Turbo Transitions

The extremely demanding world of the Pro Modified Class is synonymous with innovation. Two class leaders, long time Mopar® Brand proponents Chip King and Dennis Radford, are on the cusp of the Movement for this season.

Words: Bruce Biegler

Pro Modified racing, which traces its roots back to 1989 as a class, was officially recognized as a new professional racing category by NHRA during early 2010. It features exciting competition between three varieties of race cars: nitrous-injected, supercharged and turbocharged. That latter option is presently causing a mini revolution and it’s also something that both King and Radford have elected to move forward with.

Chip King, who is based in North Carolina has migrated his fan favorite 1969 Dodge Daytona, powered by a 526 cid HEMI® engine, to turbocharged for this season. The conversion is not without challenges, both from a tuning and driving perspective. “There is no doubt it was a lot of work because our car was built for a supercharged HEMI engine and then converted over,” King confirmed. “It seems like it took every minute we had during the off-season. It is the same base HEMI engine, which is still run on alcohol, but tuning it and driving it are now vastly different.

“We are taking baby steps,” he continued. “Our focus is on our tune-up and trying to get some consistency going. We now have a lot more horsepower available to us but that comes with a different curve than what we were used to. The driving technique is much different and on the track the car has a much different feel to it. There is no doubt drag racing a turbo car has a learning curve – but we are working to make that a short one.”

For Oregon’s Dennis Radford, the decision to convert his ultra-popular 1970 Plymouth Duster from nitrous-oxide injection to turbocharged came at year end 2010.

“The great thing for me is that we now have a HEMI engine within our Plymouth and that’s something I have wanted more then anything,” said Radford. “This evolution has certainly got the attention of Mopar drag racing fans.

“Our conversion wasn’t really all that involved,” Radford confided. “We had to move the Duster’s firewall forward and we did stretch out the wheelbase to make room for the turbos.

“Driving it has been the biggest adjustment,” he added. “That popping and banging while staging up the car is very severe. It’s hard to hold your concentration with all that going on and it literally tries to knock your hand off the steering wheel! But once you get it going – it’s very smooth and very fast.”

To date both King and Radford have made solid progress with some very promising times to their credits. Both racers have set targets for the low 5.8 seconds elapsed time zone with speeds in excess of 250 mph—necessary numbers to remain competitive within NHRA’s Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series.

Both race teams employ similar turbocharged engine technology applications, which are the latest mindset available from Harry Hruska’s Precision Turbo, a company based in Indiana.