As I have now moved into my new home, I can finally contemplate getting the Charger out of storage and re-starting the restoration. I went to check it out on Saturday and found that one of the tires had gone flat. Unfortunately it wouldn’t hold air despite the best efforts of my compressor. A quick trip to one of the local tire emporiums fixed that. While I was getting the tire fixed I kept thinking how much more I prefer the round tail lights from the ‘68 Charger to the lights on the ‘69 and ‘70 cars. As I am going to be doing a full rotisserie restification, it will be the perfect opportunity to make the alterations for a different set of lights. What do you think, should I fit a set of ‘68 tail lights to my ‘70 Charger?

Continue reading "Should I Keep The Correct Year Tail Lights For My Charger?" »

Get your pennies lined up and count them. This beauty is up for auction by the IRS, and documented as the most optioned Charger ever. Sealed bids required, auction date is June 6.

Topo just sent me a bunch of pics of his B5 blue 2008 Dodge Charger Super Bee edition, number 31 out of 1,000. Since this is Topo we’re talking about, it features a widebody front and back with all metal construction. It’s got 22 inch Forgiato wheels wrapped with 335/25-22 Pirellis (the front wheels are 10 inches wide with a 4 1/2 inch lip and the rears are 12 inches wide with a 7 inch lip). It has a Techco twin screw supercharger chromed and polished, a Challenger style hood, Memphis audio sound system, custom R1 concept custom rotors and a CKS coil over suspension. A ton more pics after the jump!

Continue reading "Topo’s Widebody Super Bee" »

We showed you this ridiculous Charger back in December. Well, the owner has tacked on some more garbage, like this fake blower with a Cobra hood ornament stuck on top. Awesome, huh? Think the guy is doing it for for the Internet notoriety, or is he just nuts? More pics after the jump! Via Jalopnik

Continue reading "The Charger Freak Show Is Back, With Extra Stupidness" »

Before I left New York, Mike took me out to Westchester, where he keeps the Daytona. It’s probably no big surprise, but this thing looks even more awesome in person than it does in photos. And I’ve seen plenty of wing cars over the years.

If you’ve sat in a B-body, you’ve sat in them all. But of course, being a wing car, you’ve got any extra couple feet of nose cone hanging off the front. You definitely want to leave plenty of room in traffic!

Mike showed me what the Daytona is capable of a the freeway cloverleaf. This big Mopar is impressive, especially when you consider it’s a 40 year old, 4,200 pound car. Unlike my junky old B-body, it corners dead flat. And of course, Mike knows how to drive it.

Continue reading and see a ton of pics after the jump!

Continue reading "House of Angry" »

Check out this cool matte root beer Charger spotted under the tents at MATS. I still think Dodge should do a two door Charger. Thanks for the pics, Miguel!

Continue reading "Cool Late Model Two Door Charger at MATS" »

This weekend was the 4th annual Spring Festival of the LXs down in So Cal, and it sounds like it was the biggest and best yet! Be sure to check out the coverage of this cool event at Automotive Traveler. Of course the LX Forums have a ton of pics, too. Heavy Hitters was there to represent as well.

I thought Nick’s clear-hood HEMI idea was pretty cool, and he’s got some other great gems on his ride page–his avatar, for one, is a Disney Cars version of his “Top Banana” Daytona R/T Charger. Other treats include the dragstrip pics on page 3 and the shifter-mod pics on page 2–nice yellow pool ball! Definitely check him out.

A while back I spent some time in LA on the set of the new Fast & Furious movie. It was a blast–there was an absolute treasure trove of hopped-up rides, I got to hang out with the CarDomain members whose cars were cast for the flick, and Vin Diesel and Paul Walker were actually pretty cool in real life (Walker is a seriously enthusiastic gearhead, it turns out–and Diesel was tooling around the set on an electric scooter like a giant bald kid). Judging by the rides that turned out for the shoot, as well as the star cars featured below, the latest installation is going to be more domestic-centric than any of its predecessors, with a good mix of American muscle and hot imports–all in all, something for everybody. Read on for vital stats and a ton more pics of the movie’s star cars–and stay tuned to the CarDomain blog for more details on Fast & Furious over the next few days.

Continue reading "Fast & Furious Movie Cars: Official Pics and Specs Now Live!" »

One of the Chargers used in the original Fast and Furious is listed for sale on the Las Vegas Craigslist—fake blower included! The seller also has a bunch of other memorabilia from the movie, but no price is listed for any of it. So what do you think the Charger is worth? More pics and the full text from the Craigslist ad after the jump.

Continue reading "Charger From First Fast and Furious Movie on Las Vegas Craigslist" »

Truth About Cars writer Paul Niedermeyer rented a new 2.7 liter Charger along with a high mileage ‘93 V6 Camry on a recent trip to Hawaii, and followed up with a review comparing the two cars. If you’ve ever read The Truth About Cars it probably won’t come as a huge surprise that he preferred the Toyota. Now, I’ve never driven a 90s Camry. I’ve also never driven the 2.7 liter Charger, but I rented the 3.5 liter Charger SXT for a week in the SF Bay Area and thought it was great daily driver and family hauler. Of course the 2.7 liter Charger is going to be slow, but it gets better gas mileage than the old V6 Camry (18/26 mpg vs. 16/22 mpg). The Charger is also RWD, roomier, has a bigger trunk, and it’s MUCH safer (though this isn’t a huge issue in Hawaii, where no one drives faster than 35 mph). I agree that Dodge probably does a disservice to everyone by offering the 2.7 in the Charger (then again, they offered a fairly wimpy 318 in the original, too). But Paul didn’t seem to like anything about the Charger. He complained about the quality of the interior materials and ridiculed the outward vision. Mostly, though, it seemed like Paul was embarrassed by the Charger. And whose fault is that?

I was talking with some friends the other day and we were discussing the best and worst car deals that we have had over the years. My choices were easy. The worst deal that I have had is my 70 Dodge Charger. Despite having an independent inspection done, the car was not what I expected when it arrived. To put it simply it had more holes than a piece of Swiss cheese! I should have flown half way around the country and inspected it myself. It would have avoided a lot of headaches. My lawyers did eventually get some compensation from the company that did the inspection but it was not worth the grief.

The best deal that I have ever had on buying a car is my 69 Plymouth Fury. I have always liked the shape of these but was never able to find one that wasn’t a rust bucket. I finally got lucky on eBay. I didn’t bid on the auction but noticed it didn’t the reserve. I made the owner what I thought was a ridiculous offer, just over $3,000, and was really surprised when he accepted. I wound up with a great car with a genuine 43,000 miles on the clock.

So what has been your best or worst deal?

I don’t know much about photography, but I know what I like, and I really like this HDR image of a ‘68 Charger taken by my Moparts buddy Mark Brooks in Sacramento. According to Mark, “HDR Images are created by taking several photos of the same exact scene, using the same f-stop, but bracketing the images with different exposure values. Then, the images are combined in a program like Photomatix, so that a broader tonal range can be seen.” You can see a bunch more of his HDR car pics after the jump, or check our all his stuff at flickr.

Continue reading "HDR Charger" »

The guys over on the LX Forums got a bit worked up about this Charger, spotted by a 13 year old CarDomain member in Indiana, who seems actually seems quite enthusiastic about the car. Apparently, the car is for real—it’s owned by an older guy who tends to get a bit carried away with cheesy mods. More pics on Bri’s ride page.

I’m sure many of you remember Topo. I interviewed him at SEMA and got pics of his widebody Challenger in the Asanti booth, along with pics of his daily driven Charger in the West Coast Customs area. Well, here’s Topo talking about his work in a new video by Heavy Hitters Magazine. Oh, and Topo just made an appearance at the So Cal LX Toys for Tots charity drive.