Tony Defeo, former editor of Mopar Action, looked over the original Black Ghost and claims that the street racing legend story was fabricated. He claims the 1970 Hemi Challenger SE was a stock car that couldn't dominate the street with its 14.0 sec. runs. He makes the point that Hemis were designed to run at a high rpms for hours at NASCAR tracks. On the street they did not breathe well and could not dominate, like on the track.
I bet Tony is correct, plus again it sounds like story tellers from the 70's who were most likely stoned or doing drugs . I hope the pinhead who paid the million for it gets to see this.
Thanks for sharing Tom. Really enjoy Uncle Tony. Some members may not have seen these. Was thinking about this the other day while watching undercover police surveilling in the neighborhood (you can tell they're police cause it's seems to be policy to leave engine running) and the issues our hemi's have in applications that do lot's of idling. Gen 3 Hemi Camshaft Failure Mystery Explained! - YouTube A Closer Look At The Mopar Gen 3 Hemi And It's Often Fatal Flaw - YouTube
One of the points Tony makes is that the HEMI was designed to run at high rpms, for hours, at NASCAR tracks. Although the HEMI is a legendary engine, and rightfully so, it wasn't suited for street racing. Other engines, like the 440 6-Pack had more usable low-end power and were actually faster on the street and drag strips in stock form.
The absence of folk talking about actually racing against it. Sad that Dodge fell for it... or maybe they were a player too? All it cost was auction fees (+/- $150k) to create a legend for a multi million dollar movie
I grew up in SoCal in the 1969 to 74 era and raced my 340 Cuda at all the SoCal tracks. A stock Hemi could turn 13.5's with a good driver that didn't spin on launch. My 340 ran a best of [email protected] and was in the 13.50's all day long. This was fast enough to tromp most "Muscle Cars" of the era as most people could not launch properly. So I believe a solid car with a good driver such as the Black Ghost owner if he was disciplined on launch could trounce most stock muscle cars of the era. I raced a brand new '70 440+6 'Cuda at Irwindale one Saturday and pulled him at top end clocking a 13.50 @ 104 with his 13.55 at 103. He ran up to me in the pits and wanted to see my Hemi as he had never been beat. His jaw dropped when he saw the small block 340 in my '68 FB Formula S. The only clue that this was a 340 was the Formula S badge on the fender.
Whenever I’m presented with a questionable story like this, my motto is “follow the money”. Who stands to profit from this story? Obviously, the owner. But also the auction house, (they get a percentage of the sale price), the people making the videos and movies… I don’t think Tony’s making money on this, so I’m gonna go with his theory. Too bad for the person who supposedly paid $1M for the car, guess W.C. Fields was right…
Those that dominated the street racing scene across the continent during the era of the Black Ghost were NOT STOCK. The dominant cars were owned by guys who operated high performance machine shops with built motors, diff ratio changes and beyond. Factory unaltered vehicles couldn't compete with them on the street or the drag strip where they also spent many weekends. One who dominated the Vancouver area street and strip seen in more than one wicked hemi back in the day was the late George Duda (the local Hemi King who co-founded Mopac Auto Supply) in his 66 426 Belvedere and 70 426 Cuda before he went on to specialize in small block Mustangs.
