Let’s see, there’s his "Rambo" ’60 Rambler powered by a small-block Chevy on alcohol that last year won him $20,000 at a big race at Huntsville (Alabama) Dragway. Then there’s his "King Kong" ’68 Dodge Coronet RT, the first "King Kong" that famous "Super" racer and world champ Sheldon Gecker put together, which preceded a long line of "King Kongs" that he built. That one, still in pristine shape, can wheelstand itself off the starting line, land some 300 feet down track and STILL cut the bracket number, all with original Mopar power under the hood.

And there’s "Shaker," a famous NHRA Plymouth C/Stock Automatic Jr. Stocker of 1962 vintage that took the late Dave Kempton to wins at the ’65 Winternationals and the ’66 Nationals at Indianapolis. Fulcher bracket-raced the car for pretty near 20 years before he knew what it really was --- an acid-dipped, one-off special that has become somewhat of a racing legend among Mopar fans of any stripe. Fulcher recently turned down $50,000 for the now-restored car, claiming that that amount was too little to take it from his hands.

But his latest, a Pro Modified-type ’37 Chevy with big-block-Chevy power, has all his Mopar buddies shaking their heads. Why a Chevrolet, Artie, and what happened to your loyalty to Mopar? "It’s the best bracket car I’ve had," the Williston, Tennessee, preacher says. "Johnny Labbous (a fellow Mopar maniac and a past winner of the Million Dollar bracket race) told me last week at the (Montgomery Motorsports Park) ‘Fistfull of Dollars’ race that all I had to do was point the thing down track, and it’ll go automatically. Can’t ask for much more than that."

Artie went four rounds in the ’37 at Saturday’s big $100,000-to-win go, and made enough spare change in the whole race to pay for gas on the way home.

Fulcher has always been a Mopar fan, even making the case that "Rambo" has some Plymouth/Dodge blood in it. "Didn’t Chrysler buy out American Motors and Rambler once?" he asks. But when this ’37 bow tie came along, he jumped at buying it, even borrowing the money from the bank and paying it back at $200 per month, with interest.

He bought the bright-red coupe from friend John Sullivan, also of Williston, who races Quick 8 eliminators with the Dixie Doorslammers, a Tennessee-based bunch who go off a 5-flat index. Sullivan had a Beretta that was doing the job nicely, so the ’37 had to go.

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Its origins, although fairly new (after all, it’s all fiberglass), have been lost in the recent past. All Artie knows is that Sullivan bought it from a man who had it built for himself, one B.J. Potter of Tennessee, who sold it to Sullivan when he got out of racing. Then Sullivan sold it to Fulcher at a good price. "I wanted it ‘cause it was beautiful. But the car didn’t work for what John wanted it for. The way the hood is made on it, you can’t run all those dry sump cans. The front cap is so closed in on the engine, he didn’t have the room to put all the stuff he wanted on the car," Artie says.

Hence the "I dunno" from Fulcher on exactly who whipped up the four-link/9-inch Ford chassis, with Santuff front stuff and Wilwood brakes all around. Sullivan ran it as an electronic, computer-controlled car with the Dixie Doorslammers. "He took all that out and put it back in his Beretta. So the car was sitting there and he told me that if I wanted it, he would price it to me right enough to buy it. That was last year. I went to the bank and got me a $200-a-month payment. Anybody can afford a $200-a-month bank payment," Fulcher says.

A preacher for 35 years, Fulcher once owned the hottest night club in Memphis. But one day he woke up and said to himself, "This is a dead-end road." He sold his night club within a week. "Actually, I gave it away. I started preaching full time six months later, as an evangelist. After building several churches, the Lord pointed me to go to a little race track in Byhalia, Mississippi, where I met Mike Franks, and started praying at the track on Saturday nights," he says. That prayer led to a church service at Byhalia and Fulton Drag Strips on Sunday, and Artie suddenly had a ministry --- bracket racers. "I never dreamed it would mushroom into what it has today, traveling 48 weeks out of the year," he says. He regularly goes to the Tenn-Tuck bracket bashes, the Memphis Mega races, all of George Howard’s races, the B&M series, the Million Dollar race and the BTE /Citgo Danny Sons and Chris Barker Trailer Sales series races.

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With Dave Kempton’s C/Stock Automatic "Shaker," Fulcher also didn’t know what he had. "I did some horse trading with Kenny Ford at PTC converters (Muscle Shoals, AL), and I’ve had it for 20 years. I bracket-raced it until I discovered what I had."

At the NHRA Division 2 bracket finals one year, he put it on the scales, and followed its weighing with an identical car raced by friend L.C. Bigham of Tunnel Hill, Georgia. They found out that L.C.’s weighed 3,400 pounds and Artie’s a svelte 2,800 pounds. "I knew then that I had something. I learned that it had been acid-dipped," he says.

Fulcher then met Tom Slaughter of Slaughter and Banning Super Stock hemi Cuda fame. Both had their cars in a car show, and Slaughter recognized the car and gave Fulcher some names. He started chasing down leads, and it sure enough turned out to be Dave Kempton’s all-winning "Shaker" Stocker. Artie talked to Kempton about six months before he died, about two years ago, and he authenticated the car and sent Fulcher a lot of memorabilia that he had from races that he had run.

That car is now for sale. Not the ’37 Chevy, though. At least, not yet.

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"Its body is all fiberglass Chevy, but I don’t know who built the car. It was built out of Tennessee. Potter used to race some with the Dixie Doorslammers and he knows that Sullivan buys some cars now and then, and when he wanted to liquidate everything he had, he called Sullivan for the sale. He sold it to me at a real nice price," Artie says. It came to him less engine and trans, and he put a 427 big-block in it built by Randy Glover of Williston, then changed it over to a 555 built by Ed Hines of Hines Performance Engines in Jacksonville, Arkansas.

With a DiVinci Dominator-type carb, Brodix heads, Callies crank, Comp Cams, Dart block, Moroso pan, MSD, Jesel belt drive, T&D rockers, Ken Sullivan-built J.W. Performance Transmissions Powerglide, Auto Meter gauges and BTE trans brake, the coupe now goes 5.30s. It is certified as a legal Pro Modified car, with a fuel dragster-type wing on the back. Goodyear slicks were provided by Sammy Lovette Racing Tires of Petal, Mississippi, one of Artie’s sponsors.

If he ever has a problem with the big-block Chevy engine (we’ll bet he won’t), Fulcher says he’s dropping in a Chrysler wedge. "I’m a Mopar man. I found out long ago that they’re easier to work on. You work on them less. I told people that if this Chevrolet let me down, I was going to stick a Dodge motor in it and change it to a ’37 Plymouth. They look just alike. And me being a preacher, I learned that God favors Mopars. After all, doesn’t it say in the Bible that God chased Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden in a Fury?" That line alone has won plenty of converts and Artie fans among Southern bracket racers.