The Christine Chronicles

Drag racing's scariest hot rod rises from the ashes to terrorize the World once again

In the early 1980s, veteran horror writer Stephen King penned a novel called “Christine,” the leading lady of which was no lady at all. In fact, the outrageously finned antagonist of the story was first seen as a derelict, rusting away in the weed-covered backyard of a man who survived when the car unfortunately crashed, killing his wife and child. Eventually, a timid, friendless teenager named Arnie saw the car and convinced the owner to sell it to him.

Arnie, ridiculed for squandering his summer earnings on a car that was in such terrible condition, nevertheless carried on working on “Christine” for many months. While refurbishing the car, he noticed that the more time and effort he put into the car, the more it seemed to become attached to him. It wasn't long before the car became jealous of those who tried to steal his heart and vengeful of others that tried to harm him. In the end, the wicked Mopar killed off those who made Arnie's life so miserable, and despite repeated attempts to destroy the evil sedan, “Christine” displayed an unholy ability to rebuild herself after each and every attack.

As it turned out, at that particular time there were some real-life cars racing on the quarter-mile dragstrips of North America that many considered to have sinister attributes of their own. These Top Sportsman cars, predecessors to today's notorious Pro Modified machines, included a 7-second ‘57 Chevy, campaigned by Rob Vandergriff, a '57 Ford piloted by Norm Wizner and a '55 Chevy with Charles Carpenter behind the wheel. With two of the “big three” auto manufacturers represented, it was a natural to introduce a Plymouth or Dodge into the mix.

The man that took on the monumental task of building such a car from scratch was chassis builder Richard Earle, the owner of Suncoast Race Cars in Homosassa , Florida . Seeing Vandergriff and Carpenter do battle in a match race inspired Earle's concept. As he talked to different people about his idea, the name “Christine” kept coming up. Earle admitted later that at the time he must have been the only individual in the automotive fraternity that had never seen the movie. Determined to change that status, he eventually rented it, and from that point on he was sure he wanted to build a '58 Plymouth Fury for the drag wars.

The project was no simple undertaking, however, as creating the original molds proved to be a major challenge. Finding an original 1958 Plymouth was the first hurdle, one that Earle ultimately cleared when a he came across a suitable example in Atlanta , Georgia . Transported back to his Florida shop, all modifications were made to the steel body and it was turned into a plug from which all of the composites were made. The project was started in 1987 and completed a year later. “Considering the fact that it was powered by a Chrysler wedge motor, the car exceeded all of the expectations that we had for it,” Earle commented. “We fought the Top Sportsman wars with only 550-cubic inches while the rest all had 632-inches.”

Christine later made the transition over to Pro Modified, with Paul Strommen pulling the gears. A testimony to the car's uncanny powers was the fact that it qualified at the first-ever Pro Modified event in March of 1990. Strommen placed the car in the fourteenth spot with a pass of 7.489, 183.32.

In addition to running at selected pro Modified events that year, the wicked mistress ventured off the tour occasionally for match races and special Mopar events. Her reign of terror wouldn't only wreak havoc on the opposition, however, as Christine decided to live up to her reputation in 1991. “The car ended up just like her movie counterpart,” laughed Earle. “Only instead of rebuilding herself, our “Christine” tried to do herself in on the way to a race.”

Earle was asleep in a motel, but his crew was in transit to a scheduled match race with “Christine.” It was a holiday weekend, at about 11 PM . When the lights on the trailer started to flicker, the crew pulled off at an exit and rolled into a gas station. They went back to open up the trailer and felt the heat of the door. At that point, they felt that something was definitely wrong within. Fire extinguisher in hand, one crewman jumped inside the trailer, only to have the door close behind him. Fortunately, the trailer was fairly air tight, and the fire never really got enough oxygen to burn as it could have.

The end result was that the back of the car was burned off as the fire came up under the wing. It is Earle's belief that someone had inadvertently flicked a cigarette into the parachute. The intense fire burned two slicks off the wall and melted a clock that was on the front workbench. Luckily, since it didn't get sufficient oxygen, damage to Christine was kept to a minimum. The trailer was actually damaged more than the car.

The team wanted to immediately restore the car, but a crazy work schedule at Suncoast prevented a timely completion. Ten years would pass, in fact, before “Christine” would pass into new hands, and the restoration would be finally accomplished.

The malicious one's new owner is Dave Heitz, of Waynesville , North Carolina , a long-time Mopar racer, engine builder and car owner. Through his years of involvement in both drag and road racing, Heitz has worked with some of the true legends of motorsports.

“I started racing Chrysler cars in 1968, and by the early 1970s I had a Hemi-powered Super Stock Dodge,” recalled Heitz. “After that, I moved on to an acid-dipped Hemi Barracuda that I bought from Ronnie Lyle. I drove that car in early Pro Stock competition, back before it required licensing. Later, I teamed up with a fellow named Tom Owens and we raced a couple of different cars in B and C/Gas, including Billy Stepp's Demon, and we held the records in both classes for a number of years.”

Fiercely loyal to the Chrysler brand, Heitz continued to work within the ranks of his favorite automotive persuasion as his career evolved. “When Tom and I eventually split, I bought a Hemi-powered Dodge Colt from Ronnie Sox,” he said. “Since the Colt had been outlawed by NHRA for legal Pro Stock, I ran it in A/FX, set a record and sold it again. Tom and I eventually got back together and went Pro Stock racing. In our first year of racing together, we finished runner-up at two NHRA national events.

“In the early 1980s, I retired from drag racing and went full-time road racing with Joe Vardi, another former drag racer who campaigned the “Magic Christian” Mustang in Pro Stock,” continued Heitz. “I was the crew chief and engine builder, and we started out with AMC before moving on to a successful Mazda program. Eventually we teamed up with Dodge, and I ended up doing the development work on their 2.2-litre four-cylinder engine. We ended up winning two championships with Dodge before I retired again and went back into the transmission business that I had been operating during my early drag racing days.”

Not satisfied with life away from the racing scene, however, Heitz eventually bought back the ex-Ronnie Sox Dodge Colt and hit the match race and exhibition trail. After a few years he wanted something more exciting to do, however, and in 1997 he struck a deal with Earle to purchase the “Christine” Plymouth in its burned and damaged state.

Earle stripped the car completely down to the bare chassis, checking it completely for cracks or any other possible points of weakness. He then upgraded the chassis to meet current Pro Modified specs. “Beyond that,” said Heitz, “everything else on the car has been replaced, including the rear-end housing, floaters, springs, brakes, lines, wiring and body. We also changed the roofline slightly and widened the rear tubs to accommodate Funny Car tires, in anticipation of running a supercharged engine combination.

“I received the car in 2000 with the body painted and temporarily fastened to the chassis. We put all the fasteners in here at my shop, put the windows in, finished plumbing the car and took care of the dozens of other details required to make “Christine” a completely race-ready car. When we were done with it, we took it to Alan Pittman at AP race Cars in Greenville , South Carolina . He set the chassis and made sure it still passed certification, since it had been quite a while since Richard had done his updates. Alan also set the suspension, made sure the corner weights were right and insured that the Lenco transmission fit in the car properly. He also finished plumbing and wiring the nitrous system and generally made sure we were ready to go. He was responsible for making the car go straight!”

Even though “Christine” was brought back to life with the express purpose of running with a supercharged Hemi under the hood, the ever-inventive Heitz came up with an innovative powerplant which would provide her first motivation out on the two-lane blacktop.

“The engine we put in the car at first was a really unique piece; collaboration between Mopar engine guru Dave Koffel, his son Scott and myself,” said Heitz. “It displaces about 506-cubic inches, and is based on a Keith Black block with Chevrolet bore centers. The billet heads are entirely hand-made and feature some trick valve placements and small 100-cc combustion chambers. All the rocker gear was also hand-made, since there was nothing available on the market that would work. While the heads resemble Chrysler hemi pieces, they take Brad Anderson valve covers. In the bottom end there's a Moldex crank, aluminum rods and Venolia pistons.”

Originally built for a Pro Stock-type application, the engine was subsequently beefed up, equipped with a nitrous system by Jeff Prock of Applied Nitrous Technology and further modified with alcohol injection by Jeff Fowler of Fowler Engines, Inc.

“It's a pretty impressive little motor and I wish I had more time to develop it, Heitz added. “On the dyno, without nitrous, it develops over 1,100-horsepower. While we realized that it wouldn't be competitive for Pro Mod, it was a good shake-down engine and allowed us to get out on the track for our first runs. Since that little motor was so impressive for its size, we're going to put it on a dyno over the winter, work out the jetting for the alcohol worked out and just see what its true potential really is for future applications.

“For 2004 we'll be installing a Brad Anderson-type blown Hemi in the car, to which I'll be doing a certain amount of massaging in my shop,” said Heitz. “We're going this way because it's just too cost prohibitive to build a big-inch Chrysler nitrous motor, which is something I may have otherwise considered. I feel that we're better off with the blower set-up in the long run, because the learning curve won't be all that steep since I have been building competitive Hemi engines since 1968 or so. Also, it'll likely be a lot easier on the parts budget.”

Anxious to get “Christine” back out before an appreciative audience for the first time in over 15 years, Heitz and partner Dom Durinzi, along with their crew, driver “Flyin' Bryon” Rich, Eric Iverson and Tim Stevenson, hauled the maniacal red and white mauler to Rockingham, North Carolina for the final race on the International Hot Rod Association schedule in early October. Once there, a minor equipment matter kept the team from flexing their muscles completely, however.

“The IHRA tech people suggested that we limit the car to 330-foot blasts because there was a concern over the spec of an oil line, and we respected their wishes,” said Heitz. “We were there to rest a few things and let people know that “Christine” was back on the prowl, and we accomplished everything we set out to do. We knew going in that with a 500-inch engine we had no chance of making the show in any case, so it turned out great for us. We hooked up well, clocking a best 60-foot time of .113-seconds and going straight up to the 330-foot mark. We didn't lean on the car by any stretch of the imagination, and in fact we made all our test passes without a computer in the car.”

In 2004, finances permitting, Heitz and his team will be running the full IHRA tour. Joining the current crew in the pits will be Thurman Exum, as well as Heitz' son Dave, Jr. and grandson Christopher.

“We're actively pursuing sponsorship for the car, of course,” said Heitz. “We'll be doing some match racing as well, because this is a car that plenty of people want to see in action. Just like “Christine” in the movies, she's back, she's meaner than ever, and we would truly love to get together and race Charles Carpenter, Robbie Vandergriff and some of the other original guys. I would also like to match race Mike Ashley once he gets his Mustang GT500, which is based on another famous movie car, “Eleanor.” Bring them on, and we'll see just who the baddest bitch really is!”