The Dodge Challenger Message Board

Thought I'd better get organised and post some pics. We've owned the car for about four years now. The plan has always been to build a car that was fully streetable, drive it to a strip, spend no more than 20 minutes setting it up, run high-12's and then drive it home again. Lots of progress made, but still a way to go yet. Here's how the car looked with the old hood and arches;


and here's how it looks now;




Here's how the engine bay used to look.....


and how it looks today, though most of the work is 'under the skin'....

Slightly bigger pic, with a bit more detail:

Thanks for the extra pics Dave. Here's a bit of detail, to go with them...
Engine.
440 Cubic inch V8, 906 big valve cylinder heads, ported and polished.
800 cfm Double- Pumper Holley carburettor. Inline fuel pressure gauge.
Edelbrock Performer intake manifold,
Hughes Engines camshaft
Duration Intake 232 degrees @.050”
Duration Exhaust 237 degrees @.050”
Lift: Intake .540”
Exhaust .548”
Comp Cams double timing chain. Clevite cam bearings. Mopar Performance electronic ignition conversion. MSD Digital 6 Plus Ignition Controller. Accel 9mm ignition leads. Mopar Performance mini- starter. Felpro gaskets throughout. Milodon uprated water pump. Dual Kenlow electric fans. Battery relocated to trunk.
Pertronix Flamethrower race coil. Carter strip fuel pump, fuel pressure regulator.
Hooker Super Competition Headers, Aluminium header gaskets, custom 2 ½ inch duel exhaust system, with quick- release cutouts.

Drivetrain.
727 torqueflite transmission, Turbo Action Cheetah reverse manual valve body, 2400 rpm Fairbanks stall converter.
TCI Race spec. rebuild by Crewe Racing Transmissions, B and M ratchet shifter
8 ¾ inch rear, with 3.91 Richmond race gears. Driveshaft safety loop. KYB gas adjustable shock absorbers front/ rear. Leaf springs heat treated/ strengthened, relocated 3” inboard. Polyurethane bushings. Line lock. Centerline billet aluminium wheels (6.5 x 15 front/ 10 x 15 rear). 8- point Competition Engineering safety cage.
History

Year of manufacture:1970
First registered in UK: 13.07.82
Car was originally white, with a 383 Cubic inch engine.
5 previous owners in UK

A six-pack scoop looks tough! It matches the hungry look of the front.
Perfect on a street/strip car like yours.

Whooeee!

Check out my big air cleaner . Probably does zip for performance, but I love the look of it shaking around inside the sixpack scoop.

Here is the video of Tim being soundly beaten by me!

Movie file here.

Don't try this unless you have broadband. It is a 5meg file

Quick pic from the same batch as the one in the avater. I took it while being dragged behind the car at 80mph on a go-cart

dave-r wrote:Here is the video of Tim being soundly beaten by me!

1MB version here

Hi Dave. I created a bit smaller version. Just in case someone with slow connection wants to see it.

Another recent 'tinkered with' photo...

.....and another. Very photogenic, these E- bodies

And finally, one given to me by Duncan Watts last weekend. i think it was taken about 10 years ago, and shows the car in it's original white paint. I quite like the vinyl roof look on the car. It makes it look even more like a missile

Thanks again for the photo Dunc!

A couple of recent black and white's. I was trying to capture the lines of the car.....

........and this week's entry for the 'start 'em young' category.

I really like the pic´s you have taken! (specially the black&white). What type of camera are you using, Tim?

Thanks Christer, it's an Olympus Camedia 350 digital camera. I've only had it a couple of months, so I'm still finding my way around the different features. What makes the difference is the software packages you can pick up which radically alter the look of the original photo. With just a few clicks I can turn my mediocre shots into something a little more interesting. Very early days with the software, so lots more to come I'm afraid .

Another tinkered- with photo for the collection.

Tim.
Here is your car hiding behind Adrian Salt's nice '70 convertible in 'Street Machine/American Car World Magazine.

Note the caption for the photo! Some of these writers should be strung up!

Thanks for the scan Dave .

At least I'll have a recognisable licence plate now

I reckon that's doubled the value of the car, let the bidding begin.....

Next month they are doing a feature on front nearside fenders and 12-inches of your fender is in it!

LOL!

If I ever have to sell the car, it'll have to go one panel at a time on E- Bay

Continuing the trend of showing one part of the car at a time, here's a 12 second shot of the dashboard.
Took the Dodge out for a spring clean run last Sunday. The sun was out, the roads were dry, my hormones were acting up, you know how it is.........

Now you've done it. You gave me spring fever 2 months early! It's Saturday and I'll be in the shop all day thinking of your cool video while I'm working on my vehicle.

Well' it's time for my monthly feature in Street Machine. What will it be this month? A door mirror? A floor mat?

The anticipation is killing me

Finally got a decent shot of the car on the track, courtesy of Feel The Noise.com

Chally looking good off the line, Tim.
You pleased with the performance so far?
Sorted the radiator?

Hi Phil,

Performance has been improving in leaps and bounds mate, with more to come. Previous best run was 14.40, so really pleased with the improvements. Dave Robson's been working overtime advising me on suspension, carb tuning, etc. It's all starting to pay off now. Hoping to run down into the 12's by the time the Nats come round.

Got the Year One radiator in. It fitted a treat, as you said. I've still got an overheating problem, but nothing to do with the radiator. Hopefully a bigger fan will solve the problem, but I'm suspicious I might have a cracked head.

Come and say hello at the Nats Phil. You'll find me smearing margarine on Dave's slicks, trying to slow him down so I can finally win one.

ITim - I'll look out for you at the main event!
We'll have to get the Challenger owners together for a bit of a photo shoot at the Nats.
My best so far (last year) has been a slippery (one-legged, if you know what I mean), gear-crunching 14.3 @ 98, which was a vast improvement on the previous years 15.4 @ 92!
How are you finding 'street-life' (and idle vacuum) with the Hughes cam? I fancy installing one of them as I am currently running a '509' which, to be perfectly honest, isn't as bad to live with as people think, but there's always reasons to update!
Now, do I go 3.91 on the rear, or 4.10.......


PS make sure Dave is constructively working on your car, whilst you smear butter on his rear - er I mean rear tyres!!!
I can write this because I know he is away climbing mountains at the moment - tee-hee!

Yeah but I'm back now and didn't fall off!

Ahh Crap! Now we gone an' did it!

The Hughes cam is a beauty mate. Loads of lift, without excessive duration. No loss of vacuum for the brakes, etc.

You sound like you're right where I was last year. I had plenty of horsepower, but couldn't make any use of it for the first 100ft. 3 changes made a huge difference. First I went to a bigger converter (B and W Superholeshot) which lets the engine rev where it's making all the power, then I changed from my old Kelly Superchargers to Hoosier Quicktimes, and finally I bolted on an aftermarket pinion snubber. The original unit was about 4 inches away from the floorpan and doing zip to stop wheelhop. First time down the strip and presto! lost a second. I didn't have the linelock working for those runs, so the Hoosiers were cold, but christ they had me leaving the line hard! I've only picked up another 3 mph, so no real gains in horsepower at this point, it's all been made up off the line.

I've got 3.91 gears on mine, which seem to be a nice compromise. I can cruise at 65 doing about 3000rpm, and I'm pulling about 5750rpm going through the lights. I'm not sure the 4.10's would be significantly different? What size tyres do you use?

Nice idea for a photo opportunity. Whatcha reckon Mr. Robson (see I'm all respectful again now he's back )?