Shop Truck Makeover
April 21, 2025
THE AUTO BUILDER
Featured
Panning For Gold
The world is full of minor inconveniences, and changing transmission fluid is one of them. The job doesn’t need to be complicated, but on some cars it is. When we find the accountant who decided that our 4R70W transmission didn’t need a drain plug, we’re going to intentionally put him on duty at a quick-change oil and lube facility. What were they thinking?
RAPID TRANSIT SYSTEM
Considered a “gentleman’s muscle car,” the upscale Plymouth GTX two-door hardtop was restyled in 1970, offering cleaner side body panels along with revised front and rear fascias. The grille had a unique telephone-receiver look to it, the taillight treatment was changed, and the car was no longer available as a convertible.
PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT: The Accusump by Canton Racing Products
Here’s the deal: if you’ve got a V-8 or a high-horsepower V-6 or 4-banger and you’re not running an Accusump, you’re gambling with your engine’s life. The 24-006 Accusump 3 Qt No Valve is one of those pieces of gear you slap on and immediately wonder why you didn’t do it sooner. It’s been saving engines—and wallets—for over 30 years. Let’s break it down.
Spotlighter
HEMI WITH AN ACCENT
Frenchman Herve Caen and Two Americans, Dick Landy and Gary Hanson, Build the Proper European '68 Hemi 'Cuda
We know little about European drag racing, other than our sources tell us it is hotly contested and very popular. Frenchman Herve Caen is a drag racer, and at age 35, is the owner of not one but two silver '68 'Cudas. One is a nitrous-equipped 440 Wedge built by Dick Landy Industries (DLI), and the other is this beauty, a duplicate but faster fish.
Author
Doug Marion
Photography & Words
Chassis and Suspension
Because it will compete at dragstrips throughout Europe, it has some interesting equipment not normally seen on domestic drag cars of this caliber. But before we dwell on the not-so-subtle differences, here’s a rundown on the car: The tube chassis is the handiwork of Gary Hanson Race Cars in Pomona, California. The front suspension features Art Morrison springs and Koni shocks. Aft is a Christman’s Rear End Service 9-inch Ford differential packing 5.60:1 gears, a spool and hardened axles, all from Strange Engineering. The suspension includes coilover shocks, Panhard bar, a track locator bar and wheelie bars, all Hanson items. Stopping power comes from Wilwood four-piston disc brakes and a Simpson parachute.
Engine Build
The heart of this Mopar is its engine and transmission. It’s a DLI-built 438ci Chrysler Hemi (4.31-inch bore x 3.75-inch stroke) with 12.2:1 compression Ross pistons, Speed-Pro Moly rings, steel crankshaft, BME rods, Fluidamper balancer, special Crane roller camshaft ground to DLI specs (0.740-inch lift and 108-degree lobe centers, 0.025 lash), Smith Brothers pushrods, a Donovan geardrive, a Weaver dry sump and a 10-quart Milodon oil pan. Mark Weiss headers feature a set of 2.25-inch-diameter, 18-inch-long primary pipes that flow into 4-inch-diameter collectors.
The Hemi heads are Mopar aluminum, CNC-ported designs sporting lots of DLI prep. The combustion chambers are milled to 172 ccs. The oversize valves are Manley 230-inch intakes and 1.9-inch exhausts. The valve springs are triple-sprung Manleys and the titanium retainers are Manleys as well. The valvetrain features DLI 16:1 and 155:1 ratio roller rocker arms. The DLI-prepped Hemi heads work in harmony with a DLI sheetmetal X-Ram intake supporting a pair of 4500 Holley Dominator carbs, with jetting at #92 primary and secondary. Each carburetor flows 1250 cfm. In Europe, a 250hp nitrous setup is allowed, so this Hemi is outfitted with an NOS unit. Ignition is a Mopar distributor dialed in at 33 degrees total advance and assisted by an MSD 7AL-3 spark amplifier. The entire engine is buttoned together with top-quality ARP fasteners.
Transmission
The transmission is the tried-and-true Lenco three-speed, but there’s a twist. This trans also has a Coan 8-inch-diameter torque converter, or “fluid coupling,” which helps the launch characteristics and lessens driveline parts breakage. So what you do is launch the car and pull, and with 8-second quarter-mile times, the pulling occurs “right now.”
Dyno Numbers & Performance
So what do you imagine this Hemi Mopar numbers to be, even without the 250hp Nitrous Oxide Systems setup? The DLI engine dyno began equating data at 5,600 rpm, where the numbers read: 630 hp and 591 lb-ft of torque.
Higher, at 6,000 rpm, it read 703 and 615 lb-ft, and the top numbers were 839 hp at 7,500 rpm and 632 lb-ft of torque at 6,600 rpm, and it continued to rev all the way to 8,500 rpm, but the numbers dropped off sharply. Add the 250 nitrous-assisted horsepower and the final number is a whopping 1089. Care to drive? Get in line, mon ami!
