Anyone make sense of this article?

http://www.hotrod.com/articles/highlights-denny-sewards-super-stock-hemi/

It is a small block car not a Hemi. Maybe it is an original Hemi car that now has a SB in it?? It seems to be some sort of SS legal crate motor but the description is confusing. Looks nice and clean although the blank distributor is weird.

The car belongs to Carl Weisinger, who use to own Oelando Speed World here in Florida. They put a F.I. 5.9 Magnum small block combo in for SS/GT. The first year of Drag Packs was the only year that had that small block option. Very few people ordered them with that engine, but it was legal for Drag Packs in Stock and all SS/GT classes nonetheless when built to those rules. Several people used them in other bodies as well. i.e.: Jeff Teuton in a Duster and Michael Beard in a Volare come to mind. I believe Nowicki had one at one time or still does in his Avenger.

Ah okay that makes more sense. I had never heard of the 5.9 Magnum Drag Pack. All the discussion these days about Drag Pack is the Gen 3 Hemi version so I figured I was missing something.

Well Mopar guys gotta love this car then since it has a one year only engine in it!

Very interesting read. Looks to have Edelbrock or other Aluminum heads. Did not realize those were factory heads on a 5.9 Magnum. Or are my old eyes playing tricks on me?

IMO, the article doesn't do that good of a job of spelling out exactly what's going on there.

The 5.9 Magnum heads were not OEM, but probably one of the Mopar Performance over-the-counter heads or crate motor combo. It was an underrated engine when it came out, but probably because only a few people ordered that option, it was discontinued, or perhaps their marketing efforts for the new Hemi had an influence as well.

Drag Pack debut info.

It is a gorgeous car in person too.

IIRC, they only sold 3 of the 5.9 Drag Paks. Teuton had one, Steve Couch, and someone out East.

SS/GT. If they only sold 3, I'm not sure how they are legal for Stock or even SS. But NHRA allows a number of paper combos now.

GT classes are neat. Sometimes a carburetor change (AVS to TQ) is all that is needed to go from a traditional SS class to GT. More common is a complete different legal engine combo. There are a number of legal SS/AH cars out there in GT with a different combo than the Hemi.

"Hemi": noun; in the opinion of automobile editors under 12 years of age, any Chrysler V8 engine.

IF memory serves me, Allen bought one for Roy Johnson with the 5.9 in it.

The Roy Johnson Drag Pak was a 5.7 Hemi. His original Challenger was a LA small block.

Roy Johnson Drag Pack.

Thanks for sharing this Myron. I could have sworn the original post about Allen giving the car to him had it as a 5.9 Magnum. Guess I was wrong.

Before the Drag Pack was released, I called Donato and he told me the Magnum version was going to be cheaper, about $30k and something around $39k for the Hemi engines. I wanted to go with the Magnum, but when final pricing was released, all the engines were the same price. Might as well go for the Hemi if the prices are the same. I ended up buying a street Challenger for less that had a working transmission and rear axle and suspension.

Agreed. I read that and came out of it with a major case of the W-T-F's. I don't think they have a technical editor, or even a proofreader on staff.

Geoff Stunkard is a very bright guy, a great writer, and knows his Mopars frontwards and backwards. Whoever edited his article down to fit the website didn't do him any favors!

That would explain why I had never heard of them! Had the author put that in the article it would made the whole thing a lot more interesting.

ain't that the truth ! but in reality, you might include most of the general populace today, including "some" enthusiasts !

every redneck i know had a buddy with a 440 Hemi

In the '90s, Carl had a '69 Camaro that he ran in SS/BA. He held the SS/BA record for several years and usually won the SS/BA class runoffs'64 and '65 Race Hemis.

It's kind of ironic he now run a GT car based on an original SS model.

While I enjoyed the article, the "Hemi" teaser did have me confused.

And yes the Drag Pack Magnum engine has been popular in GT.

Bill