Chrysler's Motown Missile: Mopar's Secret Engineering Program at the Dawn of Pro Stock. Geoff Stunkard
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Название: Chrysler's Motown Missile: Mopar's Secret Engineering Program at the Dawn of Pro Stock
Автор: Geoff Stunkard
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Сделай Сам
isbn: 9781613256398
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Ted Spehar stands next to a dragster he owned in the early 1960s, driven by racing buddy Deowen “De” Nichols. This was the third chassis ever built by the Logghe Brothers and used a flathead Ford for power. (Photo Courtesy Spehar Family Archive)
A snapshot from December 1963 shows the Texaco station where Ted did his early work. The dragster is parked outside on a cold but snowless Michigan day. (Photo Courtesy Spehar Family Archive)
Ted was a Detroit-area native (having grown up in Birmingham) and a hot rodder from the late 1950s, following in the footsteps of his older brother Peter. He and street racing partner Deowen “De” Nichols got serious and bought the third dragster chassis ever built by the legendary Logghe Brothers firm, but Ted’s true penchant was engine building. It was through his prowess in this arena that he made initial introductions to Chrysler’s corporate office and the Ramchargers team during the mid-1960s, which was thanks in part to a working relationship with Dick Branstner, who was a larger-than-life figure in Detroit’s car-building scene at the time. Ted’s wife, Tina, a young beautician, ironically did hair styling with some of the other wives of Detroit’s performance set, which is how the Branstners and Spehars met.
While Tom Hoover handled the Ramchargers racing engine builds personally, Ted was often given the recommendation when others came asking for services. His real interaction started in 1965, when he was still working out of the Texaco station located at 15 Mile Road and Adams Street that he purchased when he was 22 years old. He called the engine business Spehar’s Performance Automotive and began working almost exclusively on Chrysler products.
In 1967, he sold the Texaco franchise and bought a Gulf station located at 14 Mile Road (one block from Woodward) and continued to grow his corporate portfolio by working with Dale Reeker and Dick Maxwell from Chrysler’s Product Planning arm on media test car prep and building engines for specific Chrysler racers. The following year, Ted purchased the legendary Sunoco franchise right on 1775 Woodward that he subsequently turned over to his top mechanic, Jimmy Addison, for doing regular car work. Note that the sale of petroleum was not always a big money generator at these outlets because Ted was often so focused on whatever horsepower task was at hand that actual fuel customers would drive off in disgust, waiting for a pump jockey who never arrived. Ted noted wryly that this was a likely factor in the Gulf franchise eventually changing hands.
Meanwhile, that Gulf station served his more immediate purpose of being the place Product Planning sent new cars to be super tuned for the automotive media. Ted would blueprint the distributor and cam, dial in the carburation as needed, and (when called on) would perhaps add a little more to the as-released vehicle. This was very rare, and the most visible occurrence happened when he was told to put a just-released 1969 M-code 440 Six Pack Road Runner together for Ronnie Sox to drive for Super Stock & Drag Illustrated magazine. Sox made several quarter-mile runs in the 12-second range, which was faster than the large car could have been expected to accomplish, even with Hemi power!
When Dick Housey drove a 1965 Plymouth for which Ted had built an engine, they went to the runner-up spot at 1965 NHRA Winternationals and reset several records, running in Modified Production on occasion. (Photo Courtesy Spehar Family Archive)
The Iron Butterfly, built in two weeks from a 6-cylinder car that Ted Spehar’s wife Tina had been driving, was created to fit into SS/CA by using an aluminum front end and a circa-1964 Hemi race engine. Seen here under the tutelage of driver Dick Oldfield, on this day the car posted runner-up honors to Ronnie Sox at the 1969 NHRA World Finals. (Photo Courtesy quartermilestones.com, Ray Mann Archive)
This is an early decal from Ted’s business, which for several years was based out of the service stations he owned. (Photo Courtesy Spehar Family Archive)
The now-recognized Detroit engine builder had a very busy year in 1969. In addition to the factory magazine demonstrators and at the behest of Mr. Hoover and company, that late summer found Ted converting his wife Tina’s street-driven Slant Six 1964 Dodge Polara into an SS/CA-class Hemi car he called The Iron Butterfly. Accomplished in a few weeks leading up to the Indy Nationals by working mainly outside behind the Woodward Sunoco station because garage space in all of the buildings was at a premium, the fresh vehicle was driven first by noted Detroit racer Wally Booth at the Nationals. Then, it was turned over to a new mechanic with a college engineering background from New York named Dick Oldfield.
Oldfield’s deployment as the driver came about from Dave Koffel’s recommendation and the shop contract Spehar recently signed with Chrysler. Oldfield was a dominant figure in NHRA Division 1 racing, and he already had the driver points from racing his Good Guys Dodge Dart that were needed to be able to compete with the Butterfly at the NHRA World Finals. This he did well, going to the event’s final round before falling to Ronnie Sox, who won his first NHRA World Championship in the other lane.
Moreover, that Chrysler contract was the reason for the new location Ted found on Fernlee with friend and Hurst employee Jack “Doc” Watson. The Gulf station was being sold, and Jimmy Addison bought the Sunoco station from Ted at the same time. As winter approached, the 1960s came to an end and Ted and his new group of employees got to work. None of them ever looked back as the revolution of Pro Stock dawned on the horizon for 1970.
* * *
Ahead stretched a measured eighth-mile of pavement as Don Carlton squinted through his black-rimmed glasses at the Christmas tree. He was oblivious to the girls on the fence, their guys leaning forward for a better view. The top bulb turned on, and the staging bulb below it flickered on in the evening haze and remaining tire smoke as he carefully rolled the Hurst-built Hemi Barracuda that he named Lil’ Thumper into the starting beams. His opponent, in a Ford Mustang, did likewise. Now came the countdown of five lights.
Yellow … Yellow … Yellow … Yellow …
Don knew that if he saw the green light come on, he was too late. With the pedal to the metal and the Hemi engine screaming for mercy, he sidestepped the clutch and the Plymouth leapt forward with its front wheels hanging a half-foot off the pavement, aided in part by gold-dust rosin sprinkled on the starting line. The next throw was down into second, and the Mustang could no longer be heard as the Hemi engine’s RPM climbed the second time against the steep 5.13 rear gear. With a quick read of the tachometer and the ball-knob shifter in his hand, he flashed across the shift pattern up into third, and the finish line loomed immediately ahead. Fourth gear in the eighth-mile was almost anticlimactic, but he took it down through the final gate anyway with the Mustang behind by a car length. Round one down; two more to go.
* * *
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