wmf62

my factory Super Stock 426 wedge with factory fiberglass frontend.
Bill

wmf62

thank you, I've always been a bit of a 'tinkerer'/dreamer; you may be familiar with the conversion to EFI I made to the Rochester in my 62.... (if it wasn't for the crappy gas I'd still be running the original Rochester...)
Bill

Powershift

Bill:

Good looking car..............looks " street mean" But where are the sponsor decals and logos and the fenderwell headers??

Seems all the mid-1960's MOPAR racers had fenderwell headers. I was able to shoehorn in a set of Mickey Thompson undercar headers in my 1965 but they didn't go in without a fight. So much for Mickey's "bolt on" claims.

I never owned a MAX WEDGE car, but used to dream about having one during that time. They were awesome.

Larry

wmf62

lol... it's was simply Fleckenstein's Dodge; named for ME (Bill Fleckenstein) no sponsors, no nada.... I do remember an announcer at Milan Dragway say he knew the 'dealership'... hahahaha

it had the tri-y fender well headers, used to melt the fiberglass fenders

Bill

DansYellow66

Very nice. I liked my 2 dr hardtop but the 2 dr post cars looked all business - and lighter, stiffer. With factory fiberglass I assume that was a Max Wedge engine and not a street wedge? I remember seeing several 64 Plymouth 2 dr post Belvedere cars running around Kansas City with 426 street wedges and 4 speeds. Seems they were all painted beige for some reason. Stealthy sleepers I guess.

wmf62

full-on factory car, stage 3 Max Wedge... bus sized battery in the trunk, no backseat, bench seat, torqueflite

Bill

Westlotorn

That car was rare and extremely fast. Had a friend that ran one in Denver in the 80's, I don't remember what he did with it but I know he switched to racing a 70 Challenger with a 440. Should have kept the Max Wedge with the light front end. Those are worth the big bucks to collectors.

ajrothm

Awesome thread!

I always heard about stories from Woodward ave etc.

My friend still goes up there each year from Houston, Texas for the Woodward ave Dream Cruise.

About 4 years ago, he drove his 69' Satelite up there from Houston with a 528", cross rammed hemi. He said there is still some action late at night on Woodward during the Dream Cruise. He put like 5k miles on it round trip.

Its a bucket list item for me to make it up there.

For 2017, I'm long hauling the Hot Rod Power tour in my 71' with my dad (he's 65yrs old). Maybe the following year I can make it to Woodward.


Keep the stories coming!

Powershift

Expect Bill's 426 MAX Wedge was capable of 11 sec passes. Maybe better depending on Bill's tuning skills back then.

Larry

66/427

Enjoy all the stories but I thought that I would not comment about the old days since I grew up in the shadows of Detroit but in a different Country then decided what the heck. Had many friends that lived on the north shore of the Detroit River with the same thing in common HP. Detroit dragway and Milan were just across the creek. Windsor was a large automotive centre back in the 60's Ford Chrysler GM all here. In 66-67 was doing stop light performance verification with a 1966, 2800 lb., 327/350, muncie backed, 12 bolt rear, Pontiac all GM installed. Raced at night cruised the drive ins then went to work during the day at a place some may remember from the 60's living in Detroit, CKLW the Big 8. Do you remember this radio station? Does it bring back memories?

RIC

DansYellow66

Very cool - those things were animals right out of the showroom. I imagine it was hitting hard at idle with 13.5 compression and headers.

427Hotrod

I learned something today.....I knew of Mopars with aluminum and factory acid dipped front ends...but didn't recall any with fiberglass.

Way back when, a buddy had aquired an ex- Ramchargers Dodge. It had aluminum fenders, plexiglass windows etc..and a cheap blue paintjob where you could still feel/see the stripes under the paint. The Hemi was long gone. He stuck a 440 in it and bracket raced for years.

Another friend had an HP2 Belvedere factory racer. Ran it for years as "Big Iron" and then built a Feather Duster with Hemi and ran it as Big Iron II.

The story on the HP2 is cool. He had heard about them and was trying to get one through the local dealer without luck. Later, the dealer got a call from another dealer in Witchita Falls Tx. They had managed to get two of them...a black automatic one and a white 4 speed. They didn't want the 4 speed so it was available. He took off that night to drive there and was peeping through the shop windows at sunup to see if it was there. He bought it on the spot and loaded it on the trailer to bring home. The dealer had already installed some headers on it to go "test" a few times.

Along the way, they stopped and called back home to get someone to take the slicks off the Chevy (belonged to the guy driving up with him) and mount them on a set of spare Mopar wheels. Now at this point...the new owner (Ray) had never raced a 4 speed. He owned a Max Wedge car that was well known in the area as being a bad boy. When they got to town they took both cars out to our local "test area" known as "Radio Hill" to see how the new race Hemi would run. When it was all over the Chevy guy banged the heck out of the gears and spanked the Max Wedge. The max went up for sale the next day and Ray became known as "Mr Hemi" in our area for years.

He was great to hang out with. Wouldn't let anyone touch his block for machine work except Dick Landy. Always shipped it to CA when needed. Well...he did let Reher Morrison hone it one time when he was in a hurry. He remained a dyed in the wool 4 speed guy. He taught me that a 4 speed had a "variable stall speed" and that ",,,,,them 'ole Chevy's may come out of the hole good....but once I click "Mr Hemi" in the "Money Hole" (4th gear) it's all over" because he'd drive around them at the end!

Fun times!

JIM

TCracingCA

I have never looked on a map to see where the Woodward cruising actually was happening! So do any maps exist breaking the whole thing down exist?

I actually own that Woodward cruising book in my collection and I think it charted it out somewhat! I am going to go get it back out! I also know Hot Rod around like 1981 did an article on the hot street action around the Country!

I like those Ramcharger, Max Wedged cars and get a little mixed up on WO 23 codes and such and 426 Wedge vice 426 Hemi, 413 Wedge, etc. until the hood was opened, then post or sedan! I didn't like the really ugly ones, but those were the ones to watch out for! Need notes on all of those cars! Ya they are fast!

wmf62

Jim
the car didn't come with the fiberglass installed, it was under-the-counter stuff with Mopar OEM part numbers formed into each part just as if they were metal. I had to drive to Windsor, Ontario to pick it up.

there was a bunch of factory oddball stuff with Mopar part numbers; for example there were lead bars that could be formed/bent around the axle housing to add extra unsprung weight.

Bill

Westlotorn

I am sure it went faster than 11, my buddy ran a 64 Savoy Max Wedge car since around 1990. NHRA A stock 4 speed. At one point he held the National Record at 10.30 and 129 MPH. They were fast for sure.
The Savoy still has the stock steel fenders.
( He recently switched to a 426 Hemi and an automatic in the same car, now it has run 9.70's and 135 mph in positive air )
Donny Brass is really good but these old Chrysler products are in a different zone.

427Hotrod

OK...now that makes sense. Sneaky!!

My old Pro Street '68 Nova was an AHRA record holder before I got it. I put it back on the street and that sucker would hook on any backroad.

After I had owned it awhile I found all the little tricks. First tip off was that the F/R weight distribution had like 58% on the rear wheels with an iron headed big block uo front! The front subframe was bolted to body with no bushings to lower body. They measured front crossmember to ground...so you could only go so low. Loweering body meant some incredibly slick work on the front radiator/fender support so that you'd never notice it was dropped about 2" in the front. There were lead bars hooked together with eye bolts and fed up into rear frame rails like a chain. Took a while to figure out what that rattle noise was! Both doors had weight boxes in them behind stock door panels, Another was in the cowl. More were in the area below the rear side windows. You could move weight all over as needed. Came with two sets of painted fenders...one acid dipped so thin they had spray foam on back side to hold them straight...and a stock set. The whole car was assembled with aluminum bolts...seriously! Had leaf springs and ladder bars with no floaters. Theoretically shouldn't work...but as I said...traction was never an issue. It was done by Don Hardy who put same thing under Dyno Don's Pinto. It did a lot of street racing under my command to earn the fastest in the area title!

It's still in my old hometown and running as a racer again.

JIM

mashinter

Absolutely! Then WRIF.

wmf62

Bill

Westlotorn

The list of tricks used to move the weight around is amazing and really made those cars launch. I have seen the rear bumpers filled with a lead lining in NHRA stock classes.
Where the weight was removed in the car was always up front and hard to find.
Thanks for sharing Jim.