We recently reported with sadness the June 2, 2014, passing of former Chrysler high performance vehicle development engineer Jim Thornton at age 77. Though you’d have to be a fairly devoted muscle car and drag race enthusiast to know his name, once folks learn he was a member of the Ramchargers, a bell rings, and Thornton’s place in the automotive firmament becomes clearer to many.

To briefly recap, the Ramchargers was a group of (mostly) Chrysler employees who met evenings and weekends to share their love of drag racing and…