1970 Dodge Challenger “Panther Pink.”
This car has taken “best of Show” wherever it has been in 2003, 2004 and 2005. See it in the most recent Popular Hot Rodding, August 2011 issue, go here (6MB PDF).
MOPAR ACTION October 2003 Cover Car-MARY KAY MEETS HULK HOGAN pg 42; This 500-inch fuelie Challenger packs all the toys. This is one of those buy-it-sell-it-buy-it-back stories. It's also a pink car story. Our story, such as it is, begins in the early 1980s.
Mark Yates, an engineer for HP, has a profitable business on the side called 'Cuda Country. He spends 4-5 hours after his day job parting out and restoring Mopars. At the time, good parts cars in northern California are selling for $200-$400. Mark picks up a lime green '70 383 4-speed Challenger that's literally in pieces. It's someone's project car that was never completed. The car is too nice to part out, so Mark parks it in the "to be restored" area of his shop. ’Cuda Country keeps growing and Mark has to make a choice: either go full time with his side job and quit HP or close up shop. He decides on the latter and liquidates all his cars and most of his parts. The Challenger is sold to a high school buddy who has been pestering Mark for some time to buy the car. Mark also gives him a ton of NOS parts such as headlight buckets and a grille, still in the original boxes. Mark's buddy has the 383 built up with high performance internals while keeping the exterior appearance of the engine stock.
That's all he does before he loses interest in the Challenger and decides it's easier just to exfoliate than to restore the car. Mark buys the car and all the parts back for $2500.00—slightly more than he paid for them. He thinks back on the cars he's restored in the past and how they were no fun… Mark decides to build himself a restified fun machine, something nice and torquey. He starts with a 400 block, figuring its lighter weight than a 440 would help handling. Indy's 497-inch stroker kit goes a long way in the torque department. The crank is cut to fit the 400 block. Aluminum pieces are used wherever possible Indy aluminum heads, MP water pump housing and other engine accessories.
Story continued in History, click here.
