CCM News - Capital City Mopars
Transcription
CCM News - Capital City Mopars
CCM News A Car Club for the Chrysler Corp. and American Motors Corp. Enthusiast (EST. 1992) Volume 21, Issue 9 September 2013 CCM at the State Fair Events Coming Up. • CCM General Meeting, September 3, 7 PM. • CCM Club Picnic, September 15. • CCM Board Meeting, September 17, PM. On The Inside Club Information 2 News 3 CCM Calendar 4 News 5 Advertisements 6 Advertisements 7 News CCM Club Picnic & Show n’ Shine– Sept. 15 The clubs annual Picnic and Show n’ 8 Shine is planned for Sunday, September 15 at Carmichael Park. The fun begins at 10:00 am. The club will provide the eats so bring your car, a chair and your appetite for a relaxed day at the park. There will be no awards given out for the show n’ shine so bring what you can run. Carmichael Park is located at 5750 Grant Avenue at the corner of Fair Oaks Blvd in Carmichael. Contact Greg Kern for more information at (916) 791-4718. Veteran’s Day Parade– Nov. 11 CCM has been invited to participate in the Veteran’s Day Parade on Monday, November 11 on the Capital Mall. If you would like to participate, sign-up at the next general meeting or contact President, Bob Berry at (916) 9250336. Lets make it another big turn out for the club. C C M N EW S PAGE 2 VO L U M E 21, I SSU E 9 Club Information Board of Directors President: Vice President: Treasurer: Secretary: Membership: Newsletter Editor: Webmaster: Car Show: Activities: Member at Large: Bob Berry Randy Pike John Leymaster Gary Leymaster Kent Cole Michael Hess Norman Benedict Tom Pluth Greg Kern Cole Sawyer Eric Seifert (916) 925-0336 (916) 331-2003 (916) 962-2655 (916) 685-3546 (916) 875-5370 (916) 987-1606 (916) 985-8523 (916) 283-6112 (916) 791-4718 (916) 418-4313 (916) 448-4132 Staff Members Property Manager: Norm Benedict Competition Director: Michael Moore Historian: Norm Benedict Legislative Director: Robin Cole Publicity: Norm Benedict Sales: Larry Pierce Sunshine Coordinator: JoAnn Keear The Capital City Mopars is a proud member of the Association of California Car Clubs and the California Automobile Museum. [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] What we’re all about Capital City Mopars (CCM) provides a place to share your enthusiasm and knowledge about Mopars and enjoy the company of other Mopar enthusiasts. CCM membership is open to anyone interested in Chrysler Corporation or American Motors vehicles who are eighteen years or older and have a valid drivers license. Annual membership dues are $36 for regular members and an additional $6 per co-member. One co-member is allowed for each regular member. The co-member must reside in the same household and be eighteen years or older. All members and co-members are required to participate as worker/chairperson in at least one function per year, and it is desired that, in addition, work at the annual car show. CCM NEWS submissions Articles written by members are not only welcome, they are vigorously encouraged. The only requirement on the content of the articles submitted to the CCM NEWS is that it be automotive or Mopar related. Articles can be submitted on CD (saved in “text” or MS Word format ), e-mailed to the editor, typed/written on paper and mailed to the club post office box or presented to the editor. Deadline is the 20th of each month to make the next month issue. VO L U M E 21, I SSU E 9 C C M N EW S PAGE 3 ceived online, the majority of the people agree that I needed a more aggressive camshaft. I read multiple articles, clicked on many links and did plenty of research and came to the I hear you knocking, Part II conclusion that the advice I've been given makes sense. I In 2004 I wanted to build an engine that would make ordered a cam and several other parts this week. Soon I'll some serious power. I found a standard bore 440 and took dig in and get busy with it. Check back next month for the it to machinist. I ordered a stroker assembly and all the full report. other parts. I read magazines for tips on "blueprinting" and camshaft selection. At this point in time, I wasn't familiar Hemi Under Glass Barracuda collection heads to with all of the Mopar web forums on the internet. If I was, auction from hemmings.com I'd have known that some of my plans for the engine were going to cause me trouble. Kern’s Corner I ordered flat top pistons with the crank and rods. The calculated compression ratio gets tricky with a long stroke engine, but the supplier said the engine would run on pump gas. Mine came in at 10.7 to one. Good thing I have aluminum heads, right? I wasn't sure of what cam I should use, so I looked at the cam used in the 440/500 crate engines offered through Mopar Performance. They used the famous/infamous 292/509 cam. I figured if it was good enough for them, it would be okay for me. I built the engine and it broke it in. It sounded great. It ran great too, as long as I ran 91 octane and never took it past 3/4 throttle. PING, PING, PING !!! I retarded the timing, still getting the pinging. I retarded the timing even more to 31 degrees total, and I would be okay on cold days. Once the weather warmed up, I had to take it easy. What a bummer. It was only within the ;last few months that I learned why the engine detonates, and it probably isn't what you think. From the mid-1960s until 1975, the Hemi Under Glass Plymouth Barracuda was one of the best known exhibition drag racers in the country. Piloted primarily by driver Bob Riggle, it thrilled fans by lofting its front wheels skyward as the thrust from its Hemi V-8 temporarily overcame the bonds of gravity. While many variations touched rear bumper to drag strip over the years, four of these iconic YOU blame the high compression, right? Well, that isn't cars will cross the auction block in a single-lot sale this fall. exactly the reason. Modern engines are running compression in the 10.0 and up range and they don't knock. EFI and computers help, but that isn't the whole story. What I have learned is that a vintage Mopar engine can run 11.0 or higher compression ratios on 91 octane gas IF the engine is specifically built for it. My main mistake in the engine was that I chose the wrong camshaft. The 292/509 cam was designed in the 70s for drag racing. The reason it worked in the Mopar 440/500 crate motor is because THAT motor had 9.0 compression. Mine has 10.7, making it a poor match for pump gas. In the simplest terms, I had more compression so I needed a more aggressive camshaft. I could add some 110 octane race gas to quell the ping, but that isn't practical on road trips. Over the last few months I have been posting questions in several Mopar tech forums asking how I could stop my engine from deto- In 1965, while looking to build a competitive drag racer to nating. Having a classic Mopar often brings some street highlight the offerings of his company, Hurst Performance, creed. Guys see you drive your car and wave, say hi or George Hurst experimented with a midship placement of a Hemi V-8 – behind the driver but ahead of the give you the thumbs up. It is a shame to have the car 426-cu.in. rear wheels – in a Plymouth Barracuda. Hurst and his team knocking and pinging when you are trying to represent the (Continued on page 4) Mopar brand. Over the many, many responses I've re- PAGE 4 C C M N EW S VO L U M E 21, I SSU E 9 September 2013 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 CCM General Meeting, 7 pm 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 25 26 27 28 CCM club picnic 10 am CCM Board Meeting, 7 pm 22 23 29 30 24 (Continued from page 3) soon realized that keeping the car’s front wheels on the ground was an exercise in futility, but his natural showmanship kicked in and he soon realized that crowds would love to see the car run the quarter mile on two wheels, its nose pointed to the sky. Rather than compete in a conventional series, Hurst built the car – dubbed the Hurst Hemi Under Glass – for exhibition drag racing, helping to create the wheelstanding phenomenon of the 1960s. Original driver “Wild Bill” Shrewsbury piloted the Hemi Under Glass (with its “Bear of a ‘Cuda” script and prominent Hurst logo on its belly) through 1965 and into 1966, before leaving to drive the L.A. Dart wheelstander. By then, the Hurst car had been reconfigured to wear 1966 sheetmetal and driver Bob Riggle was next to climb into the pilot’s seat. Though his first two runs produced heart-stopping landings (one pointed to the left, and a second pointed to the right), the third run convinced Hurst executives that Riggle would be no more likely to total the car than anyone else crazy enough to take on the assignment of driving it. (Continued on page 5) VO L U M E 21, I SSU E 9 C C M N EW S (Continued from page 4) Not that the directional instability was entirely Riggle’s fault. Early Hemi Under Glass cars lacked wheel brakes, which allowed the driver to steer the car via independently braking the rear wheels. It’s also not clear when the window was cut in the car’s firewall, meaning that Riggle’s early runs might have been completed with very limited visibility down the track. Two-lever wheel brakes were added when the third Hemi Under Glass was built for the 1967 season, and a fresh 426-cu.in. Hemi V-8 was fitted to the car. In 1968, Hurst built a new Hemi Under Glass ‘Cuda, powered by a supercharged 426-cu.in. Hemi V-8 for added power. Rear wheel brakes were simplified from two levers to a single lever, making it far easier for Riggle to steer the car during a run. Though this car was run through 1970, Hurst ultimately lost interest in the project when its new corporate owner, Sunbeam, frowned on the liability of running a wheelstander. Riggle campaigned the car on his own for a while, but a 1975 funny car crash would temporarily sideline the driver’s racing career. That changed in 1991, when Linda Vaughn convinced Riggle that nostalgia was in, and that a recreation of the Hemi Under Glass would prove popular with racing fans. Riggle wasted no time in sourcing a 1966 Barracuda and a period-correct Hemi; a year later he began to campaign a new generation of vintage Hemi Under Glass racer. Around this same time, the “lost” 1967 Hemi Under Glass chassis surfaced in Canada and Riggle quickly struck a deal to purchase this car. A second Hemi Under Glass was constructed, this time wearing the secondgeneration Barracuda bodywork that had adorned the original 1967 car. These two Hemi Under Glass Barracudas, along with two others (including a 1968 version often referred to as the only “authentic” Hemi Under Glass remaining, and another one yet to be shown by Mecum Auctions) eventually wound up in the hands of car collector Bill Sefton. PAGE 5 Known to have a passion for all things Mopar, Sefton was often referred to as “The Black Hole” because cars entering his possession almost never returned to the market. As for his motivation, Sefton saw himself more as a curator than a collector, and retaining possession of rare and historically significant muscle cars meant they would be preserved for the next generation of collector. Then in May, 43 cars from the Sefton Collection turned up at the Mecum Auction in Indianapolis, Indiana. Of the cars offered, 33 sold for a combined $1,454,500, and now additional cars from the Sefton collection (including the four Hemi Under Glass cars described above) are scheduled to be sold at Mecum’s upcoming Chicago auction. Sefton, who was recently convicted for tax evasion, has of late been paying restitution to the IRS; on August 7, Sefton and a partner, Michael Martorano, paid $7.3 million in back corporate taxes for a business venture known as Consumer Benefit Service, Incorporated. In addition, Sefton paid $1.4 million more in personal income tax, was fined $12,500 and was ordered to split the cost of the prosecution with codefendant Martorano. Sefton was also sentenced to 48 months in prison, although he has until August 21 to file an appeal. If no appeal is filed, Sefton is scheduled to begin his sentence on November 5. Mecum has the four Hemi Under Glass cars scheduled to go to auction at its Chicago sale in October. As with many of Sefton’s more valuable cars previously offered (including a Plymouth Superbird once owned by racer Roger McCluskey, and the 1971 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda known as the Haircut Hemi, both of which failed to meet the reserve price), these four will carry a reserve price. Mecum’s Chicago auction will take place October 10-12 at the Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, Illinois. For more information, visit Mecum.com. PAGE 6 C C M N EW S California SuperStores Folsom 12545 Folsom Blvd Folsom, CA 95630S Sales: (888) 228-9289 Service & Parts: (916) 857-1930 VO L U M E 21, I SSU E 9 VO L U M E 21, I SSU E 9 www.gohasties.com C C M N EW S PAGE 7 11366 Amalgam Way, Rancho Cordova, CA 95670 The Classic and Collector Car Insurance Specialists Wholesale prices with your CCM membership card www.cruisinnews.com Capital City Mopars P. O. Box 340426 Sacramento, CA 95834-0426 | www.capitalcitymopars.com RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED First Class Hot dog cook out before every meeting starting at 6 PM! Note: Free car club member complimentary passes to the California Automobile Museum can be obtained from President Bob Berry or Treasurer John Leymaster. Passes can also be mailed with your newsletter when requested. GATE TIMES Gates Open...7:00am Car Show Judging...10am-12noon Drag Racing Time Trials.10:00am Eliminations...2:00pm-5pm Car Show Awards...2:00pm Donate Raffle Prizes Got any items you won at a previous raffle or bought that you do not need? Consider donating them to the club as raffle prizes for the general meeting or the annual car show. DMV Help Line (916) 657-6560 CCM Members! Got a business? Provide a business card and it will be printed in the pages of CCM News free! next meeting Tuesday, September 3 at 7:00 p.m. at the California Automobile Museum, 2200 Front Street, Sacramento, CA.