1972 Dodge Colt

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Yea I would too
Oldest son called this AM, "Dad my honda is tango uniform!"
So I am going to have to get his work hoopty fixed for him to get to work monday.

Maybe one day I can run my own life.
 
Ok all you Colt lovers, this showed up today:
Get your check books/bit coins out and step up to the plate.
Now:
Dick Towers Collection 8.jpg

Was:
Rod Shop White Hardy.jpg

You can sit in the same seat that Don Carlton and Ronnie Sox sat in.
 
4 if you count the Wagon.
They ran so many numbers, I think these are the Colts.
The Black one was Roger Denny's and it became the White Colt.
Rod Shop Wagon 07.JPG

Rod Shop Red Knapp Butler.jpg


RodShopB+W.jpg

RodShopRed6.jpg

RodShop3388 Jim Thompson.jpg
 
5 original Colts that Chrysler contracted Dan Knapp to build in 1973 for Pro Stock racing. Ron Butler finished the car for Spehar/Carlton. So are the Nationwise Colts the originals built by Knapp?
From Draglist
The Nationwise Rod Shop had three Colts that raced wherever there was a big purse to win. Sadly, Don Carlton drove one to his death in 1977 during tire testing. The stretched car was able to run 8.30s in B/A. The all-black Colt driven by Bob Riffle ran 8.30 @ 168.50 on laughing gas at OCIR in 1976. Gene Dunlap's Colt ran 8.68@ 159.54 in B/A.
Click to expand...
 
RTSE4ME said:
5 original Colts that Chrysler contracted Dan Knapp to build in 1973 for Pro Stock racing. Ron Butler finished the car for Spehar/Carlton. So are the Nationwise Colts the originals built by Knapp?
From Draglist
Click to expand...
Not the black one, that is a Hardy Colt.
But as you said, not Nationwise.
The Wagon is a Butler?
The 5th Knapp car went to Linwood Craft and is now in Roanoke VA.
I think #4 went to Butch Leal but he had just gotten an Arrow.
I believe this is the Lightning Colt.
Also as as side note this is the Colt that was crashed at Bristol.
Rod Shop bought Billy Stepp's Colt on the spot and totaled it when the wheelie bars were not down.
RodShopWhiteFront.JPG

DeSantis and Crider got one of the Colts, ran a small block till they sold it to Roy Hill.
He installed a Hemi.
Crider_Sam_Brown_Dodge.jpg
 
Hyper_pak said:
Not the black one, that is a Hardy Colt.
But as you said, not Nationwise.
The Wagon is a Butler?
The 5th Knapp car went to Linwood Craft and is now in Roanoke VA.
I think #4 went to Butch Leal but he had just gotten an Arrow.
I believe this is the Lightning Colt.
Also as as side note this is the Colt that was crashed at Bristol.
Rod Shop bought Billy Stepp's Colt on the spot and totaled it when the wheelie bars were not down.
View attachment 1716403674
DeSantis and Crider got one of the Colts, ran a small block till they sold it to Roy Hill.
He installed a Hemi.
View attachment 1716403678
Click to expand...
Is this DeSantis and Crider colt that Hill bought?
Hyper_pak said:
Not the black one, that is a Hardy Colt.
But as you said, not Nationwise.
The Wagon is a Butler?
The 5th Knapp car went to Linwood Craft and is now in Roanoke VA.
I think #4 went to Butch Leal but he had just gotten an Arrow.
I believe this is the Lightning Colt.
Also as as side note this is the Colt that was crashed at Bristol.
Rod Shop bought Billy Stepp's Colt on the spot and totaled it when the wheelie bars were not down.
View attachment 1716403674i.
View attachment 1716403678
Hyper_pak said:
Not the black one, that is a Hardy Colt.
But as you said, not Nationwise.
The Wagon is a Butler?
The 5th Knapp car went to Linwood Craft and is now in Roanoke VA.
I think #4 went to Butch Leal but he had just gotten an Arrow.
I believe this is the Lightning Colt.
Also as as side note this is the Colt that was crashed at Bristol.
Rod Shop bought Billy Stepp's Colt on the spot and totaled it when the wheelie bars were not down.
View attachment 1716403674
DeSantis and Crider got one of the Colts, ran a small block till they sold it to Roy Hill.
He installed a Hemi.
View attachment 1716403678
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

colt hill3.jpeg
 
Got over to Xtreme Raceway Park tonight.
Ran a personal best 8.05 with a 1.7 60 foot.
Colt went dead right on the launch and almost took out the 60 foot light.
Had it gone straight.........

Second run I left in second gear, how the H did I do that?

Third run broke second gear, so that was it.

Still lots to fix, but getting closer to the 7's.
Oh so close.
 
I think its second, that is where things went wrong.
I just kept seeing the shift light, and I was in second so thinking that is where it broke.
Drove back to the trailer in first, so there is still some path for power.
This is my Liberty 3.09 that I just love.
I still have the Liberty 2.66 in the shop so that will go in till I can see what is wrong.
Video coming soon.
 
Hyper_pak said:
I think its second, that is where things went wrong.
I just kept seeing the shift light, and I was in second so thinking that is where it broke.
Drove back to the trailer in first, so there is still some path for power.
This is my Liberty 3.09 that I just love.
I still have the Liberty 2.66 in the shop so that will go in till I can see what is wrong.
Video coming soon.
Click to expand...
You broke a Liberty with a normally asperated slant six?
 
I'm not a Colt expert by any means but these are my thoughts on the Carlton Colts from my talks with Clyde Hodges. I only met Don acouple times before he died. I hung out with some guys older than me that knew him well.
After Don died, I hung out with Clyde Hodges as he continued working out of Don's garage.
I believe the Colt was built by Don and Clyde right there as that was part of Don's business. I have pictures of one of Don's Dart Sports being built in Don's parents garage before he built his big garage behind their home.
I'm pretty sure the gold Colt was built for prostock but was no longer competitive in NHRA so Don moved it to B/Altered. Then NHRA made rules to keep prostock cars out of Sportsman classes. Don and Clyde made fiberglass molds directly off the gold Colt. The new fiberglass parts could be easily modified for the stretched wheelbase Colt to follow. The stretched Colt started off with a 117" wheelbase. The body was positioned 10" forward on the frame which put the rear wheels farther back. Then the front wheels were moved another 10" forward. Not a complete success so the rear wheels were put back to normal location. The front wheels remained 10" forward. This would be the Colt that crashed at Milan Dragway July 5, 1977. I don't know that Carlton ever raced any other Colt besides these.
Later, the original gold Colt was rebodied to become the Sox & Martin 78 Challenger. The gold body was sold to someone in Florida.
A few years later, I actually made a lot of the Colt body parts for a Colt that was being built for Stuart McDade. He never completed the car. I ended up buying that Colt. I didn't finish it either. By that time, Clyde seemed burned out with the drag racing / car building. I sold the Colt to a local bracket racer. A 440 was installed and the car was eventually totalled.
Screenshot_20250511_124821.jpg
th-1594628778.jpg
dc7.jpg
My Colt frame when I removed the body to paint the frame.
Screenshot_20230812_105524.jpg
And a picture of the Colt I had after I sold it. I played around with photoshop to remove the stripes, lettering, and huge hood scoop to what it looked like unfinshed when I owned it.
 
Here is the video from the first pass.

So here are my thoughts.
It might not have been that bad, but I realize now my head is too far forward.
I need to move the headrest or the seat to support the launch.
I may have been late to correct with the wheel with my head bouncing around.
Second the 5K launch with the 2 Step was a step in the right direction.
You can see the front end come up on clutch dump.
It looks like I have the clutch tamer adjusted pretty close.
Also you can see a puff of exhaust on launch which I was looking for.
I want to make sure the mixture is rich enough.
I do not see any bog so either the launch, the tamer or the exhaust 2-1 system has helped that issue.
 

@tinman2 , thank you for your comment!
It's buried in my Colt thread, kind of off topic for A Bodies, but I think the slant fits the interest.
I am no Colt expert either, but have talked and tried to learn all I can about that moment in time.
The white Hardy Colt was driven by Ronnie as a fund raiser for the Carlton family from what I remember.
And Clyde did build some of the cars.
 
Hyper_pak said:
Here is the video from the first pass.

So here are my thoughts.
It might not have been that bad, but I realize now my head is too far forward.
I need to move the headrest or the seat to support the launch.
I may have been late to correct with the wheel with my head bouncing around.
Second the 5K launch with the 2 Step was a step in the right direction.
You can see the front end come up on clutch dump.
It looks like I have the clutch tamer adjusted pretty close.
Also you can see a puff of exhaust on launch which I was looking for.
I want to make sure the mixture is rich enough.
I do not see any bog so either the launch, the tamer or the exhaust 2-1 system has helped that issue.
Click to expand...

Yeah it hit pretty hard on launch. If you get it straight you might have somethin!
 
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