...what in the world did I succumb to...

Since I did Mermay with Dusk, Cheerleader Mar this time! 

But even though she’s a warlock and she should be showing her Warlock Spirit, I’m skeptical about this year’s GG so she’s repping for daito as usual :’) cheering on that rare weap foundry!

How The Hemi & Today’s Demon Got Its Start At Indy in ‘61!

As I walked through the sprawling acreage of Lucas Oil Raceway Park (better known as Indianapolis Raceway Park/IRP) during the 2017 NHRA Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals, I tried to imagine what IRP was like during Labor Day of 1961. That’s when “absolutely, beyond a shadow of doubt…the most important drag race in Chrysler history” took place right there on the very soil beneath my feet. That race, run 56 years ago, was directly responsible for the 2018 Dodge SRT Demon Drag Race Simulator I was on hand to help promote.

The quote above came from the late Mopar engineering/racing legend Tom Hoover, and describes an impromptu match race between the new 409 Impala of “Dyno” Don Nicholson and the Ramchargers’ long-ram 413-equipped Dodge Dart Seneca. Though Nicholson’s 409 had defeated Ramchargers driver Al Eckstrand earlier in the hour due to the Dart’s balky three-speed manual transmission, in the time lull between classes the crowd began to chant “re-match, re-match, re-match.” Without the inflexible scheduling caused by modern live TV-broadcast race coverage, the pace was more leisurely and track officials decided “why not.”

Nicholson and Eckstrand quickly returned to the starting line, the flagman moved, both cars pounced, the Ram’s pin-type A239 transmission synchronizers actually cooperated and the full-size C-Body Dodge won by a car length, cranking off a low 13-second e.t. At the time, factory Super Stock machines were the latest thing. Never before did “stock” passenger cars offer so much power. Door slammers suddenly attracted as many spectators as traditional open-wheel race cars.

As Nicholson and Eckstrand pulled onto the return road, the crowd shouted “one more, one more, one more” and by radio the timing tower told the finish line workers to send both cars back to the starting line, pronto! Again, they launched side by side but when Eckstrand rammed the shift lever forward, up and to the right for the 1-2 upshift, the darned A239 ‘box balked and Nicholson’s bowtie took the race, its superior but fragile Borg Warner T-10 4-speed helping a bunch.

But the winning race was photographed heavily and images soon appeared in National Dragster, Hot Rod, Car Craft, Motor Trend and others. In those pre-Internet days, car magazines were even more influential than they are today, and when newly appointed Chrysler Corp. president Lynn Townsend saw them, he wanted more.

Townsend was part of a new breed of auto executives with names like Iacocca, Wangers, Knudsen, Beltz, and others. These fresh thinking corporate chiefs sought to tap into the baby boom market with exciting, youthful offerings. For his part, it helped that Townsend’s teenaged sons kept him up to date on what models were making waves on Woodward Ave. and in the pages of the popular car magazines of the day. Long story short, the Nicholson/Eckstrand run was the match that lit the fuse on the 1962 Max Wedge and 1964 Race Hemi development programs.

Without that singular race and the resulting flood of magazine ink, Hoover and his like-minded band of race engineers might have been shown the door. That’s because another kind of ink—red ink—encircled Chrysler Corporation in 1961. Compared to 1960, DeSoto output was down 88 percent, Dodge was down 33.87 percent, Plymouth was down 21.77 percent and Imperial was down 30.81 percent. Only Chrysler had good news, building 24.8 percent more cars than in 1960. One of Townsend’s mandates from shareholders was to make deep cuts in the engineering budget. Yes, many engineers lost their jobs, but Hoover, Eckstrand, and most of the other Ramchargers were spared….thanks to that freak race at Indy.

Getting back to the present day, the core reason for my trip to the 2017 NHRA U.S. Nationals was to host the Dodge SRT Demon Drag Race Simulator inside the manufacturers’ midway. My honored task during the five-day weekend race was to present 15 minute Demon “show and tell” sessions at the top of every hour. After each 15 minutes of Demon cheerleading was completed, I was free to wander until the next show time.

During each presentation, I used the Demon showcase PA system to continually tell the story of that fluke drag race and how today’s Demon is a direct result. So with this nostalgic mindset, let’s wander the Indy grounds and see how this hollowed competition venue has changed the face of drag racing, and how it still influences it today.

Each Demon simulator is plumbed with functional dashboard air blowers to keep riders cool. I used them as a talking point to discuss Demon’s double-duty Super Chiller that diverts A/C function to drop supercharger inlet air temperature a full 45 degrees lower than ambient air, but also keeps passengers cool.

Matt Hagan’s Hemi Charger flip-top helped the Mopar Fast Lane service division celebrate its 80th anniversary by setting the track record at 3.799 seconds and 338.77 mph. When IRP opened in 1961, the Mopar parts and service division (launched in 1937) was a mere 25 years young.

Ron Capps’ NAPA-sponsored Charger was Funny Car runner-up with a 3.949 second, 325.53 mph rip. The quickest and fastest machine at Indy in 1961 was Pete Robinson’s AA/D blown gas dragster at 8.68/169.49. From 1957 through 1963, the NHRA banned nitro at national events. The Ramchargers’ Dart Seneca ran 13.3s at 109.

Many Fuel Funny Car racers are turning to carbon-carbon front disc brakes from Strange Engineering. Truly immune to fade, the hotter they get the harder they bite. If handled by greasy fingers, Strange says to bake the bare rotors in an electric oven “until the stink stops.” That’s when they’re pure again.

The latest application of the Dart nameplate to a drag machine is light years away from the Ram’s ’61 Seneca. The leaf-blower-from-hell look resulted from the NHRA’s adoption of EFI. Allen Johnson’s Hemi Dart will be his final machine. He’s retiring at the end of the 2017 season after over 500 professional race entries.

If it says “Hemi” on the rocker cover, who are we to argue? Note the equally-spaced spark plug tubes on Allen Johnson’s 11,000rpm Pro Stock mill. Our X-ray camera lens broke but the low-in-a-row spark plug tubes suggest “twisted” chamber and canted valve architecture.

The low-high spark plug tube targeting and tapered roof of this Brad Anderson Top Alcohol rocker cover puzzles traditional Hemi spotters. These adjustments allow for pedestal-mounted rocker arms and larger port housings. There are literally hundreds of aftermarket and factory Hemi head variations.

The Big Go East always features a car show. A much more traditional Hemi powers this 1930 five-window Tudor hot rod. The gorgeous blue multi-shade panel paint was applied by Bucky’s Ltd., home of Bucky Hess and his 150mph 1968 SS/AH Hemi Barracuda.

The color-matched Chrysler Fire Power Hemi was built by Ross Racing Engines. Unlike earlier days when a small four-barrel might have hidden inside its GMC 4-71 blower case, this one’s a legitimate belt-boosted street driver. The quartet of Strombergs adds a crowning retro touch.

The 1970-vintage Paris Brothers Top Fuel dragster has been lightly modernized for NHRA cacklefest appearances. Its dual Chrysler “whale motors” have been revitalized with help from Hot Heads, a leader in the Gen-1 Hemi world.

71 superchargers. At the inaugural 1961 NHRA U.S. Indy Nationals, Dode Martin’s “Two Thing”—running side-by-side supercharged V8s—set the meet’s top speed at 177.87 mph. Other multi-engine Top Gas rails on site in ’61 were Jack Chrisman’s Howard Cam Special, Eddie Hill’s dual-Pontiac rig, and Tommy Ivo’s four-engine Show Boat. In the care of Ron Pellegrini, Ivo’s machine made exhibition runs only.

With machined braces to hold the dual Hemis in alignment, a simple steel hub connects the crankshaft snouts and tails.

A Mopar muscle car-sourced Dana 60 rear axle puts the estimated 2,500 horsepower to the ground. Note how the Paris Brothers used the former pinion snubber support and trio of fastener holes to affix a brace merging the rear engine and axle housing to the frame. Truck/van-sourced Dana 60 housings lack the extra metal and raised pad.

Car Craft archives Of the 32 supercharged AA/GD gasoline dragsters competing at the 1968 Indy Nats, three were dual-engine equipped. Here, the 2,150-pound machine of Frakes & Funk (foreground) awaits time trials with Bill Mullins’ 1,950 pounder. Mullins’ best was a 7.72/194.80.

Before Don Garlits’ March 1970 clutch explosion on the Lions starting line, front-engine “diggers” like the Ditmars Brothers machine were the norm. Note the Gen-2 Hemi’s iron block and heads. Though 1965-vintage aluminum A990 heads were also used, many racers felt iron combustion chambers better resisted melting. Iron blocks were the rule because aluminum clones from Keith Black, Milodon, and Donovan didn’t arrive until the early seventies.

Ever since the original Little Red Wagon A100 pickup truck accidentally yanked the front wheels in late 1964 (with Jay Howell at the wheel), well over a hundred racers have followed suit. The 392 Hemi-powered Little Red Fire Truck was on static display but is active on the exhibition circuit.

A far cry from the stock interior of the original Little Red Wagon, the fire rig’s cockpit puts the driver in the center with plenty of see-through mesh flooring. The twin brake controls—floor pedal and hand lever—affect the rear wheels only; the front axle carries no brakes. Note the absence of a passenger seat. As Jay Leno can testify, The Hurst Hemi Under Glass was built for occasional passengers (Google “Leno/Hemi Under Glass crash” to see the shocking result).

In this age of easy-way-out Chevy-powered wheelie machines, it’s good to see an iron Fire Power Hemi and old-school 6-71 huffer. Hot Heads also sponsors this machine.

The owner of this retro-inspired ’63 Dart GT hardtop probably has no clue a similar Dart 170 pillar coupe won C/Factory Experimental (C/FX) at the 1963 Indy Nats. Driven by California police officer Ron Root, its 225 Slant Six was bolstered by an Offy four-barrel intake (not the expected Hyper-Pak). Root ran a 15.12/90.63 mph to defeat Bruce McConnell’s turbo-215 V8 ’63 Olds Cutlass convertible. Factory Experimental (FX) wasn’t just for big V8s. This red relic is also 225-powered.

The show field included this wild 392 whale-powered ’64 Dodge Polara 500. Owned by Bill Rowe, again that BDS supercharger is no hollowed-out fake. When Ed Donovan’s aluminum 392 racing blocks appeared in 1973, the once obsolete Gen I Hemi was revived in Top Fuel. Drag racing reporters needed to differentiate it from the 426-style Gen II “elephant” Hemi and the “whale motor” designation was born.

Custom mounts position the wide Gen-I Hemi without fender-wall or shock-tower surgery. The hoses are part of the partially hidden air conditioning system. Yep, it has a Hemi …and A/C! The first Gen-II 426 Race Hemis appeared in 1964 Dodges and featured reverse-stamped shock mounts for added clearance.

At the absolute tip of the Hemi spear, modern Top Fuel power plants like the Hennen Motorsports “Road Rage Fuel Booster” machine make nearly twenty five times the original 425 horsepower rating. Had the Ramchargers not beaten Nicholson’s 409 in that fateful 1961 match race, this engine probably wouldn’t exist.

Shown in action at Detroit Dragway, here’s the 1961 Dart Seneca that rattled Nicholson’s 409 and spurred corporate drag race support. Though stripped for dragging, its C-Body was unitized only from the firewall back. It was replaced in 1962 by the 370 pound lighter, fully-unitized B-Body. The 413 Max Wedge—with its one-piece short ram intake manifold—arrived on May 1, 1962.

Hot Rod archives In its coverage of the inaugural 1961 NHRA Nationals at IRP, Hot Rod magazine mentioned that Dodge and its Indianapolis-area Dodge dealers sponsored Dodge Performance Day the day before racing kicked off. Here HRM reporter LeRoi “Tex” Smith (in white) poses with what is probably a Hyper-Pak equipped Lancer GT. The Dart Phoenix or Polara convertible in the background is likely packing a ram-inducted 383 or 413, respectable but of no comparison to the lighter Max Wedges of 1962.

The post How The Hemi & Today’s Demon Got Its Start At Indy in ‘61! appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

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Cuba had been unplugged from American culture for generations. What happens now?

Cuba had been unplugged from American culture for generations. What happens now? Randy Lewis CUBA'S ROBERTO GOMEZ HAD a single night free on his first trip to San Francisco, part of a short performance visit in his role as lead guitarist for singer-songwriter Carlos Varela, often referred to as "The Bob Dylan of Cuba," and "The Poet of Havana." Gomez might have chosen to head to any number of clubs, restaurants or other social gathering places in one of the most vibrant and culturally rich cities in the U.S. Instead, foremost on his mind immediately after the Varela concert performance was his search for a power cord to his laptop computer. Is Hollywood out of touch with your America? Tell us >> "I just want to go back to my hotel," Gomez said, "and watch all the music videos we cannot see at home." It's a common cry from Cuban musicians in particular, and artists in general. State-controlled media in the socialist country is heavily censored, and access to the Internet has only begun, leaving Cubans often feeling isolated from the cultural conversations going on in their culture-dominating neighbor to the north. Indeed, one of the most prized commodities among Cubans is "El Paquete" — The Package, typically a 500-gigabyte memory stick containing downloaded American music, movies and television programs secreted into the country from the U.S. by relatives, friends or cunning entrepreneurs. Consider it a contemporary expression of the cultural grapevine that has long kept Cuban musicians apprised of what their peers elsewhere in the world are doing. Cuba's artists and musicians take pride in forging a cultural scene outside of the direct influence of Hollywood and the kind of hit-making pull that has led countries such as France to impose quotas on American movies and music. But there is still a strong desire for artists and musicians to interact with their counterparts in the U.S. and around the world. "I come from a generation of musicians that grew up with no access to the Internet whatsoever," said trumpeter Yelfris Valdés, who left Cuba in 2014 to work in London, where he has played with various world-beat groups as well as his own Dub Afro Electric Jazz ensemble. "Although when I started to learn about jazz music at school, I was fully aware of what was happening with the composers [and] arrangers from around the world. "Fellow musicians who were already traveling would feed to the rest of us what was going on in the industry," Valdés said. "Thanks to that information I received as a student, I am now producing a more complex type of music. The more styles of music I can have access to, the richer my own music becomes." Which means, despite the stereotype created by the large number of pre-Cuban revolution American cars commonly found in Havana and other cities, Cuban music is hardly stuck in the 1950s. Along with the traditional son and salsa music that thrives in clubs and theaters around the country, it's possible these days to find Cuban hip-hop and R&B; acts serving up their equivalent to the latest videos by American trend-setters such as Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé or Rihanna. But it's a relatively recent development, and Cubans still don't have ready access to the actual videos, much less live music, from Western pop stars. The Cuban government has a strict filter on media coming into the country. That is compounded by the political, economic and cultural embargo imposed by the U.S. on Cuba almost 60 years ago, established following Fidel Castro's history-shifting revolution on Jan. 1, 1959. Easing of some elements of the embargo under President Obama's administration has allowed great opportunity for Cuban musicians to visit the U.S. and perform here. Cuba and its music, for instance, will be the focal point internationally at the 2017 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. But many musicians and artists who have welcomed improved relations with the U.S. expressed uncertainty and concern about whether President-elect Donald Trump is more likely to continue opening travel and commerce opportunities or return to more restrictive policies. As the decades have rolled by, musicians, especially the younger generations, have often struggled to work with their American counterparts, to perform and promote their music to U.S. audiences and to be actively engaged with the most lucrative music market in the world. "Youth is characterized by the desire to explore and know," said singer, guitarist, percussionist and educator Jesus Bello. "Most of the young musicians wish to work abroad not only to obtain better pay for their work, but for the exchange with other musicians." The reverse is equally true: Americans and other musicians outside Cuba are frequently compelled to visit to learn more about the country's music and musicians. "It's a great, rich place of music— there are so many styles," Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger said following his band's first performance in Cuba in March, a free show that drew a massive crowd estimated at 500,000 to 600,000 people. "I have no pretense of understanding where it's all coming from. Music historians must love it, because there is so much richness in one fairly small place." A major step toward bringing Cuban music to the outside world came in 1997, when American roots musicians Ry Cooder and British producer Nick Gold visited Havana. They spearheaded the Buena Vista Social Club project, a recording and companion documentary (by German filmmaker Wim Wenders) that spotlighted a coterie of veteran Cuban musicians performing the infectious music that's lived and breathed within the country, but was previously little exposed in the U.S. "There's a world of music down there," said singer-songwriter Jackson Browne, who recently led a contingent of international oceanographic scientists to Cuba to study the relatively pristine ocean around the island. During that trip, he arranged for them to be exposed to the music of Varela, for whom Browne has become something of a cheerleader in the U.S., along with other Varela admirers among the rock music community including Dave Matthews and Bonnie Raitt. "We're isolated from Cuba, rather than Cuba being isolated from the world," Browne told The Times recently. "We are the ones that have isolated ourselves from this incredibly rich musical culture. For all of the attempts at isolation, Cuban music has still had an incredible influence in the U.S. It's influenced jazz, it's influenced a lot of our music over the years. But we don't know the most contemporary stuff" because of the embargo. Bello agrees that the embargo has resulted in misconceptions and ignorance among Americans about the deep well of Cuban music. "Silence and isolation between our ways of life have made many [American] people imagine Cuba in a very different way than it is," Bello said, a situation that increased travel opportunities has begun to change. "I think it is very good for people to see the different ways and musical programs we have in Cuba, from the academies and the theaters to the most authentic manifestations that have been transmitted orally from generation to generation, such as peasant music, rumba and the tunes of African saints, changüí , nengón , parrandas , etc." One of the more dramatic results of the recent easing of relations is the April release of "Papa Hemingway in Cuba," the first major Hollywood film to be shot in Cuba since before the revolution. Cuban music purveyors as well as rank-and-file fans also point to the watershed moment in March when the Stones performed, although non-Cubans who attended that show noted that most in the audience seemed familiar with the group only in the most general way, and sang along en masse only with one song: "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction." "Just 3½ years ago things were totally different," said Nancy Covey, who booked concerts at McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and now runs a music-focused tour company. "The first time I went, I didn't have any communication with the outside world; they didn't either and they were desperate to know what was going on in the States. "It used to be that all they had [in terms of American recordings] was really old, battered vinyl you'd find at flea markets," she said. "It reminded me a lot of the old Soviet Union. Even in the last year it has changed so much — they're starting to get iPhones and have access to the Internet. "I can't imagine that the influx of American music and culture is not going to be a huge game changer," she said. "They're hungry for it, and here it comes — but they don't get that they might lose a whole lot of what they have." That crystallizes a fear expressed often in Cuba: that a full lifting of the embargo, should it occur, may unleash what Cuban architectural historian Miguel Coyula called "a tsunami" of cultural and economic changes that could overwhelm his country. "The government here is reactive, not proactive," Coyula told an American visitor in November. "They will wait until it happens and then try to figure out how to respond." Cuban musicians say their motives for coming to the U.S. are closely scrutinized by both governments because of fears on both sides that once here, they would try to remain. Bello, who lives in Santa Clara, about 170 miles east of Havana, is planning a U.S. visit in the spring to work with a group of musicians in New Jersey interested in learning more about the traditional Cuban music styles in which he is fluent. But he faces challenges, not only in receiving travel visas for himself and others he wants to bring along, but also in arranging funding for the trip and securing venues for stateside performances that could help offset the prohibitive costs of travel and accommodations in the U.S. "In general, few people come to Cuba wanting to know about our work," Bello said recently. "It is important for us and for those who don't know Cuba. I am looking forward to the possibility to share my work [in the U.S.]. Even after the roads that were opened by the Buena Vista Social Club, it is still not anything easy." Bello faces the double-edged struggle of passing on Cuban music traditions to younger players, many of whom would rather leave Cuba and try to pursue careers in the U.S., Europe or elsewhere. Cuban universities still focus on training musicians in European-rooted classical traditions, and Bello is pushing to get Cuban academics to acknowledge and accept traditional Cuban music performance as part of the curriculum at the university level. His son, Jose Manuel Bello, has been brought up with the traditional son and has formed a band consisting of other players in their early 20s, helping fulfill his father's wish to keep the traditions strong with Cuban youth. "I always stress to the young people with whom I work that the path within the music Is infinite," Bello said. "Each one must find the course that best suits him and exploit his talent as much as the opportunities and his talent will allow it." Along that line, Varela band guitarist Gomez noted that he'd been well-trained in classical guitar techniques in his years at Cuban universities. But he had to seek out and study with a private teacher to learn the nuances of the rock guitarists he wanted to emulate, players including British musician Richard Thompson, Pink Floyd's David Gilmour and Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler — a different vocabulary he brings to bear in working with Varela. American drummer Michael Jerome, a member of Thompson's band, visited Cuba in 2013 and soaked up what he could of the distinctive rhythms of Cuban music, even arranging for individual lessons with Cuban percussionists while he was there. He takes a largely positive outlook at the prospect of cultural walls coming down between the U.S. and Cuba. "I do think Cubans will appreciate more access to American music and we'll see a lot more evidence of that influence reflected in the coming years," he said. "I don't think Cubans will lose any uniqueness or identity. If anything it will be strengthen by the fear of losing it, and/or the love and uniqueness of sharing it. It's like nothing else and is desired because of it." Twitter: @RandyLewis2 Source: Cuba had been unplugged from American culture for generations. What happens now? - LA Times - Cuba had been unplugged from American culture for generations. What happens now? via Blogger http://ift.tt/2iPGB3L