{"id":36185,"date":"2020-03-31T09:00:05","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T13:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=36185"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:23:03","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:23:03","slug":"high-flying-wild-wild-wedge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/owners-clubs\/2020\/03\/high-flying-wild-wild-wedge.html","title":{"rendered":"High-Flying Wild Wild Wedge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lifelong\nMopar\u00ae<\/sub> Drag Racer Matt Rover is a rare breed. Despite being 63 years old and\n\u201cretired\u201d in Florida, the former New Jersey native has managed to hang on to\nhis Dodge Challenger R\/T racecar for over four decades. While most of his racing\npeers have hung up their helmets and sold\noff their high-horsepower machines, along with the extra parts such as wheels\nand slicks, Matt continues to race the same car he\u2019s had since his youth. With no\nintention of slowing down, Matt\u2019s going \u201cflat out\u201d to race even more NHRA\nNational and Divisional races during this golden era of his life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI started drag racing in\n1975 at the age of 18, because I have always been interested in cars and all\nareas of motorsports. My Dad was a big influence growing up; he loved cars,\nespecially Chrysler products. He collected various models of Chrysler cars, but\nhe didn’t race them. Dad and mom would come out and watch me race,\u201d said Matt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Matt\u2019s love affair with fast\nMopar vehicles began when he was in high school. His first love came in the form of a 1970\nPlymouth Road Runner powered by 440 cubic-inch V8 with the Six Pack induction\nsystem. Matt raced the Road Runner in NHRA\u2019s highly competitive Stock\nEliminator class for two or three years. With a few seasons under his belt,\nMatt wanted to build a Dodge Challenger, as he felt the platform would make a\nbetter racecar than the Road Runner. Matt located a 1970 Challenger sitting\nnext to a house. The car was not in good shape, having rust all over the body. This\nmay be an issue in some cases, but if you\u2019re building a competitive racecar,\nyou end up changing most of the components anyway, so the state of the Challenger\ndidn\u2019t hinder Matt\u2019s plans. Despite having a rough body and other issues, Matt went\nto work building it into a competitive Stocker and named it \u201cWILD WILD WEDGE.\u201d\nThe moniker stems from enthusiasts affectionately calling some Small and Big\nBlock Mopar V8 vehicles \u201cWedges.\u201d It\u2019s also a Chrysler engineering term for the layout\nof the valves in the cylinder head\u2019s combustion chamber. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After a couple years, Matt\nheard of another Challenger that was for sale. This example had a unique racing\npedigree, as it had been owned by the team of Ray Cook and Art Leong who were the\n1979 NHRA Stock Eliminator World Champions. Matt knew it had been built with some\nvery trick chassis and suspension parts, so a deal was struck and Matt bought the\ncar minus its engine and trans. Since Matt had tons of experience with the 440\nSix Pack engine, he dropped the driveline from his old Challenger into the new car\nand went racing. \u201cRay Cook, at the time, had a HEMI\u00ae<\/sup> Challenger convertible that\nwas a championship car. He said if I got Leong and Cook\u2019s second team car, the Challenger\nhardtop, I could be the first 440 Six Pack to run in the 10s, a major feat back\nin the day. I was probably the only racer in the country to have a 440 Six Pack\nChallenger competing in NHRA Stock Eliminator in the late 1970s,\u201d recalled\nMatt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Almost immediately, Matt\nbegan to win events, including the 1985 NHRA Molson Le Grandnationals in Canada,\nand the 1988 and 1993 NHRA Keystone Nationals in Reading, Pennsylvania. Matt won\nclass at the big races while racking numerous wins and runner-up finishes at\nNHRA Divisional races. As with the NHRA Stock Eliminator class, there are rules\nand horsepower factors that sometimes offer an advantage, that\u2019s why Matt has\nswitched his 1970 Challenger over to a 1971 model by simply swapping out the\nfront grille and rear taillamps.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For the past 15 years,\nMatt has campaigned his Challenger as a 1971 combination in the B\/SA class.\nHe\u2019s run a best ET of 10.27 seconds at 128 mph, but Matt\u2019s always looking to go\nfaster and in search of extracting every last ounce of horsepower from of his\n440 Six Pack engine. It’s currently dyno\u2019d around 600 horsepower, but according to\nMatt, \u201cThere\u2019s always more.\u201d That\u2019s how his mind works, but when you\u2019re\npassionate about something, you strive to be the best. \u201cIf I wasn\u2019t drag racing\na Mopar, I\u2019d still be involved in the sport as I love it, I still want to race\na new Challenger Drag Pak one day,\u201d grinned Matt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Part of Matt\u2019s racing\nsuccess can also be attributed to his sponsors, including Turbo Action\nTransmissions, VP Racing Fuels, Brevard Cylinder Heads, Whitaker Race Engines\nand Mopar racing guru Don Little. Matt\u2019s biggest support comes from his wife of\n36 years, Lynne. She travels to most of the races with him all over the country\nin their RV. Matt is also a sports fan and being from New Jersey, he\u2019s a\ndiehard New York Mets follower, but when the NFL season comes around, he\u2019s a\nDallas Cowboys supporter all the way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When\nasked how much longer he plans to drag race, Matt\u2019s reply was short, simple and\nto the point, \u201cAs long as I am healthy and still\nenjoy it.\u201d Judging by the smile on his face when doing burnouts in his 440 Six\nPack-powered Challenger R\/T, it\u2019ll be a while before Matt hangs up his helmet! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lifelong Mopar\u00ae Drag Racer Matt Rover is a rare breed. Despite being 63 years old and \u201cretired\u201d in Florida, the former New Jersey native has managed to hang on to his Dodge Challenger R\/T racecar for over four decades. While most of his racing peers have hung up their helmets and sold off their high-horsepower machines, along with the extra parts such as wheels and slicks, Matt continues to race the same car he\u2019s had since his youth. With no intention of slowing down, Matt\u2019s going \u201cflat out\u201d to race […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":36196,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2624],"tags":[528,615],"class_list":["post-36185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-owners-clubs","tag-drag-racing","tag-nhra"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/wildwedgefeature.png","icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36185"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36185"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36206,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36185\/revisions\/36206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}