A relatively new restoration/hot rod shop near my home has a monthly open house/mini car show event. I took a short motorcycle ride down there yesterday just to see what was there and what they do. Sorry, no pics because I didn't want to take my camera with me on the bike.
Not a lot of cars being shown yesterday, maybe about 20. One very nice Willys with a Hemi - a new 6.1 rather than the traditional gen2 hemi with the blower through the hood. Really nice clean execution. Hopefully I'll see it again when I have my camera with me.
Anyway, I walk into the shop area and the first thing I see is the old "Mopar Missile" 1972/73 Duster Pro Stocker up on jack stands still with the original paint and all. The only thing different is it now says "Don Carlton" where it used to say "Mopar Missile", so it's as it was after Mopar ended their factory sponsorship. I know Don Carlton was killed in a racing accident back in the '70s so this car has been sitting somewhere for quite awhile.
Expecting to find a Hemi up front, I was surprised to find a W2-headed, twin-Holley, tunnel-rammed small block. Judging by the aging and patina on the engine matching the aging on the body panels, I'm thinking this engine is original to the car.
I asked one of the shop owners about it and he told me the current car owner also has the "Missile" Barracuda and wants the Duster restored to a museum-quality race car complete with the small block engine. He said the owner told him the small block was originally built by Don Glidden just before he moved over to Ford products.
I did a little internet research yesterday and found Mopar was trying to develop small block Mopar powerplants back then to get around the NHRA cubic-inch weight break that penalized the elephant Hemi's so much. The trouble with the factory small block back then was you couldn't run it to 9000 rpm in Pro Stock trim without the block splitting through the cam journals.
I'll get down there again and shoot some pics to share. This will be a fun pro resto project to follow.
You never know where you're going to find that famous old Mopar race car!
Not a lot of cars being shown yesterday, maybe about 20. One very nice Willys with a Hemi - a new 6.1 rather than the traditional gen2 hemi with the blower through the hood. Really nice clean execution. Hopefully I'll see it again when I have my camera with me.
Anyway, I walk into the shop area and the first thing I see is the old "Mopar Missile" 1972/73 Duster Pro Stocker up on jack stands still with the original paint and all. The only thing different is it now says "Don Carlton" where it used to say "Mopar Missile", so it's as it was after Mopar ended their factory sponsorship. I know Don Carlton was killed in a racing accident back in the '70s so this car has been sitting somewhere for quite awhile.
Expecting to find a Hemi up front, I was surprised to find a W2-headed, twin-Holley, tunnel-rammed small block. Judging by the aging and patina on the engine matching the aging on the body panels, I'm thinking this engine is original to the car.
I asked one of the shop owners about it and he told me the current car owner also has the "Missile" Barracuda and wants the Duster restored to a museum-quality race car complete with the small block engine. He said the owner told him the small block was originally built by Don Glidden just before he moved over to Ford products.
I did a little internet research yesterday and found Mopar was trying to develop small block Mopar powerplants back then to get around the NHRA cubic-inch weight break that penalized the elephant Hemi's so much. The trouble with the factory small block back then was you couldn't run it to 9000 rpm in Pro Stock trim without the block splitting through the cam journals.
I'll get down there again and shoot some pics to share. This will be a fun pro resto project to follow.
You never know where you're going to find that famous old Mopar race car!