Mopar Muscle Association UK

Ivor wrote:That was pretty much state of the art then Les...great shots, still got your hair then?

Yes Ivor, all me hairs still there and mostly the same colour, albeit a bit thinner in the middle

When I bought the car from Ricky it had the 440 but was on springs. I just decided that this time with the extra power capable from the BB I was going to do it proper, all out race car, and unbreakable in most departments with no possibilities of any traction problems, hence the 14x32's.

I took the car straight to Dave/Larry Pollen who cut the rear out and installed the rear chassis section, narrowed the axle and all the brackets for the bars and coil overs and added the cage, made the headers etc, I remember spending days there with the pot rivet gun fitting the tin work, building the engine up after the balance job fitting the strange shafts etc etc.

I remember Geoff Hauser bringing the Hoosier tyre guy over to the Caravan for an introduction and a report on how his tyres were performing, I think I was the first to run them over here on a Drag Car, still had to pay for them though!

Anyhow it was all worth doing as that car hooked real hard, every time, only one small adjustment on the L/bars after a few runs, and a few turns on the shocks, never had to touch the suspension again.

Thats about it, enough waffle, just a shame I didn't have it a bit longer, was always messing with 340 car, but the '69 was virtually a No maintenance car in all departments, just turn up, and go racing..it was great

mopar_mark wrote:

Brutus wrote: those oil burners runing on the squeeze are childs play & a lot more forgiving.

Oh yeah, thats why everyone can do it

I was looking for advice as to what colour I should paint my block, turquoise or Hemi Orange, can you help ?

Epic thread!

Just the injection needed. Brilliant photo's, Les. Won't pretend to remember your cars, one of the newer crowd being the spritely age I am, but this is easily the best thing on here for a donkeys age. Great to have you here.

Stu wrote: Epic thread!

Just the injection needed. Brilliant photo's, Les. Won't pretend to remember your cars, one of the newer crowd being the spritely age I am, but this is easily the best thing on here for a donkeys age. Great to have you here.

Thanks Stu, just re-living some old times, all the best mate....Les

Hmm, Dave Billydoo sounds a familiar name.. what ever happened to him???

Hi Les,

Great thread you have running here!
Your name has been mentioned on many occassions around the track!
The 'Hot Metal' Cuda was a legend and set a masive standard for all.
It was always a dream of mine and many others to run a 'NINE' with an iron headed 440!
I first tried in the mid 80's with a 440 Dodge Aspen that I purchased from Tim Fennel.
It was previously a 383/4 speed car that terrorised Essex LOL!
Tim bought a rare ex Weslake engineering 440 motor to run in the Aspen but lost interest and went All Resto instead!
So with the aid of 'Lofty' Malone, we tried to finish the car and run a TEN!
Boy was I green back then, parts were dear and hard to find.
After years of toil and trouble we gave up, and a good friend Nick Chandler took over.
Unfortunately that car was jinxed and he managed to get her down the strip but always with problems.
So, many years later I bought 'Cookies Dodge' and continued the saga.
The dart was built by Hauser at a cost that would buy a nice house back in the day!
It still is the finest/fastest street strip Mopar ever built in the UK!!!
With the help of Nick's brother Jim Chandler, we ran consistant mid tens with the ex Rob Loring iron headed 440.
At that time your old Cuda came back on the scene with Roger Povey.
He was running the car in its old set-up, box frame back half and Koffel 451 motor!
He constantly ran 10.01 but never manged a nine and eventually the motor let go!!!
Roger being a man of money and goals had the car totally rebuilt at 'ProStreet' with a nice fella called Terry.
Andy Robinson put a full tube chassis in the Cuda and a new bigger motor was built and high Eight's was the order of the day!
But with all things fast and Mopar the money runs out!
We sold the Dart and Roger sold the Cuda.
The Koffel motor is being rebuilt again and will go into a 73 Cuda, and your Old Cuda still runs Nines with an iron headed 440 LOL!

Bacca.

Just caught up with this thread! Top stuff!

baccaruda wrote:Hi Les,

Great thread you have running here!
Your name has been mentioned on many occassions around the track!
The 'Hot Metal' Cuda was a legend and set a masive standard for all.
It was always a dream of mine and many others to run a 'NINE' with an iron headed 440!
I first tried in the mid 80's with a 440 Dodge Aspen that I purchased from Tim Fennel.
It was previously a 383/4 speed car that terrorised Essex LOL!
Tim bought a rare ex Weslake engineering 440 motor to run in the Aspen but lost interest and went All Resto instead!
So with the aid of 'Lofty' Malone, we tried to finish the car and run a TEN!
Boy was I green back then, parts were dear and hard to find.
After years of toil and trouble we gave up, and a good friend Nick Chandler took over.
Unfortunately that car was jinxed and he managed to get her down the strip but always with problems.
So, many years later I bought 'Cookies Dodge' and continued the saga.
The dart was built by Hauser at a cost that would buy a nice house back in the day!
It still is the finest/fastest street strip Mopar ever built in the UK!!!
With the help of Nick's brother Jim Chandler, we ran consistant mid tens with the ex Rob Loring iron headed 440.
At that time your old Cuda came back on the scene with Roger Povey.
He was running the car in its old set-up, box frame back half and Koffel 451 motor!
He constantly ran 10.01 but never manged a nine and eventually the motor let go!!!
Roger being a man of money and goals had the car totally rebuilt at 'ProStreet' with a nice fella called Terry.
Andy Robinson put a full tube chassis in the Cuda and a new bigger motor was built and high Eight's was the order of the day!
But with all things fast and Mopar the money runs out!
We sold the Dart and Roger sold the Cuda.
The Koffel motor is being rebuilt again and will go into a 73 Cuda, and your Old Cuda still runs Nines with an iron headed 440 LOL!

Bacca.

couple of things to set u straight on bacs, you lads got the dart to go 10.4s but that was engine power only no gas/
and i dont get what your saying about roger poveys cuda being lez car thought his cudas were 71 cars,
poveys cuda was the car put together as far as i know by slipstream x jensen people and no matter what engine was grafted in the quickest it ran was 9,7s mtr and it went maybe as fast as a 8.6 on a big hit of gas they had nothin but problems thats why roger through the towel in i reckon that terry got through rogers hard earned faster than you could throw women under me in my prime,

i nearly bought that koffel cuda from slip stream but i had just dropped a £500 gripper on gbh and could not afford both...good times

Yep, was definitely Bill Slipstreams Cuda,

There were 3 Koffel motors bought in at that time, Bills, Ray Simpsons, forget who had the other one

mopar_mark wrote:Yep, was definitely Bill Slipstreams Cuda,

There were 3 Koffel motors bought in at that time, Bills, Ray Simpsons, forget who had the other one

did they build that car mark......... it was very rough and ready but was a screamer

mopar_mark wrote: There were 3 Koffel motors bought in at that time, Bills, Ray Simpsons, forget who had the other one

I think Alan Knight ended up with one but that may have been the one from Ray Simpsons convertable?

Excuse my stupidity, but what is so special about a Koffel?


...and what is a £500 gripper?

Clivey wrote:Excuse my stupidity, but what is so special about a Koffel?


...and what is a £500 gripper?

Dave Koffel was a top Mopar builder at that time, Super Stock racer, Mopar/Factory backed in the 60's

Gripper - Most likely an axle

Cannonball wrote:

mopar_mark wrote:Yep, was definitely Bill Slipstreams Cuda,

There were 3 Koffel motors bought in at that time, Bills, Ray Simpsons, forget who had the other one

did they build that car mark......... it was very rough and ready but was a screamer

99% certain Bill put the Cuda together, his Koffel had a lovely ported Tunnel Ram & decent set of carbs. It was very much rough n ready, but done the business.

I went to his place a couple of times, but haven't seen Bill for years

Nick wrote:

mopar_mark wrote: There were 3 Koffel motors bought in at that time, Bills, Ray Simpsons, forget who had the other one

I think Alan Knight ended up with one but that may have been the one from Ray Simpsons convertable?

Yeah, Alan had the scraps as it were, but he wasn't part of the original motor owner trio . .