History Ramchargers/Chrysler History

Thanks for taking the time to answer questions. Can you explain the way the chassis worked in detail on the dart funny car. I heard is was successful but the car didn't seem to be around very long. I have read we were the ramchargers. I'm sure you are proud of all the teams successes. My son is a engineer at Chrysler. We are hard core mopar.

 

It was probably Barnes Daniels. He attends the Autofair.

 

Thanks Frank for clarifying that. I enjoyed talking with him.

 

Very humble guy, like all the Ramchargers. It was ALWAYS a learning experience when I was in their presence. Almost everyone in the club attended one or more of the Super Stock Reunions I organized between 1985-2010. They were at the 2010 reunion as a group because their new book "We Were the Ramchargers" was out. I have a copy autographed by all that were there. It is one of my most prized possessions, especially since we lost Tom Hoover.

 

I mentioned the “cones” at the ends of the “High and Mighty” exhaust pipes. Medical doctors like to dance a little jig and dazzle you with their footwork. In the process, they hand out a lot of false information. For instance, they'll tell you that the baby in the womb is enveloped by amniotic “fluid.” This is very misleading. A fluid is either a liquid or a gas. It would be more accurate to call it the amniotic liquid. But, of course, “liquid” is not as impressive. Remembering that a fluid is either a liquid or a gas, consider the phenomenon known as “water hammer.” Very few of you have been in a house that was plumbed so long ago that, when you suddenly turned off a water tap, there was a banging in the wall. Those of us who remember those sounds know that they were the result of the slight compressability of the water. That banging is called “water hammer.” The pressure cycles of water hammer are the same as those experienced in a tuned engine manifold. In the one case, the cycles are experienced in a liquid; in the other, they are in a gas. In each case, there are periods of time when the fluid is stagnant and either above or below the flow pressure. It follows, then, that there are periods of time when the flow is actually reversed. With exhaust tuning, there are times when the air is flowing back into the exhaust pipe. That, then, is the reason for the cones. They reduce energy loss during reverse flow and thereby increase the manifold efficiency. Keep in mind that all of this takes place while the valve is closed. Believe it or not, there is enough time for 3 or 4 of these complete cycles to take place before the valve is opened. The intake stacks on the old Indy Offies were tuned for 4 complete cycles (or “harmonics,” as they're usually called). Most modern tuning is at 3 cycles. Tuning efficiency is improved as the number of cycles are reduced, but, of course, the runner length is increased. Jaguar developed engines with well over 100% volumetric efficiency, but the runner length was so long (number of harmonics so low) that their use was restricted to dyno testing.

 

I was there (mid 90s)with my son and he has a copy of your program full of autographs. He was about 9 years old and interrupted an interview with the Ramchargers that was going on inside the building We peeked in the door and before I could stop him he ran up to one of them and asked for their autograph. One of the gentlemen stopped the interview and signed the book and then passed it along to all the other members. I peeked back inside to see one of the guys shaking his hand. I went from "who's kid is that" to a proud parent. Treasured indeed.

 

i think i'm starting to understand why these guys cleaned up in the 60's w/ some of the uglier cars around-and some of the coolest!!-this little peek inside the brain trust of those days is great!!...

 

That reverse flow with tuned manifolding explains why some dyno operators were a bit reluctant to test engines with tuned intake stacks. At certain engine speeds, the reverse flow would cause a combustible fuel/air cloud to form around the injection stacks.

 

Yes, Chrysler did make a radial engine. In the early years of World War II, Chrysler made a radial engine comprised of 5 flathead car engines. This monster 30 cylinder engine was used in tanks until General Motors could tool up with a tank-specific engine. You can find more information with an internet search.

 

The floor of the Road Test Garage at the Chrysler Engineering Center in Highland Park, Michigan had narrow gauge railroad tracks. In the fifties, these were the only remains of the production line for the Maxwell. Don't know if Jack Benny ever visited the site.

 

I would be in for a 3 hour video ,your a good man to share your experiences.

 

All this talk about exhaust tuning and reverse flow cycles and such has given me a bit of a flashback. I had an auto tech instructor years ago that drag raced 50's Oldsmobiles and a '63 Dodge wedge car of some sort as well as road racing 2 stroke motorcycles.

He had a small cc Kawasaki and put a lot of time and effort into building and modifying the exhaust expansion chamber for it. It was an older model bike that no one else paid any attention to but he raced it quite successfully for a number of years. He tried to explain all this exhaust tuning theory and standing waves and whatever else to his students but I think most of it went over our heads. I still can't get my brain wrapped around probably even 10% of what he knew about it.

Long live the "Highland Park Hummingbird"!

 

While well-meaning Ramchargers have stated that the speed established by the High and Mighty C/A during the 1959 NHRA Nationals was a national record, it was actually the best speed for C/A on that day. At the end of the day, the national speed and ET records were still held by Billy Rassmussen and his De Soto hemi powered C/A. It was indeed unfortunate that Billy was caught up in our desire to “beat Chevys.” We knew that Billy held the C/A records, but we figured, at the outset, that the Texas home of Billy and Detroit were far apart and that there were plenty of Chevys to beat in between.



I'll speak of Billy in the past tense, but I really have no idea if he's still around or not. He was a very interesting individual. Virtually all of us were born with some peculiarity, though it might only be a food allergy. I hide my clubbed feet in 6D wide shoes, but Billy's condition could not be so easily hidden. Billy was born with a form of gigantism; specifically, his hands were extremely large. It was truly amazing to watch him perform a feat such as rebuilding a carburetor. Those tiny parts didn't seem to bother him at all. My father was a surgeon. Amazing as it might sound, Billy had the hands of a surgeon.

 

Speaking of the group that wrote the book,"WE are the Ramchargers",We have one of those guys that is a current HAMBER...I went to High School with him and still email to stay abreast.

 

Deep in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State there is an annual "Woodsman's Day" where loggers compete in sawing, chopping, etc. They build hot rod chainsaws with bizarre exhaust sizes and shapes. One timed event requires picking up the chainsaw, starting it, and making three cuts in a log of about 15". Winning time was under five secs. Methinks they know what they are doing.

 

How many cars did Chrysler use for the a/fx program. I have seen some info that showed a car for hood scoop development and another for injector stack height and yet another for tire testing. Those cars were golden commandos. Did the ramchargers have dedicated test vehicles also? The info i have viewed were reports to engineers with the results of the tests. The names of who they were sent to were listed on the bottom of the pages. It apears like the comandos has five cars. They were refered to by a car number. They were testing during the winter and spring of 65.

 

Keep in mind that the Ramchargers was originally a car club and that it had absolutely no official connection with Chrysler corporation. (Incidentally, the original spelling was "Ram Chargers." The name was changed to conform to the Hot Rod magazine spelling.) I consider it a catastrophe that the club eventually became a part of Chrysler Corporation. The Ramchargers AA/FD, for instance, was the antithesis of the club's initial goals. Instead of developing a representation of our engineering skills, a "carbon copy" of all the other AA/FDs was built. Big deal!! I equally dislike the fact that a clone of the High & Mighty was built. There was really no excuse for it. But, the "big money" temptation was too great. The club could have established its own reputation without corporate help.

 

One look at the wheels installed on the clone makes me wonder how much effort it could have taken to come closer to what we saw in the rod books. Old wheels are easier to find & cheaper than speed equipment.

 

Were you around the people involved with the Silver Bullett build? I know it's O/T for this forum by 3 years body style, but I was really impressed when I saw it in person on Woodward Ave in '72-'73 after seeing it in a national mag. 10.50 1/4 mile through the mufflers at that time for a street car was very impressive for a Fla teen visiting Woodward (where I actually cruised when I lived there til '70)

 

I wondered the same thing about the bullet. That was going to be my next question. The car did eventually get into the nines. For a comparison this was equal to the hottest pro stocks at that time.

 

No, I was not. Just remembered. A Mopar enthusiast in California told me that the grille of the H&M wasn't "correct" for the rest of the car. I don't know my early Mopars well enough to verify that. Another memory: I built my Sprite in a shop (J-J Kit Kars) where racers would gather. I remember the Bean Bandits were there one day working on a car. The shop owner (Jim Jensen) pointed out the Bean Bandit whose son was killed at the Salt Flats. (Pardon these trivialities. They're just old memories.)

 

we are NOT going to pardon you-you just keep them coming please!!-very enjoyable stuff you have in your brain....

 

Yes!
Being able to hear about the behind the scenes stuff from those that actually were there is why the HAMB means so much to all of us.
History is just one triviality after another, big and small, what you may view as trivial, the rest of us consider quite valuable as the little tidbits never made it into print back when the magazines were covering groups like the Ram Chargers.
Kind of like a book that is hard to put down!

 

As a Chrysler Institute of Engineering student, I spent a period of time (can't recall exactly how long) in a number of different Chrysler departments. These were mostly of my own choosing, but each student was required to spend time in one of the assembly plants. I chose Dodge Main. This was before unibody construction, so the "body in white," as it was called (though the "white" was any one of the colors available) would follow one path while the frame would follow another. This meant, of course, that the two would come together at one point in the line. I expected a couple of husky men would be necessary to insert the bolts for connecting the body to the frame. No, this task was performed by a couple of women. I'll probably forget one or more of the departments where I worked. I remember running tests to determine the "motor" and "research" octane requirements. I worked in Advanced Development, where my assigned task was to verify the mathematical derivation for coil spring deflection with loads at an angle to the spring's long axis. This derivation had been done by someone in upper management with a mathematics degree. Don't know how many students had failed before me, but I was the first to successfully wade through the derivation. I worked in the engine dyno area and in engine design. I was in the research department, where there was little to do but conduct a search...for my own benefit...of the old files. There, I found information and pictures of the De Soto Indy engines and the 30 cylinder radial tank engine. I had a great time in the Chrysler Performance Laboratory, where George Wallace...later to become the department head...directed my work. George developed the quarter mile equation familiar to many at Central Engineering. Quarter mile speed is equal to 225 times the ratio of in-car horsepower to the car weight, that ratio taken to the 0.318 power. Dimensionally, that exponent would be expected to be 0.333, but the equation is based on calculated performance, so the affects of aerodynamic drag must affect the value. When I did the speed calculation for the 1959 Nationals, I used the Chrysler computer and the available force required for that old Plymouth, which was why I was so very close. Incidentally, the camshaft in the car at the time of the Nationals was the stock C300D grind.

 

That tank engine was cool....I saw it at the Chrysler museum when it was still open maybe 10-11 years ago?

 

they just made a movie about you last year....it was called 'hidden numbers'---and you were played by a black woman!!!-

 

Billy all good stuff indeed. Can you fill us in on the induction system that your group designed? Any testing and results that you could share? Some credit it as the first ram induction but where did your group come up with the idea?

 

The Bean Bandit that you met would be Joaquin Arnett, founder and driving force behind the Bean Bandits. His son who was killed was Joaquin "Sonny" Arnett Jr. He was killed in a streamliner crash at El Mirage dry lake. Unfortunately, Joaquin succumbed to dementia back in 2010. The Bean Bandits are still very active in land speed racing at Bonneville and El Mirage (campaigning 6 cars at Speedweek this year), and Joaquin's younger son Jeff is very actively racing.

Jim Jensen is currently one of the main starters for the SCTA.

P.S. I dig you Sprite. Below is a pic of my '62 MG Midget, 283 Chevy V8, Turbo 400 auto trans, and narrowed '57 Chevy rear axle.

20170917_094351-jpg by Mike posted Aug 29, 2018 at 12:29 PM

 

Billy: Were you the guys who went after the MPG record with a Mopar roadster (1928?) that was near stock. The tires were pumped up to 100 psi. The car would be run up to some speed, then shut off, then coast a while, then start up and repeat. Don't remember the mpg obtained.

 

Thanks for the Bean Bandit information. I obviously had only a bit of it and much of it was simply wrong. The Jim Jensen of whom I spoke...a tall scandinavian...passed a few years ago. At least, I assume he did. I last talked to him on the phone. I hope there was no misunderstanding. At the time, he was in the hospital. As for the Sprite, I think I picked the wrong engine. The ideal engine for the swap...in my opinion...would be the Ford 4 litre V6.