Willie Del Manzano's 1988 Dakota Truck
A few years back at Red Line Raceway is when we first layed an eye on this 1988 Dodge Dakota. At the time, my son David was racing his 2001 Dakota R/T and although he won his TMCCC class that year, we did not want to keep on racing his daily driver. I got in touch with the owner Bill Boon and we negotiated a price. It was high, but we wanted the truck. It had a tired 318 motor and 727 tranny, but very good rear end gears. That was about it. Otherwise, it was just a Dakota. We started playing with it and I think the first pass at Kennedale was like a high 10 / low 11's. Oh well, we went to work with the mastermind, Mike Miller, at Miller Performance. I got a 5.9 R/T engine block, sent it to Wayne Calvert for prep and short block assembly. It has a stroker kit with a middle of the road cam. We purchased a set of heads with bigger valves and some porting. The truck's first pass at Denton, after the transformation, was in the 8.70's with Mike driving it. My son David saddled up and we started racing and tuning.
Since then, Mike added ladder bars, re-worked the transmission, installed a shift kit, narrowed the rear end, fuel cell, relocated the battery and a few other things. I also installed a new carburetor. The truck's best pass has been a 7.20 in the 1/8th and 11.48 in the 1/4 with a 300 lbs + driver. In October I was the low qualifier and winner of the truck class at the Lone Star Shootout in Houston.
Hmmm, this thing will be in the 6 second bracket when my son David returns to Texas. Its fun to have a SB MOPAR that runs with the Big Dogs. See ya at the race track !!!
Willie Del Manzano