The '50' Fastest Mopars 1962 thru 1974
What these Super/Stock Cars were set to run 'prepped' at the time built.
#17......1969 - 426 Street Hemi Plymouth Road Runner................................12.80's
#18......1969 - 440 'Six-Barrel' Plymouth Road Runner..................................12.85's
#43......1966 - 273 Dodge D-Dart {4.86 Gears}..............................................13.40's-Low of 12.92 as raced
Just as an FYI the actual target for a D Dart from the factory was a 13.20 ET, which would have equalled the D/Stock record at the time. However, once a 283/270 dual quad Corvette bombed the record to 12.90 around March of 1966 this would not have been good enough. See the quote below:
"The Politician: Thanks to Ralph Costa and Alan Hvizdos
Ralph Costa was a CO-owner and driver of the car. His job on the car was to take weight out of it -- eliminating unnecessary brackets and using aluminum brackets here and there, cutting off bolts and installing aluminum bolts here and there. He did a fine job at that. Tech inspection never knew that they were using aluminum motor mounts and that the fenders were held on with aluminum bolts.
Ralph also had 24 old time slips from when the car raced. None of them were dated but they all had D/S on them. They were from Milan Dragway, Detroit Dragway and National Trail Raceway. Ralph lent then to me and I made color copies of them. He also gave me a few of the originals from each of the tracks.
At Milan it ran between 12.94 @ 104.04 and 13.20. One slip had 13.09 @ 105 on it. Ted Spehar made notes on some of the slips like valve lash, timing, type of plugs used and their gap, what lane they ran in and if they won or lost. The 12.94 slip had "7000 through the eyes" on it. Looks like Ralph really wound out that little 273.
The Detroit Dragway slips range from 12.92 @ 102 to 13.41 @ 102. Notes on the slips indicate that they were shifting between 6700 and 7000 RPM's. They were also playing with timing and tire pressures. Of the 24 slips, the 12.92 was it's best ET.
At National Trail Raceway, they ran between 13.06 @ 104.89 and 13.28 @ 105.26. There is one slip with 13.11 @ 104.16 it has the "WIN" box checked of and a large "T" on it. According to Ralph, they won that day.
From what I can see on all the time slips, it looks as though the car ran in the high 12's and low 13's at around 104 MPH."
The 12.92 ET would put this car at number 18 on your list. I think this is a great posting, it got me interested enough to check this out.
rayer:...
