Mopar Car Show

Each year in the San Fernando Valley of California, the Spring Fling car show kicks off a season of Mopar fun. The question that immediately comes to mind is what exactly does Mopar stand for? Back in the days when a Honda or Toyota was as rare a sight on an American road as a flying car powered by an atomic reactor, the big three American automakers ruled the roads of the U.S. GM was the monster. Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, and GMC all fell under the umbrella of its manufacture. Ford was next, with Lincoln and Mercury lining up under the marque. Last but not least was mighty Mopar, with DeSoto, Chrysler, Dodge, and Plymouth sailing off the winds of the assembly line.

Performance Engineering
History has it that Mopar as a brand name actually began as a contraction of the words MOtor and PARts, and that the Mopar logo was used to brand genuine Chrysler replacement parts. As the English language and automotive lexicon are odd bedfellows, the word Mopar eventually came into use to stand for the group of automobiles as a whole, causing fans of Plymouth Barracudas, Dodge Superbees, and Chrysler Imperials to say things like "I love my Mopar."


On the opposite side of Mopardom are the forces that like to say that Mopar stands for "mostly old parts and rust," and things like that. So it goes.

Got a Hemi?
People love Mopars for many reasons, but by far the most popular is a legendary engine design that DaimlerChrysler has today resurrected with great success. This legendary powerplant has a name, and that name is Hemi. Hemi is short for hemispherical, which in itself means half of a circle. In this case, that half of a circle resides upside down in the cylinder head combustion chamber. The placement of the valves in this shape, and the accompanying combustion efficiency that placement creates, helps Hemi engines to make power, and lots of it.


Hemi-powered racecars were so successful out on the roundy-round that NASCAR eventually ruled the engine off the track permanently. NASCAR also banned outright the aerodynamic packages that Mopar engineers developed for the winning Dodge Daytonas and Plymouth Superbirds. Even to this day, every NHRA top fuel dragster runs 300+ mph quarter miles with an engine based largely on the original 426 cubic-inch Hemi design. The stock version of the 426 Hemi went into everything from street-going versions of the NASCAR winged racers to diminutive Dodge Darts that came off the dealer floor ready for drag strip duty—complete with fiberglass hoods, Hurst shifters, and little else. The radio, heater, window cranks, and anything else not really needed for the drag strip were left in the factory parts bin and deleted from the build sheet.