2012 AMSOIL Mopar Muscle Numbers Don't Lie Showdown - Darren Tedder

Darren Tedder
Canton, Georgia
'71 Cuda
926 Horsepower

926 horsepower. That's what it took to win this year's AMSOIL/Mopar Muscle Numbers Don't Lie Showdown. And when you realize that Darren Tedder's Cuda made that much power AT THE REAR WHEELS, and with no power adders, you can't help but be impressed. But, making that much power is no easy task, and it takes a special list of parts to get there reliably.

For instance, it takes a Hemi that has cylinder bores that measure 4.565-inches. To put that into perspective, that's about the size of a music CD! Next, you take a 5-inch stroke Callies billet-steel crankshaft, and connect a set of 6.976-inch aluminum connecting rods with CP pistons to it. Altogether, when you make the squeeze under the heavily worked-over Stage V heads, you get a compression ratio of 16.0:1. Technically, the Cuda could be driven on the street, but we're sure that it would be an expensive and short trip.

AN LSM roller camshaft with 60-mm bearings has .540-inches of lobe lift, and the duration comes in at 288/306 at .050-inch lift. Tame it ain't! Topping it off is a sheetmetal intake with twin 1150 Dominators. Finally, the tti headers with 2-1/4-inch primaries and 4-inch collectors flow through a 4-inch exhaust with Dynomax mufflers. The custom-cased two speed transmission houses a 9-1/2-inch converter that stalls at 5,500 rpm. Finishing it off is a custom built rear with 4.10 gears and a spool.

If you could hang on for 7.88 seconds, and not scream like a girl, Darren might take you for a ride through the 1/4 mile at 176 m.p.h.

Although Darren might not have won our AMSOIL/Mopar Muscle Numbers Don't Lie Shootout, wait a minute, he DID win the showdown in the Non-Power Adder class.