Something doesn’t look quite right about one of these fine mills. At least to me.
1968 Dodge Scat Pack Engines: What’s Wrong With This Picture?
– Posted on November 8, 2013
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Curbside Classics Archives
Something doesn’t look quite right about one of these fine mills. At least to me.
The fan on the Hemi looks…small. Granted, I am no Hemi expert.
I don’t know, but I don’t think “Show Your Scat” was a great idea, LOL.
I think the name is just embarrassing. Sure, 50 years ago it meant something different, but tell anyone under 30 the name, and they’ll just laugh. You couldn’t give me a car with the word “scat” anywhere on it. This is way, way worse than Probe ever worse…
Yea, in those days we just called S**t S**t, or manure. We didn’t need the PC name of scat.
It’s not just a name for feces anymore, that’s also an older usage. You can google it for the current usage, it’s the top result, but basically it’s a sexual fetish dealing with feces…
Yes, I am over 50. I learn something here everyday. But this morning, I did not think it would be this. 🙁
Ewww, that’s an unfortunate double entendre.
While I like the Scat Pack bee mascot character, which also became the Dodge Coronet Super Bee logo, name-wise I prefer Plymouth’s comparable “Rapid Transit System” and their catch phrase, “Only Plymouth has a system!”
Um, Dodge just brought it back, officially announcing the availability of Scat Packs for the Dart, Charger and Challenger two days ago at SEMA http://blog.dodge.com/heritage/hive-revived-scat-pack-returns-45-years/ which may have prompted this article.
“The cars are sh!t… and we know it!”
The Charger and Challenger are quite excellent for what they are, but the Dart is hopeless.
Even worse, from what I’ve seen they are apparently referring to the revival as the “Scat Package”, which keeps the awkward name while losing the “rat pack” pun.
Scat Package: now it has TWO suggestive words!
Wow, that’s inexcusable. And worse than Toyota’s “TRD” package on a truck nicknamed “Taco”.
Do they come in brown?
Phil, that’s damn funny!
I can see the ads now, a seductive model cooing “Are you into scat?” :0
Oh dear god, I don’t even want to think about possible mascots. Mr Hanky, anyone?
The right bank on the 426 uses the rare “Invisi-Paint” option, making it only look like a /6.
I’m guessing your beef is that the 440 is painted turquoise instead of orange. It also seems odd that the Hemi only has a 4-blade fan.
I have read that in 1968 all US-built B/RB (383 and 440 big block) engines were painted turquoise. (They may have still been painting them red at the Windsor plant.) Consequently, turquoise is correct.
EDIT: This chart corroborates: http://www.mymopar.com/enginecolors.htm
Also, the colour may look the same on a monitor, but that 340 is supposed to be red, not Hemi orange.
Since Hemis never idle but spend all of their time at 135 mph, there is really no need for a fan at all. 🙂
Yes; that four-blader looks like it came off a slant six. Maybe that’s all that was available when these engines were dressed for the photographer.
Or that is the way that they equipped them because the fan clutch and its fan with the riveted blades could not handle the forces at the higher rpm the Hemi was capable of.
You’re right, it doesn’t look right. I wonder if it is though, and what the story is.
Looks like there’s no clutch? Maybe a clutch is simply a unecessary point of failure on what is essentially a race engine? A smaller fan is more efficient in a car not meant to sit idling in traffic?
Or maybe your photo shoot theory is correct.
Hmm, I swear I’ve seen street Hemis with the four blade fan like that before. I think it was a 69 Roadrunner, probably restored… Must investigate
Where’s the 383?
“To qualify for the Scat Pack title, the car had to be capable of breaking down into the 14-second bracket in the standing-start quarter-mile, and only four cars were available that year (1968) which could do so. The Charger R/T, the Coronet R/T, the mid-year Super Bee (also based on the Coronet), and the new Dart 340 GTS.”
Quote from: http://blog.dodge.com/features/marketing-dodge-in-the-musclecar-era-pt-2-the-sting-of-the-scat-pack/
When I was in high school, seems all my buddies had an “uncle” with either a Coronet or Charger with a 426 Hemi. Funnily enough, we never got to see the cars! I doubt these boys even knew what a 426 Hemi was, but we all talked about it.
I prefer the 1967 model with the big back window. It was actually long enough to sleep in. It also had the nicest interior of any car of the era I could remember.
I’d take my 1967 Charger with 318-4V and Torqueflite, please.
The 340 has what appears to be 383/440 exhaust manifolds. I do not recall seeing those manifolds on any of the 340’s that I saw new when I was a teenager. The invisi paint on the 426 is quite a photographic feat also.
Those are correct 1968 340 exhaust manifolds. Besides, I’ve never seen big block manifolds with such a square cross-section.
They are even reproducing them now.
https://www.yearone.com/Product/1966-74-a-b-e-body/ae340
Strange then Down Under in Australia, Ford caught that idea instead of Chrysler with the “Super Roo” (showing a kangaroo instead of a bee), a package for the Falcon GT/GTHO. http://www.goauto.com.au/mellor/mellor.nsf/story2/478EB9E93B359704CA25742C001C726F
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rainforest_harley/219028738/
If Chrysler Australia had got that idea first, it could had been the Aussie Charger Hemi-6 pack who got the “Super Roo” instead of Ford.
That is thoroughly awesome, never heard of that. And I think I found a new nickname for my Subaru…
Lol that used to confuse me constantly as a kid!
The Super Roo was a regional variation of this character, much more familiar to our North American audience.
Rock On!!!
Here’s a ’68 Plymouth internal document showing a 7 blade fan, still not viscous, though.
Here’s one from ’69 that is a clutch-type.
And one more from ’67, with the dinky fan.
And which do you think was actually installed? 🙂 I know what I think.
Here’s a picture of an original ’68 hemi, with clearly more than a four-blade fan.
Well the 68 literature does show a 7 blade fan.
That picture makes me cringe though since they went to the trouble of using the PITA spring clamps for the hoses to make that accurate but put blue spark plug wires on it and didn’t spring for a reproduction battery. Even worse they left the wrapper on the battery which Interstate says not to do as it traps gases causes a nice conductive film to form on top of the battery that creates a draw.
Fixed!
Why wasn’t the 383 included?It was plenty powerful enough even for a full size car and was a long time favourite of Euro American exotics like Bristol,Jensen,Facel Vega etc
Junqueboi asked that above and I answered there. Only Dodges that could break into the 14’s on the drag strip were part of the Scat Pack, and these were their engines.
Sorry I should have read the replies more thoroughly,should have been working not lurking!
I’m sure it was a constraint of space-since the ad was designed to conform to a standard 8.5×11 magazine format, 4 pics would simply have been too wide, plus it violates the marketing maxim of 3 things being optimal.
Thanks Roger
In my opinion, Chrysler North America made a big mistake by not offering the high performance Australian variant of its Slant Six as an option for the A-body.
Is it possible that the 4-speed got the four blade fan and the Torqueflite the seven blade with viscous drive optional? The various brochure pages everyone have posted seem to show different fan options for the Hemi.