![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/NHRARoyaltyDonPrudhommeII_IMG002.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nOne of the invited guests at the special Snake Exhibit opening party at the SDAM was his long-time crew chief Bob Brandt, who was an important part of the team during the championship Funny Car era. After the party, he talked about how well the Plymouth Arrow cars performed. He cited both the clutch management and fuel systems as being key to their total domination of the class – oh and also that there was a very good driver! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
HOT WHEELS BARRACUDA<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\nDon Prudhomme had\nheard about Hot Wheels toys from Mattel from his friend Tom McEwen. “I can\nstill remember the first time McEwen mentioned Mattel to me,” Don wrote in\nhis recent “My Life Beyond the 1320” autobiography book. “I was\nhanging out at Keith Black’s…I didn’t even know what he was talking about, I\ndidn’t know about toys, but he had kids, they were into Hot Wheels.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Snake didn’t at that\ntime, in 1969, even think about going outside oil and cam companies to look for\nsponsorship. “I was doing fairly well, I was getting some good money from\nWynn’s and getting a little more from Plymouth.” After a few meetings with\nthe Mattel people, McEwen was really getting things rolling for a two-car\n“Snake and Mongoose” partnership. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I thought McEwen was talking about dragsters, but they wanted Funny Cars,” recalled Prudhomme. Tom had run a Barracuda Funny Car in 1969 and Keith Black had relationships with both Dodge and Plymouth. Plus, Snake ran a 426 HEMI\u00ae<\/sup> engine in his ’69 Top Fuel Dragster, all leading them to Chrysler as the choice for the bodies of these Hot Wheels Funny Cars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n“It could’ve been\nany cars,” Prudhomme shared in the book. “But we had the relationship\nwith [Chrysler’s Dick] Maxwell. They drew up these images once they knew what\nkinds of cars we wanted. It was a Barracuda and a Duster. We took those\ndrawings to Plymouth and showed them what Hot Wheels was going to do. And immediately,\nthey wanted their name on the quarter panel of the cars because their name\nwould be on all the little toy cars Hot Wheels produced. Plymouth would be a\npart of that, and they paid us money and gave us cars to drive.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/NHRARoyaltyDonPrudhommeII_IMG003.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nWith an Exhibition Engineering (Ron Scrima) chassis on a 118-inch wheelbase, the brand-new 1970 “Hot Wheels” Barracuda Funny Car was a high-dollar effort with numerous associate sponsors. A Keith Black HEMI engine with 6-71 supercharger was used, along with a B&M-modified TorqueFlite\u00ae<\/sup> automatic transmission. Prudhomme is on record that he never liked the car and it was very uncomfortable to drive, very cramped and awkward. <\/p>\n\n\n\nORIGINAL ART FROM LARRY WOOD<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/NHRARoyaltyDonPrudhommeII_IMG004-992x586.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/NHRARoyaltyDonPrudhommeII_IMG005.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nWhen Larry Wood\nstarted working at Mattel in 1969 soon after he was given the assignment for\ncoming up with the “Snake and Mongoose” Hot Wheels car designs for\nthe upcoming 1970 selling season. Here’s the original Barracuda design he\npenned, which included a roof-mounted spoiler which proved to be a terrible aerodynamic\naddition…these were the early days of learning what works and what doesn’t\nwork!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was all about selling the 1\/65th scale, 2.95-inch long Hot Wheels cars, and they featured “flip-top” bodies to add some realism on the yellow Snake ‘Cuda and red “Mongoose” Duster – they sold millions over the years! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
LONG -LASTING MEDIA SENSATION FOR PLYMOUTH<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/NHRARoyaltyDonPrudhommeII_IMG006-992x654.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/NHRARoyaltyDonPrudhommeII_IMG007-992x604.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nNot happy with the original 1970 Barracuda Hot Wheels Funny Car (with its automatic transmission), Prudhomme commissioned John Buttera to build a more serious car, incorporating a narrow chassis, featuring a dragster-type roll cage, racing transmission, independent coil-over front suspension. It also ran on a 118-inch wheelbase, and in this photo, it has a 1971 grille painted on and “Keith Black Racing Engines” markings on the sides. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
2017 saw the full-restored 1972 “Snake II’ ‘Cuda go through the Barrett-Jackson auction, selling for $220,000, a car that he drove back in the day to its top speed of 226 mph. He also ran the car on the AHRA (American Hot Rod Association) circuit besides NHRA, plus of course the match races with Mongoose’s Hot Wheels Duster. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
BIG WIN AT INDY FOR ’73<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\nCarefree Sugarless Gum\njoined in the sponsorship group for 1973, Snake’s Barracuda won the U.S.\nNationals with it and it was a quick car, running a 6.27 at that race on the\nway to seeing victory at Indianapolis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
BRING IN THE ARMY<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/NHRARoyaltyDonPrudhommeII_IMG008-992x661.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/NHRARoyaltyDonPrudhommeII_IMG009-722x992.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nIt was his friend and\npart-time agent Bob Kachler who helped him put together the lucrative Army\nsponsorship starting in 1974. This Barracuda won the Gatornationals with a 6.38\ntime at 225 mph, and also won the US Nationals at Indy running a 6.33 ET at 222.32\nmph. With the “ARMY” lettering on the sides of his cars through the\nend of the 1980 season, this sponsorship program remains as one of the most\ndominating stretches in drag racing history. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
PLYMOUTH ARROW BODY WAS A HIT FROM THE GET-GO<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/NHRARoyaltyDonPrudhommeII_IMG010-783x992.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/NHRARoyaltyDonPrudhommeII_IMG011-1-727x992.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/NHRARoyaltyDonPrudhommeII_IMG012-992x660.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nAt its debut event, the 1977 NHRA Winternationals at Pomona, the brand-new ARMY Arrow qualified #1 with a 6.14 at 240.64 mph run, and won the event with an even better 6.03-second run at an amazing (at the time) 247.25 mph top-end charge. Slippery, yes, that new Arrow body. Besides winning on the track it was also featured in national advertising campaigns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
UPDATED WITH DODGE OMNI BODY<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/NHRARoyaltyDonPrudhommeII_IMG013-992x674.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/NHRARoyaltyDonPrudhommeII_IMG014-992x651.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nSwitching to a new car for 1980 with a Dodge Omni body shell, and on the last year of the US Army deal, Snake saw victory at both the NHRA Gatornationals and the NHRA Summernationals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/NHRARoyaltyDonPrudhommeII_IMG015.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nWhile the 1981 car had a bold, bright, new “Pepsi Challenger” paint scheme, this was not a favorite car for Prudhomme, and while he did pick up two national event titles with it (Grandnationals, Summernationals), the car blew up, crashed and burned to the ground in one of the worst Funny Car fires of all-time during the end of a run at the OCIR track where the World Finals event had taken place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/NHRARoyaltyDonPrudhommeII_IMG016.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nIt was the 35th Anniversary of Hot Wheels and to commemorate the occasion, on July 8, 2005, there was a special gathering and reception in Pomona highlighting “Snake and Mongoose” being in attendance, complete with the 1\/25th scale models that matched the 1:1 cars in the background! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
THE MOVIE ABOUT DON AND TOM<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/NHRARoyaltyDonPrudhommeII_IMG019.jpeg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nDon on the set of the\nmovie with Jesse Williams (left) who played him, and Richard Blake to played\nTom McEwen. Prudhomme supplied the Funny Cars used in the story (‘Cuda, Duster,\nArrow) and both (Snake and Mongoose) Dodge ramp trucks for the film. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
THE RIGS AND MOVIE CARS ON THE AUCTION BLOCK<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/NHRARoyaltyDonPrudhommeII_IMG017-992x390.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/NHRARoyaltyDonPrudhommeII_IMG018-992x714.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nIn January 2014, with the two Dodge D700 Crew Cab truck car haulers and the Hot Wheels Funny Cars from the movie, the combo ran through the Barrett-Jackson Classic Car Auction, and with Don himself driving the Hot Wheels ’70 ‘Cuda into the tent and on up to the auction block. With Snake & Mongoose<\/em> movie producer Robin Broidy in attendance (behind holding cell phone camera), long-time nitro wrench Donnie Couch (left-rear quarter panel) and Snake’s long-time friend Roland Leong standing alongside at the front of the car, it was an exciting moment! Yes, loud, 85-percent nitro and Prudhomme at the controls…historical car and historical moment! Bidding hit one million dollars, shy of the reserve. The four vehicles were then purchased for an undisclosed sum by NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick. <\/p>\n\n\n\nDRAG RACING WAS VERY GOOD FOR THE SNAKE<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\nIn Don Prudhomme’s words: “I had the dream of becoming something and didn’t have much of an education and didn’t really realize at the time how important it was to me. I found my niche in drag racing.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
SNAKE’S THOUGHTS ON TOM MCEWEN<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n“McEwen was a\nreal good friend in the early days and we hung out a lot together. But then we\ngot involved in a business situation and I was probably the worst partner to\nhave because I was really a really hot-headed guy. He was more laid-back but\nbusiness-oriented. He’s the guy who took the Snake and Mongoose names and got\nthem out there with Hot Wheels. He was the one who put that together. He’s a\nguy who’s done a tremendous amount for the sport.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
PRUDHOMME ON THE PLYMOUTH ARROW FUNNY CARS <\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n“The ARMY car, a\nPlymouth Arrow, that was probably my best car. They (Funny Cars) were harder to\ndrive (than a Top Fuel car) but more fun because it’s a short-wheelbase car and\nyou’re sitting right behind the engine and with the closed aerodynamic body on\nthe car, it was just more fun to drive.” \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here’s Snake driving\nthe Dodge D700 one last time prior to it arriving at Barrett-Jackson: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It could’ve been\nany cars,” Prudhomme shared in the book. “But we had the relationship\nwith [Chrysler’s Dick] Maxwell. They drew up these images once they knew what\nkinds of cars we wanted. It was a Barracuda and a Duster. We took those\ndrawings to Plymouth and showed them what Hot Wheels was going to do. And immediately,\nthey wanted their name on the quarter panel of the cars because their name\nwould be on all the little toy cars Hot Wheels produced. Plymouth would be a\npart of that, and they paid us money and gave us cars to drive.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nWith an Exhibition Engineering (Ron Scrima) chassis on a 118-inch wheelbase, the brand-new 1970 “Hot Wheels” Barracuda Funny Car was a high-dollar effort with numerous associate sponsors. A Keith Black HEMI engine with 6-71 supercharger was used, along with a B&M-modified TorqueFlite\u00ae<\/sup> automatic transmission. Prudhomme is on record that he never liked the car and it was very uncomfortable to drive, very cramped and awkward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When Larry Wood\nstarted working at Mattel in 1969 soon after he was given the assignment for\ncoming up with the “Snake and Mongoose” Hot Wheels car designs for\nthe upcoming 1970 selling season. Here’s the original Barracuda design he\npenned, which included a roof-mounted spoiler which proved to be a terrible aerodynamic\naddition…these were the early days of learning what works and what doesn’t\nwork!<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was all about selling the 1\/65th scale, 2.95-inch long Hot Wheels cars, and they featured “flip-top” bodies to add some realism on the yellow Snake ‘Cuda and red “Mongoose” Duster – they sold millions over the years! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Not happy with the original 1970 Barracuda Hot Wheels Funny Car (with its automatic transmission), Prudhomme commissioned John Buttera to build a more serious car, incorporating a narrow chassis, featuring a dragster-type roll cage, racing transmission, independent coil-over front suspension. It also ran on a 118-inch wheelbase, and in this photo, it has a 1971 grille painted on and “Keith Black Racing Engines” markings on the sides. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 2017 saw the full-restored 1972 “Snake II’ ‘Cuda go through the Barrett-Jackson auction, selling for $220,000, a car that he drove back in the day to its top speed of 226 mph. He also ran the car on the AHRA (American Hot Rod Association) circuit besides NHRA, plus of course the match races with Mongoose’s Hot Wheels Duster. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Carefree Sugarless Gum\njoined in the sponsorship group for 1973, Snake’s Barracuda won the U.S.\nNationals with it and it was a quick car, running a 6.27 at that race on the\nway to seeing victory at Indianapolis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It was his friend and\npart-time agent Bob Kachler who helped him put together the lucrative Army\nsponsorship starting in 1974. This Barracuda won the Gatornationals with a 6.38\ntime at 225 mph, and also won the US Nationals at Indy running a 6.33 ET at 222.32\nmph. With the “ARMY” lettering on the sides of his cars through the\nend of the 1980 season, this sponsorship program remains as one of the most\ndominating stretches in drag racing history. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n At its debut event, the 1977 NHRA Winternationals at Pomona, the brand-new ARMY Arrow qualified #1 with a 6.14 at 240.64 mph run, and won the event with an even better 6.03-second run at an amazing (at the time) 247.25 mph top-end charge. Slippery, yes, that new Arrow body. Besides winning on the track it was also featured in national advertising campaigns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Switching to a new car for 1980 with a Dodge Omni body shell, and on the last year of the US Army deal, Snake saw victory at both the NHRA Gatornationals and the NHRA Summernationals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While the 1981 car had a bold, bright, new “Pepsi Challenger” paint scheme, this was not a favorite car for Prudhomme, and while he did pick up two national event titles with it (Grandnationals, Summernationals), the car blew up, crashed and burned to the ground in one of the worst Funny Car fires of all-time during the end of a run at the OCIR track where the World Finals event had taken place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It was the 35th Anniversary of Hot Wheels and to commemorate the occasion, on July 8, 2005, there was a special gathering and reception in Pomona highlighting “Snake and Mongoose” being in attendance, complete with the 1\/25th scale models that matched the 1:1 cars in the background! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Don on the set of the\nmovie with Jesse Williams (left) who played him, and Richard Blake to played\nTom McEwen. Prudhomme supplied the Funny Cars used in the story (‘Cuda, Duster,\nArrow) and both (Snake and Mongoose) Dodge ramp trucks for the film. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In January 2014, with the two Dodge D700 Crew Cab truck car haulers and the Hot Wheels Funny Cars from the movie, the combo ran through the Barrett-Jackson Classic Car Auction, and with Don himself driving the Hot Wheels ’70 ‘Cuda into the tent and on up to the auction block. With Snake & Mongoose<\/em> movie producer Robin Broidy in attendance (behind holding cell phone camera), long-time nitro wrench Donnie Couch (left-rear quarter panel) and Snake’s long-time friend Roland Leong standing alongside at the front of the car, it was an exciting moment! Yes, loud, 85-percent nitro and Prudhomme at the controls…historical car and historical moment! Bidding hit one million dollars, shy of the reserve. The four vehicles were then purchased for an undisclosed sum by NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In Don Prudhomme’s words: “I had the dream of becoming something and didn’t have much of an education and didn’t really realize at the time how important it was to me. I found my niche in drag racing.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n “McEwen was a\nreal good friend in the early days and we hung out a lot together. But then we\ngot involved in a business situation and I was probably the worst partner to\nhave because I was really a really hot-headed guy. He was more laid-back but\nbusiness-oriented. He’s the guy who took the Snake and Mongoose names and got\nthem out there with Hot Wheels. He was the one who put that together. He’s a\nguy who’s done a tremendous amount for the sport.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n “The ARMY car, a\nPlymouth Arrow, that was probably my best car. They (Funny Cars) were harder to\ndrive (than a Top Fuel car) but more fun because it’s a short-wheelbase car and\nyou’re sitting right behind the engine and with the closed aerodynamic body on\nthe car, it was just more fun to drive.” \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here’s Snake driving\nthe Dodge D700 one last time prior to it arriving at Barrett-Jackson: <\/p>\n\n\n\nORIGINAL ART FROM LARRY WOOD<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nLONG -LASTING MEDIA SENSATION FOR PLYMOUTH<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nBIG WIN AT INDY FOR ’73<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
BRING IN THE ARMY<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nPLYMOUTH ARROW BODY WAS A HIT FROM THE GET-GO<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nUPDATED WITH DODGE OMNI BODY<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nTHE MOVIE ABOUT DON AND TOM<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nTHE RIGS AND MOVIE CARS ON THE AUCTION BLOCK<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nDRAG RACING WAS VERY GOOD FOR THE SNAKE<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
SNAKE’S THOUGHTS ON TOM MCEWEN<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
PRUDHOMME ON THE PLYMOUTH ARROW FUNNY CARS <\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n