Thanks to those of you who welcomed me and thanks for your comments. I'm attaching a picture of myself and my car that was taken in the spring of 1969. I was in the Air Force and had this '62 Dodge Dart and I was drag racing the car every weekend at Walterboro SC. It was a 2 door post, an original max wedge car, but the original engine was gone when I got the car. I had a 66 Chrysler 440 in it and I had added 3 Holley 2 bbls to make it a "six pack" before there was such a thing. I didn't know much about cars but I sure loved them and I sure loved the drag racing. I put headers on it and a Crower cam, and a Mallory distributor. I had a man at a transmission shop build up the torqueflite trans. It was a pushbutton and when you pushed the button it would squak the tires. It had a 4.10 rear and I drove this car eery single day, everywhere I went. I had some slicks that I'd put in the trunk and go to the drag strip. I went by myself and drove the 50 miles to the strip, changed the tires, changed the plugs, went racing, reversed the process and drove home. I was racing in B/MP and I don't remember what time it ran, we raced with a flagman starter and the first one to the other end won. I was racing against guys who hauled their cars on trailers or with tow bars (I had a tow bar but no tow car). This pic was taken on a Sunday morning after I won a trophy and a check! The trophy was for the B/MP class win and the check was for modified eliminator win. It was for $5 and I never cashed it. It is framed and hangs in my basement. See the gas price sign in the background? Regular was 29.9 per gallon and $5 was a lot of money to me then. But I wanted to keep that check as a trophy and I did. I won some trophies after that and I won some checks too, but eventually I got out of the Air Force and quit drag racing. I was no mechanic and couldn't keep up with all the changes in racing and of course along came a wife and kids and the car was sold for about $800 as I recall. I really missed it for a long long time.
Great story there my friend, and cool looking car. I remember racing my 55 chebby at Imporia Virginia on the old airport surface and a flagman starter. I guess you can tell by that I am an old fart too. I realy miss those days ...John
Sounds like you have two things going for you, your a hot rodder at heart, and you served your country! It doesnt get much better than that. Now all you need to do is clone that car!
Max, that is a great photo and story. Glad you saved the check and the photo. Wonder where that car is now?
I was in Charleston in the Navy at that same time, drag racing a red 67 Camaro, but don't remember ever going to Walterboro, but I do remember high test gulf gas on the base was 19 cents a gallon, case (24 cans) of premium beer was four bucks!! Good times but too dumb to know that then
I added a couple of photos of the old car. I sold it in 1972 and found it in the woods in 1986. I tried to buy it back but the guy wouldn't sell it. I set out to find another one just like it and I did and I still have it today.
Oh man, you're bringing back memories! I had a '62 Dart in the 70's. I'm sure it wasn't as fast as your 440 but it was pretty darn fast. I had a 383 in mine. In about 1978 I blew the doors off some boy racer in his shiny new Porsche. He got so pissed that he pulled out a gun and shook it at me. Being crazy kids, we just flipped him the bird.
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