Owner: Joel Sinclair
s1970 CHALLENGER R/T
Bug Guts Grrreen
1970 Challenger R/T
- 383 Magnum
- A-727 Torque Flight
- 3.23 sure grip
FJ6 "Green Go"
V6J Chartreuse Stripe
White vinyl top
White interior
Factory Air Conditioning
15" Rallye wheels
For some of us, Mopar is not just a brand of vehicle, it’s a way of life. I grew up with Mopars. My first car was a 1969 slant six B5 blue Valiant bought for the whopping sum of $500. When my friends an I were in high school, a ragtop Barracuda could be had for around $1500, and if it wasn't Mopar muscle, we wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole.
As all the stories seem to go, I grew up, left school and started to actually work for a living. The obsession with Mopars and speed was placed aside for things that were seemingly more important at the time, but the loyalty was never gone. Whenever someone would start a discussion about the shiny black Camaro in the mall parking lot, I would simply state, "So what? It’s not a Mopar".
Fast forward to 2000. The itch started gradually with the purchase of a 1969 Camaro Z28 clone... No, it wasn't me, but a good friend of mine. I guess if I could say one thing good about a Chevy, it’s that this one brought back my urge to feel myself behind the wheel of Mopar muscle once again. Specifically, a 70 or 71 Challenger R/T in high-impact green. Nothing else would do.
My search began some time during the year 2000, and if you asked my wife Leigh-Anne, she would probably tell you that it wasn't just a simple search, but something more like a consuming obsession. Being pretty naive and with my mind firmly back in the mid 1980’s, I assumed that a good Challenger could be had for somewhere in the neighbourhood of 3-4k or so, and there would be at least one or two in the Old Car Trader just waiting to be picked up. Wow, was I ever in for a big surprise.
There was nothing in the Old Car Trader at all. And when I asked some people I knew where I could find a '70 or '71 Challenger, it was like asking the old fisherman where the best fishing spots are. Most of them just looked at me kind of sideways like I had just sprouted a third eyeball in the middle of my forehead. For most of that show season, I attended every show with the intention of finding a car, or I would die trying. Pay dirt finally came at the Three hills show that season. After putting my business card inside every Challenger at the show, I was linked up with Peter Swainson, and it turned out that he had this little gem up for sale. I took delivery at the Irricana show that year, and the rest is history.
When I finally picked up the car, it was quite a lemon. It was running so bad that I had to two-foot the car all the way home to stop it from stalling at every light. The minute I got home, Dean Tilleman and I were immediately under the hood to determine what the problem was.
Or should I say, problems… plural…
As we went through the engine, the list grew and grew… not something that you want to happen with a new car. Spark plug wires reversed, bad regulator, bad cam, bad torque converter, no clutch fan, wrong speedo gear, broken speedo needle, leaking power steering box, leaking power steering pump, Drum brakes all around, chrome under hood dress-up package, and a new Carter Comp AVS carburetor that just wouldn’t tune if your life depended on it. And it didn’t stop there. Body problems included no vinyl top, no trunk details, black SE interior panels and black bucket seats, the incorrect console for 1970 and some serious orange peel paint.
The list just seemed to go on and on… About the only things good with the car were external. The body, paint color, wheels/rims and stripe!
With the help of both Dean and Neil Patrick, (Chryco Psycho), we immediately fixed the small tuning problems and threw on a correct date-coded Carter carb and got the car running as well as we could. The cam still needed to be replaced, and the interior was incorrect, but at least I could take it around the block a few times.
The first few times out, the car chewed through about three fan belts before I replaced the static fan with a clutch fan. On my second show outing the transmission decided to grind up it’s own overrunning clutch and promptly spew out bearings that had been sheared lengthwise. A transmission rebuild by Neil and a new torque converter took care of those problems.
Over the winter I single-handedly installed the entire new Legendary white interior into the car, including headliner, door panels, seats, etc. And as soon as the snow melted I had the paint wet sanded and polished, and had the white vinyl top put on. I also got rid of the chrome dress up package under the hood. A new dual snorkel air cleaner, valve covers and heat stove did the trick quite nicely to put the under hood look back to factory fresh. As well, I had the old front drums swapped out for some new disk brakes, and the ignition system was converted to electronic and hidden quite well to keep the factory 1970 under hood appearance.
But my first few outings weren’t nearly as much fun as I’d anticipated. I could barely even get a mouse squeak from the rear tires! (And that was going around a corner in 1st gear!) No matter how much I had tried to avoid it, that bad cam just had to go. At Neil’s urging, I hopped onto www.hughesengines.com and ordered up a HE1923BL hydraulic cam. 219/223 degrees at .050 inches with .522/.538 inch lift on a 112-degree lobe separation. A little better than stock, but stock is what I was going for. Once the new cam and lifters were in, off came the Carter, and on went a Holley carb. Again, date coded. Once the cam and lifters were broken in and the Holley tuned, she’s never looked back since. All that those bowties and ovals see now is her taillights.
Over the following winter, I had Neil do the head porting, and he also had hardened seats and bigger exhaust valves installed. After these latest rounds of modifications, Grrreen can seriously roast those big 15" meats in the back at will, and I’ve never met a Camaro that I haven’t easily beaten.
Now Grrreen is a regular show winner and has won an award at almost every show she's been in since. Best paint, Best e-body, and even best of show at an all makes event! Yet at night you can still find us out there, tearing up the street.
People ask me, "How can you drive a show car like that? You should trailer it."
Grrreen a trailer queen? No way! I like to show her off at the events and win awards for all of our hard work in restoring her, but as they say, these cars were built to go, and go fast. So that’s what we do, as often as possible
Bow ties and ovals, beware!
