Texas Whale

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Texas Whale 2012
Texas Whale and its sister Big Red Ram

Intro

The Texas Whale is a 1960 Plymouth Suburban 2-door station wagon that is currently raced by Dave Schultz in the Nostalgia Super Stock Class of NMCA and other NSS events. Depending on the corrected altitude, the car currently bounces between B/FX (9.50-second 1/4 mile), C/FX (9.75-second 1/4 Mile), and A/NSS (10-second 1/4 mile).

The car is primarily crewed by Dave's son Dallas Schultz, who races a matching (in paint scheme) 65 Dodge Coronet NSS car by the name of Big Red Ram.

Both cars are owned by the MoparStyle Racing division of DDS Enterprises.

Technical Specifics

Motor


Transmission

The 727 transmission with build by Dallas Schultz, the Whale's Crew Chief. I has a billet steel drum, Griner manual-reverse pattern low band apply foot-brake valve body, Super Sprag bolt-in sprag, Red Racing Clutches, and other high performance parts.

The torque converter is an 8" ATI Tree Master and the flex plate is from B&M.

Chassis

The [[front suspension] is completely stock as prescribed by the rules. The rear suspension is a coil over 4-link with a Ford 9" rear end and Richmond Gear 4.68:1 ring & pinion gear. The car is tied together by the cage and sub-frame connectors. The rear shocks are currently QA1 single adjustable.

The slicks are 10.5W X 33" Mickey Thompson and the front tires are 28" X 4" Mickey Thompsons. Wheels are Weld's racing wheels.

The cage was custom built using Chrome Moly tubing by Mark Artis at Texas Thunder Performance in Frisco, Texas. Mark also did the initial back-half of the car, with Mat Wright of BRC Racecraft in Newburgh, Indiana performing some modifications and fine tuning.

Building the Car

Dave was racing a 1965 Dodge Coronet (later to become the Big Red Ram) in Nostalgia Super Stock, and was looking to race something a little different from the norm. His favorite finned car was a 1960 Plymouth, as they have the tallest fins of any production American car (no it wasn't the 59 Cadillac or the 57 Imperial) -- and it just happens that not only is it the first year of a Plymouth legal to run in NSS, but no one had ever built one to race in NSS.

Dave bought a 2-dr post 60 Plymouth that had been a Texas DPS (Department of Public Safety - State Troopers) car, with a 383 and three-on-the-tree. That car became known as POS. However, before sending the car off the get built into a NSS car, Dave ran across a 60 Plymouth Suburban Wagon on eBay. Is was a 4-door, Slant 6, three-on-the-tree from California. When the wagon arrived from California, it was cleaned, and had the drive-train and interior pulled. It was then sent to Ken Presley in Conway, AR to spend the next three months having the body blasted, repaired, and put in primer.

From there the car was delivered in 2004 to Mark Artis with Texas Thunder Performance in Frisco, Texas -- where it was to spend the next six years being transformed in a NSS Legal race car. While there it was decided to convert the car into an exact replica of the rarer 2-door wagons offered in 1960. This required a complete 2-door post car as a donor, to give up it's center section -- including the larger front doors and the metal behind the door.

In addition to handling the conversion to a 2-door, Texas Thunder did the back-half, sheet metal work, cage, body, Lexan, plumbing, electrical, front end rebuild, Interior, and paint. Damon Kuhn at Diamondback Engines built the engine, and Dave's son Dallas built the transmission.

Custom molds were made from the bumpers, front fenders, hood, and tailgate -- and fiberglass parts were pulled from those molds.


POS - the car that gave its life so The Whale could live

It's Alive

2011

2012

Plans for 2013

Relevant Links



References

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