1974 Dodge Charger at Le Mans Classic
01-22-2014, 09:41 AM
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1974 Dodge Charger at Le Mans Classic The 24 Hours of Le Mans gets a star-spangled homage
By Max Prince January 16, 2014
Even at idle, the palpitating eight-cylinder NASCAR rumble enamors bystanders. Those French locals are accustomed to howling from thoroughbred Italian prototypes or the valvetrain blare of an air-cooled Porsche, but not this. Not a Hemi.
To the delight of spectators, Christophe Schwartz drives a 1974 Dodge Charger at Le Mans ... Le Mans Classic, that is. It's a semiannual 24-hour tribute at Circuit de la Sarthe, and, if you're a vintage racing connoisseur, it's among the most rewarding historic competitions worldwide.
Here's how LMC works: The rules divide entrants into six classes, from those prewar vehicles in Grid 1 to the Disco Era crowd, which is Grid 6. Things get underway at 3pm Saturday, and the checkered flag drops at 3pm Sunday, so it's a genuine 24-hour race, but the field alternates every 360 minutes. Groups run for an hour, then marshals clear the track and usher in the next class. It's all the nonstop action with continuous heterogeneity.
Even so, a Mopar at LMC is the undisputed standout.
"It just gets so much attention in the paddock," Schwartz laughs. "People are saying, 'Wait, you're running that ... out there?' And we say, 'Yes, we are!'"
The idea was born in 2003 after Schwartz discovered a photograph of Doug and Herschel McGriff's original '72 Dodge Charger, swathed with silver and gold Olympia Beer livery, in the Le Mans pits during 1976.
"This car was pretty much unknown since it only did three laps," he explains. "I found some of the original crew from Olympia, Washington and met with them in 2005. From there, we started with the idea of bringing the car back to Le Mans."
The first Olympia Dodge was lost at some point in the early 1980s, but Schwartz soon located a '74 Charger in Oregon with bona fide pedigree—thanks to a custom Petty-built 115-inch Grand National chassis, it had actually won the 1977 USAC Championship. With assistance from Dick Pierson (one of the original McGriff team mechanics), Schwartz's crew brought their stocker up to snuff with a four-speed manual transmission, Ford 9-inch rear, Hurst/Airheart disc brakes, and, of course, its period Olympia livery.
At LMC 2006, the Charger managed a middle-of-the-pack finish in its debut but succumbed to driveline complications in both '08 and '10. Then, at LMC 2012, catastrophic engine failure again kept it from finishing, despite the crew's best efforts to swap in a spare 426 Wedge overnight. Undeterred, Schwartz says the Dodge's new Tex Racing trans and true Grand National 9-inch rear (a setup akin to modern Cup cars) should shore up reliability before summer. Oh, and he's got a special Hemi 426 in store for this year.
"I was able to buy, in September [2013], a Nichels Hemi, which was a Grand National engine used by Ray Elder. Right now, we're rebuilding that very motor to go in the Charger. So, for 2014, we will have a genuine 1969 NASCAR dry-sump Hemi in the car."
Okay, pro-spec 'boxes and vintage stock car engines aren't exactly junkyard pickings—just how competitive are these guys? According to Schwartz, the field is divided into thirds: one that's simply there to celebrate Le Mans and entertain, a middle tier that's pushing hard like any other race, and an upper echelon that's out to break records. Wait ... break records?
"Yep," says Schwartz, "and it's funny, too, because now at Le Mans, you have three chicanes that did not exist before. Yet you have cars—driven by amateur drivers—that run faster than those with professional drivers back in the day, even with the new chicanes!"
So who's quickest?
"The Lola prototypes," he says, without hesitation. "They run in 3:50, or maybe four minutes flat. That's pretty much as fast as the modern LMP2s."
The Dodge runs in the last third of the field, but still somehow manages sub-five-minute times. Schwartz explains that keeping pace with those Ferrari 512 and 911 RSR foes of Grid 6 is a "cat-and-mouse" game.
"You have a big advantage on the straights because of the sheer power, so you'll catch any Porsche or Ferrari. But you need to brake much earlier, because [the Charger] weighs about 3600 pounds, and those other guys weigh around 2400 ... so everybody I passed on the straights, they pass me braking into the curves!" he says, laughing. "When you come to the corners, it's really a handful to drive. Imagine trying to yank a locomotive around a tight corner."
Apparently, another NASCAR GT-spec car—Marcel Mignot's 358ci Ford Torino—managed a top-20 finish at LMC two years ago. Fine, but hustling a hulking slab of Detroit Iron at Sarthe still seems ludicrous.
"The amazing thing is that the faster it goes, the better it feels. You can feel that it was designed for the Superspeedway," Schwartz coos. "It really starts to wake up at 120 mph. You almost just let go of the steering wheel, and it's stable. We've been at 185 mph [on Mulsanne Straight], so 180-plus is really no problem for our car."
Braver men than we, and probably the reason Schwartz and his team are the perennial fan favorites of Le Mans Classic.
"Everybody loves it—the French, Italians, German, British, Americans ... whoever. They just love to see that big Dodge!"
http://www.roadandtrack.com/features...#ixzz2r8s2Xx00
By Max Prince January 16, 2014
Even at idle, the palpitating eight-cylinder NASCAR rumble enamors bystanders. Those French locals are accustomed to howling from thoroughbred Italian prototypes or the valvetrain blare of an air-cooled Porsche, but not this. Not a Hemi.
To the delight of spectators, Christophe Schwartz drives a 1974 Dodge Charger at Le Mans ... Le Mans Classic, that is. It's a semiannual 24-hour tribute at Circuit de la Sarthe, and, if you're a vintage racing connoisseur, it's among the most rewarding historic competitions worldwide.
Here's how LMC works: The rules divide entrants into six classes, from those prewar vehicles in Grid 1 to the Disco Era crowd, which is Grid 6. Things get underway at 3pm Saturday, and the checkered flag drops at 3pm Sunday, so it's a genuine 24-hour race, but the field alternates every 360 minutes. Groups run for an hour, then marshals clear the track and usher in the next class. It's all the nonstop action with continuous heterogeneity.
Even so, a Mopar at LMC is the undisputed standout.
"It just gets so much attention in the paddock," Schwartz laughs. "People are saying, 'Wait, you're running that ... out there?' And we say, 'Yes, we are!'"
The idea was born in 2003 after Schwartz discovered a photograph of Doug and Herschel McGriff's original '72 Dodge Charger, swathed with silver and gold Olympia Beer livery, in the Le Mans pits during 1976.
"This car was pretty much unknown since it only did three laps," he explains. "I found some of the original crew from Olympia, Washington and met with them in 2005. From there, we started with the idea of bringing the car back to Le Mans."
The first Olympia Dodge was lost at some point in the early 1980s, but Schwartz soon located a '74 Charger in Oregon with bona fide pedigree—thanks to a custom Petty-built 115-inch Grand National chassis, it had actually won the 1977 USAC Championship. With assistance from Dick Pierson (one of the original McGriff team mechanics), Schwartz's crew brought their stocker up to snuff with a four-speed manual transmission, Ford 9-inch rear, Hurst/Airheart disc brakes, and, of course, its period Olympia livery.
At LMC 2006, the Charger managed a middle-of-the-pack finish in its debut but succumbed to driveline complications in both '08 and '10. Then, at LMC 2012, catastrophic engine failure again kept it from finishing, despite the crew's best efforts to swap in a spare 426 Wedge overnight. Undeterred, Schwartz says the Dodge's new Tex Racing trans and true Grand National 9-inch rear (a setup akin to modern Cup cars) should shore up reliability before summer. Oh, and he's got a special Hemi 426 in store for this year.
"I was able to buy, in September [2013], a Nichels Hemi, which was a Grand National engine used by Ray Elder. Right now, we're rebuilding that very motor to go in the Charger. So, for 2014, we will have a genuine 1969 NASCAR dry-sump Hemi in the car."
Okay, pro-spec 'boxes and vintage stock car engines aren't exactly junkyard pickings—just how competitive are these guys? According to Schwartz, the field is divided into thirds: one that's simply there to celebrate Le Mans and entertain, a middle tier that's pushing hard like any other race, and an upper echelon that's out to break records. Wait ... break records?
"Yep," says Schwartz, "and it's funny, too, because now at Le Mans, you have three chicanes that did not exist before. Yet you have cars—driven by amateur drivers—that run faster than those with professional drivers back in the day, even with the new chicanes!"
So who's quickest?
"The Lola prototypes," he says, without hesitation. "They run in 3:50, or maybe four minutes flat. That's pretty much as fast as the modern LMP2s."
The Dodge runs in the last third of the field, but still somehow manages sub-five-minute times. Schwartz explains that keeping pace with those Ferrari 512 and 911 RSR foes of Grid 6 is a "cat-and-mouse" game.
"You have a big advantage on the straights because of the sheer power, so you'll catch any Porsche or Ferrari. But you need to brake much earlier, because [the Charger] weighs about 3600 pounds, and those other guys weigh around 2400 ... so everybody I passed on the straights, they pass me braking into the curves!" he says, laughing. "When you come to the corners, it's really a handful to drive. Imagine trying to yank a locomotive around a tight corner."
Apparently, another NASCAR GT-spec car—Marcel Mignot's 358ci Ford Torino—managed a top-20 finish at LMC two years ago. Fine, but hustling a hulking slab of Detroit Iron at Sarthe still seems ludicrous.
"The amazing thing is that the faster it goes, the better it feels. You can feel that it was designed for the Superspeedway," Schwartz coos. "It really starts to wake up at 120 mph. You almost just let go of the steering wheel, and it's stable. We've been at 185 mph [on Mulsanne Straight], so 180-plus is really no problem for our car."
Braver men than we, and probably the reason Schwartz and his team are the perennial fan favorites of Le Mans Classic.
"Everybody loves it—the French, Italians, German, British, Americans ... whoever. They just love to see that big Dodge!"
http://www.roadandtrack.com/features...#ixzz2r8s2Xx00
