It was a warm, sticky summer afternoon at Maryland’s Capitol Drag Raceway back in the mid-1970s. I was fresh out of high school when a ’63 Chevy II roared up into the staging lanes for a smoky stage.

Beginning in the mid-'60s, if you wanted the ultimate in an indestructible, no-holds-barred rearend that would take any abuse you could throw at it, Mopar was the company that could supply what you ...