vital was � certainly in the drag
group � that /we used/ /all the brains we had available/, not unlike the
morning coffee and donuts thing where people scheduled things and got
things organized. The /other/ coffee and donuts thing was �the infamous
cabal meetings�, which was later, every Thursday afternoon. I made a
conscious effort to solicit the input of /every/ brain that we had
available. If it was an idea that would contribute to the mission that
we had in mind, I did my level best to make sure that all those ideas
got out on the table � good ones and bad ones. Some of them that I
though were not so slick worked out pretty well, by the way. It was a
great time.�

*Bill Hancock*: �You said �ownership�. In �Nineties� terms we had what
is referred to today as �entrepreneurship�. We said it a little
differently. Our basic statement was, �/Once you�re through with
whatever we told you to do, you�re free to go do whatever makes sense/.�

�Which led us to some pretty whacky stuff. But occasionally it would
work. I can remember somebody � they may choose to remain nameless �
that made a restrictor plate that was allergic to gasoline. It was not
the same size at the /end/ of the race as it was at the /beginning/ of
the race. There were thousands of little anecdotes like that. This
type of /creativity allowed us to have a position of dominance/.

�And it was encouraged! They say there�s a little bit of larceny in
everybody. In our case we blended engineering and what I�ll call �legal
larceny�. Because you were given a rulebook by an association that you
had to follow. You got to play lawyer, and engineer, and cheater. And
the nice thing was that nobody ever got thrown in jail for cheating at
the racetrack.

�You weren�t cheating unless you got caught[40] <#_ftn40>. So as a
formal engineering exercise it allowed you to take your creativity
basically to its limits � whatever limits. And it was usually physical
limits. You just couldn�t keep your eyes open enough.�

*Dick Maxwell*: �Well, our limitations were not the clock. Our
limitations were quite frankly when we would come home some night and
our wives would say, �You�re going to be /home/ a few nights now!��

*Mike Buckel*: �Or she�d say, �I�m not going to be home when you come
home tonight.� And then I�d say, �Well, you gotta do what you gotta do,
but I gotta do what I gotta do. I love you, I hope you�ll be here, but
I�m going to the garage tonight.��

*Dick Maxwell*: �And we were really fortunate that it never happened to
/all/ the guys /at the same time/. The wives managed to spread it out a
little bit so it never completely disrupted our operations.�[41] <#_ftn41>

*Bill Hancock*: �You were highly motivated. Those around you were
highly motivated. Like an athletic event, each week we got to test our
wares in front of a group of � what � quarter-million people.

�/We had deadlines we had to meet. We had milestones. /All these
wonderful things [in Management Theory] today/. We also had
benchmarking/. We didn�t call it that then; /we called it
competition/. But it was a unique opportunity as engineers to
basically /test yourself against the other guys/.�

*Ted Flack*: �/Timing/ becomes critical in a race thing, and I use it
today in production processes. Because /you have to know when to stop
developing/ and [to] release your part � or /buy/ your part � and go
into production. Back then it was: Go to the race. Because /it never
helps to be the fastest car there if you miss the race/. /Very/
important lesson. Probably the biggest lesson I got out of the whole
thing.�

*John Wehrly*: �There are a lot of management lessons that you can get
out of racing and from our involvement. One of the things I learned
early on by watching the race teams was [how] the pit stops had to be so
carefully managed to be the quickest and be competitive. What they had
was: /Everybody had to know what they were doing, they [each] had
specific jobs, and in order to be competitive they had to be fast,
correct, on time, every time/. Or they didn�t win.

�We looked at that and said, �Well, /that�s/ the way you ought to
operate.� It�s like the platform system that we use now. So yes,
there�s a lot to be learned.�

* *

*Dick Maxwell*: �I think there�s another thing that�s important, too,
that made the whole thing really work. And that was the /total
dedication/ that everyone had to what they were doing. As a group /we
lived and breathed to race/ and �crush �em like bugs�.�
*Mike Buckel*: �I always used the word �enthusiasm�, because we were so
emotionally involved in the whole process. /What we were doing during
the day/, of engine development or whatever, /was an extension of what
we were doing all night and all weekend/. That level of enthusiasm was
the reason that we were successful when Ford had a budget that was an
order of magnitude or more than our budget was. But they had
nine-to-five guys kind of working on it.�

*Tom Hoover*: �That�s this ownership thing again.�

*Mike Buckel*: �And that�s probably the most difficult thing to convey
on day-to-day management projects for a sedan type of a car.* *[But]
/enthusiasm/ was /contagious/. The Golden Commandos came around about
four years after the Ramchargers, because those [other] guys [within
Chrysler] were around and kind of got the disease � and got a car. And
those guys who were critical � there were several in the Motor room: �We
don�t build /hot rods/. We build /cars/!� � later on they became /race/
engine builders.�

*Ted Flack*: �A big thing for me, then, when this all started for me in
1967 and I was a mechanic in the dyno cell. *Bill *[*Weertman*] was the
Chief Engineer and shortly after that *Dick Maxwell* was the boss of the
whole race thing. And I knew them and was comfortable with them just
like anybody else, like one of the other mechanics. It didn�t matter
who you were, where you were. [You could say anything.] I knew /when
to shut up/ � well, maybe I didn�t. I�m still learning.�

�When it came time to make a decision, we knew who the boss was. But
/once a decision was made, we just all worked together/. And that�s the
�ownership� thing. /Everybody on the same page, all the time/.�

*Tom Hoover*: �Yeah, given that there was �ownership�, and that was
established � /that�s/ something that you have to do early in a matter
like this � then the matter of /ego/ satisfaction is more easily handled.

�Take the matter of the two �factory� drag teams. Were they known as
some person�s name, you know �Joe Blow�s Car�, whatever? No. It was
�The Ramchargers Dodge�. It wasn�t �*Jim Thornton*�s Dodge�, it wasn�t
�*Dick Maxwell*�s Dodge�, it was �The /Ramchargers/ Dodge�. Same with
the Plymouth. It was �The Golden Commandos Plymouth�. It wasn�t some
specific individual.

�Given that �ownership� is established [all around] and /everybody/
feels the satisfaction of accomplishment from what they have
contributed, then the/ /ego/ /thing no longer becomes a major driving
force for many of the individuals. And I think that�s critical.�

*Dick Maxwell*: �That�s true, but everybody in that group /was/
ego-driven. We weren�t ego-driven /for ourselves/, but ego-driven to
prove to the rest of the world that Chrysler had the best race cars out
there and we were going to beat those other guys every time.�

*Tom Hoover*: �You bet! There were /massive/ egos in that group, but
/they worked together/ /to achieve the known objective/. /That�s/ how to
satisfy. /It�s a matter of ego satisfaction because _the group_ succeeds/.�

*Dick Maxwell*: �We had some massive egos, but we also had some massive
/intellects/. And that helped too. We had some really bright guys in
that group.�

*Tom Hoover*: �I was moved the other day. I was watching the news, and
General Yeager had just landed in his F-15, right after breaking the
sound barrier fifty years after the original [event]. And the guy asked
him, �Why did you do that?� And he said, �It was /for flag/ /and/ /for
country/!� It wasn�t for family or any of those things.

�It was true of us, too. It was /for Chrysler and for the
Ramchargers/. And we all were satisfied /by that/.�

*Bill Weertman*: �We will never forget, those of us who worked on the
Hemi, the reward we had in seeing our work come in first. And I�ll have
that for the rest of my life.�

*The Race Group*

Alan Adam

Bob Anderson

Steve Baker

Jim Broske

Mike Buckel

Greg Charney

Tom Coddington

Butch Elkins

Ted Flack

Steve Francis

Bill Hancock

Ken Heatlie

Tom Hoover

Dick Maxwell

Herm Mozer

Al Nichols

Forest Pitcock

Ed Poplawski

Gordon Rinschler

Jim Robertson

Ted Spehar

Andy Thomas

Jim Thornton

Bill Weertman

John Wehrly

1997 reunion coordinated by Pat Baer

A commemorative video of the reunion in Cell 13 was produced by Chrysler.

/Tom Condran is a free-lance technical writer and a frequent contributor
to the Mopar Alley newsletter, The Bee. His books include _Performance
Handling for Classic Mopars_, the recent _Mad About Mopars_, and the
textbook (with Dema Elgin) _High Performance Engine Theory_. He has
driven Mopars since 1960 and joined MA in 1994./

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] <#_ftnref1> Tom Hoover was too modest to mention that he had won
B/Stock at the 1959 NHRA Nationals in a Plymouth, whose cone-dish
hubcaps were then worn by a successively faster series of Hoover�s
personal, street-racer Mopars.

[2] <#_ftnref2> The new �Midsize� unibody chassis for Plymouths and
Dodges, and later Chargers and Cordobas, through 1979. The �62 �Maximum
Performance Package� was the original Ram-Induction 413 SuperStock
engine, Max Wedge.

[3] <#_ftnref3> Grand National was then the top class in NASCAR, what is
now called Winston Cup, except that a race car was an actual production
chassis and body (including all the chrome trim and glass) and ran a
factory-designed engine.

<#_ftnref4>

[4] GM�s Pontiac Division, under General Manager Semon �Bunkie� Knudsen,
Chief Engineer Pete Estes, plus Estes� charismatic assistant John
DeLorean, saw that special �speed equipment� was developed and sold
through select dealerships like Royal Pontiac. In 1962 /just 15/ �Super
Duty� lightweight Catalinas made a great impact in NHRA.

<#_ftnref5>

[5] The number of people claiming to have been in the Cell that day
somewhat exceeds the capacity of Building 135.

[6] <#_ftnref6> The HyperPak Slant 6 race engine package (detailed in
_Mad About Mopars_). The program /was/ wonderful because it was small,
quick, independently creative, cheap, and totally successful at its
objective.

<#_ftnref7>

[7] In that era before OSHA, dyno personnel worked /inside the room with
the engine under test/! A period photo shows a dyno operator /leaning
directly over/ a sheet-metal box the size of a kitchen table, with
louvres on two sides. Inside the box ran a live Hemi, spinning a dyno
with its load beam hooked to a tall Toledo scale from a feed store.

How well such �protection� protected � and how accurate the scale � is
told later by the men who were there.

<#_ftnref8>

[8] The Engine Development Team: *Wehrly*, with *Al Nichols*, *Ken
Heatlie*, *Forest Pitcock*, and others.

[9] <#_ftnref9> The Race Group later discussed how they had
independently and unknowingly re-invented and implemented the Project
Management theories of the _now_-famous W. Edwards Deming, long before
such effective techniques were erroneously termed �The Japanese Way�.

[10] <#_ftnref10> Before metamorphosing into infomercials for
advertisers, _HotRod_ and _Car Craft_ once reported major drag events.

<#_ftnref11>

[11] �Dyno� Don Nicholson raced a one-of-one �Super Duty� Pontiac
Catalina with aluminum body panels stamped special by the factory. The
car allegedly ran over-cubed and more than 500 pounds underweight. Just
win, baby.

<#_ftnref12>

[12] The Ramchargers Dodge was eliminated in late rounds, when driver
�Al� Eckstrand missed a shift because the pin-type synchronizers in the
3-speed manual bent. In �62 Eckstrand left the Ramchargers to race /his
own/ Dodge, with/ /the new A-727 automatic that, to everyone else�s
amazement, proved to be not only more reliable, but /faster/.

<#_ftnref13>

[13] First in Super/Stock with the 3-speed manual Dodge, white with the
famous �candy� stripes: blue on the top, red on the trunk. Soon that
was jointed by the similar A-727-equipped �Candymatic� in SS/A, the
A/FX, and Funnies.

<#_ftnref14>

[14] *Greg Charney*, then a mechanic in dyno operations, currently DC
Prototype Engine Building Coordinator, is a generation younger than Tom
Hoover. Hoover was prematurely balding, looking even older than his
middle age.

<#_ftnref15>

[15] Hard to imagine today, but many of the freeways built during the
Eisenhower administration sat nearly empty late every night � except for
avid street racers (and frustrated cops in outclassed cruisers trying to
catch them).

<#_ftnref16>

[16] Hoover�s personal car was a dark �67 Coronet hardtop, totally
stock-appearing but for those Plymouth hubcaps, yet loaded with
Super/Stock Race Hemi components direct from Chrysler Engineering
experimentation. That car, now restored by a collector to Tom�s
super-sleeper configuration, was checked over recently by a gleeful
Hoover.

[17] <#_ftnref17> Another group of Chrysler employees who, like the
Ramchargers, drag-raced together on their own time in Plymouths painted
gold. Their team name was the Marketing designation for performance
engines in Plymouths.

[18] <#_ftnref18> All-out fuel-injected, alcohol-burning Race Hemis for
A/FX, NHRA class A/Factory Experimental, the rapidly developing
run-what-ya-brung ultra-lightweight, altered-wheelbase drag machinery
that evolved into Funny Cars.

<#_ftnref19>

[19] _Pre-ignition_, when a hot spot in the combustion chamber sets off
the air/fuel charge before the spark does, burns a hole in the _center_
of the piston top by increasing heat and pressure beyond the limits of
aluminum alloy while the piston is still rising on the compression
stroke. The other form of abnormal combustion is _Detonation_, when,
instead of a controlled burn within the chamber, high internal heat and
pressure explode the whole charge at once. Detonation blasts
superheated gasses down the _sides_ of the piston, melting ring lands as
if from a cutting torch.

[20] <#_ftnref20> *Al Nichols* is paunchy, with the nondescript and
slightly rumpled look and measured Midwestern speech of many engineers.
He is not what he looks like. Still an avid snowmobile racer, he is a
maniacally fast and skillful driver, a bit of a madman when he is not in
a situation where he has to behave himself.

<#_ftnref21>

[21] Most engineers subdue any personal idiosyncrasies within a bland
exterior. But *Ken Heatlie* betrays his fast and active mind through a
mobile face with so many constant movements and tics that it appears
ready to chime the hour and pop out a cuckoo bird from somewhere.
Others seemed to defer to Ken as the pet nutcase of the group.

<#_ftnref22>

[22] Among the celebrated engine head designs by Sir Harry Weslake were
those for the Rolls-Royce Merlin, Jaguar XK OHC Six, Triumph Motorcycle
Vertical Twin, Gurney Eagle 3-liter Formula 1, Gurney-Weslake heads for
the Ford GT-40, and a revision for the Chrysler Hemi that never could
make power. Recognized in the U.K. as the foremost designer there, or
perhaps in the world, Sir Harry carried himself with the dignity proper
to his position.

<#_ftnref23>

[23] Lee Petty and sons Richard and Maurice, the then and still master
engine builder now in the Craftsman Truck series. By those who knew
them, all of the Pettys were extremely intelligent, and Maurice the
smartest of them all.

<#_ftnref24>

[24] Crew Chief, at that time, on the NASCAR #71 K&K Dodge driven by
Buddy Baker and later by Bobby Isaac. Baker pushed the red �69 Charger
Daytona to the first closed-course 200+ mph lap in the world. The swan
song for Wing Cars, by then outlawed by NASCAR, came with the late
Isaac�s record runs in that Charger at Bonneville.

[25] <#_ftnref25> Not just for NASCAR, but also for USAC, ARCA, and
more. Same for drags: NHRA plus IHRA, AHRA, etc.

<#_ftnref26>
[26] A race engine can burn twice as much methanol as gasoline in the
same amount of air. But the BTU value of methanol is only about half
that of gasoline, so you /have/ to burn twice as much. But then again,
methanol cools the intake runners and combustion chambers, so you can
pack in more air/fuel mix /if/ the ports and valves are enlarged to
match. That is why a race engine /built specifically/ /to run on
alcohol/ can produce 20% to 40% more power.

[27] <#_ftnref27> At this point *Buckel*�s face assumed the
thousand-yard stare of a war veteran remembering combat.

<#_ftnref28>

[28] EX-12 was the designation of this experimental power measurement
system temporarily in Cell 12.

<#_ftnref29>

[29] No system built can measure the output of a blown, nitro-burning
Hemi today, and nobody knows how much horsepower one now puts out.
Physics determines that between 4550 and 5220 HP is being put /to the
ground/.

At least another 600 to 670 HP goes into the clutch and tires, 800 into
the supercharger, and 580 into the wind.

[30] <#_ftnref30> Including the /Motown Missile/ Cuda that pioneered the
�four bar� rear suspension (and more) in Mopar drag cars.

<#_ftnref31>

[31] Restrictor plates were first used by NASCAR specifically to slow
Hemis down, thus making Fords competitive (1) by running 427-FE Fords
/without/ restrictors and (2) allowing Ford to run their smaller
Fairlane/Torino bodies.

<#_ftnref32>

[32] The data from a power run was just what it sounds like: Torque as
measured off the infamous Toledo scale � rpm from a mechanical
tachometer � 5250 and the normalization factors of the moment. A
distribution run was trickier. The point was to divine the varying
air/fuel ratio in /each/ cylinder across the power band for that
particular engine configuration, manifold and/or restrictor plate, fuel,
etc. etc. The ratio was estimated indirectly off a thermocouple in each
header tube, which measured exhaust gas temperature there, which related
more or less to the air/fuel ratio.

[33] <#_ftnref33> If Chrysler engineers have changed over decades, their
appearance has not. They still dress from K-mart with an instinct for
bad plaid and carry two pens in the pocket of a shirt with its sleeve
cuffs turned back. Today�s major additions to an engineer�s appearance
package are a beeper and a clip-on ID depicting a much younger person.

<#_ftnref34>

[34] Shepard, a Marketing man never an engineer, has since been promoted
head the Accessories Vendor subdivision, which decides whose seat belts
and floor mats and batteries and light bulbs get built into Chrysler
products. Which somewhat signals the hierarchical status of the Mopar
Performance operation within DaimlerChrysler.

[35] <#_ftnref35> The most successful team road-racing fwd Chrysler
products in this era were the independent Archer Brothers.

[36] <#_ftnref36> A mule is a running chassis for testing. It may be a
pre-production prototype, hand-built out of parts as they become
available. Its sole function is to test parts, components, or entire
systems on a test track under controlled and carefully measured
conditions. After that it is stored awaiting another type of test,
disassembled, or destroyed.

[37] <#_ftnref37> The 1991 Indianapolis pace car was a prototype Viper
driven by Carroll Shelby. That was the first pre-production car to lead
off the Indy 500. And, for that matter, a first for Shelby too.

<#_ftnref38>

[38] They also moved the operator�s console to a new control room
outside of the cell, finally relocating non-expendable personnel a
cement-block wall away from the high-rpm grenade screaming with its pin
pulled.

[39] <#_ftnref39> After Richard Petty dominated NASCAR in 1967, the
rules changed. After Chrysler swept the Top Eliminators, NHRA changed
Stock class rules to handicap Chrysler products permanently.

[40] <#_ftnref40> NASCAR rules specified that transmission cases must be
stock material. Stock Chrysler four-speeds had iron cases forty pounds
heavier than the competition�s. So the Race Group had a set of aluminum
A-833 cases for drag racing /iron-plated/ so the NASCAR tech inspectors�
magnets would stick. /Technically/ the cases /were/ /iron/, even if the
iron was just a half-thousandth thick. But eventually a case got busted
open in a crash and NASCAR spied the aluminum and said, �What�s that in
the woodpile,� and the Race Group had to figure out something else again.

[41] <#_ftnref41> When some man in racing publicly thanks his wife for
standing by him all that time, he means it. The percentage of these men
still on their first wife is depressingly small. When wives of racers
hang around one another, it�s because they need the company � and they
know if Earl is at the garage then Ed is at the garage. Or they better be.