Where did it start for you??? Moparing of Course!

Dave999 · Post by **Dave999** » Thu Dec 16, 10 11:46 am

well I was a VW man...at 16 mum said no to a lambretta, dad just raised his eyebrows, the two of them speant 1956-1962 drving the things)...and as i had to live, be clothed and fed still, from their pocket
went for the slightly less danagerouse VW bug...it had 4 wheels was 125 quid

72, 73, 67 CalLook

and a 66 splitty over the years

all work including gearbox and engine builds done in the drive (mumn dad's in newcastle) or later on the footpath in shepherds bush

3 engines built that way on a crate in the gutter behind the van...

ohh i had some friends and some enemys in that road...

2001 working in the then fasionable arena of NEW Media the bottom fell out of the industry 3 g phones didn't turn up Digital teletext didn't take off Internet on ya TV didn't take off....everyone shut up shop
NTL laid off everyone
Sky closed down their NM dept
C&W disappeared up their own jacksie
mobile phones didn't want rich content, bandwidth availble didn't allow

it was a bit rubbish no job and a mortgage for my girlfirend
and a job that was easiliy forgettable for me

so with the proceeds of the sale of my van and my girlfirends redundancy we set off in the wrong direction for Australia

time spent in the US was VW centric my intention was to bring back a split screen crew cab for Oz Visited SCAT in redondo beach purchased VW trends and any other mag i could find
Hot rod mopar action etc

thoughts turned to purchasing something i couldn't really get in Europe
and this plan stuck
via hawaii Figi and NZ

it was then that Fate cast a fatal blow to my noodle

whist breathing in the air of christchirch and remarking how like stratford on Avon it was i was drawn to a news agent by the promise of cadburys choccy and a few other UK centric type brands

i purchased the october 2001 issue of NZ classic car

30 years of the Valiant charger RT e38

full featuers covering the cars the history the raceing
all by Gray Bridger who wrote the hey charger book that is the definitive history

he writes a good tale.

i thought screw the Vdubs i want one of them

get to Oz skint and homeless

spend a week or so in an bedbug infested hostel
got some mates and a flat
got a job
job pays ok
but don't pay much tax..... = can exist and have some toys
buy 1977 VW golf done up ine the italian/greek style
does the job
but in 2002 gets smashed to bits by the secuirty guard at work as he nicks the wheels and my tool box using a crow bar and a pick axe handle. police never caught him but he never came back to work nobody but me saw this as an admission of guilt....maybe he just fancied a change...

any way at the time i'd been feversihly perusing the Trading post and Unique classic cars

filled with special stuff every week....nothing much rusts in Australia, they think it does...... but really it doesn't so there is stuff from the 30s onwards form all over sitting there in the tradeing post each week.

from gogomobiles to Mk 1 escorts to lanchesters topolinos
and a host of GM 60s big cars chvey Impala pontiacs fords
and fins n chrome style chryslers right up to last model '82 valiants

it was then i dicovered www.Moparmarket.com

the small ads became my daily lunchtime internet fest

through that i spotted my charger.
it was in syndey motor museum right in the middle of a display of Rootes groups Aussie offerings and some new Pekyan pickups from iran

museum to close said ad.
no storage for this car said the owner who had lent it for display

went to have a look
the owner was there
chat
no too much
4 days later OK
it was mine.....

then followed numerous trials tribulations
and trip to bathurst
and sticking it in a 20 foot container
building a false floor abve it
and getting the whole house contents in on top

Sandy and Matt both hinted that the MMA should be the club i was in
rest is history

i can appreciate the engineering that goes into them
but these cars are daft...bendy rusty no brakes and daft

dave

Scooby · Post by **Scooby** » Thu Dec 16, 10 7:29 pm

Timing who knows...id hit the midlife crises bit looked at Harley's and even Mustangs but as soon as my Charger came on the scene it took me all of 2 minutes to make up my mind...
I still drive her with a big grin on my face but the day that it disappears i know its the time to sell her.

Good thread Bacca..

Rich.

Roger · Post by **Roger** » Thu Dec 16, 10 8:16 pm

the dukes

Just as well my car was a vinyl roof one, otherwise it would have to be orange

Jules · Post by **Jules** » Thu Dec 16, 10 11:07 pm

I've been interested in American cars since I was knee high to a grass hopper, and growing up watching things like Hazzard / Starsky & Hutch etc. with lots of car chases / card board boxes being thrown everywhere & cars roaring through the air like they had wings really added to the addiction, but I didn't really get a taste of mother Mopar until one day whilst up a friends workshop, a mate of his turned up in his 68 RoadRunner

Been hooked ever since

latil · Post by **latil** » Thu Dec 16, 10 11:23 pm

I'm just easily led

Adrian Worman · Post by **Adrian Worman** » Thu Dec 16, 10 11:36 pm

For me it was the colours and images of the Mopars of the early 70's.
As a little school kid I was obsessed with drawing American cars and I was attracted to the bright pop art colours, wild graphics and mad cartoon images.
I jumped at the chance when I got offered my Challenger, aged 23 I think, I posted a nice story about it in the Old Car Photo's bit on the forum.
Mopars seem to capture the excess and excitement of the muscle car era more than any other brand, I think most collectors veiw Chrysler products as the pinnacle of muscle car development.

Post by **MattH** » Fri Dec 17, 10 11:37 am

Dave 999, I assumed you'd been into them since year dot, I think I may have even had Oz Charger mine when the mag you mention came out. I've got it at hone here somewhere.
Funny how a trip to Oz can completely transform your tastes. I still lust for a Torana and XB GT Falcon.

Did you drive the R/T round Bathurst?? Pics please.

Kev · Post by **Kev** » Sat Dec 18, 10 12:37 am

A quick hoon round Loughton in Chris Muldutch's Coronet was my first introduction to Mopars, used to work with him and Johnny Mental from Stamford Speed Shop who was always reading HotRod and Car Craft. I was a bike boy then and didn't really have an interest in cars but still went to the Pod for the Cannonball and other big meets where the awesomest street cars were the Mopars especially Nick Woods RoadRunner then in brown. Went through a few Crestas then, in '97, decided I needed a V8 car as the newly acquired wife was not too keen on motorbiking and tenting it, and wanted a caravan for the Morris Dancing weekenders. The Valiant with junkyard 318 was the only car in my price range in Custom Car and Street Machine. Once I'd been out in it and the vendor did a pegleg skid for 30 yards I was having it! Swapped my lowered '70 Viscount and a clap and a half for it, not knowing anything about Aus Chryslers and not much more about Mopars. Chris Mulholland suggested the MMA and I rocked up for a meet at Blake Hall where I parked round the back as I now knew what an Aussie Mopar was and how snobbish The Chrysler Corp had been when I phoned them, telling me I couldn't join them with an Aussie Mope......Met Tony O who was more than enthusiastic about having an Oz Mopar in the club and ordered me to park it with the US Mopes! Went to Mopar Nats and ran 15.3 with the air cleaner removed. Ran 15.4 at North Weald. Radiator was leaking, found an ad in the MMA newsletter for a radiator, phoned up, swung by Tottenham to meet Blue...............And the rest was history (and skintness!!!)

RobTwin · Post by **RobTwin** » Sat Dec 18, 10 2:03 am

Good story Kev!

I was just wracking my brains trying to think of the name of the guy that run a metallic brown 'runner at the Pod back in the mid to late 80's. He was a mate of Richard Eaton who raced the Quick Draw Duster.

Just wondering if it was the same 'runner that is now Nick's?

Mike someone? Beardy bloke IIRC?

Mike Nichols?

PaulR · Post by **PaulR** » Sat Dec 18, 10 11:38 am

Rob, I thought it was Richard Eaton himself who ran the Roadrunner. I'm pretty sure he got a Dana for it when he was at the 81 World Finals at OCIR with Dave Mingay which makes me think it was his car.Perhaps the guy you are thinking of got the car from Richard. It is the car that Nick runs now. Not sure of the date of this photo.

TYREMAN · Post by **TYREMAN** » Sun Dec 19, 10 10:42 am

It started in the 70s for me,i got given a load of hot Rod Mags from my cousin Alan.Although mainly Rods there was the odd article on 60s Cars and always found them more interesting than the Rods

I also remember seeing the Ray Munford?-spl? painted cars in the UK The Stangs the Paris one and the Bullit one.

I also used to be on the road every weekend as i had to go to North Wales most weekends to stay at my Gran and Grandads in Mold.We always used to drive back late Sunday afternoon and in Summer would see ots of Rods on the road and the odd yank.

Then of course there was the TV Dukes, Starsky and hutch,Smokey and the bandit and so on.I used to love the Trans ams Firebirds,lots of neighbors had them in early 80s my Mum and Dad hated them and said you would need to be a medallion man to own one.That made me like the cars more,i thought i would rather be a medallion man and have a cool car rather than be boring like my Mum and Dad.

There also used to be a Teddy Boy bloke near me that drove a 50s Caddy and i used to like him

people told me not to speak to him as he carried a Axe under his blazer and was a villan.I think they were teasing me.In the 70/S 80s and even today a 50s Caddy makes an impact compared to the dull British French stuff on our roads

PS i remember seeing Duncans GBH in the 90s at Tatton and thinking yes mopar is a cool make.that was also one of my first anorak moments as people were getting excited and saying it was a Superbird!!! i could not help pointing out it was not a real Superbird

still was cool

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Sun Dec 19, 10 12:48 pm

Ive been a Ford and American car man all my life, got into my one and only (so Far) Mopar two years ago, so i would of said that i got into Mopars then ! WRONG ! Mum found one of my school project books from when i was Seven and the project i did was American cars ! i had cut out pics from mags and stuck them in a book and they were Mopars !!! I spent a lot of time on base with my cousin in Ipswich so always was around yanks and such (my fam were in the American Air Force) so ive been into Mopars for 45 years without knowing !!! I cant ever see me without a yank, Mopar or Ford !

NaughtyAlan · Post by **NaughtyAlan** » Sun Dec 19, 10 1:14 pm

Its all Bobs fault

He let me drive his 1970 charger R/T to the nats one year. From then on i was hooked on Mopar.
I grinned all the way there and back, with the manual box hooked behind a kin hot 440. I thought nothing could catch me. Nick Nick

So i sold me Muzzy and a 68 caddy and Bobs yer uncle

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Mon Dec 20, 10 9:36 am

PaulR wrote:Rob, I thought it was Richard Eaton himself who ran the Roadrunner. I'm pretty sure he got a Dana for it when he was at the 81 World Finals at OCIR with Dave Mingay which makes me think it was his car.Perhaps the guy you are thinking of got the car from Richard. It is the car that Nick runs now. Not sure of the date of this photo.

The car was jointly owned by Richard Eaton and Mike Nicholls raced between (appx)'78 and '84 (Richard moved onto the Quickdraw duster then) running a best of 12.1 with a 383 and 4 speed. I bought it off them in '94 in pretty much stock form. Sorry to go off track.

Mick · Post by **Mick** » Tue Dec 21, 10 5:26 pm

The 383 from the roadrunner went into quick draw and ran 10.57 at 128, the car weighed 2470 fuelled up. The motor had a small hyd cam,ported 906 heads, trw pistons and edelbrock TM6. The roadrunner ran 12.1 at 112-113, with a slighly milder spec.
The car was originally jointly owned but then Mike bought it outright.
Mick