Kit Car

Larry Rathgeb, manager – stock car programs for Chrysler during the 1960s and 1970s, was with Harry Hyde, the legendary NASCAR team owner down in North Carolina in the early 1970s on business. The conversation turned to the subject of the down-and-dirty world of local circle track racing—called short-track racing then and now. “Why don’t we see Dodge and Plymouth cars on the short tracks around here,” was the question that had no answer. It seemed that all the cars were Chevies and Fords.

Words: Roger Meiners

Later that trip, Rathgeb was in a Kmart store and noticed all the plastic car models on display. Back in those days you could buy just about any car in 
kit form. Rathgeb thought, “Why not offer a 
Chrysler short track racing car in kit form—sort of 
a full-scale car model you could get into and drive 
on a short track?”

He took the idea back to his boss, Bob Cahill, in Highland Park, Mich. and got the go-ahead and a budget to put together a program. In short order, Rathgeb had a design and drawings of a tube-frame car based on the compact Dodge Dart Sport 340 or Plymouth Duster 2-door models on a 108-inch or 112-inch wheelbase.

“It’s called a ‘kit car’ because anyone can purchase the packaged components and assemble them, just as youngsters put together scale models from a 
hobby shop kit,” said Rathgeb in a 1974 Chrysler press release. “All the right parts are in the kit, and directions 
are explained very simply in black and white,” 
said Rathgeb in the 1974 release. “The buyer will 
be responsible for assembling both the chassis 
and the engine. But, the beauty of the program is that we have taken the mystery out of building a stock car.”

The intent of the program was that the kit car components, depending on a buyer’s preference, could be adapted to a choice of short track racing forms—either late model sportsman, or late model modified cars. Or the components could be incorporated into a body an owner already had.

Rathgeb took the drawings down to Petty Engineering in North Carolina, where Bill Surber, the Chrysler engineering representative for the Kit Car program, proceeded to build the car. “Surber was an ex-Chrysler engineer who left to work in the car dealer business. He was learning the business by working at a store in Charleston, W. Va., and I would stop by on my trips down south and try to get him to come back and work for me,” said Rathgeb. “Finally he quit resisting, and I put him on the kit car job. He was and is a superb engineer.”

The kit car development chassis was clothed in a Challenger body and was tested on both paved and dirt tracks. Pete Hamilton, the Petty Enterprises NASCAR team driver ran the car at the paved Caraway Speedway in Asheboro, N.C., but told Rathgeb and Surber that he wasn’t a dirt driver and advised them to find someone else to try the car when they went to Concord, N.C. Rathgeb called Hyde and asked for a recommendation. Hyde said he would send a young driver to meet the team for the test. “The young driver was Dale Earnhardt,” said Rathgeb. “Many years later, on the occasion of his last championship dinner, Earnhardt thanked Richard Petty, Pete Hamilton and Larry Rathgeb for his first factory ride. It was in a Chrysler product.”Rathgeb had engineer Bill Hancock develop the engine packages for the kit car, based on the small-block Chrysler V-8. Plans included 305, 340 and 360 cid versions of the engine, but owners could theoretically install any Mopar® motor their local track would allow.

Rathgeb put together a complete program of parts for the kit car—everything from complete cars down to the smallest component. It was all in a catalog Chrysler published through Thompson Advertising Productions. The marketing and promotion program was handled by Thompson’s Ben Bennett, who promoted the program via ads in local publications. “We didn’t bother with the big national magazines,” said Rathgeb. “We advertised where the racers lived.”

The program nevertheless got big play in the national car enthusiast press. There were stories in HOT ROD and Car and Driver magazines, including a cover photo in one.

“The original program was only through Petty Engineering and we retained that, but eventually moved the major sales through Direct Connection, run by Brian Schram,” said Rathgeb. “You could also buy through Chrysler dealers. Racers Don White and Norm Nelson also provided engines, mostly for USAC and ARCA race series.”

Ralph Nason of Unity, Maine, was the first racer to get a kit car, though a dealer in southern Michigan was the actual first buyer. Chrysler racing PR chief Frank Wylie arranged the dealer sale.

“Bill Surber went up to Maine to help Nason put 
the first kit car together. They took it out on a weekend and ran it around the school across the street on a ½ mile track Nason fashioned out of 
the school’s parking lots. He had the first kit car 
win, according to Rathgeb. Nason said the victory was at Unity Raceway, a track he bought in 1980 and still owns.

Rathgeb said that Louis Funk, of Danbury, Conn., bought a car, put it together and won the first race he entered—his first-ever win of any kind, after trying for twelve years.

“That gave me a lot of confidence—that this was a thing that would help Chrysler. The cars won a tremendous number of races. For example, Jim Cushman won many races in a kit car at Kil-Kare Speedway in Xenia, Ohio. Jerry Lawrence built the car for Cushman. He won many races with that car.”

The Kit Car program ran from 1974 to late 1978, but the story lives on. “I just heard that Nason found his old car and bought it back. He is going to restore it,” said Rathgeb.

We’re in contact with Nason, who is now 70-years-old, and we will report on the project in a future issue of Mopar Magazine.