life after Super Stock for the Hemi A-bodies?

[hemidup]

I gotta feeling Lambeck's Dart will make a showing in 2011.

[hemicop]

The BO29 & LO23 cars were truly a "Jack-of-all-trades" sort of car. As others have said, many became Pro Stockers, some "match-race" cars which resulted in quite a few getting carved-up and many went on as pretty successful "class" cars, running as intended in S/S or Modified Production or even in some Gasser classes., You can find pics of cars like "Psychotic Reaction" running M/P or Lambeck's car carrying "gas" (B?) designation or more often than not A/MP. These were "natural" cars for the class as they already had the big engine/small car concept scienced out from the factory & the owner's match-raqcing experience allowed him to set-up the car above & beyond the S/S rules yet be familiar with running the car all-out & however he wanted.
As I recall the original S/S rules didn't allow for any tubing or anythingyet allowed whatever tire could fit without rear-end narrowing , so Mopar was smart enough to carve on the rear quarters of the Darts to allow a larger tire to fit without having to settle for a (relatively)small slick---the 'Cudas didn't have that issue.
As to when the narrowing of rear-ends came into play, I believe that was right at about 1973 when P/S really took off, development was coming by leaps-and-bounds, so the necessity of larger tires just evolved. Actually if you look under one of S&Ms early 'Cudas you'll see a leaf/link set-up & big tires--- kind of a cross between the still used 4-link system yet with leafsprings.

[Steve1118]

I wondered what happened to Friel's car...I knew that was a gennie.

Bob Lambeck had a Cuda that was pretty successful in A/MP. Kenny Montgomery ran his as an early Pro Stocker, with a lot of success. He later switched to A/MP and, I believe, won the Summernationals in Englishtown Modified Eliminator. The car still sits in Kenny's shop in A/MP trim.

[Paul Ceasrine]

1968 = SS/B
1969 = SS/B or A/MP
1970 = SS/A or Pro/Stock
1971 = SS/A or Pro/Stock *
* The 2-year rule was in effect for Pro/Stock. The 68' cars would put on
1969 trim to qualify.
Some tracks bent the rules, and allowed the 68' cars to run in Pro/Stock
in 1972.
pc

[davezinn]

thank you for the replies and information everyone. someone mentioned the 14x32" tires, when did they come out?

i have and old article that shows the rear suspension modifications and wheeltubs in one of the Gratiot Darts, it's the leaf -link rear set-up. the article is from '75 in Popular Hot Rodding. was this the same car that was rolled into a ball the next year?

why is it hard to track the cars that were converted to '70-'71 trim? do they drop off the radar a bit because of the update? i wonder if any of those guys who updated the cars still have the '68 pieces collecting dust somewhere.


Dave

[Paul Ceasrine]

Dave,
Many of those 68' Super/Stock car owners didn't realize the value of the cars back then. NOBODY DID, or very few.
I cried many times, in 71'/72'/73' seeing several of the 68' Cuda's and Darts hacked up into a Gasser or Pro/Stocker, or Bracket Car UGH!
They were meant to be Super/Stocker Cars.
pc

[John Lang]

Jim Keyes was going to race , but his new Engine wasn't done ! He was there as a watcher ! ..........John

[hemicop]

The interesting thing about these cars that anyone tha follows them knows, is that these cars didn't have NEAR the budget Mopar gave its NASCAR contingient. If you look at these cars closely they didn't have near the forethought or completeness of the '65 cars but that's what actually made them so great --- a ton of deleted stuff, cheap A-100 seats, basically a street Hemi with big pistons & an x-ram, sometimes they weren't even complete cars when shipped!
Sadly we'll never see this kind of stuff again. The DragPak cars come kind of close but even allowing for inflation the DP cars are far more money than the old S/S were..........

[GarysZ24]

Originally Posted by stefan callender

John Friel plans on a comeback one day, thats an original. Isnt Dailys car an original??

Stephan, I sure am waiting for John to bring that Dart back out to the circuit, but in the mean time I'll enjoy the video I have of his car in action back in the 90's when he parlayed a nearly 100+ ft long wheelstand into a 9.14 (which back in the early to mid-90's was about as good as it got), at 144mph. I believe at Rockingham was the track he ran that on, and he was in a time trial along-side of Bob Reed. Unfortunately, Bob's Cuda had some problems at the launch, and so he didn't move from the line. However, that mis-fortune allowed John's car to be seen in it's grand splendor the whole way down the track, and whoever taped the run must've liked John's car too, because it was the only run during that session that was taped from just after the burnout, to his crossing the finish line!!!

[Paul Ceasrine]

Hemicop,
Your right on. The cars were nowhere as re-fined as the 1964 or 1965 cars. The earlier cars were done at the Mopar facility. The 68' cars
were farmed out. Even the Hurst facility had part-time employee's working on these cars. Scary thought.
I think the factory cost for the cars was somewhere around $3300.
Engines with heavy 12.5-1 factory pistons, and stock Steet-Hemi
solid lifter camshafts.
Despite all the writing about these cars, they did not run 10.50's right out of the box. As usual, more misinformation.
pc