Lucky I have one of these from another forum 
OK, here's my car, it's a 1967 Dodge Charger with a 383 big block and three speed auto. I bought it in June 2004 and it's been my only car ever since so gets used all the time. The car was bought new in San Francisco and ordered with optional power steering and air conditioning but not with power brakes (unfortunately). Little is known about the life of the car up until 2001 when it was living in Sacramento and bought by Dave Madders of California Classic Imports for import and sale in the UK. The White original paint was tatty and Dave knew a black Charger always sells better so gave it a repay and it was sold on to someone, known only as "the banker". Apparently this guy did not get on well with the car and had lots of problems with it leading to a full engine rebuild and rebore which cost him £3.5K, at this time the stock induction was replaced with an Edlebrock high performance intake and Holley carb.
Sometime during 2003 the car came into the hands of Dave Vincent on Haling Island. David went through the car fixing a few niggles like the heater and the light mechanisms at the front of the car. After redundancy Dave decided to let the Charger and his Dodge Monaco go and put them on to ebay for sale.
In June 2004 I was nearing the end of an exhausting contract at Heathrow and set about finding a job closer to home. I landed a job just a 10 minute bus ride or 40 minute walk away from home and realised that there was no point hanging on to my PT Cruiser that I'd bought for the Heathrow run everyday as it was depreciating faster than sales of Jade Goody's DVDs. I realised that this was the opportunity to realise my dream of owning a big old yank. I spent many hours on the net and phone and the weekend driving round the country looking at various cars and came very close the handing over the cash on a mustang but there were a few problems with it and it wasn't yet registered and with no off street parking this would cause me problems. The last trip of the weekend was down the Haling Island to see the Charger. Within the hour hands were shaken and the ebay auction was ended early. I had bought a Dodge Charger :eek:
Some friends and I had already got our tickets to the Le Mans Classic and the decision was taken to take the Dodge so I set about putting some miles on the clock to shake down any issues. Some security was fitted to the car to help the insurance premium in the right direction (although it was only £250). I joined the MMA (Mopar Muscle Association) as they were the most knowledgeable guys around and the club provides great support. The biggest problem with the car was the exhaust, it had Headman headers fitted at some point which were OK but the rest of the system was cobbled together and hung very low in the middle of the car. When a car is 18' long the last thing you need is something hanging down in the middle, we had to get on the Channel Tunnel and clearance is bad enough at the best of times. I booked the car into RSR Wheels and Tyres, Factory lane, Croydon and they built me a full stainless steel system as close to the car as possible, clearance and sound were vastly improved, the car now sounded more "tuned". The next issue was the electric motors in the lights; they gave up pretty quickly so the trip to Le Mans would be performed with the lights locked in the open position.
So off we went, four of us with all our camping equipment in comfort down to Le Mans via the tunnel. None of us knew just how much fuel we would use but we thought it would be a lot. I decided to open the car up on the way down to see what she would do, after all there was an estimated 350 horses under the hood and 450 ft-lb torque, the fastback aerodynamic styling and also enabled the hemi version to be the first car over 200mph in NASCAR. Well 120mph was reached with ease but we were running out of road thanks to an overtaking lorry, it was then that I realised the manual drums on a car this big travelling at this speed were no brakes at all :eek: I had wondered why the brake pedal was big enough to fit both feet on and now I knew, I had my whole body weight on the pedal and anyone who's met me will tell you that is not insignificant! The speedo slowly swung back to the left as all four of us held onto something, with the use of a chevron area we were able to escape any impact. I've never been over 90 in the car again and won't do until I can afford a disc conversion. There was another reason that these speeds were not a good idea and that was the fuel, this gauge had moved down much quicker than the speedo during our high speed escapades and before we got to Masion Blanche we had put nearly £200 in the tank.
OK, here's my car, it's a 1967 Dodge Charger with a 383 big block and three speed auto. I bought it in June 2004 and it's been my only car ever since so gets used all the time. The car was bought new in San Francisco and ordered with optional power steering and air conditioning but not with power brakes (unfortunately). Little is known about the life of the car up until 2001 when it was living in Sacramento and bought by Dave Madders of California Classic Imports for import and sale in the UK. The White original paint was tatty and Dave knew a black Charger always sells better so gave it a repay and it was sold on to someone, known only as "the banker". Apparently this guy did not get on well with the car and had lots of problems with it leading to a full engine rebuild and rebore which cost him £3.5K, at this time the stock induction was replaced with an Edlebrock high performance intake and Holley carb.
Sometime during 2003 the car came into the hands of Dave Vincent on Haling Island. David went through the car fixing a few niggles like the heater and the light mechanisms at the front of the car. After redundancy Dave decided to let the Charger and his Dodge Monaco go and put them on to ebay for sale.
In June 2004 I was nearing the end of an exhausting contract at Heathrow and set about finding a job closer to home. I landed a job just a 10 minute bus ride or 40 minute walk away from home and realised that there was no point hanging on to my PT Cruiser that I'd bought for the Heathrow run everyday as it was depreciating faster than sales of Jade Goody's DVDs. I realised that this was the opportunity to realise my dream of owning a big old yank. I spent many hours on the net and phone and the weekend driving round the country looking at various cars and came very close the handing over the cash on a mustang but there were a few problems with it and it wasn't yet registered and with no off street parking this would cause me problems. The last trip of the weekend was down the Haling Island to see the Charger. Within the hour hands were shaken and the ebay auction was ended early. I had bought a Dodge Charger :eek:
Some friends and I had already got our tickets to the Le Mans Classic and the decision was taken to take the Dodge so I set about putting some miles on the clock to shake down any issues. Some security was fitted to the car to help the insurance premium in the right direction (although it was only £250). I joined the MMA (Mopar Muscle Association) as they were the most knowledgeable guys around and the club provides great support. The biggest problem with the car was the exhaust, it had Headman headers fitted at some point which were OK but the rest of the system was cobbled together and hung very low in the middle of the car. When a car is 18' long the last thing you need is something hanging down in the middle, we had to get on the Channel Tunnel and clearance is bad enough at the best of times. I booked the car into RSR Wheels and Tyres, Factory lane, Croydon and they built me a full stainless steel system as close to the car as possible, clearance and sound were vastly improved, the car now sounded more "tuned". The next issue was the electric motors in the lights; they gave up pretty quickly so the trip to Le Mans would be performed with the lights locked in the open position.
So off we went, four of us with all our camping equipment in comfort down to Le Mans via the tunnel. None of us knew just how much fuel we would use but we thought it would be a lot. I decided to open the car up on the way down to see what she would do, after all there was an estimated 350 horses under the hood and 450 ft-lb torque, the fastback aerodynamic styling and also enabled the hemi version to be the first car over 200mph in NASCAR. Well 120mph was reached with ease but we were running out of road thanks to an overtaking lorry, it was then that I realised the manual drums on a car this big travelling at this speed were no brakes at all :eek: I had wondered why the brake pedal was big enough to fit both feet on and now I knew, I had my whole body weight on the pedal and anyone who's met me will tell you that is not insignificant! The speedo slowly swung back to the left as all four of us held onto something, with the use of a chevron area we were able to escape any impact. I've never been over 90 in the car again and won't do until I can afford a disc conversion. There was another reason that these speeds were not a good idea and that was the fuel, this gauge had moved down much quicker than the speedo during our high speed escapades and before we got to Masion Blanche we had put nearly £200 in the tank.
...you doing North Weald this Sunday, or the NSRA run at Old Walden at the end of July...??
you don't need to spoil us that much lol
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