I will never forget the first time I saw the Motown Missile,It was at US 131 dragway in Martin,Michigan at the Popular Hot Rod race.All the big name Pro Stock teams were at the race,and the Missile had the clutch-flite trans in the car which was a first for the Pro Stock class,and the first run they made was low E.T for the class,and as the day when along time after time they would run better than the rest,By night fall you could not get within 50 Ft of that car,the fans were going nuts trying to get pictures and a first hand look at the team and the car.I look over and only a handful of fans were around the Sox&Martin car which was very strange to see. The Missile also won Pro Stock that weekend and made me a fan forever of the Motown Missile cars.

My dad, Ted DeTar did some transmission work for the Ramchargers back in 65. He had bought the 64 car from Jim Thorton, bought the 65 B/Fx'r from Jim and also the 65 Ramchargers "Mule" car from them also. He had alot of cars also besides building Hemi's for alot of people. Here in the Midwest, if you raced Mopar Hemi's, I'm sure you had a visit with him.

For those that do not get "Mopar Muscle" the August 2006 issue has a great 7 page article by Geoff Stunkard on the history of the Hemi Colts along with some good pictures.

Great pictures but the article is only about 80% historically correct

I wonder why the guy that wrote it, did not contact the people that gave him info, to proof read it ---

Is it worth the purchase or are the Colt pictures more of what has been shown here?
Hey Stewart, I can't seem to post a picture of my Colt on moparts. If I send it to you could you make it happen?

the article is worth reading and there are some unseen pictures --- send me your Colt pictures and I will try to get them on this thread -

Who out there can enlighted us to the evoloution of Pro Stock in 1969? Who where the driving forces, the movers and shakers, racers, factory reps, NHRA officials?
As the story unfolds.........Who where the morons that stuck up Chrysler's you know what? What was Chrysler's reaction?

My understand of the beginning of ProStock - is that after the start of Funny Car madness, the factory's realizeD that the tie-in between the race cars and actual street cars, faded. The factory's returned to supporting cars that actually looked like cars. All of the big 3 came out with serious high performance street cars. Also during that time the racers - Sox - Jenkins - Nicholson were very involved with match racing a "psuedo" super stock type car. The appeal of this type of car was incredible - race tracks across the country were packed with fans that were rooting for their favorite driver and car type. Seeing the success of this, Sox-Jenkins-Nicholson approached NHRA with a proposal to start a new class -- ProStock -- and as we see today, it has developed into a high refined race car. Far beyond what I hoped it would ever be. I am old fashioned -- bring back true STOCK - SUPER STOCK - and PROSTOCK ---

COME ON GUYS AND GALS --- Are Fred and I the only ones that have stories and photos --- ????

Let's see them - and if you can not get them on this thread - send them to me and I will scan them to a disc for free --- I will even pay shipping back to you. NOW HOW GOOD IS THAT DEAL????

Stewart,
Here's a thought...with the onset of muscle car re-makes of Challenger, Mustangs, and Camaro's, it would be a prime opportunity for NHRA to start perhaps a New Car Nostalgia Pro-Stock Class with rules that would maybe limit the full blown exotic pro-stock design like you see today...
Imagine a brand new Challenger in a Missle paint scheme and similar configuration...it'd be pretty cool!

Hey! I just realized that several of the pics in the first posts are from Gainesville Raceway here in Florida! I think it was 1978 when I first started racing there and thats the tower they had before renovating the whole place and putting a new one up behing the starting line.

Missile test session @ Gainesville.

Guess I'll be taking a longer lunch break to catch up on all this neat stuff! Got lots to do on my everyday vehicle as well as race stuff.

A few years ago I got an Accel Yellow Jacket Spark Plug poster/ad with the '73/'74 Mopar Missile Duster from a fellow racer from Buffalo, NY, D.J. Raiser. He got it autographed by Dick Oldfield and Joe Pappas and sent it down.

When I started Drag Racing in 1964 you could race somewhere almost 5 days a week,and the fans jam any drag strip you went to,It was always Mopar,chevys,and fords. When the Funny Cars started to show up it was always Match Racing,same rules Ahra,Nhra and tracks that didn't care just come and race,The first time I Saw heads up funny car racing was Sox&Martin vs Dyno Don,at Green Valley drag strip in texas,the smell of Nitro and the wheels up burn outs and every fan in the place cheering and going crazy,I knew drag racing was just going to get better and stick around for some time,and then when the Pro stocks started Match Racing right along with the Funny Cars it was standing room only at any Track
you raced at.Match race madness took over,Those were the best days of racing and I am glad I was around to see it all.And now the Hemi shootouts bring back a lot of those days,I would like to see them starting to Match race like the old days along with some of the other old Pro stock cars like Hemi fred,and bring local drag racing back to fans not just racers.I just wish I had kept the old dragster that showed the fans down south at match racing when the Pro stocker ran.I may be old but I got to see the best racing ever. I just have to remember all of it. Back to looking for pics now.

That's no fair ! Being 43, I always felt like I was born 10 years too late. At 12 in 1974 I was bit with the motorhead bug and at 16 in 1978 I made it to my first drag races at Atco and Englishtown New Jersey . My dad was a Service Manager for Springfield Dodge in Penna. so Mopar's have always been in our family and as he was teaching me to drive in our 2-door 1965 Dodge Dart, he would always scream..."Will you quit driving like you're Barney Oldfield!"

Myron - yes alot of the old photos were taken at Gainesville --- and the poster you talk about - is it this one ?

Stewart,
Yes it is.
Are they reprints with the autographs or part of a batch that they signed?

Myron, I have one that has Pappas - Oldfield signature and I have since gotten Tom Coddington and John Wehrly to sign it --- Looking for Tom Hoover - Al Adam - Leonard Bartush - and Ted Spehar to get them to sign it

BUT I do have the original scanned on a disc and can make copies of that, up to 13x19 -- ??

Stewart

Also, in case I have not shown this (I am getting old and feeble)

Have you considered getting with Garlits to open up an additional room dedicated to Mopar Pro Stock racing?