Blast down the quarter mile in your favorite 413 Long Ram, 426 Max Wedge, and 426 Hemi in
Mopar Factory Drag Cars: Dodge & Plymouth’s Quarter-Mile Domination 1962–1972!
Stock-based drag racing throughout the 1960s demanded that the cars competing on the track be genuine production models and that they could be purchased by anyone. The strict regulations dictated total commitment from the manufacturers if they were to be successful. No one was more committed than Chrysler.
Chrysler attacked Stock (Super Stock) drag racing in the 1960s with the same fervor as it did the NASCAR Grand National, which itself spawned the reintroduction of the Hemi engine. Its engineers designed and produced a new factory Super Stock turnkey race car most years throughout the decade and enjoyed absolute success on the track, forever cementing its legendary performance status.
The introduction of Pro Stock in 1970 brought with it exciting heads-up racing with the expectation of producing multiple winners from a variety of brands. Instead, it resulted in total Mopar supremacy, as Hemi-powered Chrysler cars won 12 of the 15 national races throughout the first two years, prompting the NHRA to introduce weight breaks to scupper the Chrysler domination. The new 1972 regulations favored small-block-powered compact cars and were the first major step toward Pro Stock spiraling away from its roots and into the tube-frame silhouette formula seen today.
Racing historian Steve Holmes delves into this fascinating period, capturing the careers of the Ramchargers, Melrose Missile, Bud Faubel, Dick Landy, Sox & Martin, Herb Mc Candless, Don Grotheer, Motown Missile, and countless others, providing a blow-by-blow account of Chrysler’s factory drag car programs and the incredible cars it produced to trounce its rivals during the most epic era in Stock drag racing history.
Tentang Penulis
New Zealand–born Steve Holmes has spent his life studying automotive history. An author of more than a dozen books and countless magazine features, his primary focus is American muscle car/pony car and motor racing history. It’s on these topics that he has been fascinated with and concentrated much of his career. In 2011, Steve founded theroaringseason.com, which is an online forum where he shares historical stories and vintage racing photo collections. His passion for racing history extends to a vintage road race car he is in the process of restoring that he will eventually return to the track.