Читать книгу Chrysler Slant Six Engines - Doug Dutra - Страница 7

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Doug Dutra (aka Doctor Dodge) is the middle child of five kids (four boys and a girl). His grandfather and father always drove various Chrysler, Dodge, and Plymouth vehicles, so it was a given that the Dutra children would also drive Mopars when they reached driving age. Kids in the Dutra family had to purchase, register, insure, and maintain their own vehicles. This was no easy task for a young driver in the early 1970s. The Chrysler A-Body cars (the Dodge Dart, Lancer, and Demon, the Plymouth Valiant, Duster, and Barracuda) sold well in the 1960s and 1970s, many of them with Slant Six engines, so they were plentiful and great used cars for young drivers with little money or automotive knowledge.

Doug’s first car in high school was a 1963 Dodge Dart station wagon powered by a 170 Slant Six with a 3-on-the-tree manual transmission. The engine and transmission were soon swapped to a 340 Six-Pak and 4-speed setup that his older brother located. By the end of the 1970s, Doug’s hot rod Dart wagon had a Slant Six back in it, so it is safe to say that there was a good amount of automotive wrenching going on at the Dutra house. During this time, Doug became proficient in general automotive repair work but really excelled in Chrysler engine rebuilding. His engine-rebuilding expertise started with the Mopar muscle car high-performance V-8 engines of the era, but many of the family’s daily driver cars were Slant Six powered, so he rebuilt a few of those engines as well.

Doug Dutra (aka Doctor Dodge or “Doc”) has owned and worked on Chrysler products all his life. Doug is best known for his intimate knowledge of the Slant Six and for creating cast-iron split exhaust manifolds for the engine (Dutra Duals). He is also responsible for reproducing a small number of the legendary Hyper-Pak intake manifold, used in early compact car NASCAR races. Doug is shown next to his fully restored 1965 Dodge Dart GT, powered by an aluminum-block Slant Six.

In the 1980s, Doug was still driving his Slant Six, 4-speed 1963 Dart wagon, which always seemed to get him where he needed to go. During that time, he gained more appreciation of the Slant Six and started applying his hot rod V-8 engine-rebuilding experience to it. The performance increases he found in the Slant Six were impressive, and they led him to the drag strip, where he tested his combinations. Doug started developing 6-cylinder performance parts and shared his Slant Six engine hop-up success with the Slant Six club and various Mopar magazines of the time.

By 1990, Doug was making custom cast-iron dual exhaust manifolds (Dutra Duals). Later, he began building a reproduction long ram Hyper-Pak intake manifold for the Slant Six. All the racetrack testing showed him that a Slant Six could be converted into a real performance engine and that there was still some genuine interest. He soon found others who enjoyed racing a unique engine and liked its underdog following. Organizing Slant Six races and car shows was the next step, and by doing so, Doug met and collaborated with many other Slant Six enthusiasts.

Someone once said “If you do something long enough, you will become the expert,” and that’s what happened as Doug took all his Slant Six knowledge into the 21st century. He worked with like-minded people to get the slant six.org website started, and through more engine building and racing, Slant Six Racing News was born. That publication helped develop a SlantSix–only bracket racing class and points series at national Mopar drag race events. These efforts have moved the engine from its stodgy daily-driver reputation toward a performance and “dare to be different” standing. We are confident that Doug will continue to develop, test, and support the Chrysler Slant Six as we move through the years ahead.