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
isbn:
Lenoir, North Carolina, is a quiet town located north of US Route 70 and Interstate 40 in the hill country known as the Piedmont region of the Tar Heel state, and Don Carlton was one of several talented drivers from the area. NASCAR star Bobby Isaac was from nearby Hickory, while the Petty clan was over in Randleman, and Junior Johnson led his crew of circle-track merry men from up North Wilkesboro way. Drag racers included Ronnie Sox in Burlington, young upstart Roy Hill from Randleman, and Stuart McDade, who was also right from Lenoir.
To be honest, Southern-style racing of all forms was its own breed. The NASCAR guys had been the forerunners in competition, earning their stripes at the track in Darlington since 1950 and occasionally in prison garb when caught running or making high-grade moonshine. Drag racing was a simple contest of getting to the end first, and if you didn’t buy enough right from the factory, you innovated to make sure you had more: a little weight removal, sticky retreaded tires, California-type speed parts, or nitromethane blended into gasoline on some occasions for a concoction known locally as cherry mash. Promotors (such as Bobby Starr at Piedmont near Burlington) paid cash to the winners, and the rules were sometimes as simple as “four wheels, 3,000 pounds, and doors.”
Don Carlton posed for these publicity photos when a sponsor package came to the Motown Missile team. (Photo Courtesy Spehar Family Archive)
Don was not the son of some scion of Southern gentility. He funded his racing through long hours of work at one of a myriad of furniture factories that then dotted the countryside of the Piedmont. After a stint in a 4-speed Chevrolet, he bought an RO-code 1967 Plymouth Belvedere that was somewhat similar to the 1966 car Mr. Hoover owned but with some race-lightened parts right from the factory. He then waited in line to buy one of the Hurst-built Barracudas in 1968.
He raced it locally, but the car was badly damaged late that year in a towing accident. He called Buddy Martin over in Burlington, who not only agreed to buy the carcass but offered Don the job of driving one of the team’s many cars: first, a Modified Production Road Runner; then, Lil’ Thumper, a 1968 Barracuda set up as a match racer. This car was created to run Southern-style events and in the AHRA’s new heads-up Super/Stock Experimental class, where Ronnie Sox himself sometimes took over the driving. Still, Buddy could book the car Don drove when he and Mr. Sox were out on tour with the monstrous Chrysler clinic responsibilities that Sox & Martin operation then performed. Carlton had already established himself as a fearsome driver when that 4-speed was in his hand.
In 1969, Don spent considerable time driving for the Sox & Martin team in this match-race Barracuda set up to run in heads-up AHRA races. It is seen here at the 1969 Super Stock Nationals in York, Pennsylvania, running a special SS/X division at that solitary race. However, Ronnie Sox himself drove it on that weekend. (Photo Courtesy quartermilestones.com, Pit Slides Archive)
Into the air and onto history’s pages, the Motown Missile takes flight during a test session. (Photo Courtesy Spehar Family Archive)
At this point, Don was likely unaware that he would soon become one of the most notorious drivers in the formative years of Pro Stock, a class that was similar in theory to what the AHRA was already running as S/SE or Super Stock Experimental. Humble and well-versed in what a hard day’s work entailed, he and the Sox & Martin operation soon parted ways. After a stint with colorful car owner Billy Stepp, Don had a chat with Mr. Hoover and agreed to take over driving the Motown Missile test mule from Dick Oldfield in early 1971.
His black-rimmed glasses actually made him the perfect complement to what Chrysler by then was calling the Special Vehicle Engineering group. They had computers and a weather station, brilliant ideas, and a tireless calling via testing to make it all work. On the 4-speed, Don Carlton was considered the equivalent of a cyborg, half man and half machine, repeating test after test after test. It would yield impressive results until a fateful 1977 day when he proved to be all too human.
* * *
The Motown Missile legend emerged from this soup of people and backgrounds. The world of drag racing was about to see what was possible when you pushed the envelope of technology. The silo was now ready for a weapon.
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