426 Frenzy

Two cities. Seven days. Hundreds of thousands of horsepower. That works.

Words: Roger Meiners and Ross Ruehle

Indianapolis, Indiana and Salem, Ohio are precisely 286 miles apart, as the crow flies. Indianapolis is big (6.3 million residents). Salem is small (13,000 residents). Indianapolis is known for a big race track. Salem is known for … for being in northeastern Ohio.

So where, exactly, are we going with this? Here’s the deal: During a seven-day period in late August, the 286-mile distance vanished and the two cities that share traditional Midwestern values became one, united by no less than a 426 HEMI® frenzy.

During its infamous existence dating back to 1964, the original 426 HEMI has torn up high banks and quarter miles, humbled competitors and drawn Mopar® enthusiasts of all generations into its trance. The number of races the 426 HEMI has won—from its stock car roots to its domination of drag racing—is probably lost in the mists of time. Let’s just put it this way: The 426 was essentially legislated out of NASCAR competition in the 1970s.

To this day, the original 426 HEMI is revered by millions of enthusiasts around the world. That love is what prompted two monster events so very close to each other as the summer of 2008 drew to a close: The 426 Hurst All-HEMI Reunion at the Quaker City Raceway in Salem (August 22–24) and the HEMI Challenge at the Mac Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals at the O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis a week later on Labor Day weekend.

For a complete recap of the HEMI Challenge, see Drag Race Dateline on page 20. To relive the All-HEMI Reunion, read on.

A couple of 426 HEMI race car fanatics named Dick Towers and Jim Kramer put together what many called a “Woodstock” event, although it was in rural Ohio instead of upstate New York. Towers—a California Mopar® collector who operates under the Match Race Madness banner—and Kramer, a Pennsylvania-based collector and owner of Kramer Automotive Specialties, a manufacturer of Mopar race car restoration parts, got together to put on the All-HEMI Reunion.

The All-HEMI Reunion wasn’t open to all HEMIs, though—only the 426 variety. And they preferred the race versions. A very selective mandate; risky and gutsy for some, but not for these guys. They had done this before. In 1993 they organized a reunion limited to 19 HEMI Darts and Barracudas and got over thirty cars. A couple of years ago they did it again and 37 cars showed up at Fred Englehart’s place in southern Minnesota. This time they thought they just might get 40 cars.

So they built a Web site (www.allhemireunion.com) and rented Quaker City Dragway, an historic small-town venue in the Mahoning River Valley town of Salem, Ohio. It was a “Build it and They Will Come” kind of thing. They built an event and they came. Forty cars? How about a total of 230 426 HEMI cars: Of those, there were 42 (!) HEMI Barracudas and Darts, five factory A/FX cars, five A/FX sedans (the kind that were built to Chrysler plans after the initial twelve factory cars), 12 Pro Stock cars, and 12 1964 and nine 1965 HEMI factory lightweights.

Several collectors brought more than one car, including Clark Rand, who brought two rare Sox & Martin super stockers—riding on a period transporter that was the spitting image of an original. The transporter in turn was trailered in for the show.

Many of those who drove the famous cars back then showed up. We’ll list them in alphabetical order: Al Adam, Tom Coddington, Terry Earwood, Bud Faubel, The Golden Commandos (led by Ray Kobe, who gave a presentation on the group’s history), Larry Griffith, Don Grotheer, Tom Hoover, Dave Koffel (with his newly-restored Flintstone Flyer Barracuda funny car), Herb McCandless, Dick Oldfield, Larry Pontnack, Lee Smith, Ted Spehar, Bill Stiles, Jack Thomas, and Dave Wren. Others we certainly missed, and for that we apologize.

Other notables included Dick Chrysler, the Hurst executive who was there when the 1968 Darts and Barracudas were produced by that company. He spoke of the experience at a presentation focused on how Chrysler produced package cars during the golden age of company-sponsored racing. Retired Chrysler production executive Walt Redmond gave a seminar entitled “How Your Car Got Built Start to Finish.” The focus was on the factory ordering procedure for package cars. Author Jim Schild was in attendance and contributed what he learned as a production worker at the time these famous cars were built.

SRT® powertrain leader Pete Gladysz gave a seminar on how the new 6.1L HEMI stacks up against the original 426 Street HEMI. The conclusion: The new HEMI is no slouch and actually out-HEMIs that famous engine from the ’60s. Pete gave some of his time to Mopar Motorsports engineer John Donato who doled out a more-than-expected amount of information on the new drag package. He displayed the Judy Lilly Drag Pak vehicle that was introduced at the Mopar NHRA Mile-High Nationals in July. The car—and John—were surrounded all weekend by enthusiasts asking how they could get one (stay tuned to www.mopar.com).

The buzz at the show indicated this was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. The buzz may be right. Kramer and Towers have no intention of doing this again. At least that’s what Dick Towers said as the event loomed. But, who knows? Maybe they will recover someday and think about a repeat performance.

If the 2008 All-HEMI reunion was a once-in-a-lifetime event, it certainly kicked off an historic seven-day period of time that truly was a 426 frenzy in the Midwest.