2005 Racing Issue - UAW-Chrysler.com

RIGHT: COURTESY OF DAIMLERCHRYSLER; THIS PAGE TOP: COURTESY OF DAIMLERCHRYSLER; BOTTOM COURTESY OF EVERNHAM MOTORSPORTS
Family Vehicles, and co-driver Pete
Gladysz, a powertrain manager at
DaimlerChrylser Performance Vehicle
Operations, captured another Top 5
finish overall (their third) and a Group
5 win (Shepherd’s sixth, Gladysz’s
fifth). Dodge had a perfect season,
winning nine of nine races, giving
Mopar and Dodge the overall SCCA
ProRally manufacturers’ title.
Shepherd and Gladysz took the
championship, dominating the division,
winning six of nine races.
Shepherd has been rallying since
1972 and Gladysz since 1977.
They’ll keep doing it, a two-wheel
drive David against the four-wheel
drive Goliaths. “It’s the challenge of
winning,” Gladysz says. That’s one
sentiment that’s shared by Dodge
TOP: Driver Shaun Carlson’s NHRA
Sport Compact raises dust.
RIGHT: Erin Crocker, the first woman to
win a World of Outlaws race, brings
diversity to the Evernham team. She’ll
be competing in the NASCAR Busch
Series and ARCA for Evernham Motorsports
and the USAC Silver Crown for
Kasey Kahne Motorsports.
Oh, Yeah, It’s a HEMI
CHRYSLER INTRODUCED THE HEMI V-8 ENGINE in 1951 with
what was then an astonishing 180 horsepower. Thirteen
years later at the Daytona International Speedway, the legend
of Hemi power was chiseled in granite.
On that day in 1964, the first three finishers of the
Daytona 500, led by Richard Petty, were driving 426
Hemi-powered Plymouths. It was the engine’s first race,
a remarkable testimony to the Chrysler engineers who
built the engines in record time. They worked around the
clock in late January 1964 to correct a problem with thin
cylinder-wall castings. It was only on the night before the
race that improved engine blocks were installed.
For the Hemi’s competition, Daytona was a season
preview. Plymouths and Dodges won 26 times, largely
thanks to Hemi power.
In 1965, NASCAR decided the Hemi was just too
powerful and issued rule changes basically outlawing the
engine because it was not available in stock production
models. A year later, Dodge offered the 426 Hemi as a
production option, and the engine was back in NASCAR.
When Chrysler began offering a slightly tuned-down version
of the 426 Hemi in Plymouth Belvederes and Dodge
Coronets and Chargers, the era of the muscle car arrived.
The street Hemi came with dual, four-barrel carburetors
mounted on an aluminum dual-plane intake manifold.
The engine’s advertised horsepower and torque
were 425 horsepower and 490 pounds per foot of
torque, but drivers often claimed the output was closer
to 500 horsepower.
What made it a Hemi? The cylinder head configuration
has a nearly centrally located spark plug in a hemispherical
combustion chamber. This unique architecture has an
inherent airflow that translates into big power.
Anyone with a Hemi under the hood knew the car
would be the first off the line at a stoplight. What Hemi
couldn’t beat was the oil crisis.
The first-generation street Hemi passed into history
in 1971. Today, a state-of-the-art version of the Hemi is
available on the Dodge Magnum, Dodge Durango and
Dodge Ram pickup, as well as other Chrysler Group
vehicles. Find out more about the Dodge Domination
Powered by Hemi vehicles at www.dodge.com. — J.M.
drivers in every series. ■ TOMORROW SPECIAL RACING 2005 23