Tom Hoover – Ramcharger & the Father of the Hemi — Part 1
If you are a Dodge fan from the old days, a proud brand new owner of a Hellcat, or if you read my posting “The Story of the Ramchargers”, you might be familiar with the name Tom Hoover, if not pull up your tablet or laptop. You’ll want to know his story because he is one interesting motor head that has led a very charmed life indeed. Mr. Hoover is regarded inside and outside Chrysler Corporation as the “Father of the Hemi.” How he earned that prestigious title was by kickstarting nothing less than Chryslers’ performance revolution.
Tom was born in humble Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, real Mopar country west of Harrisburg. His dad was an auto mechanic, so Hoover was a car guy from the very beginning. His first car was a 1952 Dodge DeSoto with an old-style Hemi under the hood. After high school, Tom went to Juniata College in Huntingdon and studied chemistry and physics before serving in the Korean for War for 19 months. When he returned back home to the USA he got a degree in physics from Penn State. He then joined Chrysler in 1955 and got a masters in automotive engineering at Chrysler Institute of Engineering.
Tom was a master of creation coming up with ideas for many different racing products used in racing to this day. He’s probably best known for his 426 Hemi engine work, a.k.a. the elephant, because of its size, strength, and power. Hoover was also one of the main men involved in developing the first Funny Cars, he also helped developing the great 446 six-pack engine, the AAR (All American Racers), Trans Am cars, and a long list of performance parts. “I had a lot of help” he very modestly said recently. And as I have written about in my post “The Story of the Ramchargers”, Tom was a founding member of the legendary Ramcharger Race Team, the Chrysler employees who spent their nights, weekends and free time building and racing, because of their passion for quarter-mile competition. Did you know the Ramchargers eventually helped launch the companies world-famous 1960s Racing programs? Tom was also involved in Dodges Little Red Express truck. That retro-vehicle before retro was even “in” yet, in the mid-1970s. One of his last Chrysler projects; was in raising the 360s V-8 horsepower with the new hot camshaft. And Tom wasn’t nearly done yet. After his 1979 retirement from Chrysler a group of Chrysler engineers consulted Tom in the late ’90s about the new 5.7 liter Hemis development.The engine that beget today’s Modern Hemi Hellcat Chargers and Hellcat Challengers!
Today Tom Hoover at age 85 is a model railroad enthusiast and as a veteran racing expert, is running a drag racer with his son, a Super Stock 1964 Plymouth, with a Max Wedge engine under the hood. This is the same model ’64 car that Richard Petty campaigned, and won his first Daytona 500 win in that SS rocket. That car was equipped with the ultra rare then, and even more so now, 426 Race Hemi. But Tom is very happy with his Max Wedge engine with available parts “This beauty runs 11.4 seconds in the quarter-mile, and we’re thrilled with it and I’m still having a good time!” …And not slowing down a bit. Just like back in the beginning of his racing days, way back over fifty years ago.
His list of accomplishments and projects is amazing by any modern or otherwise standards, he started out on the right foot with one of the most important parts of the modern combustion engine, this being the fuel injection system. The Bendix “Electrojector”, an early version of today’s electronic fuel injector system. He was also involved in the development of the Slant Six Hyper-Pak project. Other founding members of the Ramchargers were; Jim Thornton, Don Moore, Dick Maxwell, Wayne Erickson, Bill Kogen, and Herman Mozer. Tom; ”the Ramchargers name came from the then new RAM Manifold and the Charge! that came from charging those tubes and cylinders with air.” He designed the first multiple timed inlet manifold during the Ramchargers very first days, that you can see in my photographs from the Mopar Nationals in Columbus, Ohio. Mr. Tom Hoover himself was the national record holder and class winner in C/Gas/Automatic, driving a ’57 Plymouth convertible with a 392 engine, a Hemi of course.
There’s more to come. Like what you see and want more? Click here for my post Tom Hoover – Ramcharger & Father of the Hemi — Part 2. Enjoy!
– HKK Productions
.
.
.
.
More of My Images of the Ramchargers to come, check back soon!
.
.
.
.
Images of The Ramchargers
Copyrighted 2015 by HKK Productions Inc
.
