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 4/13: It’s 413 day—Celebrating the Max Wedge and the engine that won the ’62 Winternationals

The 413-cid Dodge and Plymouth raised-block (RB) engines were used in everything from 2bbl dump trucks to the dual-quad Maximum Performance Wedge "Max Wedge" race cars.
13 Apr 2022
David Kennedy
Feature

The first public testing of the 413 Max Wedge was a match race at Detroit Dragway between the Ramchargers Dodge Dart sedan and the 409-cid Chevy of 1962 NHRA Winternationals champ, Don Nicholson. The best-out-of-five race did not end in Dodge's favor.

But earlier that year at the 1962 NHRA Winternationals, Jim Nelson’s Dragmaster Dart, powered by a blown 413 was the first major win for a Dodge wedge-headed engine in any dragster.

According to Hot Rod magazine, “The marriage of Dodge and Dragmaster came about with a nudge from Wally Parks. In 1961, Dodge approached him for a recommendation for someone on the West Coast to help with its racing program. Dragmaster was the answer. Soon, truckloads of Dodge engines, transmissions, and rearends were being shipped to the Carlsbad shop—so many that a second, 6,000-square-foot building was required to store them all.”

How good was the 409 Chevy the 413 had to beat? Check it out HERE: