The Story of the Ramchargers

May 2024
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The Story of the Ramchargers – Part 2

When 1964 began, the Max Wedge 426 still dominated Drag Racing Stock Classes, but this was about to change… Down south there was another kind of racing going on, and Chrysler had a magic bullet to go into these race cars; it was a new version of an old friend – the Hemi engine. And as you might expect, the Ramcharger team played a big part in developing this engine.

For 1964 Tom Hoover had redesigned the Hemi engine until it was a totally new creation. About the only thing it shared with the early Hemi engine was the shape of the combustion chamber. For the past few years the NASCAR Fords had more horsepower than the Dodges or Plymouths. The new Hemi was going to shake thing up. To quote Tom Hoover; “Well, the very first laps testing this new Race Hemi 64 Dodge, we had more horsepower then the Max Wedge engines had ever run.” These cars were not only faster than the Fords – they were a lot faster! This resulted in the executives at Ford going absolutely berserk about this new winning competition from a long time adversary. And, of course, Richard Petty won the Daytona 500 in a Race Hemi Plymouth Fury. That started the season off with a bang, the beginning of many in this year the first year of the “Super-Speedway”. To quote Tom Coddington “The NASCAR Race Hemi initially had one set of problems getting dialed in. But the Drag Racing teams were dealing with a different set of issues.” Who are you gonna call? That’s right, not the Ghost Busters, The Ramcharger Team! Of course they stayed completely involved. Tom C; “At first we had carburetor problems in the Drag Race NHRA versions. Chryslers’’ emphasis was on the NASCAR version of the car; the Drag Racing version was simply brought along. Once the Holley carburetors were adjusted right, we took it out for the first time to Detroit Dragway NHRA meet in the FX class where it set an ET and speed record. From then on it ran with Holly carburetors.”

But there still was a problem with the lack of enough tire traction. It was time for another engineering solution, and this one was going to revolutionize the sport. To get better weight distribution, the team made a radical change, moving both the rear and the front wheels forward 4 inches. This shifted more of the cars weight over its rear wheels for a better bite. It was so cleverly done, many people didn’t notice. This little wheelbase adjustment worked so well, the team decided if a little was good, a lot would be just right! So for 1965, they moved the front wheels forward 10 inches and the rear wheels forward 15 inches! The altered wheelbase factory experimental car was pretty “off-the-wall”, but it worked great. And in Drag Racing, when something works it catches on. So overnight, altered wheelbase cars started showing up everywhere. And the Ramchargers had invented a whole new class of racecar. Coddington; “People at the races wanted to see those “funny looking cars” run, which of course were the Mopars. It went from “Funny looking cars” to the “Funny Cars”.

Between 1963 and 1966 Drag Racing door slammer classes exploded. Super Stock had expanded from basically stock cars, to some very wild and exotic creations. These new altered wheel based cars were now running in the eights at over 150 mph. At the head of this pack were the dominating teams of the Ramchargers. Now Drag Racing was becoming an even more expensive past time due to all of the great new ideas and techniques for ways of winning. Despite some help from the Chrysler Corporation, the Ramchargers were still paying for most of this from their own pockets! But luckily they were able to make the race victories payoff. Tom Hoover; “Prize money of 50 to about only 100 dollars and maybe some free pit passes was typical in 1965. One time there was a request to hold a match race with the Nicholson’s Race Team at the Detroit Dragway. After one hour and a half of negotiating, Dan Mancini was able to settle on $500 to go to the victors’ team.”

By 1966, funny cars had evolved from the wild AFXers into full tube chassis with fiberglass body racecars. The speeds in both “Funny Car” and “Fuel” racing both reaching 200 mph. It was a very different sport, in a very different environment, from the one they took on in 1959. The Ramchargers had been at the top of the sport for nearly 10 years. Their list of achievements was incredible. They were the first to run a nine second quarter mile on gasoline, they were the first AFX car in the eights with nitro fuel, and their 1966 Dodge Dart was the first “Funny Car” to run a quarter mile track in 7 seconds. Amazingly they did it all without giving up their day jobs. Tom Hoover; “Within the engineering establishment we were looked at as a little bit odd, and even why we would want to do this. And it probably wasn’t the best thing for corporate advancement.”

So then in 1967, after having achieved practically everything in American Drag Racing, it was time to stop and take a look around. Tom H; “We all had moved up in the ranks of the corporation, to somewhat more responsible jobs, not necessarily working in the race group anymore. And it was a question of what are we going to do, are we going to quit work and just race instead? And at the end of ‘67 we decided, well, it’s time to get out.” After the original group had retired a new Ramcharger racing team continued on the Mopar tradition led by some Chrysler enthusiasts Dick Scoglan, Dick Maxwell, Dan Knapp and others continued to run “Funny Car”, “Top Fuel”, and “Pro Stock” for several more years. This group finally hung up their helmets in 1975. They had converted their racing enterprise into a successful retail auto parts business, called, of course, Ramcharger Auto Parts. Many of the old team still get together today, not to go racing, these guys have been there and done that. And today’s drag racers and fans all over the world owe them a big thank you for making this sport so exciting.

There’s more to come. Enjoy!

– HKK Productions