Thirty Years Ago on May 29, 1982 at the NHRA Cajun Nationals Don “The Snake” Prudhomme in his Pepsi Challenger Funny Automobile set a new NHRA record throughout qualifying by being the primary Funny Car to succeed in 250 MPH in the Quarter Mile! This historic qualifying pass was created against Raymond Beadle who was in the opposite lane in his Blue Max funny automobile.
Later that year on September four, 1982 at the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis Don Prudhomme ran the Challenger in what has been considered by fans and therefore the NHRA the greatest Funny Car Pass in History! Don Prudhomme pushed his Funny Car to the boundaries and ran an E/T of 5.63 which was a pair of/10 of a second quicker than any alternative pass at the time! However throughout this run as a result of Don pushed his automotive to the limit the engine’s internals suffered huge harm. After this pass he said on TV “If I hadn’t of been there myself to work out it, done it myself. I don’t know if I would of believed it!”
Through it’s years of racing the Pepsi Challenger remained very dominate, but like several different funny automotive it wasn't with out its issues. Break downs happened, engines had there issues however overall the Funny Automotive was terribly dominate especially in its early years.
What created the car therefore Dominate? Well per “The Snake” himself reason was because the funny car’s body was based off of the 1982 Pontiac Trans Am. The Trans Am had a terribly sleek body vogue, it was a very Aerodynamic style which helped the car run quicker and fast times in the quarter mile.
While developing the body of the automobile Prudhomme and his team where factory backed by Pontiac, so that they had access to Pontiac’s Wind tunnel that really helped them out.Due to the testing in the wind tunnel Prudhomme and his team got all of the bumps out of the front finish and made certain the Automobile was sleek all around. According to Don “Aero wise, the automobile was the best package out in drag racing at the time.”
The other major factor that contributed to the Pepsi Challenger’s dominance was it’s monster power plant. The funny automotive was powered by 484 Cubic Inch, All-Aluminum Hemi Engine one amongst the first All Aluminum engines drag racing. The engine was engineered by the legendary and famed engine builder Keith Black. The Hemi was connected to 2 speed drag racing transmission. The engine, transmission and body are all mounted on to a Hand Made chrome-molly tubular chassis.
On May 19, 2012 nearly 30 years to day of Don Prudhomme’s historic pass at the Cajun Nationals the Pepsi Challenger sold for $250,00zero to a lucky drag racing fan at the Mecum Auction. Hopefully this piece of drag racing history remains in smart hands, thus generations of drag racing fans to come back can see an incredible part of its past.
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