Dodge Ramchargers racing team
According to Billy Shope, quoted by John Gunnell, the Ramchargers started with a 1959 lunchtime conversation between classes at the Chrysler Engineering Institute (CEI). The engineers wanted to drag race, but didn’t have the money to go up against the best. Someone suggested pooling their finances, and they formed committees to help build a Mopar that could outrun the big-block GM vehicles that were on top at the time. Dick Burke and Dick Maxwell were co-chairmen of suspension, traction and steering, and Skip McCully and Maurie Leising were co-chairman of engine.
Thus, in 1959, around 20-25 engineers and support people banded together to form the Ramchargers, to really see what they could do on the track, using a scientific, collaborative approach. The band started out with a bang, and brought Dodge to dominance in the Super Stock and Pro Stock. Some of the members became well known outside of the engineering community, including Tom Hoover and Tom Coddington.
Their first car was a 1949 Plymouth business coupe named the High & Mighty, probably chosen for its weight and price; their first budget was low even by standards of the day. Each of the roughly 25 Ramchargers put in a little over $30; they paid for the engine by doing warranty engine teardowns over at Dodge Truck. The engine was a 354 Hemi, with 392 Hemi heads for better breathing (in 1960, they put a 392 block underneath the 392 heads; the car was cleaned up and painted white for its sponsor, Mason’s Plymouth-Valiant of Ferndale). In these pre-Torqueflite days, they used a manual transmission - a three speed. Neil Newman, a friend of the Ramchargers, designed a racing cam for it.
The car, owned by Herman Mozer (officially in charge of coordination), ran under the C/Altered class, and featured the first “high ram” intake, later copied by many others; the use of the special intake to develop a supercharging effect at certain speeds was eventually termed ram induction. The low-cost car set the class speed record on its first outing at the National Hot Rod Association Nationals in 1959.
The current High & Mighty car is owned by Bob Less, a retired Chrysler employee and member of the Chrysler Employees Motorsports Association (CEMA). Bob is the Team Leader and driving force for the High & Mighty II Club project car and RAMCHARGERS apperances. The car is currently being prepared for appearances at select 2009 shows. The first appearance will be the 20th Annual CEMA Charity Car show Saturday, June 13 at the Walter P. Chrysler Museum.
Bill Shope wrote:
I was one of the original Ramchargers and, at that time, we were in the planning stage for the club's first car, "The High & Mighty" C/A 1949 Plymouth. I can vouch for George Wallace’s willingness to help in such endeavors as he helped me to make valid performance predictions for the car. Calculated results were essentially identical to the car's actual runs on its first appearance at the NHRA Nationals in Detroit.
George also developed the empirical relationship between quarter mile speed, vehicle weight, and horsepower which was universally used by the Ramchargers to both predict performance and to evaluate the competition. In preparation for the 1960 NASCAR compact car race on the road circuit at Daytona, George calculated the average speed for the winning car. I can't remember how many tenths of a mph off he was, but I distinctly remember the amazement that a calculated value could be so close to the actual!
Jim Thornton, engineer and driver of the Ramchargers SS/A drag car, spoke at a Mopar Alley conference. He said:
In addition to all the work that went on at Chrysler, inside the dynamometers and on test tracks, there was a lot of work done by people outside of Chrysler.
The Ramchargers ... did most of the development of the cars for drag racing, and in fact were instrumental in getting Chrysler involved in drag racing by appearing at the ’61 Summer-Nationals with a Dodge that was competitive with Ford, Chevy, and Pontiac. ... The Ramchargers continued to race in a stock car, and had the first Chrysler product to win in a Super-Stock class and a Stock Eliminator title, which we did in 1963. We continued on racing in stock classes, and in Factory Experimental and then Funny Cars. We decided as a group, after the 1967 season, that we had other responsibilities, and stopped racing Funny Cars at that time.
In 1961, the Ramchargers built up an engine for Frank Wiley’s new car; Dodge created the first factory package cars in that year. A 1961 Dodge Dart 413 was used by the Ramchargers at the 1961 NHRA Nationals (driven by Eckstrand and Jim Thornton).
In 1963, the team toured the nation with two white and red factory-sponsored cars, named Candymatics, thanks to the paint scheme and automatic transmissions. They were driven by Herman Moser and Jim Thornton; both were champions, and eventually faced each other for the Super-Stock Automatic (S/SA) championship. Thornton and Moser each won one race against each other; Moser eliminated Thornton and Lawman driver Al Ekstrand to be the Top Stock Eliminator for 1963.
In 1964, the Ramchargers started using the new 426 Hemi, and were runners-up at the Nationals to Roger Lindamood in another Hemi-powered Dodge. Chrylser was using the Ramchargers in national advertising campaigns; the name was eventually trademarked (in 1970) by an organization of the racers, officially Ramchargers Racing Engines Inc., in Taylor, MI. The trademark expired while owned by Thumb Company (Partnership).
By the mid-1960s, professional teams were running with factory support — the most famous Ramchargers, perhaps, including Dick Landy and Sox & Martin. The racing success might not have mattered to Chrysler’s reputation on the street, but the company was also making hotter cars and engines — including the famous Road Runner and, later the 340 Duster, which went even further in making performance affordable. The same engineers were working on both — the racing designs and the street designs.
The Mopar men had an advantage aside from being involved in both parts of development; they were trained to analyze results as a matter of course. If they did especially well, they learned how. If they had a problem, they learned why, systematically. The racing might have helped them more with the stock cars than modern racing campaigns would, since the cars were mostly stock at the time.
Many cars raced under the Ramchargers banner, but only one is known to survive, a 1970 Hemi-Cuda. Campaigned by Dean Nicopolis until 1986, it won 37 national class championships, and was Super Stock Division III Champion as late as 1980. The car was restored by Dean Nicopolis and Jack Ottino.
The Ramchargers met recently at the SAE World Congress, which featured the replicated High & Mighty.
Upper level table, left to right: Mike (H. H.) Buckel, Tom Coddington, Gary Congdon, Jim Thornton with microphone, John Wehrly, Bob Lees SAE session chair & H&M II Team Leader, Dave Rockwell author. Tom Hoover, the Ramchargers leader, was not available to attend the presentation.
Lower level table, left to right: Barns Daniels, Pete McNichol, Dick Burke.
The audience included Ray Kobe (blue shirt) leader of the Golden Commandos (Plymouth’s drag racing group) and former Ramcharger.
Ramchargers with a replica of their first club car The High & Mighty on display in the 2009 SAE Mobility History Committee booth in Cobo Hall, Detroit on 4-22-09. The car in the background is a 1909 Hudson, whose company was discussed in the session that included the Ramcharger’s history. The High & Mighty replica was built by members of the Chrysler Employees Motorsports Association (CEMA) in tribute to the Ramchargers’ accomplishments after it was determined that the original car had been scrapped. The car contains the original first tunnel ram intake manifold and tachometer hand marked with a “SHIFT! (dammit)” note with skull and crossbones at 5,500 RPM.
Back row, left to right: Jim Thornton, Mike (H.H.) Buckel, John Wehrly, Dick Burke, Dave Rockwell (author).
Front row, left to right: Barns Daniels, Gary Congdon, Tom Coddington, Pete McNichol with the cover poster of We Were The Ramchargers
(by Dave Rockwell, published by SAE; see review).