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uncleyarn2-blog · 5 years

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Ask Sam Mailbag: 12.28.18

I appreciated the comments on the defense. I thought the two things that made the game winnable against Orlando and Cleveland were Lauri's shooting and the team defense. It has happened a few times this year that this Bulls team played defense with the tenacity of a Thibs team, or the VanLier/Sloan/Love teams of yesteryear, and this was one of those times. It made the game fun to watch, and Lauri's shooting gave it a happy ending.

Kirk Landers

Sam: It's like buying a car. Sometimes you see a fancy model that looks impressive and then you take it for a test drive and it's not quite what you believed. That's often the way it is with sports in Chicago. It's like when the Bears hired Marc Trestman, the offensive guru. And things looked good for awhile and it made sense with the rules changes to open up the game. But that style doesn't fit everyone, and it doesn't fit Chicago. You know Monsters of the Midway and all that stuff. Our football onomatopoeia, Butkus and Ditka, names that sound like a tackle. And so it was for the Bulls as well. The NBA changed the rules to open up the game, increase scoring, limit interior contact, and the Bulls went along with the trend, reasonably enough since it seemed to be working well for the Golden State Warriors, and the Bulls hired Fred Hoiberg. But you could sense the ambivalence as the team drafted defensive oriented players like Bobby Portis, featured Jimmy Butler, drafted again a defensive player in Chandler Hutchison. Defense is in the team's DNA, in the city's DNA. So the Bulls gave the fancy fast sports car offense a whirl and it just didn't feel right. So they're going back to the pickup truck. It helps occasionally to have a Ferrari in the mix like Jordan or Rose, but the Bulls spear to be going back to the foundation with which they are comfortable to rebuild.

Well, Dunn has started to look like the guy we all thought and hoped he might be, finding his shot at the top of the key, getting good assist numbers and rebounds and low turnovers. Markkanen is a lock for All-Star maybe even next year. LaVine is going to average 20 ppg and Carter will be a nice 12 and 10 guy once he gets these fouls under control. It seems to me we need a SF and hopefully one of the 3 Duke guys to round out the starting rotation for the next few years and there isn't really a close second in need. Maybe risk a Bol Bol pick if he is there at 7 or so if this winning continues and we finish similar to last year.

Jack Donnelly

Sam: I guess just start printing the playoff tickets? I don't much follow the college draft yet other than late at night if I can't sleep I watch college basketball to see the repeat patterns and quickly fall asleep. Like everyone, I have seen the Duke players in their Hall of Fame enshrinement blazers, and they seem like they will not need to start in the G-league. Small forward is the obvious crater for the Bulls. Oh, right Jabari Parker? Never mind. Anyway, the way things are going the Bulls likely will have a high selection in this draft in which the teams with the five poorest records have similar odds for the top picks. The Bulls likely will explore free agency as well and I'm convinced they'll be able to add a good player not named Durant or Leonard. But more rests with Dunn. He is starting to put up impressive lines with a near triple double the last three or four games. He's still got plenty to learn as a point guard in quickly identifying mismatches, making quicker decisions and finding a longer shot. But he's done some terrific things and probably has the most reliable mid range shot on the team. With his long arms and movement, his pace looks a bit languid at times. The test comes now as he finally gets to play with LaVine and Markkanen, and has to make them better while not taking a step back of his own.

Dunn reminded everyone how effective & useful a mid-range game can be. His game has a distinctive 90's feel to it, but it would be masterful in any era. Fun and satisfying to watch. He's a better distributor than LaVine because he's a different player. Archidiacono is the most natural distributor on the roster right now. A locked-in Dunn presents the other side-problems all over the place. I need to see him do this for 40 games before I'm a believer though; fight through slumps and countermeasures. Love Harrison. Wish he could shoot. He reminds me of a younger, more athletic Keith Bogans.

Pete Zievers

Sam: I was able to make a Keith Bogans reference with Thibs before the Minnesota game when Thibs talked about that fun 2010-11 team. Two Bogans references in a week is always a good week. There is something to be said for that mid range game, and I'm actually glad to see that Dunn isn't forcing threes like so many players do. And shooting a layup when he's open rather than throwing out for a three. Can you believe how often they do that! I always remember the baseball third base coach yelling to the 5-4 second baseman swinging for the home run every time: “Remember who you are!” Dunn has done a good job of that. I would like to see him play with more pace, though that's not the style of the team for now. Again, the test should be coming with athletes like LaVine and Markkanen. The Bulls can get more of those easy scores with them; will they try?

In the short time I've seen LaVine and Dunn together on the court (which is minimal). I don't believe they can co-exist. LaVine is extremely high usage with a ton of questionable decision making and atrocious defense. On the other hand Dunn has high usage, but he's a lock down defender and shows when LaVine is not on the court he can be that go to guy and a great compliment to Markennen. If I had to choose one I would choose Dunn. Its not saying to trade LaVine, but I wouldn't be crying if Paxson decided to make a move to get players that were better fits with Markennen. Markennen seems to struggle more with LaVine as Zach holds the ball so much and either takes a contested shot or someone like Holiday or Markennen gets the ball with minimal time left and needs to rush the shot. I think there's been better ball movement since LaVine's been hurt and Parker has been bench. Should the bulls look towards more of Korver, Reddick type shooter to pair with Dunn long term. I like Hutchinson's potential as a future starting Small Forward. Someone like Cam Reddish would be a great fit opposite Dunn.

Rocky Rosado

Sam: Well, that was a quick look. Can we give them two starts together? I guess you can call me naive, but I still believe it's good to have more talent. Plus, I'm not sure fit is the priority when you're at the bottom of the conference. It's still, to me, about stacking talent and determining how it does. I don't see why the three of them can't work because they seem to get along and they don't appear to have personal agenda. Yes, LaVine likes to have the ball as a scorer, but you do need players who can make tough shots. He has shown he'll pass the ball. Which actually has been a problem because he often passes it to the other team. He'll get better at that playing with the same players in an actual rotation, which hasn't happened often. Markkanen has shown he can spot up and shoot when needed. He needs to regain some of that summer muscle he lost out two months with his injury. Plus, you don't have to post just a big man. Dunn and LaVine can post. Markkanen can grow into it. But you also need an inverted offense with Carter shooting. Thus far he's been too hesitant, but he's got a good stroke and I'm confident will be a good three-point shooter. They all need to get stronger and tougher, but so do most 22 and 23 year olds.

That 6-shot game may be the best thing that's happened to Lauri. It pissed everybody off (and rightly so) to the point where they forced the ball to him... and he showed them what he can do, twice. His 3-pt. range is murder, but I love those driving dunks. Remember when we realized he was better than we'd thought?Well, now he's better than we thought then. It's between Markkanen & Tatum for best of the 2017 draft, and we may not be sure which one for a few years.

Art Alenik

Sam: So let's take a look at that draft lottery again: Fultz, Ball, Tatum, Jackson, Fox, Isaac, Markkanen, Ntilikina, Smith Jr., Collins, Monk, Kennard, Mitchell, Adebayo. If you redid that draft today, you'd probably have Tatum first and Markkanen maybe second. Last season, the buzz was for Donovan Mitchell. But he's become more a volume shooter with a more limited game. Sure, still a great pick at No. 13, but maybe three or four. I always liked Fox, who is emerging as a top point guard. And that's probably the game's most important position these days. Maybe he could be two. But with Markkanen's height and versatility and growth possibilities, it's certainly reasonable to list him second and no worse than third or fourth. I know it's not a popular sentiment around Chicago these days with the redevelopment of the Bulls, and I'm sure many will suggest this merely is the web site defending its own, but they never ask me to do that, and for that I am appreciative. But this is a Bulls building project mostly through the draft, and it's a management that's done very well with low first round selections like Jimmy Butler and Bobby Portis and five-to-10 selections, which are not your no brainers, of Markkanen and Carter Jr. If you're building mostly in the draft, why would you want to have someone else making those picks?

Do you agree with Charles Barkley that Jokic should be a front runner or in the MVP conversation if Denver ends up #1

Gorav Raheja

Sam: Do you? Really? Charles is very entertaining and as good an ambassador for the NBA as you can have. Perhaps no one I've even known in the NBA is more approachable and personable. If they didn't name teddy bears for Teddy Roosevelt, they might be called Barkleys. But not a whole lot of the TV famous people who talk about the NBA on TNT and ESPN watch that much basketball. They played a lot, certainly. But being good at something doesn't mean you know how it works. I'm a heck of a driver of cars, but don't ask me to find the difference between the spark plug and the tire jack. I know it's popular to put former players on TV as analysts, though the reason most played was because of their fabulous skill. Not their fabulous analytical powers. It's a great talking point because the Nuggets have done well, but I see them more as a nice ensemble team with various contributors and he's one. I don't see Jokic in the top 20 in the league. Put it this way, I probably could name 20 players I'd rather have on my team. Just look at big men: You'd certainly want Embiid and Anthony Davis. I'd prefer Karl-Anthony Towns and most would have taken Cousins before his injury. He should come back. Harden, Westbrook, Curry, Durant, Antetokounmpo, LeBron, Kawki, Kyrie, Paul George. That's about a dozen and I can keep going. I'd probably take Klay Thompson, LaMarcus Aldridge; heck, I'd take rookie Ayton because I think he's going to be much better. Maybe even Jimmy Butler and Bradley Beal. There's no shame being say the 20th best, but, really, a league MVP? Not quite. He's good, but still a but slow for my taste.

You think benching Jabari Parker per game guarantees a victory? Okay, so we beat the Cavs by 20, that doesn't mean we're going to do that to every team, Jabari Parker was listed as available/Chandler becomes the backup Power Forward? So what happens if we play a much harder team than the Cavs/Chandler gets injured? What, we end up playing an even shorter guy? If Boylen isn't going to play Parker, he ought to get him traded. I like Jabari/don't like the fact he's not good at blocking/tends to hog the ball at times too, but this not allowing him to play when he's available is starting to bug me.

Kieron Smith

Sam: It's a conundrum wrapped in an enigma wrapped in.…, oh, forget it. The way the NBA works is the coach makes up the lineup. Management provides the players and the coach decides how to use them. The Bulls just changed coaches, so they have to allow Boylen ride it out like he wants. I understand his point that he's building a defensive-oriented team and needs those players, and those players need to see that if you aren't committed to defense, you're not going to be in the rotation; accountability and all that. I've been no fan of Parker, but he is a professional scorer and a physical player. He is coming off a second ACL injury and did play serious offense. I would like to see him get another chance given the paucity of scoring options, especially with the second unit with LaVine back to starting and Portis still out. But no one but a few readers is seeking my opinion on this.

What a great Christmas story! Everyone thought the Derrick Rose trade was a good one for the Bulls. No one ever imagined he would ever get close to his MVP level of play again. As a Bull, everyone thought he would be playing on Christmas Day for years to come. Now relegated to playing on Boxing Day, he comes out with a vintage prime time performance, carrying his new team and making me think he can still lead a team to a championship someday. Gotta love sports!

Guy Danilowitz

Sam: Yes, sports. That's been a wonderful story. You could probably make a great holiday movie about what life would have been like if he never were…Oh right, they did that. What we all should feel is good for Rose instead of what if. Like you said, no one saw this coming, and every team had a chance to bring him in after he was released by the Knicks and then Jazz (via The Land). It was the right deal for the Bulls at the time, and probably even more so with what Rose went through with injuries and absences in New York and Cleveland. We know Chicago never would have put up with that. So you have it right. It's just a wonderful life.

As a huge Derrick Rose fan, watching his highlights of his 50-point game literally brought tears to my eyes. The fact that he put up one of the biggest games of his career after everything he's been through is nothing short of amazing. The way he's passing, shooting, driving, and finishing without dunking, he looks fresher than he has in years. If he can continue to play at a high level for however many years he can still play do you see him being able to reach the hall of fame?

Trevor Bode

Sam: There was a debate in Chicago after Rose's terrific game against the Bulls this week about whether the Bulls should retire his number. That's debatable, though he certainly had a greater impact on the team and the game than Bob Love. The Bulls are sparing with jersey number retirements, but Rose if he gets through another year or two, or maybe even if he doesn't, should be in the Basketball Hall of Fame. I know it's popular with Rose's injuries and issues to say he'll be the only MVP not to make the Hall of Fame. But you can make the case he already is more accomplished than Bob McAdoo who won titles coming off the bench and, after all, what did Steve Nash ever win, and we know he'll be going in. First to the dismay of NBA enthusiasts, the Hall of Fame is about all basketball. Rose was a multiple state champion as a prep player and went to the final game of the NCAA tournament. So he succeeded at all levels. His career reminds me of that of Hall of Famer Bernard King, who was an elite scorer (never with great teams) who suffered an ACL tear and sat out two years and then came back and eventually made an All-Star team. Rose might the way he is playing, but he also could be in the running for Sixth Man or even Most Improved. Coming back to this level with multiple All-Star games, Rookie of the year and MVP on his resume is the stuff of the Basketball Hall of Fame.

When I get the chance to watch the Bulls on TV, I'm usually impressed with Stacey's knowledge and insight of the game. I was wondering more along the lines of whether Stacey has been considered for a head coaching gig or if he's thought about throwing his hat?

Mark Basa

Sam: Be grateful that you can listen to Stacey on the broadcasts. He's one of the most knowledgeable on TV—especially for a former player—who isn't afraid to voice contrary opinions and have some fun with the broadcast with a wicked sense of humor. But coaching is a lot harder and more time consuming than you might think, involving exceptionally long days off watching film and working practices and schedules and endless annoying media questions. I think Stacey likes his position just fine. Though Chuck Swirsky tells me he could coach rings around Popovich.

Hypothetically you have a draft class of Lew/Kareem, Moses M., Wilt, Bill R.,Hakeem. In today's NBA what would teams do with these all time players who probably would've never been capable of jacking up three pointers? Also, can you foresee a new league formed in which there was no three point shot and big man play was reemphasized?

Chiang Mai

Sam: First of all, the big man is not extinct in the NBA. It's a cycle, but you are seeing some terrific big men come into the NBA who are becoming dominant players, like Embiid, Towns and Ayton, I believe, will be. Plus, I think you need to have one to help fend off those who have them. Which is one reason Dallas is doing well. It's not just Doncic. Getting DeAndre Jordan (and allowing him to practice free throw shooting) has made a difference. You see with the Bulls the issues Wendell Carter Jr. has with some big guys, which eventually will require some offensive changes to take advantage of his shooting ability. But don't discount what those players could do. There wasn't much reason to shoot from 25 feet then since it was also worth two points. Why it's worth three points and not a great drop step move is another issue. But Kareem was a terrific shooter who easily could have moved out to the three-point line. Wilt used to shoot a 15 foot wing bank shot because he was bored scoring so easily inside. He could easily have moved farther out. Hakeem was an excellent shooter who made most of his jumpers barely in front of the short corner three. Russell, nah, but he was the quickest, smartest, most adept big man defender ever and you'd have won a championship without him making any threes. You didn't mention Bill Walton, who once made 21 of 22 shots mostly jumpers in an NCAA title game. There are some great big men still, though none better than any of them.

Source: https://www.nba.com/bulls/news/ask-sam-mailbag-122818

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more

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woolenjumbo5-blog · 5 years

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Ask Sam Mailbag: 12.28.18

Kirk Landers

Jack Donnelly

Pete Zievers

Rocky Rosado

Art Alenik

Do you agree with Charles Barkley that Jokic should be a front runner or in the MVP conversation if Denver ends up #1

Gorav Raheja

Kieron Smith

Guy Danilowitz

Trevor Bode

Mark Basa

Chiang Mai

Source: https://www.nba.com/bulls/news/ask-sam-mailbag-122818

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erikaalamode · 7 years

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Previously on The Death Dress…

Poor unsuspecting Erika thought dyeing her dress would be easy. Little did she know that dyeing would feel a whole lot like dying…

Destruction! Mayhem! Panic! The dress… it backed up sewers, reversed street signs, and stole everyone’s left shoe!

Finally, our worn and haggard hero conquered the dyeing process, though the dress did not escape unscathed. The dye looks uneven in areas and it’s splotchy where sap got into the fabric, but it was done… The battle was won. All was well.

Sort of… the dress wouldn’t have been ready for SDCC, and it, as all powerful objects forged in the heart of Mount Doom to take control over all humanity, passed into myth (otherwise known as the sewing room closet). But we had not seen the last of this dress!

*Insert dramatic theme song here*

Two years after my friend and I survived San Diego Comic Con, I got a crazy idea to make an Ursula cosplay and enter it in the D23 Expo’s Mousequerade. I am completely, utterly, hopelessly obsessed with Disney—a fact I probably should have warned my roommate about before we moved in together—and I was having a Little Mermaid moment (but when am I not having a Little Mermaid moment?), and I thought, oh what fun it’ll be to make a giant octopus dress!

Turns out, this project was actual fun. Not the ‘this will be fun, oh just kidding, I’m actually only laughing so I’m not crying’ fun of the Padmé dress, but genuine, ‘I can’t sleep because I’m having too much fun’ fun.

That whole experience really ignited a passion for sewing that I’d never really had before. I’d sewn dresses (complete with frustrated crying and some colorful words for the sewing machine) and I’d made little pillows and things in the past, but never something that made me this incredibly happy.

I’m a political science, human rights, and psychology student, so I spend a lot of time working in my own headspace, the grand results of which are usually papers. There was something so amazing—euphoric, even—in creating a crazy, impossible costume with tentacles that wiggle around me when I walk. I made a tangible object so vastly different than what I’m used to producing. And I felt like Ursula, fabulous, powerful, bold, and I loved it.

Essentially, I got addicted to sewing and particularly to making cosplays of amazing characters, and I needed my next fix. My parents came to visit me for my birthday, and they brought me my sewing machine with some projects that I could work on. One of those projects turned out to be all the Padmé supplies that we had stored away and largely forgotten about in the past two years. I made a corset, some dresses, and spent time fiddling with my Ursula wig, but I didn’t really bother with the Padmé dress.

A couple months later, I heard back from D23 that I had been accepted as a finalist for the Mousequerade, and my mom and I decided to make a mother-daughter trip out of the expo and go for the whole event. That meant three days of cosplays. I had Ursula for one day, and an Edna Mode Halloween costume my mom had made for me in my senior year of high school, but that meant I needed one more cosplay.

Side note: I tried to convince my mom to cosplay with me, but she was too hesitant—I’m still working on it.

Anyway, D23 was the perfect opportunity to revive the Padmé dress. Two years was sufficient (barely) to recover from the emotional toll that dyeing the dress had taken, and I was ready to take another shot at her.

Here’s how that went!

First, I needed to see if the dress even fit anymore. Having spent two years gorging myself on baguettes, cheese, champagne, croissants, and chocolate macarons while living in France, I didn’t exactly have high hopes about what was about to happen when I put that dress on.

Miraculously, the dress was actually a bit large in several places. This was great news. I don’t typically think a whole lot about my weight—my dad’s motto in life has always been, “Live to eat, don’t eat to live,” and I learned something valuable about food over form from that.

However, in the case of this dress, I just about squealed (that’s a lie, I’ve never been one for the squeal-y thing; I tried it one Christmas and it really didn’t feel like me and frankly, it just made us all pretty uncomfortable—but I was super happy about the dress).

If I had outgrown the dress, that would mean I’d have to scrap it. There was absolutely no space in any of the seams to open it up, and you can bet there was no way I was going to dye another one. The fact that it was a bit large gave me some leeway to take it in at certain points so it would fit whatever shape I am today.

I probably should have adjusted the outer dress and the under dress separately, but I was feeling both lazy and ambitious, so I sewed the lining into the shell around the top edge. When I got to the halter, I used a long strip of leftover fabric, folded in half, as a strap. I attached it to one side of the dress between the shell and the lining, and left the other side loose so I could attach some snap closures at a later time.

With the hook, but there is still gapping at the side

There was some gapping at my sides where the scoop back transitioned into the halter top. Had I stuck with the original design of the pattern I used, straps would have held this in place, but Padmé’s too cool for straps so I had to figure out how to channel my inner Tim Gunn and make it work.

I added a hook and eye closure about an inch above the base of the scoop at my lower back to close the scoop a little tighter and hold the sides in. This fixed the gapping to the degree that I was no longer worried about accidentally flashing someone if I leaned forward, because as bold as cosplay might make me feel, that’s not the quite the show we’re aiming for.

The gathers at the halte

I wanted to take it in just a bit more to be safe, so I gathered the neckline of the halter top to bring the sides in closer to my body and add a little more tension to the top edge of the dress. I danced around in the dress for a little while, aggressively serenading my roommate with Broadway show tunes, and the dress held up, so it looked like everything was secure.

One thing that did not change was my height; I’ve only been growing in one direction since middle school, and that direction is definitely not up. But this was great because it meant the dress was still the right length, and it left me about an inch to do the hem.

I rolled the hem over twice and ironed it flat to make it easier to sew. Then, I hand-stitched this using a thread that matched the purple dye so I could hide the stitches. The under dress hem was rolled and ironed and then hemmed by machine because it’s hidden and didn’t need to look as pretty.

With that done, I could move on to the outer drape-cape-dress-poncho?-flowy-thingy (the technically correct term, yes). I had done the draping years ago, so I knew what it could look like, but I was a little fuzzy on the details. However, general confusion is my default state of being, so I proceeded as usual with a trial-and-error, make-it-up-as-we-go sort of strategy.

First, I did up the back seam of the cape (let’s just call it a cape—it’s probably more of a poncho, but that word gives me serious 3rd grade flashbacks to purple crochet, and that war is best left alone for now).

Because I don’t have a serger in New York, I was worried about the chiffon fraying if I left the edges raw. In light of that, I decided to do the back in a French seam, which would hide the raw edges and also give me a reinforced section to stitch my gathers into the back of the cape.

Next, I found the center front of the cape, and hand stitched the ribbon to the halter neckline of the dress and down each side until I reached the darts at the bust. The stitches didn’t really have to be hidden because the large necklace that Padmé wears would cover the neck anyway, but I wanted it to be pretty so I went with hand stitching.

I draped everything back on me and pinned the dress and cape in place so I could mark the ribbons to put snaps for my upper arms and wrists. I found the center between where the snaps would go and marked this as well. While I had it all draped on, I put a rubber band to make the purple tail in the front as well. I took a break to play around it in, because cosplay should be fun and I like pretty things and twirly things and colorful things—I really like this dress.

When I finally got back to work, I drew a straight chalk line on the chiffon between the center point on the upper arm to the center point on the wrist. Then, I stitched across this line using a long stitch length on my machine.

I gathered this down to the length of my arm, leaving a bit of room for flexibility, then tied off the threads to hold it in place. At this point, the cape looked a lot like super colorful wings, so I amused myself with that for a while before moving on.

When the novelty of my fancy wings finally wore off, I used my machine to do a running stitch up the back of the cape, from the top of the purple to the base of the scoop back where the yellow ribbons ended. I used a long stitch length so I could gather this and tie off the threads on the under side of the chiffon.

In retrospect, I should have reinforced this with hand stitching, because while I was floating around in it at D23, my mom accidentally stepped on the hem (see, this is why I should have trimmed it shorter, but we all know how that went) and the gathers burst open. We had a little emergency sewing kit so once we got inside we could fix it easily enough, but when I got back, I redid it by machine and then stitched through the seam allowance twice to reinforce it. That said, I was on a roll (and a severe time crunch) and I really wanted to get it done.

The original

The quick fix

The reinforced redo

Now I could add the snaps! I sewed two to each upper arm and two to each wrist to hold the wide ribbon edge closed. I also sewed two to the back, at the base of the scoop to the yellow ribbon, and on either side of the hook and eye on the dress to attach the cape once I was in the dress.

You’d never believe it—I hardly could, but the dress was done! I swooped around my apartment in it for a while and yelled some Star Wars quotes at some unsuspecting friends who came by, they were confused and probably a little scared, and it was all great fun.

All I had left to do was make the accessories, which at this point felt a bit like the last half of Return of the King: unnecessary because the story is technically already done, but you still have to watch it because it isn’t actually done until you do. But that is for next time, because I’m still busy dancing in my Padmé dress.

Padmé’s Lake Dress, Part 3 Previously on The Death Dress… Poor unsuspecting Erika thought dyeing her dress would be easy. Little did she know that dyeing would feel a whole lot like…

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itsworn · 7 years

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This Guy Lives Sideways In A Blown 1968 Hemi Dart!

You have to give the young guys of Bob Welling’s generation a lot of credit. While Detroit unleashed muscle on America, he was among the tens of thousands of guys in Vietnam as a U.S Marine. The honor they deserved took decades to become evident thanks in part to those who wouldn’t serve back then, but today real Americans honor that great sacrifice. Before he headed over for his service, a trip to the newly opened Palm Beach International Raceway in southern Florida had sealed his love for power.

“The track had opened in 1965 and we went,” he recalls now. “Right away, I was awestruck at how dominant the Hemi engine was. Now I was still a Chevy guy at heart, so as soon as I got back from Vietnam, I bought a ’66 SS396 Chevelle, but within six months I had traded that in on a 1969 383 cubic-inch Road Runner. I was actually looking to replace the Chevelle from those days when the Dart came up in 2014.”

As many know, the Dodge Dart’s most vicious legacy came in 1968, when Tom Hoover and his crew at Chrysler Engineering launched their own all-out land invasion. The largest street engine available at the 1968 introduction came in the GTS, a 383 model. Later that same model year, Mr. Norm Krause had a short batch built with 440 power, but the Hemi-powered examples would be the trend setters. Created and developed with the idea of fitting exactly into the NHRA weight break for SS/B (6.00-6.49 pounds per horsepower), incomplete 383 Darts went to subcontractor Hurst Industries for modifications solely for racing. This included lightweight body parts, spartan interiors, drag-strip only drivetrains, and the final factory release of the legendary cross-ram Race Hemi. Due to the weight requirements, the engine was fairly straight forward, with a stock cam, heads, and oil pan, knowing the racers would do their own things to get them ready for action. The Hurst changes meant the cars were no longer highway legal, and a disclaimer stating this was part of the sale.

These 80 or so cars and a similar group of sister Barracudas dominated the highest echelons of the sport for years. Today, the originals have left their own street legacy thanks to cars like the one Bob would purchase decades later, a tribute design that featured a Hemi engine conversion. In this case, a later Mopar Performance 472 cubic-inch crate engine and some of the other changes the cars received had been added. Though the body itself was still all-steel, the turn-key car represented those glory days of Bob’s past.

“I had a 2009 SRT Challenger that I was already drag racing twice a week at Palm Beach International Raceway,” he says. “The Dart was not going to be a racecar; it would be my street car. I always wanted a Hemi, and this would get that out of my system.”

The biggest problem upon purchase was some irritating piston rattle during warm-up. That was one reason why Bob had his mechanic friend Kenny Morrison, owner of K-Tech Automotive, Inc. in Loxahatchee, Florida, take a look at it. In turn, Kenny took Bob for a ride…

“Yeah, he had this supercharged ’56 Chevy with a big-block in it,” Bob laughs. “In fact, every car he has is supercharged, even his motorcycle, so he talked me into it. Actually, he took me out for a drive, and I was convinced on the idea of the blower right way!”

Blown street machines have always been a special breed. Kenny actually owns a blown ’34 Plymouth and a blown Hemi Willys as well—all street cars developed with the idea of keeping it simple. Overdrive is kept at a minimum and compression can be set as high as 10:0:1; the ’56 is his daughter’s car! Once Bob had pulled the trigger on the project, Kenny took the engine out of the Viper Red car, took it completely apart, and began reworking it. Nothing radical.

“If you build them right, these cars are 100-percent drivable,” Kenny told us. “Since I was a kid, I always thought they were cool, and loved the look of them, so I’ve always been a blower guy. For Bob, I just wanted to build him something he could get in, hit the key, and go.”

A blower-friendly cam design and a set of 10.0:1 Diamond pistons were the only major things actually swapped out, then the Hemi was carefully reassembly before being capped off with the Hampton 8-71 Roots-design huffer now coming up through the engine bay. Since the car retained the steel hood, that proved to the only major issue.

“We took the Super Stock scoop off it and redid the hood,” says Bob. “Kenny needed to cut it and weld a lip around the opening. Due to the additional amount of iron Chrysler used in their sheet metal, it’s not like doing some of the others. It wanted to bend and flex every time the welder hit it. That was really the only issue we had doing this build-up.”

Of course, throwing a blower on a Hemi can find weaker links throughout the driveline. During the year the car was worked on in the shop, K-Tech removed and narrowed the 8.75-inch rear and mini-tubbed the car for a 12-inch tire. This would give some semblance of traction, though Bob admits that if you get on it even at 50 mph, it just goes sideways. A 3.55 rear gear provides a nice balance for power, and Kenny added a 3,200-stall converter and reverse-pattern valve body to the A727 Torqueflite as well. Wheels are chromed five-spokes by Rocket and wear Mickey Thompson rubber on all four corners.

There were a handful of other chassis mods—subframe connectors to tie it together, and the rear springs were moved inboard for clearance. Strange came through with replacement front disc brakes, a better choice than retaining the anemic factory discs. Meanwhile, chrome under the hood gives the car show appeal, though it is not excessive. A Be Cool radiator keeps it chilled, while a K&N filter is in the large-opening hood scoop to keep the bugs out. The crate motor’s pair of 77-cfm Holleys were dialed in and reinstalled beneath it.

We noted the car was done when Bob got it from Streetside Customs in Atlanta, where it was on consignment. The interior is similar to the race-bred originals, though it retains the window cranks for ease of operation. A handful of gauges monitor the engine, but the reskinned low-back bucket seats and factory dash layout from 1968 are still there.

Bob sold his race Challenger and now enjoys the Dart strictly as a show car, taking in at least two events a month in the Atlantic coast towns near home during the show season. When asked if he planned to race this car, he laughed again. “No, it’s really a street cruiser. If you were to try and get it to really hook up, it would probably blow that rear end apart. This is ok; I wanted something different but it still is like the Hurst Darts. I like it this way.”

Fast Facts

1968 Dodge Dart Robert Welling; Loxahatchee, FL

ENGINE Type: 472ci Gen II Hemi design Bore x stroke: 4.15 x 4.25 Block: OEM cast by Mopar Performance; honed for rebuilding Rotating assembly: factory forged crank, H&P rods, Diamond pistons, Perfect Circle rings Compression: 10.0:1 Cylinder heads: Mopar Performance factory crate Camshaft: hydraulic grind for street supercharged application Valvetrain: Mopar Performance, supplied with crate package Induction: Hampton intake and Roots-design 8-71 supercharger Fuel system: dual-quad Holley 770cfm Exhaust: Hooker headers, full exhaust Ignition: MSD Cooling: Be Cool aluminum radiator with twin electric fans Fuel: 93-octane pump gas Other: Injector-type scoop, K&N filter Output: not dyno tested Engine built by: Kenny Morrison, K-Tech Automotive Inc

DRIVETRAIN Transmission: A727 built by Kenny Morrison, reverse-pattern valve body, 3,200-stall converter, Hurst shifter Driveshaft: custom, as purchased Rearend: Chrysler 8.75 banjo-design 3.55 ratio, SureGrip, narrowed 4 inches by K-tech

CHASSIS Front suspension: factory Hemi torsion bars, OEM shocks, K-tech welded-in subframe connectors Rear suspension: factory leaf springs moved inboard for clearance, mini-tubs, OEM-style shocks Steering: OEM manual Front brakes: Strange spindles and disc brake conversion (circa 2005) Rear brakes: OEM drum layout, associated dual master cylinder

WHEELS & TIRES Wheels: five-spoke Rocket; 6×15 (front), 15×12 (rear) Tires: Mickey Thompson 26x8x15 (front), 26x12x15 (rear)

INTERIOR Seats: black OEM 1968 style Instruments: OEM cluster, Auto Meter aftermarket gauge set, column-mounted tachometer Stereo: radio-delete plate Shifter: Hurst with T-handle top, floor mounted

In 1968, Hemi Darts arrived on the nation’s dragstrips. The originals are rare and expensive, but few will match the curbside notoriety seen on Bob Welling’s supercharged version. This 472-cube crate-motor version now sports an 8-71 Hampton blower and streetable compression.

Welling’s car features a standard Dart interior with a handful of changes. The cars were all-business and devoid of any extras; added here is the Hurst T-handle shifter, Auto Meter gauges, and large-face tachometer mounted on the steering column. Otherwise, 1968 lives on…

Hemis into A-Bodies were a very tight fit; note the clearance between the valve cover and master cylinder here. As a result, an offset block had to be developed for the original program to get the cylinder out of the way, and it is still this close.

The project reused as much of the Mopar Performance crate motor as possible; the twin 770cfm Holleys that came on the crossram from the factory are now inline atop the Hampton blower.

The biggest challenge for Kenny Morrison during the build-up was ensuring the hood stayed flat while metal work was done to flush-weld the lower lip surround to the fresh custom opening. It was also the only part of the car that needed to be repainted.

Owner Bob Welling remembered the Darts from back in the day, while he was in the USMC in Vietnam; buying and building this car got him the Hemi package he had always wanted, with a big twist!

In profile, the rake and full exhaust on the car are visible; original Darts were mandated to have mufflers by NHRA, and had an H-pipe and two Cherry Bombs as a result. This is a little quieter…a little…

The radio-delete plate meant you were not messing around when it came to going fast. Few Darts beyond the racing packages received this, as dealerships made solid profits on audio equipment. Thanks to today’s aftermarket, some of these items are readily available for tribute construction like this one.

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