Our little expedition made our way outside of the second barn and were just hanging around. I thought that we had done the tour, gotten the t-shirt and were on the downhill of an adrenaline spike. There was still a few Mopars in the immediate area. So while our host and my friends were chatting I walked around a bit.

Walking around next to the third barn was a well picked over Plymouth Duster. It wasn’t anything special, but it was a old Mopar. So it deserved some attention. It was a green on green car from the looks of it. Has some parts left on it, sad to see it though just sitting there, watching over the fields. Continue reading after the jump.

Continue reading "Daytona in the Barn: Barn Three and Immediate Area" »

All thanks to the interwebs! Full story at The Sun News

Coming out of the first barn, our host led us to the barn directly across from it. A bit smaller, but we didn’t care.

I broke off from the group for a moment and snapped some pictures of the vehicles littering the immediate area. A 69 Charger, 66/67 Charger, a school bus FULL of parts. In front of the first barn was sitting a 87 Dodge Truck and a 69 Satellite 2-door. The truck had 500,000 miles on the body and had seen 2 engines in its lifetime. He hauled most of his stuff with that truck he said.

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "Daytona in the Barn: Barn Two" »

What started out as a terrible weekend, ended up as a not so terrible weekend. A friend of mine’s uncle had passed away and I had known him for many years. So I would be attending his funeral on Sunday, November 9th. I planned on spending the weekend out there, so I knew I couldn’t help the family in Saturday, why not go out and hunt for cars… Oh boy did that thought snowball.

I made a post about me heading to Bloomington, IL on www.moparts.com forums. Two members from down there, Shad and Scott both told me that they would like to meet up and show me some of the stuff they knew about lying around. They didn’t get into specifics, though.

I drove down Friday night, so I could meet up with the guys on Saturday. That was a long drive at night. The Challenger did fine, and I got on the girl a bit. But still I was glad to plunker down in my hotel room for the night.

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "Daytona in the Barn, and Two Hemi Chargers, and One V Code 70 Charger: Barn One" »

Why, Vertical Doors Inc., of course. The company had a lambo-doored Camaro and Charger in their booth at SEMA this year. As Nelson would say, Ha-ha!

Continue reading "Who Still Thinks Vertical Doors Are Cool?" »

Hehe… I’m just going to leave this one alone. The last time we got between a couple of Cali car clubs by making fun of their SEMA rides, we ended up having to shut down the comments and start banning fools. People’s moms got involved. There were a lot of caps. It wasn’t pretty. So I’ll just let the pics speak for themselves. Hey, for what it is, it’s actually really impressive–I thought the captain’s chairs were an especially nice touch. Enjoy!

Continue reading "Noktastrophe" »

I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for the owner of this rig to show up since I landed in Vegas on Monday. This morning I took the proverbial bull-by-the-horns, and left a note inside the cab, and finally made contact. Introducing the 1947 Diamond T (Soon to be named “Mater”), along with an amazing 1928 Dodge “Diesel Rod”. Read more after the jump!

Continue reading "My Favorite Truck at SEMA: Steve Darnell’s 1947 Diamond T (W/ a 1928 Dodge “Diesel Rod”)" »

…Yeah, they’ve also got a Challenger widebody kit that extends the front fenders 3″  on either side, and parts that’ll dress up your plain-jane C6 Corvette as either a Z06 or a ZR1. And can you name any other booth at SEMA that has a new Camaro, Mustang, Challenger, and Corvette? Talk about covering all your bases. More pics below the jump!

Continue reading "Classic Design Concepts Claims First 2010 Mustang Shaker Hoodscoop" »

Chrysler CEO Ralph Gilles told me to look out for the 1320 concept over in the Mopar corral, and I have to agree that it’s the coolest thing in the booth this year. The 1320 is an SRT8 optimized for the dragstrip–the package includes a 550 hp aluminum 426 Hemi run through long-tube headers and a Corsa exhaust, a Dana 60 locking rear end with Dynashaft axles, and a stripped-out interior with Viper seats. Carbon fiber accents on the exterior include the hood, spoilers, and headlight buckets, but they’re not in-your-face carbon fiber–it’s all integrated into the 1320’s awesomely nasty acid-yellow-and-satin-black paint scheme. Clever details abound, including Mopar cop car wheels, and the two inboard headlights deleted to make room for air induction ducts. See walkaround video and gallery below the jump!

Continue reading "Dodge Challenger 1320 Concept To Deliver Straight-Line Thrills" »

Cherry Bomb found this ‘64 D100 in a barn near Atlanta and managed to score it for just $300. It now has a 528 Hemi with Keith Black heads mated to a 6 speed Tremec. More pics after jump!

Continue reading "Cherry Bomb D100 at SEMA" »

Really not a whole lot to report about the Mopar booth at SEMA this year. Yeah, the Jeep Lower Forty is cool, but you already knew that. I was nonplussed by the 1320 Challenger. More pics and video after the jump!

Continue reading "Mopar at SEMA" »

Hmmm. Part of me really feels that this much intricate chrome bling overwhelms the otherwise scaled-down, satin-black-accented R/T. At the same time, I kind of dig the whole mis-matchedness of it. What do you guys think?

Continue reading "22″ Gila Wheels… On A Challenger?" »

I still think the Challenger looks great as a convertible (though maybe not with the top up). Come on Ma Mopar! More pics and video after the jump!

Continue reading "Droptop Customs at SEMA" »

This week at Talladega, the competing automakers are each officially debuting their Nationwide Series version of the Car of Tomorrow–and at least two out of the four are opting for  ponycar-based racers. Dodge’s Nationwide Challenger is the hottest ride to take to the NASCAR circuit since the 70’s, and the NASCAR-ed out Mustang, while awkward, is nonetheless going to be a huge shot in the arm for both Ford and the troubled Nationwide Series. The odd man out? (Well, Toyota is sticking with the Camry, because of course they don’t have anything less boring to base a stock car on). But Chevrolet, probably the biggest underwriter of NASCAR in the world, inexplicably opted not to build a Nationwide car based on the new Camaro. What? Yeah, they’re going to stick with the now-played-out Impala, the same nameplate they use in Sprint Cup. Chevy officials made vague PR-sounding excuses about not wanting to compromise the new Camaro’s iconic lines, citing the partially templatized body they’d have to conform to (okay, for one thing, what iconic lines? The Camaro looks like a cartoon, but in a good way–perfectly suited to the Lightning McQueen era of NASCAR). That warmed-over Impala looks nice and everything, but seriously, wtf? They think running a Camaro in NASCAR would be bad for the brand? Unbelievable.

In any case, the new cars are in final testing at Talladega Superspeedway today, and will be run in four races during the 2010 Nationwide Series, beginning at Daytona in July. NASCAR hopes to have the hot new Nationwide rides fully integrated into the series by the 2011 season. Check out a whole gallery of new Nationwide rides below the jump, and read the press release at egmcartech.

Continue reading "NASCAR: Challenger Is A Go For Nationwide Series, But Not Camaro" »

I was really looking forward to seeing this car at SEMA, and so I was pretty excited to stumble across it on the way to the media center this morning. The BASF Petty Blue paint looks fantastic and I really dig the center exhaust. Sorry, no pics of the 426 Hemi under the hood, but I do have a ton more exterior pics after the jump!

Continue reading "Petty Garage Dodge Challenger at SEMA" »