Hemi Challenger

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Mon Jan 21, 08 10:00 am

I think you are right Dave, I have never seen a Challenger R/T or Cuda without the cutouts. My California Challenger Convertible has cutouts from the factory, - it has the other emision items for a California car.

But i am quite sure that Califonia B body R/T's, Super Bees, Road Runners and GTX's had turn down pipes instead of chrome tips. - 'Anyone know why?

Dave-R · Post by **Dave-R** » Mon Jan 21, 08 10:03 am

I had my Chally parked next to Richards Hemi at York once and the difference was amazing.

Mine somehow looked lower, wider, meaner and more like a muscle car should look to my eyes.

Richards Hemi looked too tall and the "skinny" tyres on steel rims looked silly under the arches. The whole car looked more narrow than mine for some reason. Even though they were side by side. I think the wheels and stance of a car makes a bit difference to the overall impression on your eyes.

The only reason the car would have been ordered with steel wheels would be because the original owner would have been removing them on day one and fitting custom chrome wheels. I would have restored it the way the original owner wanted it.

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Mon Jan 21, 08 10:59 am

That's because your rear springs are tired and you've wound down the front suspension.

Dave-R · Post by **Dave-R** » Mon Jan 21, 08 11:24 am

You got me.

Actually when I got the springs made I think they were a bit lower still and I had more camber put in to bring them up to where I wanted them.

When I worked out the spec of the rear springs I wanted (I had them made from scratch) the amount of camber needed was the hardest part to get right. But I was second time lucky.

Richard · Post by **Richard** » Mon Jan 21, 08 6:38 pm

It took me 2 years to buy that car - and even going through it front to back I never enjoyed the way it drove. Bit of a case of the dream not quite matching the reality.

I've finished with the back to factory thing now, you can't really do anything else with these type of cars and then you just become an unpaid museum curator.

Clones , rods and race cars are the way to go now - have some fun before they ban it.

I believe the car was made to look like a T/A in the states so people would think they were streetracing a 340 car.

Post by **MattH** » Mon Jan 21, 08 8:56 pm

Here is Richard's car with its Hemi stable mate in the states. Pics were e-mailed to me and included in connected soon after it went stateside.
Notice the steel wheels are gone.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Mon Jan 21, 08 11:06 pm

Still beautiful pieces of kit either way.

What a pair

Dave-R · Post by **Dave-R** » Tue Jan 22, 08 9:13 am

Yep. Much better without the steel wheels.

It always amazes me how much the right wheels effects the whole of a car. It shouldn't but it does.

Richard. Are you working on anything right now? Or are you going to suprise us at the next Nats?

Cannonball · Post by **Cannonball** » Tue Jan 22, 08 9:27 am

a mopar rally wheel 15" looks great on a 70-71 e/b body murders them bloody steel wheels,

the dodge · Post by **the dodge** » Tue Jan 22, 08 10:44 am

excuse my ignorance (or stupidity) what is manual steering? i presumed that all steering was manual????

Bryan · Post by **Bryan** » Tue Jan 22, 08 10:54 am

manual steering or power steering (hydraulic pump)

the dodge · Post by **the dodge** » Tue Jan 22, 08 11:05 am

cheers for clearing that up i had visions of some sort of device that steered the car for you!! that would have been cool

surely manual steering is hard going on a yank? is that mainly on real old ones i.e 50's & early 60's as most ive seen in mags books etc usually state powered steering hence my question

mopar_mark · Post by **mopar_mark** » Tue Jan 22, 08 11:05 am

the dodge wrote:excuse my ignorance (or stupidity) what is manual steering? i presumed that all steering was manual????

Manual steering as in not power assisted by hydraulic pump.It is the drivers physical movement which turns the cars wheels. The force of turning the steering wheel is transferred to the steering rack.
The effort to turn the wheels is not so noticable when driving or the wheels are rolling. Manual cars are heavier to park as the wheel is generally not moving when turning, as tyres are designed to roll not pivot.

Power steering uses a hydraulic pump which is powered through a drive pulley on the engine. The hydraulic pressure is pimped/applied to either end of the steering rack dependant on which way the steering wheel is turned. The use of hyrdaulics reduces the effort to turn the wheel & easier to use in situtaions such as parking.

However, the situation is somewhat reversed when driving at higher speed with power steering. As the faster the wheels are turning generally less effort is required. The down side of older cars with power steering, this can make the steering feel very light. Also power steering reduces the amount of sensitivity/feedback to the driver through the steering wheel.

On later/ more modern cars the power steering requirement is reduced as speed increases. To help over come the sensativity at speed

Hope that makes sense

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Tue Jan 22, 08 11:17 am

Richard wrote:I've finished with the back to factory thing now, you can't really do anything else with these type of cars and then you just become an unpaid museum curator.

Clones , rods and race cars are the way to go now - have some fun before they ban it.

I have to agree with Richard. Restoring a car back to factory is expensive, and all you achieve is a show car. I too have had it with show cars, hence my Road Runner is a 'restorod' and my Mustang will have all modern running gear, retaining only the original look of the 65 fastback (nothing wrong with the look of the car). I'm not a racer, but i want to have fun in my cars.

I have completely lost interest in matching numbers and correct date codes. So have a lot of Americans nowdays, restoration has now been overtaken in popularity by restomodding in the USA. Taking a base model Barracuda, Challenger, whatever, and keeping the look of the car but adding 17" wheels, a handling package, disks all round, a crate motor, 5 or 6 speed manual gearbox, and a nice paint job.

That's the way to do it.

Dave-R · Post by **Dave-R** » Tue Jan 22, 08 11:32 am

You just have to look at the number of clone cars flooding the market in the US these days to see how peoples attitudes are changing.

At the Barrett-Jackson Auction Mopar prices were down this year but other makes seemed up a bit? Quite a few clone Mopars there for sale I believe. Maybe the number of clones is pulling down the value of the real thing?