71 Motown Missile stable mate WIP

Ted Spehar and my brother used to be good friends back in the day (Ted died many years ago). Ted actually built and owned the car, and after Chrysler left drag racing he bought most all the race parts they had left over. He had enough parts onhand to build many hemi Darts and Cudas (1968 super stockers). I have been up close to that car on more rthan one occassion, and the engineering in it was fantastic. They took every ounce of weight out of that car that they could. Lots of titanium (even the gas peddle). The engine block was machined on the outside to further reduce weight, and those 4500 carbs are nothing like Holley ever produced. The intake I saw had a custom built top on it and seems like maybe a custon built plenum. Transmission was a Torqueflite using a clutch instead of a torque converter (don't forget the clutch peddle!) Carlton died in a racing accident a couple years later (maybe down at Beech Bend). I might add here that the original Motown Missiel car was not factory sponsered, and was basicly built in a "cross town rivalry" to compete with the Ramchargers car club. I miss Ted.

gary

I love building these old school pro stocks and S/S cars because thats what I grew up on. I also love hearing stories about them from someone lke you that has first hand knowledge. Thanks for sharing. Is it true that when they changed the name to the Mopar Missile they got factory support?

zgator wrote:

I love building these old school pro stocks and S/S cars because thats what I grew up on. I also love hearing stories about them from someone lke you that has first hand knowledge. Thanks for sharing. Is it true that when they changed the name to the Mopar Missile they got factory support?

what actually happened was that the Motown car became an instant hit with the Mopar fans (it was different in many ways and also very fast). When the factory offered to sponser them they had to do a name change to Mopar. If memorey serves me right the car was not sponsered by Dodge, but by the Mopar Parts Connection (or whatever it was called back them). When they went with the Mopar name they also dropped the Clutchflite transmission and went with a four speed. The car was as fast as the Sox & Marten Plymouth even though the motor was down about 25 HP. The problem was the first gear ratio in the clutchflite making them have to run a 5.38:1 rear end instead of the normal 5.13:1 or 4.86:1. Had unreal 60 foot times. Because it was not factory supported at the time it was not well reviewed by the NHRA fools, and they had little use for NHRA themselves.

    gary