Evolution in a Box

I've been driving Mopars since I was a kid," offers Shannon Hudson, sounding like a veteran Pentastar fan, only in his case, the time when he was a "kid" wasn't the '60s or even the '70s. He came of age later, as the '80s were winding down, so that by the time the '90s rolled around, he had some experience under his belt, and was ready for his next project.

''Black-plate'' California Valiant required little body work before its Lime Light hue was applied.

"I wanted a Pro Street-style car, and I had a '69 Dart, but everybody was building Darts back then," says the SoCal native. "I wanted to do something different, and I liked the boxy style of the Valiants; nobody was building Valiants then."

"Then" was back around 1994, when Shannon went searching for his ideal build candidate. The Valiants that he admired most were those from the late '60s, but the two-door he sought was proving to be tough to locate.

"Almost every one I found was a four-door; it took two or three months to find a good two-door," he relays before revealing that the "good" one, a '69, had about 290,000 miles under it. "The Slant Six smoked but it ran," he tells, and after striking a deal that amounted to about $400, Shannon drove it back to his home in Santa Clarita, and immediately began to take it apart.

Former drag racer now dices cones at the autocross on par with more contemporary machines.

Meanwhile, he was gathering parts. Shannon wanted to build a stout but streetable small-block Chrysler, and it so happened that his father-in-law, who runs a company providing cars to movie production companies, had a wrecked Canadian Diplomat police car left over from the shooting of Lethal Weapon with a 360 and a small-block 727 transmission. After reading a book on building small-block Chryslers that featured input from Mopar drag racing legend Dick Landy, Shannon decided to go over to Landy's shop, then still operating in Northridge, California, for advice on putting together a 360 to make somewhere close to 400 hp.

"They basically gave me the recipe, told me what pistons, cam and heads to get, and some other tips," says Shannon of Landy's recommendations, which he had graciously offered in detail, despite knowing Shannon was going to build the engine himself. For his part, Shannon followed the directions closely, having the block machined and then filling it with Keith Black pistons and the specified Mopar Performance Purple Shaft cam, and having a set of Chrysler "J" casting heads mildly ported before assembling the engine and topping it with a Mopar Performance M1 intake.

Meanwhile, the Valiant was taking shape in the body shop. It didn't need much work before it could be painted, and though Shannon had originally intended to go with Plum Crazy purple, he instead selected Lime Light green, since, as he points out, "It seemed like everyone was painting their Mopars Plum Crazy back then."

He put the car together with his new engine, fitted to a V-8 K-member from the local pick-a-part junkyard. He equipped the rebuilt 727 with a 2,500-RPM converter, and an 8¾ rear end he'd bought out of the local classifieds for $150 was fitted with 4.10 gears and an Auburn limited-slip unit. A set of Hooker headers channeled exhaust gasses to the dual exhaust system for the street.

Soon, he was driving the car to work, still running the four-wheel drums and 14-inch steel wheels, though the rear set was widened to mount BFG Drag Radials. When Shannon had the opportunity to run the car down the quarter-mile at the Mopars at the Strip show in Las Vegas, the Valiant clicked off a 12.80 at 104 MPH, proving that Landy's combination was on the money.

But as well as the car worked, Shannon found himself using it less and less. "It did everything a 12-second car should do in a straight line, but it swayed like a drunk in turns, and the Super Stock springs and manual steering made it a chore on the street. It would sit for two months, then I'd take it out and it would be awesome... for 15 minutes. Then I'd be ready to get out."

Shannon's work with North Hollywood Speedometer led to opening his own shop in 2002, Redline Gauge Works, which in turn led to relationships with people at other aftermarket companies. Among the first to reach out to Shannon for use of the Valiant were the staff at Hotchkis Sport Suspension in Santa Fe Springs, California. Hotchkis was known for its GM muscle car suspension systems, designed to improve handling without compromising street manners, but the company had been branching into Mopar kits and needed a subject to develop for its A-body system. Was he interested in letting them use the Valiant for a while?

"I thought to myself, if I don't like it, I can switch it back," says Shannon of the decision to proceed with the loan. It would prove to be the beginning of a new phase for the car, and for Shannon. With the Hotchkis rear leaf springs and spring hangers, front and rear anti-roll bars, front strut rods, tubular upper control arms and Hotchkis performance-tuned shocks, the Valiant was transformed.

While the Hotchkis upgrades were being performed, the drum brakes were swapped for large-bolt-pattern four-wheel discs from Right Stuff, and the Mopar manual steering box was replaced with a Flaming River close-ratio manual unit. On the road it was a blast, but testing the car on an autocross course revealed that the manual steering required too much effort for quick driving maneuvers. Soon after, Borgeson introduced its power steering conversion for Mopars, using a modern steering box that provides the feel of a much more contemporary vehicle.

"It's not at all like a factory Chrysler power steering setup, where you can breathe on the wheel and it turns, and it's not even like a modified factory setup; the on-center feel is great, and it has perfect road feel," says Shannon of the conversion. "The steering box, plus the additional caster you can dial in with the Hotchkis control arms, and the Heim-jointed ends on the tie-rods, really made it responsive." By this time Shannon was running a set of 17-inch Curtis Speed Wheels with 245/40-17 tires in front and 275/45-17 in the rear.

Other upgrades would follow, including a performance-built 904 automatic to replace the 727, a set of 3.55 gears to replace the 4.10s and another 360 built by Burbank Speed & Machine. Shannon also lined the floor pans with Dynamat insulation to reduce noise in the cabin. Overall, the driving experience had evolved considerably.

"After the suspension and other changes, I was driving the car a lot more. At highway speed, with the 3.55s and the Hotchkis suspension, the car felt great," says Shannon, though he wasn't done upgrading the Plymouth. When another call came to use the Valiant for some R&D, Vortech Superchargers wound up borrowing the car to finish up work on a Paxton supercharger system for small-block Mopars. The company's previous system had used a carburetor enclosure, but the new blow-through system was more street friendly. Initial dyno runs, with just 4-5 psi of boost and a 4,500-RPM stall converter, showed nearly 400 hp at the wheels, with lots of untapped potential yet remaining.

Later, Shannon would add a Holley Terminator electronic fuel-injection system, which, with some tuning time, made a real difference. "It runs really well now that we've had some time to tune it. It's also really nice to come out on a cold morning and just turn the key. It starts right up and idles with no fuel smell or stumbling. Throttle response is always crisp. And if we make other changes, altering the tuning is really simple."

These days, Shannon is enjoying the Valiant--which he dubbed Violent back when it was first completed in the '90s--with regular frequency, and participates in autocross and open track events several times a year. Still, he's not done with it.

"I think a five-speed swap is next; I'm going to use a Tremec kit from American Powertrain. With the road course events, a three-speed automatic just doesn't cut it. After that, I'm thinking about building a Magnum-based 360 for it, possibly with aluminum heads to get some more weight off the front end."

Any chance he's ready to "switch it back" to the way it was? "I don't think I'd ever build a drag-only car again; autocross and good road handling is just too much fun."

Do you enter your muscle car in some form of competitive motorsports on a regular or semi-regular basis? No matter if it's drag racing, rally racing or anything in between: We'd love to hear from you. Print-quality photographs (or digital images), comments and contact information should be submitted to Weekend Warrior, c/o Hemmings Muscle Machines, P.O. Box 2000, Bennington, Vermont 05201 or e-mail Matthew Litwin at mlitwin@hemmings.com.