– Famous car club consisting of Chrysler employees
– Legendary drag racing team from Detroit that transformed Dodge into a performance brand
– The group eventually went from Super Stock to nitro: Top Fuel and Funny Car
It all started inside a lunch room at Chrysler Corporation in the late 1950s with a group of enthusiastic employees who all had a passion for racing and high performance, but none of them had enough money to singularly fulfill their high horsepower dreams. It was clear talking within the group there were people at the table that had their own areas of expertise that could be used to properly design a car for all-out performance, and then someone came up with the brilliant idea that if they all pooled together their money and efforts, a common goal could be achieved: a drag race vehicle built to entertain them all and within their budget!
The name chosen was Wayne Erickson’s suggestion of “The Ramchargers”. The name is a combination of “ram” for “charge”, which was to do with special manifolding for the intake that increased the velocity of air being shot into the cylinder heads. The group had a “one for all and all for one” mentality, and membership requirements included having to be employees of Chrysler and their individual backgrounds all contributed to what it would take to design and build a racecar. Soon they obtained a lightweight car as a starting base.
HIGH & MIGHTY PLYMOUTH
“Jack McPherson spotted a ‘well used’ 1949 Plymouth business coupe on the street and followed it to its home,” recalled Richard E. Maxwell, one of the founding members of the club. With 25 members all kicking in some $30.00 out of pocket each to get things going, the car (which itself cost $50.00) began a transformation into a unique and innovative quarter-mile rocket called the “High & Mighty.” The year was 1958 and even though Chrysler was phasing out the HEMI® engine from the product lineup on passenger cars, these engines in fact were still being used in the line of heavy-duty Dodge trucks and that is were the group was able to obtain an engine through the manufacturer warranty process, first a 354-cid then on to a 392-cid HEMI. Some of the other founding members of the Ramchargers organization included Thomas M. Hoover, a physicist from Farmington, MI; Dan Mancini, a master mechanic and fuel system specialist from Roseville, MI; steering and suspension engineer James F. Thornton of Royal Oak, MI; Dan Knapp, a mechanic-technician from Wyandotte, MI; Thomas T. Coddington, a mechanical engineer from Madison Heights, MI; and Herman Mozer, a chemist from Detroit, MI, who served as a driver.
With engineering skills and a good understanding of the laws of physics, the team built the car into a very competitive entry in the “C/Altered” category. One of the things they did right off the bat was to address the then-current poor traction qualities of the drag slicks of the era. “Since the tires of that time were not nearly as ‘sticky’ as today’s tires, the answer to the engineers was to maximize the available traction by improving the weight transfer under acceleration,” explained Maxwell. “A high center of gravity would do just that.” Raised front and rear suspensions and an engine re-positioned as high as possible were just the trick to obtain traction, and the HEMI engine was angled in a fashion to raise it up high in the front. A four-bar link rear suspension was fabricated using coil springs and the car launched straight and hard.
The intake manifold developed for it was way ahead of its time, essentially a tunnel ram intake that, in refined form, would be standard equipment on every winning Pro Stock car years down the road. The primitive ram-tuned version that was on the High and Mighty car incorporated rubber tubing for the individual runners leading to a high-mounted plenum, supported by steel angle iron. A pair of Carter carburetors fed the engine, tuned tubular exhaust headers were developed (using megaphones) and power was put to the ground through a 3-speed manual gearbox. A four-inch chopping of the top was done to the Plymouth to help it cut through the wind a bit and the rear fenders were removed as a weight-saving measure.
Those wild 48-inch-long headers with cone extractors on each end of the eight pipes were said to be the result of a research paper written at the time about Norton motorcycles.
When the car was taken to the drag strip, some may have questioned the legitimacy of these modifications; however, when the towering creation blasted down the track in the low 12-second range at 117 mph, some three miles per hour faster than the existing record for the class, everyone knew it was the real deal.
RAMCHARGERS: 1961
A new 1961 Dodge became the next Ramchargers racecar and no longer was the club considered an obscure group of racers, but now fully accepted by the corporation as a respected competition team. This car had about 200 pounds taken out of it and the engine was a .060-over 413 with modified 2×4 long ram intake (cut down in length and then shot-blasted to give stock cast appearance), a 300-degree camshaft plus adjustable rockers from a marine engine. The first pass in the car netted a 13.41 at 109 mph.
At the 1961 running of the NHRA “Big Go” U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, the car was competitive; however, there was a reliability problem with the manual three-speed 735 series transmission (where the pin synchronizers would bend causing missed shifts) and the car lost out in the semi-finals.
The next day at the race, the announcer asked the spectators if they would like to see a special race between Dyno Don and his Chevy against the factory-backed Dodge of the Ramchargers, and the crowd roaringly approved. With driver Al Eckstrand behind the wheel of the Ramchargers car, the two Super Stock cars took off and this time there were no mis-shifts with the white Dodge, and Nicholson went down to defeat fair and square. The 413 Mopar® vehicle beat the 409 Chevrolet heads-up!
Newly appointed president of Chrysler Lynn Townsend had heard about the match race win for the Dodge at the big Indy drag race and told Tom Hoover something along the lines of “let’s do something with this to change our image.”
RAMCHARGERS: 1962
The 1962 Dodge “Ramcharger” and sister car from Plymouth named “Super Stock” were the direct result of Townsend’s green light to adding excitement to the product lines, and Hoover was the guy that knew what could add the pizzaz under the hoods of the cars. The ’62 cars were physically smaller and lighter than the 1961 models, which helped provide for an ideal drag racecar. And coupled with the all-new aluminum-cased TorqueFlite® 3-speed pushbutton automatic transmissions, it made for a very formative force on the drag strip. After being sent to California for the Winternationals, it ran in the high 12-second range at 113 mph and improved immediately to 12.70s.
RAMCHARGERS: 1963
For 1963, a pair of cars were built and as the result of a suggestion by Dan Mancini, the cars received candy apple stripes (to give them a different, more recognizable appearance) and the original idea was to have a manual transmission car (Candy Stick), actually a station wagon, and an automatic car (Candy Matic) which was the 2-door post. The station wagon wasn’t a viable combination, so soon both Ramchargers entries were the lightweight 2-door TorqueFlite cars. Al Eckstrand went out and won the first race of the year, the Winternationals, running a 12.44 second e.t. at 115.08 mph.
RAMCHARGERS: 1964
When the 426 HEMI engines came out during 1964 replacing the Stage IV Max Wedges, Ramcharger member Gary Congdon, recommended replacing the Carter AFBs with Holley units. After sorting out the jetting, the car picked up some 10 additional horsepower! That translated to four miles per hour as the car went through the traps. The 426 HEMI engine debuted that year and at the U.S. Nationals the car went an unprecedented 130.06 mph, the first class run to exceed 130 mph.
ALTERED WHEELBASE: 1965
The Ramchargers were in the thick of things during the A/FX (Factory Experimental) timeframe. Ramchargers member Jim Thornton was the person at Chrysler who instigated moving the wheels forward on the drag cars (starting with the “2-percent” cars in ’64) and on to the original run of altered wheelbase Dodges and Plymouths that came early the next year. Ramchargers became the first Funny Car in the eights when the car went 8.91 on fuel at Cecil County Dragway in Rising Sun, MD, August 7th of 1965, with Thornton at the controls.
TOP FUEL
1964 was also the year the Ramchargers Top Fuel dragster hit the track. Dan Knapp was the brains and talent behind the rail and his driver Don Westerdale zipped to Top Speed of the Meet honors at the 1965 U.S. Nationals with an unreal 210.76-mph blast. The dragster was instrumental in developing the 426 HEMI engine for nitro fuel-burning applications. Key to the success was the bumping of the timing to 75 degrees, which was a lot more than the 36 degrees the older 392 HEMI engines typically ran.
RAMCHARGERS DART FUNNY CAR
The Ramchargers Dart Funny Car was publicized as the first 7-second F/C with its run of 7.98 at the 1966 Super Stock Magazine Meet. While that car was very hard to drive (nearly crashing numerous times), it did set the stage for where Funny Cars were heading. The body was acid-dipped steel with fiberglass roof, and both Jim Thornton and Mike Buckel drove.
RAMCHARGERS CHALLENGER FUNNY CAR
One car from the team that set the world on fire, so to speak, was the Leroy Goldstein-driven nitro Funny Car Challenger (actually a few of them were campaigned). In 1970, the car became the undisputed first Funny Car to crack into the 6-second zone. It happened at the New Your National Speedway, tripping the clocks with an impressive 6.95-second blast at 209.7 miles per hour. A big deal!
Next came a Dodge Demon Funny Car that was unique. This impressive beast was an aerodynamic “lowrider” car that was driven by both Behling and Clare Sanders.
RAMCHARGERS DUSTER
Next up is Ted Flack in the 1974 360-cid Duster Ramchargers Team Car out of the Taylor, MI-based speed shop chain. The car ran in SS/L and SS/K, eventually running 11.0s and later it dipped into the middle 10-second range with the addition of W2 heads (running in IHRA Super Modified).
VINTAGE CATALOG 1976
In addition to the actual racing on the track, the selling of special parts for Dodge and Plymouths (such as a pack of snake-looking equal-length exhaust headers) became part of the Ramchargers organization during the mid-1960s. Within a few years, some of the members quit their jobs and opened up a full-fledged speed shop in the Detroit area, including a division that built competitive engines, eventually growing to a five-store chain with a substantial mail-order operation.
For 1976, drag racing artist John Joduga did this iconic art for the cover of the catalog and it is among the rarest of the paper collectibles for Ramchargers aficionados today.
BARRETT-JACKSON AUCTION
A 1970 HEMI Plymouth Barracuda “Team Car” was constructed in the mid-1970s and campaigned by Dean Nicopolis, running in the Super Stock “D” Automatic class and raced from 1974 until 1986, running a best of 9.97 at 132 mph. It underwent a full restoration in 1997 and has been authenticated as being the real deal (VIN # BS23ROB159450). The car was offered up and sold at the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale auto auction in 2007, albeit with some controversy after the auction ended regarding the amount of time the Plymouth was on the auction block.
TRIBUTE CREATED
This High & Mighty replica was built by members of the CEMA (Chrysler Employees Motorsports Association) in respect and tribute to the Ramchargers’ many accomplishments. It had been determined that the actual original car was scrapped and this car, which is highly detailed, does feature the original tunnel ram intake manifold and tachometer. Built as it first appeared at the 1959 NHRA Nationals (Detroit Dragway), including the green primer and “C/A 325” markings.
RESTORED FUNNY CAR
In 1972, the Ramchargers had a Dodge Demon-bodied Funny Car that set the speed record at 229 mph with Clare Sanders at the controls. This beast has been fully restored by Al Bergler and Dorne Rigby back to period condition, including the Ramchargers magnesium Dana 60 rear end housing. A true rolling time capsule!
MODERN ERA
There’s something very special about a seeing a modern-era Dodge Challenger with the seven candy stripes on the roof and “Ramchargers” lettering on the sides, just like the glory days! Wherever they appear, there’s interesting conversations that take place with the always plentiful number of spectators who remember the legendary Ramchargers cars. A wonderful way to show respect to those men who made the name so famous.
RAMCHARGERS IN 1/25th SCALE
Over the years, the Ramchargers had several plastic kit models available on the market, including the AA/Fuel Dragster, the ’64 Dodge 330 HEMI Super Stock, plus the 1970 Challenger fuel Funny Car. Searching eBay and other auction sites, they do show up from time to time.
RAMCHARGERS IN 1:18 SCALE
For fans of larger 1:18 scale diecasts, there’s been at least three Ramcharger cars produced: 1964 Ramchargers Dodge 330 Race HEMI, 1970 Ramchargers Super Stock Street HEMI Barracuda and a 1970 Dodge D-300 ramp truck.
RAMCHARGERS MERCH
T-shirts, jerseys, license plates, stickers and other Ramchargers collectibles are available online.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED READ
Considered a “must read” for any Mopar enthusiast, an informative and accurate account of the famous Ramchargers came in the book We Were The Ramchargers. Written by Dave Rockwell and released in 2009, the book eloquently details the full story of the famous team. This 304-page publication is filled with details of the corporation, the people, the cars, plus technical facts and rare photographs.
In a nutshell, the Ramchargers did more to put Mopar on the map for racing and performance than any other force and it was all done by those talented men in their spare time. It wasn’t just luck, it was talent, skill and hard work. It also helped being at the right place at the right time, when Chrysler Corporation needed to make a change in their image! In addition to the pictured racecars, the team also ran a 1963 330 Max Wedge Dodge wagon short-lived manual transmission car, 1965 A990 Coronet S/S, 1966 long wheelbase Dart (Woody Gilmore chassis), a Pro Stock 1970 Challenger and 1976 Dart Sport E/Gas car.
Quotable Quotes
“We had a group of ten or twelve guys that were really devoted, then we had other members of the Ramchargers, they came and went. Most of them were engineers, we got together a couple times a month at a meeting after work. Each of the individuals had their own project that they wanted to do, if they didn’t have their own projects, they would help one of the fellows that did have a project. We’d help one another. We built a car called the High & Mighty, it was quite an exotic car, it did some unusual things on the track because of the suspension, it was a very successful car. Low budget, and I mean low budget, probably two or three hundred dollars and all the parts we could scrounge up.”
– Dan Mancini, founding Ramchargers member
“We were all a group of young engineers, Chrysler was very unique in that they had the Chrysler Institute, it was a two-year program, there was a lot of comradery among the various students. Most of us were all car nuts, most of us starting out had some sort of drag racing, or performance car, we met for lunch, discussed drag racing. It evolved really from there. We formed a club, and then built a club car. It gradually progressed into some corporate sponsorship, and that’s what the Ramchargers turned out to be over a period of time. It was a very exciting, evolutionary time for Chrysler. Basically when we all started there, it was a very sedate, stogy corporation that built cars for fairly older people, nothing really exciting. When Lynn Townsend came as the president, he decided to change the image, one of the ways was to participate in youth activities, and drag racing was a big part of it. We got to be a major participant in changing the image of Chrysler during those years, so the kids were proud to be in a Mopar, where in the past, that was what their dad drove. The cars became synonymous with muscle cars, and high-performance just in a matter of three or four years it just turned around. Chrysler sales responded to that and it was very gratifying.”
– Tom Coddington, early Ramchargers member
“For 1965, we decided to go just a little bit more radical, so we moved the front wheels forward 10 inches and moved the rear wheels 15 inches, people at the races wanted to see those ‘funny-looking cars’ run, which were the Mopars. It got from those funny-looking cars to the ‘Funny Cars.’ The owner of the track here in Detroit contacted us and said he was going to have Nicholson come in, and he’d like us to race him. We expected fifty or one hundred bucks or something and free pit passes. And Dan (Mancini) kept workin’ on him and an hour and a half later, it was five hundred dollars, I was sittin’ there and I couldn’t keep a straight face, just laughing, he just kept squeezing him and squeezing him and that was our first match race and we got paid for it! And we found out from that experience that, well, we could go other places and get paid for it.”
– Jim Thornton, driver and past president of the Ramchargers
Author: James Maxwell
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