Shop Tour - Hardcore Drag Racing

Orange Sunshine    is a 1973 Plymouth Duster owned and built by Doug Markel , from Gibsonburg, Ohio. Doug said he has owned the car for the last 9 years. He purchased the Duster from his good friend  from Hamilton Ohio who also races. When he found out he was looking for a car he contacted Doug and said he didn't need two race cars so he bought the Duster as a rolling chassis .  Doug added the power plant, transmission, gears and  electronics along with some neglected TLC. He said it's been a lot of fun, racing and making  many friends along the way, at the race track. Some of specifications include a Ladder Bar rear suspension with a 9" rear and 4:30 gears.  Big 14x32- r15 Goodyear Slicks handle all the power that big Mopar engine throws down. The front end consists of a Tubular K- Member fitted with stock-style torsion bars. For the power plant we have a Big-Block Wedge Stroked to 500 Cu In. For this combination Doug chose to stroke a  400-B block. He filled it w

                                                                                      Chris Bower is from Cleveland, Ohio with his 1975 Plymouth Duster Chris said he has a car that most car enthusiasts would love to have, his 1975 Plymouth  Gold Duster , it  was his first car, he bought it back in 1988 when he was16 years old. Chris stated he grew up in family of  Mechanics and Drag Racers, so you can say it was in his DNA from the beginning. He bought it for $300 , money earned from being a dish washer at a local college, Chris drove it to high school for 2 years then in 1991 he painted to Lime Green. Chris ran ET Bracket Pro and Sportsman classes in and around Ohio, his local track is Pacemakers in Mt Vernon Ohio a little 1/8 th mile track.   In 2003 Chris decided to have it painted Burnt Orange and put it back on the street to enjoy both on the street and track, he said that he  recently got into the Hard Tire heads up racing , and likes the format much better than ET. Th

                                                Al Wagner's 1970 Plymouth Duster          Al Wagner  started Drag Racing in a 13.0 second Plymouth Road Runner back in 1972.  He kept improving it and reached 11.0 second runs back in the early 80's with a steel block 383/4 speed trans.  He ran the car  for over 13 years,  and sold it in 1982 .  Al stated , It was time to step it up.      In 1983 he purchased the current Duster we see here .  With just a little chassis work Al ran bracket races with it and also super street (10.90 index).      He had an 8th place finish in the S/ST class back in 1986, and raced the car in that current state until he decided to totally re-chassis the car in 1989.  The car was taken to Vallow Body & Chassis in Pontiac, IL. The car is currently a round tube chassis , with a funny car cage, 4 link rear , and a  strut front end.   For power a 572 Wedge was installed with aluminum rods.  The block and heads are by Indy Cylinder Head,