Scored a HEMI from a Sox & Martin built Duster Update 21/1-07 See page 2

[Mefirst]

This is car is where the History begins.... A Sox & Martin built Plymouth Duster. This Duster made it´s way over the Atlantic to The United Kingdom some time during the late 70´s. (NOTE!!! I´ve changed the text here cause Jon Smith came with new info!!!) Actually there were two Sox & Martin race cars that made the journey over the Atlantic. The Duster with the name "Brooklyn Heavy" and a Challenger with name "London Heavy"... (This picture is sadly the only picture I have found of the "Brooklyn Heavy")



The guy who bought both cars was/is the son of the owner of Bell´s Whisky distillery. Both cars were compeeting in the Pro Stock series in the UK. Changes were made to the UK Pro Stock series rules, for the season of 1981. Both the Duster and Challenger were equipped with Lenco transmissions and because of that, the cars were not allowed to compete in the Pro Stock series any more.. Both cars were put on sale and a Swedish guy, by the name of Lasse Svensson, bought the "Brooklyn Heavy" Duster in 1981. He competed with it in the Swedish Pro Stock/Comp series until 1993. What ever happend to the Challenger "London Heavy" is still under debate, nobody really knows what happend to that car over here (Maby I/we can get more info from our friends over in the UK?)... To what I have learned the "Brooklyn Heavy" was also painted another colour at some point, but was later repainted again to look like it originally did...

In 1994 Lasse Svensson put the Duster for sale. He took out the HEMI engine and sold the car with a 340 engine. The Duster was sold to a guy who lives in a city south of Stockholm. After this the Duster seems to have disappeared. Nobody I talked to have seen it for several years. It´s probably standing forgotten in some garage or the new owner broke it down to restore it and never got it bolted back together... This is where the story ends concerning the Duster "Brooklyn Heavy"....

Then about the HEMI...

When the Duster was put on sale, the owner pulled out the Hemi and replaced it with a 340 engine. The Hemi was bought by a local Speed Shop owner named Goran Persakers in 1994. He had bought Paul Rossi Super Stock Challenger, built by Direct Connection back in 1985. The Paul Rossi Challenger was first bought by the couple Geof and Silvia Hauser (from the UK) back in the late 70´s... The Chally came originally equipped with a Dave Koffel built B-1 499cid engine. I have no info about what happend to the B-1 engine, but in 1994 Goran Persakers needed a new engine for the Challenger, so the previous "Brooklyn Heavy" Hemi fit nicely between the fenders of the Chally.

This is what the Chally looked like during the time Goran Persakers owned it... (You can also see the tunnel ram intake, with double Dominator carbs sticking out through the hood, that I posted pictures of in another post)



The Hemi served as the power dynamo for the Challenger during season 1994 to 1996 in the Swedish Super Stock series. His best ET was, to what he remembers 10.2sec. with a trap speed of 215Km/h or 134mph. He said the Chally should have been a little faster, but he never managed to perfectly tune the double Dominator carbs...

Goran Persakers then sold the Challenger as a "roller" to a guy named Jocke Martensson (1996) and he equipped the "roller" Challenger with a 440 Six-Pack engine and continued to compete with it in the Super Stock series. Jocke Martensson also repainted the Challenger after he bought it, so it would again look the same as it did when Paul Rossi owned the Chally.



OK. So now the Hemi is standing and collecting dust in Goran Persakers garage. Then later in 1996 Goran Persakers sold the Hemi to a guy named Christer Friberg, who needed an engine for his 4-speed 1970 Challenger. Christer Friberg replaced the roller cam with a hydraulic one, so the engine wouldn't´t need that much attention... He drove the Chally occasionally until 2001. One reason he did not enjoy driving it so often, was that the Hemi had 12,5:1 in compression, so it needed race fuel mixed with 99 oct. fuel... The final blow also came in 2001, when the Swedish car Inspections Office made a decision to stop the fun. Reason was that they did not let the Chally through the inspection, because of excessive rust damage to the floors, etc.. and poor functioning brakes...

So the Chally was parked in the garage from 2001 and stood, still standing there, more or less with out TLC...

Well then I came into the picture. I started the rebuild of my Charger in late 2004.. My buddy who helped me with the rebuild, pointed out to me, that the Chally standing over in the corner of the garage, was equipped with a Hemi engine, that came from a real Sox & Martin race car. This was very interesting and we started to talk about how we could talk the owner into selling the Chally, or at least the engine to me.. At first he was not interested and told us that he would rebuild the car to be road legal again... Well nothing happend with the Chally, so I had my buddy call the owner from time to time and ask if he was interested in selling the whole car or just the Hemi. I was personally only interested in the Hemi. If I would have had to buy the whole car, I would have pulled the Hemi out and sold the Chally as a "roller" project...

Well moving on.... Then finally the day came when the Chally owner said -OK, you can buy the Hemi.. This day was the 23rd of September 2006.. I payed him the 2nd of October. We also made a deal that he would get the top end of my dead 440 (Eddy aluminium RPM Heads compleat with valve train, push rods, Mopar aluminium valve covers and the mek. camshaft. He needed these parts so he would be able to rebuild a 440 he has standing in the corner) This way I had enough cash to buy the Hemi and still have some money left over to restore it, cause it has been standing for such a long time...

So this is the story about how I became a Hemi owner... Sadly I don't have any pictures yet of the Hemi, it´s still bolted between the fenders of the Chally, but I will pull it out as soon as I have the time and start the rebuild.. Ill post pictures once I have it out...

One more thing... -Sadly I do NOT have any paper work about the Hemi. Al the written information in this post, is what I found out talking over the phone, with the previous owners of the Hemi engine. There has not been that many owners, so I personally believe al this information to be correct.. I do wish I could get everything proved and some kind of documentation, but I don´t think that will ever be possible cause of the very long time period and because it is a race engine...

Some info about the Hemi engine...

Kellogg Pro Stock steel crank (Probably, need to check this)
Ported Hemi aluminium heads (May be the D6 Hemi heads, I need to check the cast number)
Nascar rods (What ever they are???)
Venolia pistons (Also needs to be checked out)
Compression 12.5:1

Gear drive (Don´t remember the manufacturer at this moment, I left the info paper at the garage)
Crane roller cam shaft part # 669091 (It now has a hyd. cam installed)

The block has been machined for weight savings and it has Elephant ears. Bored .020 over.
Compleat Milodon oiling system (Added by Goran Persakers)

More info will come later on when I learn more about the engine and if I find out more about it´s  history...

/Tom

[Brock Samson]

i was wonderin when you'd spill the beans.. 

congrats where's your 440?..

[Jon Smith]

london heavy was a challenger

[Mefirst]

Thank you for the pictures John -Damn, you lern something new every day.. Every one I´ve spoken to told me that the "London Heavy" was a Duster... I´ll be damned...

-Do you have more pictures of the "Brooklyn Heavy" Duster?? and can you tell me/us what happend to the "London Heavy" Challenger??

/Tom

[Jon Smith]

just those above
I got them from the acceleration archive, have a look there might be more, i havent checked every page
http://www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk

also try http://www.ukdrn.co.uk/ I havent looked for it on there but it has tons of old pics and some excellent old video footage, you might get lucky..

[Mefirst]

just those above
I got them from the acceleration archive, have a look there might be more, i havent checked every page
http://www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk

also try http://www.ukdrn.co.uk/ I havent looked for it on there but it has tons of old pics and some excellent old video footage

-Thanks Jon... I owe you a couple of pints of your favourite beer

[firefighter3931]

Tom, that's quite the story !  So, how fast was the Duster with this bullet ? Any idea how much the duster weighed ? Is this a stock stroke Hemi ? 


Ron

[Mefirst]

Tom, that's quite the story ! So, how fast was the Duster with this bullet ? Any idea how much the duster weighed ? Is this a stock stroke Hemi ?

Ron

I have no info about how fast the Duster was or how much it weighed. The Hemi is a stock stroke engine...

[firefighter3931]

Tom, when you buy the Hemi make sure to get the flexplate with it if it is currently set up as an auto trans. The hemi cranks are 8 bolt as opposed to 6-bolt for all the other B-RB engines.


Ron

[Mefirst]

Tom, when you buy the Hemi make sure to get the flexplate with it if it is currently set up as an auto trans. The hemi cranks are 8 bolt as opposed to 6-bolt for all the other B-RB engines.


Ron

-Yeah, I will have to get a new flex plate for it. The Chally it´s in now is a 4-spd.. I did actually think about buying the 4-spd aswell, its a race prepped trans. But the work to convert my ride to accept the 4-spd trans is something I just don´t feel like doing.. If I did that, I would probably not get my ride back on the road for 2007.. and also there is no way I´ll give you time to rethink the plan concerning your ride

/Tom

[tan top]

 good story 

[Mefirst]

Found out some 1/4 mile times for both the Brooklyn Heavy and London Heavy...

Back in 1974 "London Heavy", the Challenger pulled a 9.64sec/139Mph time slip. This was the fastest time slip to that date in the UK Pro Stock series... Well, the fun didn´t last long... Come May 5th 1974 "Brooklyn Heavy" Duster pulled a 9.51sec/144Mph time slip...

This is the only info I found so far about time slips...

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Damn fine find there!

Im assuming a lot of chassis modifications as well as a certified roll cage will be in order for your Charger....or are you going to "detune" the engine?

[Ghoste]

Wow, and we think all the cool car sstories are only to found over here.  Congrats on your being next in line for some of that history.

[Mefirst]

Damn fine find there!

Im assuming a lot of chassis modifications as well as a certified roll cage will be in order for your Charger....or are you going to "detune" the engine?

I´ve already rebuilt the chassis, so I don´t think I´ll have to mod it further.. Well maby I´ll 4-link it, but I'm not ready to do that just yet... I won´t mod the engine any further right now, than replace the hyd. cam with the roller cam, replace the stock hemi intake with a custom made aluminium intake... I will also add a rollbar, much like the one that Ron has in his 68 and race seats and 5 point seat belts..

Other than that I won´t do much else, well the rear axel will probably need to be changed out at some point and I also think the 727 trans needs more heavy duty internals... But I´ll cross that bridge when I get there.... I have planed on adding a fogger nitrous system as well at some point.. My aim is to become the owner of an almost full weight Charger, that is still able to pull 9sec times on the 1/4 mile... Thats my aim with my ride...

/Tom

[firefighter3931]

That Motor was making some really good power back in the day !  The rollbar is a must at this point because you'll be well past the 11.50 threshold once it's all back together. What's this talk about 9in Furd rear ends....wash your mouth out with soap ! 


No plans to alter my engine combo at this point brother Tom....i wanna see what she does as is ! Even if it costs me a case of Heinekin...lmao ! I'll still do the stroker eventually but i'm gonna squeeze all i can out of this 446....just because. 


Tom, looking forward to the buildup of your new engine......it's gonna be sweeet ! 


Ron

[Chryco Psycho]

Awesome find
cool history & pix too
Congrats

[Wakko]

Awesome story, post some pics!!  Did you steal the engine or did he know what it was worth?

[Mefirst]

Me and my buddy started the prepwork this Saturday so we can pull out the Hemi next weekend. Only thing left to unbolt are the headers and transmission and the elephant ears...

I also found out a new interesting thing about my Hemi, a small piece of race car history, only this time it concerns Bruno Donatis "Speedwin" Cuda..



The guy, who also owned the Hemi I bough at one time, Goran Persakers also owned the "Speedwin" Cuda. He bought it back in 1982 and raced it both on the track and on the street... Sadly the Cuda burned up so bad that it could not be saved, during a race weekend at Santa Pod raceway in the UK in the mid 1980´s. There was faul play, but eventhough the Police investigated, they could not find out who set the Cuda on fire... So sadly another great race car was lost...

..anyways... back to what I found out... The elephant ears that mounts the Hemi securely into the engine bay are from the car "Speedwin". Both "ears" are stamped with the name "Speedwin". I tried to take pics of the stamps, but I could not get a good and clear picture of them...

..and finally a pic of the happy owner -Me. I am unbolting the carb. Its funny how an engine can bring such a big smile to ones face...



More reports will follow as the project continues...

The plan is to pull the Hemi. Open it up and diagnose everything, if something seems even a little worn out, it will be replaced. A Milodon external dual line oiling system is going to be fitted. New deep Milodon oil pan. Replace the hyd. cam with the roller cam. The stock Hemi intake will be replaced with a custom made aluminium one. Im also going to add a crankcase wacume pump system. Those ugly chrome walvecovers are also going to be changed out, chrome stuff look so outtaw place on a race engine in my opinion..


/Tom

[Ghoste]

Thanks for the update Tom.  That's a hell of a piece of insulation on that fuel line ahead of the regulator.

[firefighter3931]

Looks good Tom....no wonder you're smiling  I think you should put that tunnel ram on the Hemi ! 

Can't wait to see more pics ! 



Ron

[Mefirst]

Thanks for the update Tom.  That's a hell of a piece of insulation on that fuel line ahead of the regulator.

Yeah, it does look kinda wild..

Looks good Tom....no wonder you're smiling  I think you should put that tunnel ram on the Hemi ! 

Ron

The Tunnel Ram intake would be cool, but then again I want to keep things simple and use just one carb... with the custom made intake the engine will look kinda similar to this, well I will ofcourse add walvecovers, etc...



/Tom

[68chargerboy]

great story i wish i could find something like that. 

                           Zach

    P.S. if you are not going to use the 4/speed i would be interested in buying it 

[Mefirst]

25/11-2006

Pulled out the engine from the Chally today.. Here are some pix of the engine..



In this pic you can see how the block has been machined. There are also several holes drilled into different places on it to get rid of weight..



There are no other markings or code # on the block, accept for the M55 stamp on the block ID pad.. There is though one stamp on the heads. Its the company who made the Hemi heads, Mullen & Co and a what you could call part or cast #

/Tom

[firefighter3931]

Nice Tom !!!  Those brass frost plugs look pretty new. Any idea when it was last rebuilt ? I suppose you're gonna go with a motor plate as well ?


Ron