EDGy Mopars

Earl Edgerton’s Fantastic Flatheads

Words: Roger Meiners

If you think all Mopar® performance is all about muscle cars of the 1960s, think again.

Earl Edgerton, of Santa Rosa, Calif., and his buddies are all over the earlier Mopars—cars with flathead motors from the 1920s and 1930s (and one magical ’48 Plymouth coupe)—making them go fast. Chrysler wasn’t into hot cars so much back then, just superior engineering. That’s what Earl likes about the really old Mopars. They make great engineering platforms for his home grown speed equipment.

Edgerton’s first vintage Mopar was a 1933 Dodge four-door sedan he saw advertised in the paper. He bought it for $900. This was the beginning of the Mopar disease. Soon thereafter he found a latently unusual 1948 Plymouth coupe on a trip home to visit his father in Montana.

The Plymouth turned out to be a kinder, gentler Christine. Instead of tearing people apart as the 1958 Plymouth Fury did in the famous movie, it brought them together in an almost supernatural way. We will explain as we go along.

Earl soon began thinking about doing an early Mopar hot rod, but he wanted to start with a Dodge coupe instead of the four door. His father, a Model A enthusiast, tapped into his network and found a rancher named Chris King in Winnett, Mont., who had some early Mopars. Earl paid a visit that turned into “two or three days,” he said. King had a large cache of old cars—all built by Chrysler. He also had boundless enthusiasm and an infinite amount of car wisdom. Not only that, he had a 1934 Dodge coupe. Edgerton traded the ’48 Plymouth and his ’33 Dodge sedan for the car. This visit and transaction led to a close friendship and a working relationship that has strengthened through the years.

Like most Mopar freaks, Earl wanted more power for his new/old Dodge. While searching for parts he met Rod Furtado, the owner of Furtado’s Auto Machine in Willow Glen, Calif. Furtado, was a well-known flathead specialist who, among other things, ground camshafts for racing flatheads. One thing led to another until one day Furtado said to him, “Earl, do you want to grind cams.” There was only one answer. Rod loaned Edgerton one of his two grinders and taught him how to use it.

Furtado also introduced Earl to Jon Scobel, owner of the Kearney Pattern Works and Foundry in San Jose, Calif. Scobel worked with Earl’s design to produce an aluminum head for the six-cylinder Dodge/Plymouth flathead. “I watched while Jon made the wood patterns for the new head and I learned how to do it myself,” said Edgerton. Today he makes his own patterns for heads, front and side covers and other parts for early flathead Mopars, all of which are cast by Kearney and carry his “EDGY” trademark. “I have sold 50 to 60 heads, total,” he says. “Two even went to Australia.”

When Fortado died too soon in February 2002, Earl inherited his cam grinders and masters. Today he supplies a small quantity of camshafts to friends and acquaintances each year, including the likes of Vern Tardell, the famous builder of traditional rods in California.

Meanwhile Chris King sold the ’48 Plymouth to a guy in Bozeman, Montana.

In 1998 Edgerton went to Bonneville with Scobel, who was running a flathead Ford with an EDGY camshaft. Chris King met him there. They looked around and Earl said, “This is it.” Like many who visit Bonneville during Speed Week, he had the disease. It meant building a car for the Salt. The car turned out to be an altered 1932 Chrysler coupe. Earl began to develop a 251-cid flathead six for the Chrysler. A one-off EDGY cylinder head and an EDGY camshaft were manufactured, along with an EDGY front cover and other limited-edition parts.

But the astounding thing is the port fuel injection.

The 251–265 Chrysler six has only three intake ports. Each feeds two cylinders. But Earl says a port fuel injection system works best if each port feeds only one cylinder. Six ports are therefore needed. An ordinary person might look at the block, shrug and give up the idea. Edgerton shrugged, too, but said, “no problem.” He stuck the block on a mill and proceeded to bore six holes through the existing intake ports and insert tubes to make six out of three. Job done. Now it was easy to mount a Hilborn injection system.

Meanwhile, In 2003, a Montana restaurant chain owner and Mopar guy named Pete “Pedro” Hendrickson saw an ad in the Bozeman Chronicle offering a 1955 Plymouth Belvedere station wagon for sale. He bought it from the man, and then asked, “What else do you have?”

“A Plymouth coupe,” he answered.

It was the ’48 Plymouth that Earl Edgerton traded to Chris King for the Dodge coupe.

Pedro bought it, and became friends with the seller. Later, Pete’s new buddy invited him along to Winnett to visit a rancher who had a bunch of old Mopars. The rancher was (you guessed it) Chris King. “Chris is the quintessential Montana cowboy,” says Hendrickson. “And he has four or five lives worth of wisdom.” Anybody who visits his place gets “Winnett Fever,” according to Hendrickson.

King says, “I got into Mopars when I realized that I couldn’t have a ’34 Ford Three-Window. So I found a 1933 Plymouth coupe and fell in love with it.” He never looked back. He likes the excellent hydraulic brakes, full pressure lubrication and open driveshaft that made it easy to add the early ‘50s Plymouth/Dodge overdrive installation he developed. He continues to collect the early Mopars. “We have plenty of room for them on the ranch,” he says.

Some time later, Chris and Pedro drove their cars to Bonneville. The ’48 Plymouth came along. Edgerton was amazed to see his old car again. The ’48 had come full circle, bringing them all together. It might not have happened otherwise.

Edgerton’s Chrysler, named Bonneville Spitfire, went to Speed Week in 2005, the year your Mopar Magazine reporter was there and photographed it. The car went 134 mph on that first outing; in 2006 it went 135, and then 136 mph in 2007. King supplied the push vehicle each year; a 1933 Dodge coupe the first two times and in 2007 a 1935 Dodge pickup with a prototype EDGY F-head. Chris uses it as a daily driver. “There is a noticeable step-up in power and I picked up four to five miles-per-gallon while easily cruising at 70 mph,” says King.

Earl, Pete and Chris were sitting in a bar during the 2007 Speed Week. “I was giving Earl a hard time,” said Pete, “And he said, ‘You think you can do better?’” Hendrickson said he would build one in time for the 2008 event, but Earl didn’t think so. It turned into a $100 bet. “I just might make it,” says Hendrickson. “I am on sabbatical from my business and I have the world’s most understanding girlfriend.” The car he’s building is a 1928 Dodge Brothers Victory Six on his own chassis. The engine is a rare 1928 Dodge Brothers Fast Four with extensive modifications. “I scoured the country to find engine blocks,” said Hendrickson, “But the only good one was found powering an old buck rake right there on Chris King’s ranch.”

Meanwhile, Edgerton’s Chrysler is staying home from Bonneville this year while he catches up on things. The Chrysler engine is getting electronic ignition, roller lifters, new Ross “pop up” pistons and a matching EDGY head for higher compression. These are interim steps while Earl works on a new hemispherical head for the old Chrysler flathead block.

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