— Historically significant Funny Car purchased sight unseen from Hawaii
— First-time firing up restored 1969 Hawaiian “Mini-Charger” at Keith Black’s shop
— Roland Leong’s all-time favorite Funny Car
INSPECTION BY NONE OTHER THAT ROLAND LEONG
The call came to me from Roland direct: “Tomorrow morning, get up to Keith Black’s shop in South Gate, my old Funny Car from 1969 is going to be there!” Roland had befriended me, as we had talked at various events about the old days of Keith Black Racing Engines, in particular about a mutual friend named Holly Hedrich, who was the General Manager at KB during the 1970s glory years. Roland had my number and knew that I did photography and magazine stories.
On this day, to see the beautifully and well-detained restored Hawaiian Funny Car was a real treat! The owner Ted Guth had hauled it to California from his native Minnesota, it was a wonderful experience. I photographed the whole ordeal, and even found myself involved in the preparation and the firing up process of it! Looking back, I am so glad Roland had called, as it turned out, I was the only “media guy” to attend, document, the reuniting of him and that historic car.
Once the initial “hellos” came and went, Roland immediately surmised that the engine’s existing belt and pulley arrangement needed to be changed. He said, “We need a different pulley!” After some measuring and a phone call to Blower Drive Service in nearby Whittier, they needed a different pulley and I volunteered to rush over there and get it.
When I returned with the specified part, I got busy and shot images of Roland working on the car, the details of the engine, and some tight shots of the lettering. Somehow or another, when after Roland had removed the spark plugs and “backed down” the cylinders (to remove any nitro), he was ready to hook up the starter and fire it up! I happened to be the only person standing right there, the others had temporarily gone inside the shop, obviously not knowing how quickly the procedure went.
Roland looked at me and said, “Get inside there and when I give you the signal, flip up that magneto switch.” I set my camera aside, climbed underneath the fiberglass body and got into position.
Roland Leong standing there, firing up for the first time his old, beloved Funny Car and I’m the guy who’s going to assist him in getting it brought back to life. How cool is that? The starter spins, he points, I hit the switch, the big HEMI® engine fires off on all eight cylinders on a high percentage of nitro! The fumes were strong, it sounded fantastic! I get back out and grab the camera, and nail some more photos. Wild!
It was an extremely fun day all around, Roland got the big HEMI engine fired up and it had a 92-percent load of nitro, just like the glory days of match racing. We all went to lunch together and listened to stories from Roland, it was a real learning experience to say the very least.
BACKGROUND OF THE HAWAIIAN DODGE CHARGER
Unfortunately, the story of the “first” 1969 Hawaiian Dodge Charger Funny Car started with a devastating crash at that year’s NHRA Winternationals event held in Pomona, California. Driver Larry Reyes had just beaten his first-round opponent Larry Christopherson when all hell broke loose as he entered the shutdown area.
The body itself was a fiberglass-version of the new-for-1969 “Charger 500” that had been developed for NASCAR competition (flush grille and streamlined rear backlight) and the only modification done to the ‘glass shell was a moderately chopped top. An aluminum sheet metal air dam was designed for the front and fitted. (Chrysler aero engineers told Roland that nothing else was necessary).
As it turned out, the stock rear lip spoiler on the car did not provide anywhere near enough downforce, plus, in combination with the deep front air dam that was used on the car, Reyes had basically no control of the flying projectile under full throttle as it passed the finish line. After the air caught the car, it quickly lifted off of its four wheels, swapped ends, barrel-rolled a few times and was more or less completely destroyed within a few moments.
Larry Reyes survived the horrific crash and was sent to the hospital just to be checked out. As the wreck was being hauled back to the pits, car owner Leong and his supporters, the brothers Gene and Ron Logghe (chassis builders) and Keith Black, were already talking about building a replacement car. Soon, Reyes was back at the track and the entire team was saying there would be a new “Hawaiian Charger,” and it would have changes done to it so what happened on the Pomona top end would not re-occur.
REVISED REPLACEMENT CAR
The new second-generation “Mini Charger” body was developed in cooperation with Ron Pellegrini (Fiberglass Ltd.) and saw modifications including 15 inches taken out of its length, 8 inches taken out of its width and 3 inches removed from the roof height. The wheelbase was set at 118 inches and a rear spoiler was molded into the fiberglass to give that much needed rear downforce.
The Logghe Brothers jumped in with help by providing a new, improved “Stage II” chassis (with more protective and slightly more compact roll cage, added braces in the frame rails) and within three months the replacement Hawaiian Mini Charger was ready to hit the drag strip.
With the slightly miniaturized Charger body, and with a simple blue-colored gel-coated body (and a quick “Hawaiian” white shoe polish temporary lettering job), the new car saw victory at three sizable events during its first outing, Irwindale, OCIR and Carlsbad. A $7,500.00 Memorial Day weekend, which was not bad in 1969 dollars, and a great way to help off-set the expenses involved with the crash itself.
ROLAND EXPLAINING THE STARTING PROCESS FOR NITRO
On the initial firing of the car on nitromethane, Leong explained how it would go down to car owner Ted Guth (center) and volunteer crewmember Peter Howell (right). Soon it was ready to get fired up!
SPOT-ON ACCURATE NITRO HEMI ENGINE
Gary Schmidt at Wheeler Racing Engines (Blaine, Minnesota) built the new 426 HEMI engine using a brand-new Chrysler (4.25-inch bore) cast iron block and new cast iron cylinder heads (stock style, with 170cc combustion chambers and stock rocker arm assemblies). An Eagle 3.75-inch stroke crankshaft, JE pistons, Brooks rods and Smith Brothers pushrods were also part of the assembly. Milodon 10-quart pan with high-output oil pump. Replicating some of the rare parts as originally used back in 1969, a magnesium gear drive (KB), magnesium blower (Bowers 6-71) with magnesium end plates and magnesium intake manifold (Cragar) were located and included in the engine build. It looks period correct and sounds awesome!
DETAILS MATTER
Ribbed three-port Enderle injector was located and installed and is fed a mixture of nitromethane and alcohol via a 110-series Enderle pump. A Cirello magneto provides spark.
Important details like era-correct rolling stock (12.00 x 16-inch M&H slicks and ET wheels are used) help make this vintage fuel flopper so incredibly detailed.
The front Halibrand wheels are originals, and the rubber is from M&H, where originally these cars used sports car type tires like Pirellis.
A new pair of Simpson chutes were added during the restoration and even though this car only sees duty as a cackle-fest performer, it has all the equipment to run down the quarter-mile as it did in ’69-’70 time period.
EXCEPTIONAL GRAPHICS
Warren Minick used 1 Shot Enamel lettering paint on much of the graphics, lettering work with the end result looking like a true “time warp” from 1969! Accurate to every detail, the paint and lettering on this car is beyond impressive.
DISTINCTIVE BAMBOO LETTERING
The art of the woody ringed stems of the bamboo branches was a trademark of Roland Leong racecars, a great way to give it the unique Hawaiian identity!
Part of the Aloha character of the car is the grille, featuring a tropical Hawaiian sunset!
LEGENDARY SHOP, LEGENDARY CAR
And while Mr. Keith Black had passed away years prior, it was like old times when the Hawaiian was on the KBRE grounds. Mrs. Keith Black even came out of the front office to check it out, commenting on how great that engine sounded! Son Ken Black was there as well, a real trip down memory lane!
Of all the dragsters and Funny Cars that were associated with Keith Black Racing Engines over the years, none had a stronger alliance than what Roland had, his cars were “in-house” operations. The day of the photo shoot with this Ted Guth car, we took a few moments and rolled it out front for a fun “flashback” photo.
Back in 2007, Speed Images offered this beautiful computer-generated Ed Golden artwork of the restored car, and it captured it in all its glory: with the wheels up, spent nitro out the pipes and wrinkled slicks!
One of the magazine ads of the day featuring both Roland and the Charger.
Today, this car is part of the Mosley car collection, and it can be seen at selected nostalgia events.
Author: James Maxwell