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["John Elle" <johnelle@xxxxxxxxx>]

Well, being as this is Christmas, a time of well being and good cheer,
possibly a slightly of beaten thread would be acceptable on occasion now
that our parent company is no longer in Wisconsin but some where around
the Black Forest in the land of elves and trolls and also includes an
outfit that used to be known as Chrysler.
 I just received a Christmas card from a fellow Chrysler club member
harking back to the days when I was the news letter editor. I had
written a 2 part article a wee bit tongue in cheek at the time poking a
bit of fun (heresy) at the awesome reputation that the HEMI had
developed by reaching back into Chrysler History to it's early racing
days (really early racing days) when one of the first Chrysler 80's had
placed well at LeMans using the then new Flat Head I-6 engines. A bunch
of time later Lee Petty and his crew of merry men had done well in the
early days of stock car racing using 1950 Plymouths. Hardly a car that
one considered much of a power house but then again, what was in 1950? 
The article began by referring briefly to the racing history of Chrysler
Corporation dating back from pre-HEMI to the infamous if not legendary
UNDER HEAD CAM L-6 RED HEAD engine. After extolling on the benefits of
mounting the cam shaft closely to the valves to decrease complexity and
weight that the benefits of an Under Head Cam engine presents and the
improvement the higher compression (6:1) gave,  the rest of the two
articles chronicled the build up using vintage parts of a more modern
version of the same engine. (Used last in 1959 Chrysler cars and for
many years after in fork lift and other high tech industrial
applications.)  The reference was made to a number of sources for parts,
web sites that featured build up of these engines, other web sites that
chronicled adapters for current 5 speed transmissions and places to find
obsolete parts if one wanted to go with an over drive unit. 
It was shortly there after that one of the club members got ahold of me
and told me he was restoring a 1950 Plymouth that his dad sold new from
his Desoto Plymouth agency in Oklahoma and bought back not many years
ago from the estate with 10,000 miles on it. The car served as
transportation and got passed around the family and worn out so Cotton
and his wife Barbara decided to do the hot rod restoration route
complete with a built 360, torque flyte, AC and a number of modern
conveniences to travel around the S.W. with towing his trailer with his
restored Harley in it to car shows etc. His question was simply "is this
for real" and when assured that it was dropped all plans to modernize
the power plant and went the whole nine yards with a Dodge engine (218
cu in), over drive, dual carbs, aluminum head, dual exhaust headers and
a cam shaft. An over drive transmission was located rebuilt and
installed and a Vintage Air A/C unit installed as the car was restored
to factory "upgraded" original interior. 
His car was finished a year ago and since then has been driven to
multiple car shows through out Arizona and New Mexico and functions in
as he says, it keeps up with traffic. It is safe to drive and the A/C
keeps him wonderfully cool. He is now planning his 2007 adventures in
this wonderfully delightful modern day throw back.  A 1950 Plymouth
2dsd. 
There was a personal note included thanking me for the effort put into
the article and resources that he could use to accomplish this. You
know, this hobby can not get much better than that. 
So to all a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to boot. 
If you listen carefully on a quarter moon night during the early hours
of the morning when the silence of the night prevails, you too might be
able to hear the crackle of an old flat head six walking and talking
through the gears echoing off the hills, off in the distance!
John
 
 
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