"Akron" Arlen Vanke was a working-man's drag racer. Competing--and winning--in the Stock, Super Stock and Pro Stock classes, he set records with Pontiacs and, later, Plymouths, earning multiple Stock Eliminator titles with both marques. Through it all, he built the cars in a backyard garage and often drove his open ramp truck to the track and back. In fact, Chrysler hired Vanke to test their performance technology. In 1967, Arlen modified the RO23 Hemi intake manifold for racing. "NHRA rules allowed racers to modify the intake manifold, so I made the stock manifold into a plenum chamber manifold, " he said.
Vanke's Hemi, along with the Sox & Martin team, gave Mopars so many victories in the late '60s that they dominated the scene in Super Stocks. In 1968, he built this incredible HEMI Cuda that we are so proud to offer. He won the Nationals in August at Indy running SS/B with his 1968 Plymouth Hemi Cuda. He then reset the record again with a 10.61 at 140 miles per hour in the Cuda in SS/A at the Winternationals in Pomona, California.