the team rebuild the car through the first season and then race that team with their own car. Whoever wins, gets the car and cash. It’s taking Southern ingenuity, hard work, experience, and late nights to win with someone else’s junk. We ventured to Muscle Shoals to see it all firsthand, uncovering the secrets they don’t even share at the racetrack. Welcome to Alabama, and the Fastest Cars in the Dirty South (FCIDS).
The engine was initially built to be run naturally aspirated without nitrous. Dale Meers Racing Engines assumes most of the engines in Alabama will get nitrous eventually, so they gap the piston rings accordingly.
TECH NOTES Who: Deda Ford Minor, 39 What: 1971 Dodge Dart Swinger “Dirty Dart” Where: Muscle Shoals, Alabama Occupation: PTC/registered nurse FCIDS Episodes: 4 Engine: 572ci Dale Meers Racing Engines Rotating Assembly: Ohio crank, R&R rods, and Diamond Pistons Block: Chrysler 440 Compression: 13:1 Cam: Bullet solid-roller camshaft and T&D rockers Top End: Indy Cylinder Heads, race port 440-1 Power Adder: Nitrous Express Fogger 300-shot; NOS Launcher Power: 800 hp; 1,100 hp on nitrous Suspension: R&R Racing custom frontend with Viking double-adjustable shocks, ladder bar with Viking doubleadjustable shocks Rear Axle: Dana 60 spool with 40-spline axles Drivetrain: PTC Powerglide with 1.58 planetary gears and PTC Pro Tree trans brake Weight: 3,000 pounds, with driver Front Wheels: 15x3.5 Billet Specialties Rear Wheels: 15x11 Billet Specialties Front Tires: 26/4.5-15 Mickey Thompson ET Front Rear Tires: 275/60R15 Mickey Thompson Pro Bracket Radial Best Time: 5.09 at 137 mph Special Thanks: Viking Performance, PTC, King Bearings, Total Seal Rings, Nitrous Express, Cometic Gaskets, NGK
In hot rodding, we’ve all experienced a problematic car—and if you haven’t yet, just stick with it, you will. A cursed ride that haunts us even after it’s gone—this is not one of those. On this Dodge Dart’s first outing—one of the more interesting cars you’ll find on FCIDS—it was the number-one qualifier. That same pass was driver Deda Minor’s first time behind the wheel, and her quickest e.t. ever. Right out of the gate, the ’71 Dodge Dart Swinger— nicknamed “The Dirty Dart”—found success. The Dart was picked up as a project by Kenny Ford, the owner of PTC Torque Converters (and also Deda’s dad!) They’re both members of Team 256. Kenny is like Charlie from Charlie’s Angels—he’s not always on camera, but he’s the one behind many of Team 256’s projects and schemes. The Dart sat dormant for two years until Team 256 leader Eric Malone convinced Kenny to build an index car to run the Mean Street class. At the same time, Deda was displaying interest in campaigning for a faster car. She had been running a naturally aspirated
598ci big-block ’69 Camaro, dipping into the 6s. Eric told Kenny he would build the car so long as he got to pick the driver—Deda. Deda’s first pass was a 5.91 followed by a 5.11 at 136 mph—when they added nitrous. “Everyone else was more scared than I was,” Deda says. “I screamed out loud when I got my time slip. It was smooth, but I didn’t think I had gone that fast.” That same weekend she qualified number one in the Mean Street class and took home $2,000 from a side grudge race. The car is an exercise in the team’s talents, although Eric credits a lot to Deda’s driving: “She’s a real driver,” Eric says, eluding to the time he found the hood lying on the windshield after the momentous run. The hood pins came loose, and the hood flipped back through the lights. “She’s our secret weapon,” Eric says.
1971 DODGE DART SWINGER
The ’71 Dodge Dart Swinger was picked up as someone else’s unfinished project. Kenny Ford is a Mopar man and bought it with no real plan. The car sat dormant for two years before Eric convinced him to build it.
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