The
day has finally arrived. After years of trying to figure out what
sort of traditional hot rod I would build, I have purchased The
CAR. I've always tried to stand apart from the masses, and I struggled
to find the right car to represent this attitude. A car to hot rod
that was unusual but authentic. Chevrolets were absolutely 100%
completely out of the question. Ford’s rock, but they are the
quintessential vintage hot rod. Buicks are very cool and I thought
about a ‘52 special ‘cause I liked the short wheelbase,
I owned a ’55 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 and had big dreams for it,
but then I began to see it as too boxy. I thought about maybe a
’53 but was still unsure because Rocket 88s are mentioned in
too many songs. There was the ’53 Lincoln Capri, ’52 Mercury
Montery, '41 Plymouth, ’51-’53 Hudson Hornet. And then
I found it--the 1953 Dodge Coronet.
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Here
was a car that wasn’t particularly beautiful, but
it was the first year that the Chrysler Corporation put
a powerful hemi-V8 in a lightweight short wheelbase car.
It was an instant success on the NASCAR circuit claiming
6 first place finishes and transforming Dodge’s image
from slow and lowly to one to be reckoned with. Besides,
it is wacky, I like it, and I have yet to see one as a
hot rod.
For those who are unfamiliar with the
hemi-V8, it is a ferocious fire-breathing engine that
still is
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highly sought after for use in dragsters and drag race cars.
Chrysler was working with the Italians in the ‘50s
utilizing their design talents and coachworks for building
their concept cars. I think that their engineers took a
look at Italian engines and realized the hemispherical cylinder
head design that the Italians had been employing in their
cars for years was the ticket to an edge in performance.
They were right. The hemispherical head was the best way
to shape a combustion chamber to achieve a perfect burn
of the gasoline/air mixture. It also |
offered a cross flow design where the intake gases cruised
in and cruised out as exhaust in a relatively unrestricted
way. All this good stuff adds up to mean plenty of go fast
under your right foot.
The ’53 Dodge originally came with a 241ci V8 putting out a respectable (for 1953) 140 horsepower. The car I’ve bought has no engine and since she is meant to live this phase of her
life
as a hot rod, I’ve purchased a 1958 Imperial
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1953
Dodge Red Ram V8
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(Chrysler) 392ci hemi-V8 (their biggest old school hemi) that
in stock trim puts out 345 horsepower. Let’s see, that’s
140hp vs. 345hp plus whatever more horsepower I can extract out
of this thing when I’m done hopping it up. All of which means
hold on tight!
These pages are intended to be a chronicle of
my trails and tribulations of building this car into something
that can speak for my talents and for my shop’s abilities.
Enjoy!
Jeffrey Love
November 15, 2001 |
