Re: High and Mighty?!

[Jim Altemose <jaltemoose@xxxxxxxxx>]

Here's a link to an article about the High and Mighty clone:
http://www.uaw-daimlerchryslerntc.org/resources/news.cfm?NewsID=1259

Also, here's an excerpt from a Tom Hoover interview.
http://www.mopar.com/muscle/profiles1004.htm

Mopar: During the Ramcharger days was there a "DIY" (Do It Yourself) ethic? 

Tom Hoover: Oh, absolutely. Like I say, I had, well, I think I can say
that with some conviction, the first multiple tuned length inlet
manifold, (Ram) manifold, on my Plymouth. I used it to set the record
and win the class in 1960. And of course, probably the first tuned ram
manifold on a competition car was on the High and Mighty Ramcharger
car. Danny Mancini and I built the first engine. There were several
engines in that car over the course of three years or so. We built the
first one, I think.

So, Ramchargers were a unique group in that, outside the military,
seldom have I seen a band of brothers gather in that way to accomplish
something. The Ramchargers really went through, I'd say, three stages.
That is to say from '58 to '59 it was entirely casual. Everybody ran
their own car. We just kind of gathered at the drag strip and so
forth. The first community effort was the High and Mighty car.

Mopar: Tell me more about the High and Mighty car. 

Tom Hoover: Well the guys, some of the enthusiasts and some of the
guys at the museum and so forth are in the process (now) of building a
clone of that car for display at a museum.

At the third stage we really got serious. That's when we approached
Plymouth and Dodge and said gee, "Would you like us to run a stock
car?" In the hope of advancing the sales of these cars to younger
people. Plymouth told us to get lost, but Dodge said alright, and
asked how much we would want? It became the Ramchargers Dodge at that
point. Then we really did reduce the group to the equivalent of a band
of brothers. You know, 8 or 10 people that were very serious about it.

Frank Wiley, he was the PR man at Dodge, he gave us a '61 two-door
sedan. He had homologated a number of parts, like the engine and so
forth. We built up the car, and took it to the nationals in '61 down
at Indianapolis. Although we didn't win, we were down to the final
four, and a Chrysler three-speed manual at the time had what were
called pin-synchronizers. The synchronizer broke in the semi-final. A
very significant thing happened then. The show seemed to have slowed
down a little bit. Monday afternoon, Labor Day, the announcer said
"Nicholson won that race in a 409 Chevy." The announcer asked the
crowd, "How would you like to see that Dodge race Nicholson?" So they
staged a match race and we won! And boy, Wiley took that, and the heat
that it generated and ran with it. That had a lot too, I think it gave
impetus to the Lynn Townsend edict, which was, "Hey let's do something
with this, let's do something about our image here." The Max Wedge
package was the result of that.

- Jim
Jim Altemose, Long Island, NY
'63 Polara 500 (Max Wedge), '65 Belvedere I (Street Wedge), '71 Bronco