S1 Ep311: The Gas-Station Kid Who Outsmarted Dodge and Became the Mopar King

Past Gas

Donut Media

Leisure, Comedy, History, Automotive

4.9 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 November 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Thanks to Allstate for sponsoring today’s episode! Click here [https://bit.ly/47IpOdG] to check Allstate first and see how much you could save on car insurance.

This week, when Dodge said a 383 big-block wouldn’t fit in a Dart, a Chicago car guy proved them wrong — and forced Detroit to copy him. From selling 50 Dodges in a snowstorm to building the first dealer-tuned muscle cars, Mr. Norm turned a local dealership into the birthplace of Mopar performance culture — and changed how Americans bought speed.

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Transcript

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1:00.6	May not cover all electricity usage, roof and weather dependent. Paid for surplus requires eligible SEC tariff. Big thank you to Underdog Fantasy for sponsoring this episode. Do you love fantasy
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1:44.9	In New York, call the 24-7-Hope line at 1878 Hope N.Y or text Hope N.Y 467369. Hey, how you doing? Welcome back to Pascas. This week we're talking about one of the most influential figures in Mopar history, and he didn't even work for Chrysler. We're talking
2:01.7	about Norman Krauss, the man who brought high performance mopars to the Chicago land area
2:08.4	and eventually the rest of America. It's Mr. Norm. Norman Kraus went from pumping gas at his
2:15.2	dad's gas station to building some of the baddest mokars of the muscle car era
2:19.8	This is a really fun one. Let's get into it
2:22.3	When the Kraus brothers ordered 15 426 ram chargers and 50 of them showed up during a bad snowstorm in Chicago
2:32.3	They didn't panic and send them back, they just
	...

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