Skeet Shooting, Dual Carbs & La Carrera Panamericana

Some times when I'm researching information about something specifically related to La Carrera Panamericana I find the most interesting facts. This is just such an example considering I was an Olympic Skeet shooter for so many years.

In this case I was searching for information regarding a Bohnalite hemi dual quad 1953 intake manifold which someone had posted questions about on another site. I became interested when he wrote, "This intake one of only a handfull made was intended to run in the La Carrera Panamericanna Race in 1954!"

At any rate here is what I came up with and interestingly enough it was built for the Shaw of Persia to run in La Carerra Panamericana.

The 1953 Chrysler New Yorker Club Coupe in front of you is a very special car.


It is the very first two four barrel equipped hemi engine powered race car built by Chrysler Corporation. It is based on one of the fifteen cars originally intended for the Carrera Panamericana (Mexican Road Race) however this car was further special ordered by a Shah (believed to be the Shah of Persia who had a penchant for Chrysler products) above and beyond the specifications of the "Pan Am New Yorkers". Included in the '999' Special Engineering code request for this late '53 production car was the first dual quad intake system using the first available 1954 WCFB Carter carburetors on an experimental aluminum intake manifold cast by Bohnalite, a prototype producer for Detroit.



This intake was on the Pan Am solid lifter high lift cam motor. Also this car received the following Imperial limousine heaviest duty passenger car parts: 4 wheel Ausco-Lambert disc brakes, vented wheels and wheel caps, large bearing hubs and rear axle with high speed differential and also limo shock absorbers. A heavy duty front sway was created for the car. The late '53 Powerflite 2-speed automatic was employed for its ruggedness and for homologation for the Road Race. 6-ply blackwalls tires were the best off road racing tires available in the day. The car was ordered radio and heater delete without power steering or brakes; a strict race car.




The Shah learned that race rules would not allow the experimental prototype induction system and refused delivery of the car from Chrysler. Rollie Barrett Chrysler Plymouth in Detroit took the car for showroom floor promotional use. After several months, the next door neighbor of Mr. Barrett, Chesley J. Crites, made an offer over breakfast that purchased the car. He had a radio and windshield washer installed prior to delivery. Mr. Crites was a Detroit industrialist serving the auto industry and also the World Skeet Shooting Champion in 1958 and was on 12 All American skeet teams. This car was his "toy".

In 1958 the car was put in the family barn with 32,508 miles on it. In 1984 Mr. Crites with his brother's help he took the car around the block one last time. The car was placed in a rental storage unit that same year. Following Mr. Crites passing in June of 1994, Judith Crites, the widow maintained the rental storage until June 3, 2006 when the car was purchased and taken to Texas.

This car is named "ADAM" because this is where the Chrysler Hemi racing program all began. A couple of independents were racing Hemi without any help from the factory but with this order Chrysler realized they could build a full-on high performance street Hemi race car that would out run anything anyone else could build. The ties to the Chrysler 300 Letter Car series with their dual quad Hemi and Imperial components (some optional) are obvious and the HEMI name lives on to this day in innumerable racing genres. There are few multi-decade racing legends that are comparable to that of the Chrysler Hemi. The first series of Chrysler Hemi engines, introduced in 1951, were named "Firepower".

Having been a very active Olympic skeet shooter as well as American skeet shooter I am very familier with Chesley J. Crites since he was also president of the National Skeet Shooting Association and held numerous records at the national level. I have met and knew him very well prior to his passing in 1994 and he was one of the nicer gentlemen I had the privilege of knowing. As you can imagine, he had a lot of great stories to share and adventures but one of my favorite stories about him was well documented and took place in December 1956 and is quite humerous in deed.

With the same superb marks-manship which he used to become national 28-gauge skeet champion, Chesley J. Crites of Detroit week smashed the most expensive pigeon of his gunning career—his own four-place Piper Clipper airplane.

While deer-hunting in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Crites, who is also president of the National Skeet Shooting Association, tied down at Blaney Park airstrip. When he returned to take off for home, his plane's starter failed. With the engine at partial throttle, Crites spun the prop by hand until it caught. But as he dashed for the cabin, he was forced to hit the dirt—the plane, lurching forward, broke its moorings and began ground-looping crazily around the field. Crites accurately plunked eight rounds into the runaway's crankcase with a borrowed Remington .30-06. The fusillade stopped the plane, but it also set it afire. Result: a total loss.