While all that was happening, Charley Malyuke and Gary Ostrich were working on a small cube (383 block based) Hemi headed pro stock engine. And here we go. The 383 based Hemi was in the Arrow I posted a photo of above. (from what I understand) Just for fun, here is a story from a friend of them both and a few photos of their first modification of that 383 to make it happen. Remember. a 383 had a shorter stroke than a 350 Chevy. Go pound sand Chevy boys! LMAO
""""" I had a friend in Des Moines, who was a talented machinist, named Charlie Malyuke. Charlie was one of those guys who said "Why not?" when an engineering challenge was presented to him. He was also a hard-core Modified Eliminator drag racer who liked Chrysler Hemis, having worked hand-in-hand with Gary Ostrich in Gary's shop when they were building engines on contract for the Chrysler Corporation "factory" racers like Sox and Martin, Richard Petty, etc...
Charlie and John Hagen were friends. Charlie was building a Plymouth Arrow Pro Stocker and wanted to run a Chrysler Hemi in it, but decided to adapt the Hemi heads to the shorter-deck 383 wedge block to gain the advantages of a shorter stroke, lighter reciprocating parts, smaller physical size, and lighter overall weight.
Charlie sold one of the blocks, so modified, to John, and John proceeded to set the NHRA mph record for Pro Stock with it. Also, he was runner-up to Lee Shepard in a very close final-round race at the last Pomona race (World Finals) that would feature "small" motors in Pro Stock. The engine had less than a year's R & D time on it... would have been a really formidable contender the next year, if the rules hadn't changed.
Canadian Wally Dyck also bought one of these 383 Hemis from Charlie and set the A/D record with it, and may have re-set it later.... not too sure about that, but I remember him holding that national record for a long time.
Anyway, I just wanted people to know that John was a thinker and someone who didn't follow the crowd; his little 383 Hemi showed him to be an individual who wasn't averse to trying new things, and making them work.""""""
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