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.
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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.
rdrnrbobberry@yahoo.com
rtmotorsports@yahoo.com
johnnycruise@comcast.net
moparman@surewest.net
kentsemail@yahoo.com
hess_m@att.net
webmaster@capitalcitymopars.com
tpluth@surewest.net
gregoryckern@aol.com
cras@att.net
ntstlgl1970@yahoo.com
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-
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VO L U M E 21, I SSU E 9
September 2013
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
1
2
3
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CCM General
Meeting, 7 pm
8
9
10
11
12
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15
16
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25
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CCM club picnic
10 am
CCM Board
Meeting, 7 pm
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(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
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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.